Konstantin Tsiolkovsky’s brother, Joseph, gave the album to his niece, Maria Likhacheva. In 1935, her family moved from RyazAn to LeningrAd. The album survived the blockade. After the death of Maria Likhacheva, her daughter, Maria Dragoun, donated the album to the museum.

Joseph TsiolkOvsky was born in Izhevskoye in January 1854. He received a home upbringing. He graduated from the Kazan Infantry Junker School, served in the army from 1871, fought in the war against the Turks. Later, TsiolkOvsky married the daughter of Ryazan merchant Kirilova Elena. For some time he lived in Ryazan on the street of Srednesoldatskaya (Chapaeva) in the house which belonged to the aunts of his wife. Then he bought the two-storey house of NatAlia MikhAilina and settled there together with his family. The couple had seven children: Ekaterina, Boris, PAvel, ElEna; Dmitri, Alexander and LyubOv died at a young age. Joseph TsiolkOvsky died in 1916, and was buried in the Lazarevskoye cemetery in Ryazan.

His eldest daughter Ekaterina graduated from the Ryazan Gymnasium, studied at the Higher Women’s Courses, worked as a mathematics teacher. She married a railway engineer, FyOdor MalOv. They lived mainly in Moscow. Their son Nikolai studied at the Moscow Aviation College in the 1930s. He corresponded with Konstantin TsiolkOvsky, who sent him materials for his studies. Among them were the basic calculations of the engines of rocket ships, a book about the full metal airship, and the work of TsiolkOvsky “Exploration of Outer Space by Means of Rocket Devices” and “The Semi- Jet Stratoplane”. Later NikolAi MalOv worked as a design engineer in aircraft engineering.

Boris TsiolkOvsky graduated from the Ryazan non-classical secondary school, worked in Ulyanovsk in the railway accounting. Pavel TsiolkOvsky studied in the Volsk Cadet Corps, in 1919 he left with his mother and sister Elena for Pavlodar. He worked in the criminal investigation department. Elena also corresponded in 1928 with Konstantin TsiolkOvsky. She recalled that when her father died, Konstantin TsiolkOvsky wanted to take her away to give her a good education and possibly adopt her. However, the mother did not consent.