Ivan Grigoryevich Istomin
He was born on February 7, 1917, in the village of Muzhi of the Berezovsky district of the Tobolsk province in the family of a Komi fisherman. His parents dreamed that Ivan, like his father, would become a fisherman. At the age of three, he caught a cold, became seriously ill and suffered from polio. After this illness, he remained permanently disabled. The future novelist graduated from a seven-year school in 1934. After he entered the Salekhard native Pedagogical College, and in 1938 he received a diploma with honors. During his studies, Istomin’s first poem "Autumn" was published in the newspaper Krasny Sever. Ivan was fond of drawing, edited the handwritten magazine "Sparks of Yamal". After graduating from pedagogical college, he taught Russian and Nenets languages, graphics and drawing at the Salekhard Political and Educational School. He worked as a teacher in the village. Yamgort, was in charge of the educational department at the trade cooperative school. Since 1950 Ivan Grigoryevich became a professional journalist, worked in the newspaper Naryana Ngerm, which was published in the Nenets language, then in the Red North. In the 1950s, collections of poems "Beloved North", "Children of the Tundra" (Nenets language), the book "Happy Fate" appeared — a collection of short stories and novellas. In 1955, he was admitted to the Union of Writers of the USSR.
In 1959, he moved to Tyumen, where he joined the position of editor of the national department at the Tyumen Book Publishing House, which produced literature in the language of the peoples of the North. The book "The First Swallows" is dedicated to the student years — this is how Ivan Grigoryevich affectionately called classmates at the pedagogical college. The story "Get up-grass" is a story about the difficult fate of the boy Ilka, the prototype of which is the author himself. The writer’s largest work, the autobiographical novel Zhivun (1974), tells about the history and inhabitants of the author’s native village. He influenced the formation of prose writers and poets L. Laptsuya, P. Saltykova, M. Shulgin, R. Rugina. He died in Tyumen on July 27, 1988.
The museum of the village of Muzhi has a permanent exhibition about the life and work of Ivan Istomin. His paintings are kept in the Salekhard Museum. To mark the writer’s centenary, his books have been republished in Braille. An art object has been created in memory of Ivan Grigoryevich in the Tyumen microdistrict Yamalsky. The layout of the drawing belongs to the Muzhev artist Vladimir Anufriev.
In 1959, he moved to Tyumen, where he joined the position of editor of the national department at the Tyumen Book Publishing House, which produced literature in the language of the peoples of the North. The book "The First Swallows" is dedicated to the student years — this is how Ivan Grigoryevich affectionately called classmates at the pedagogical college. The story "Get up-grass" is a story about the difficult fate of the boy Ilka, the prototype of which is the author himself. The writer’s largest work, the autobiographical novel Zhivun (1974), tells about the history and inhabitants of the author’s native village. He influenced the formation of prose writers and poets L. Laptsuya, P. Saltykova, M. Shulgin, R. Rugina. He died in Tyumen on July 27, 1988.
The museum of the village of Muzhi has a permanent exhibition about the life and work of Ivan Istomin. His paintings are kept in the Salekhard Museum. To mark the writer’s centenary, his books have been republished in Braille. An art object has been created in memory of Ivan Grigoryevich in the Tyumen microdistrict Yamalsky. The layout of the drawing belongs to the Muzhev artist Vladimir Anufriev.