Yanuariy Neverov, teacher and public figure, was born in 1810 in the village of Veryakushi of the Ardatovsky district in the Nizhny Novgorod Governate. His father, Mikhail, was a private lawyer, and his mother was the illegitimate daughter of a landowner. The couple’s relationship was complicated, they constantly quarreled - and during one of these conflicts, Mikhail Neverov’s pregnant wife was injured. As it later turned out, because of this, Yanuariy was born blind in one eye.
Yanuariy was accepted into the Arzamas district school. According to legend, he often spent his holidays in the village of Diveevo, Nizhny Novgorod Governate, where he met with the famous schemamonk Seraphim Sarovsky, who strengthened the boy’s “deep religious feeling”.
In 1850, Neverov took the post of Director of the Stavropol Men’s Gymnasium. During the years of his leadership, the gymnasium became one of the best educational institutions in the Russian Empire. Neverov paid special attention to the development of students from the mountains. He believed that they ‘should be given an education that would provide them with the means to be useful citizens not in warlike, but mainly in peaceful endeavours, without leaving their field, that is, without separating them from their natural mores, customs, beliefs’.
To inspire the highlanders with the history and culture of their native peoples, Neverov asked them to describe traditional life, and collect old songs and legends during the holidays. Teachers at the gymnasium went on research and folklore expeditions, searched for old manuscripts and volumes, independently developed textbooks and anthologies, and wrote articles and essays in local and metropolitan newspapers and magazines.
Many famous educators were graduates of the Stavropol Gymnasium, including Kosta Khegurov. Kosta met Yanuari Mikhailovich after he left the post of director. Andukapar Khetagurov, who studied with the young poet, wrote: ‘I remember how much he delighted [Kosta] by reading a pre-dinner prayer to the good Neverov, a trustee of the Caucasian School District, who came to Stavropol and attended a lunch with the gymnasium students. He called Kosta, asked for his surname, and praised him very highly’.
Yanuariy was accepted into the Arzamas district school. According to legend, he often spent his holidays in the village of Diveevo, Nizhny Novgorod Governate, where he met with the famous schemamonk Seraphim Sarovsky, who strengthened the boy’s “deep religious feeling”.
In 1850, Neverov took the post of Director of the Stavropol Men’s Gymnasium. During the years of his leadership, the gymnasium became one of the best educational institutions in the Russian Empire. Neverov paid special attention to the development of students from the mountains. He believed that they ‘should be given an education that would provide them with the means to be useful citizens not in warlike, but mainly in peaceful endeavours, without leaving their field, that is, without separating them from their natural mores, customs, beliefs’.
To inspire the highlanders with the history and culture of their native peoples, Neverov asked them to describe traditional life, and collect old songs and legends during the holidays. Teachers at the gymnasium went on research and folklore expeditions, searched for old manuscripts and volumes, independently developed textbooks and anthologies, and wrote articles and essays in local and metropolitan newspapers and magazines.
Many famous educators were graduates of the Stavropol Gymnasium, including Kosta Khegurov. Kosta met Yanuari Mikhailovich after he left the post of director. Andukapar Khetagurov, who studied with the young poet, wrote: ‘I remember how much he delighted [Kosta] by reading a pre-dinner prayer to the good Neverov, a trustee of the Caucasian School District, who came to Stavropol and attended a lunch with the gymnasium students. He called Kosta, asked for his surname, and praised him very highly’.
