The exhibition of the Penza Literature Museum includes a family photo from the personal archive of the Zadornovs. The photo was taken in 1912 at the studio of Alexey Kocheshev, one of the most renowned and talented photographers of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

The family portrait depicts Pavel Ivanovich Zadornov, his wife Vera Mikhailovna, and their two sons, the future writer Nikolai and his elder brother Boris.

The Zadornov family, on the paternal side, came from the village of Ternovka. Most of the men in the family were shoemakers and foresters. Pavel Ivanovich Zadornov, the father of the future writer Nikolai Zadornov, wanted his son to “get on in the world” and become an officer. Pavel Zadornov himself, the son of a forester, had a knack for mathematics and dreamed of getting a higher education and studying science. Later, he studied at the Kazan Veterinary Institute and graduated from the Higher Bacteriological Courses in St. Petersburg. To pay for his tuition and scientific research, Pavel Zadornov also worked as a tutor in the families of wealthy landowners. In one of these estates, he met Vera Shestakova who also tutored the children of landowners in foreign languages. Soon, they got married. Interestingly, Nikolai Zadornov later described this episode from his father’s life in his novel “The Lady of the Seas.”

In the years after the Russian Revolution, the couple moved to Chita. Soon, Pavel Zadornov was accused of deliberately destroying livestock and was imprisoned. He died of typhus at the age of 57. His body was released to his son Nikolai, who buried him on the bank of the Irtysh River on his own. After her husband’s death, Vera Mikhailovna returned to Penza with her children and settled in her parents’ house. She was an educated and learned woman, fluent in several languages. After the death of her husband, she had to provide for her family and pay for the treatment of her son Boris. He was diagnosed with a mental disorder after his father’s death and the theft of his dissertation before the defense ceremony. At the age of 56, Vera Mikhailovna began teaching at a school in Penza (now known as Linguistic Gymnasium No. 6).