These biographical sketches were published about a hundred years ago in the series "The Life of Remarkable People" by F. F. Pavlenkov (1839–1900). Written in the genre of poetic chronicle and historical and cultural research, which was new for that time, these texts retain their value to this day. Written "for ordinary people", for the Russian provinces, today they can be recommended not only to bibliophiles, but to the widest readership: both those who are not at all tempted in the history and psychology of great people, and those for whom these subjects are a profession. .