В1766 г. родился историк и писатель Николай Карамзин

Before the Russian Revolution, a peculiar monument was erected in Ostafievo, the residence of the Vyazemsky princes. On the postament, we can see the volumes of the History of the Russian State, the book that Karamzin wrote in that house. Today, we can lay flowers at the monument.

According to all the encyclopedias, Nikolay Karamzin is a writer. However, he also served to science: the founder of Russian sentimentalism was also a historian and an honorary member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences. Starting literary adaptation of the Russian science, Karamzin asked tsar Alexander I to grant him the post of court historiographer and an annual pension of two thousand rubles. The servants called him a “count of history,” but that did not belie his status but rather clarified it. In the 12th volume of the History of the Russian State, Karamzin was writing only about the Time of Trouble. It happened by the end of the year 1825, that is, by the moment of the change of emperor and the Decembrist uprising. The work had to be suspended due to new disturbances.

According to Alexander Pushkin, “Karamzin related history with all the accuracy of a historian, always referring to sources.” The great poet called The History of the Russian State a feat of an honest man, despite his sarcastic remark in an epigram about the need for autocracy and the merits of the stick approach. Besides history, Karamzin did a lot for the Russian language: he invented and put into practice a number of new words and helped the introduction and use of the Russian letter Ё. There is also a monument to this letter in Ulyanovsk, Karamzin’s native town.