Deinis, teacher, local historian, honorary citizen of Polotsk

Born in 1900 in the Nevel. Five years later the family moved to Polotsk. After the graduation from the Vitebsk gymnasium in 1917-1919, Dainis worked in the grocery committee, was a laborer. In 1919 he studied on one-year pedagogical courses, after which he worked as a teacher in the 1st Soviet school. A year later, he moved to the post of teacher of natural history, physics and biology of the 43 Polotsk Combined Courts of the Red Army Command, he also worked as a librarian. At the same time he was the secretary of the Polotsk Commission for the Protection of Monuments of the Ancient and Art, which was headed by his father, Petr Osipovich, actively engaged in local history and excursion work.

In 1929 Denis graduated from BSU, and worked for more than twenty-five years as a teacher in the Polotsk Forest Technical School, to whom he devoted one of his research works. Having left in 1960 for the deserved rest, Dejnis completely gave himself to research and prospecting work. The title of Honorary Citizen of Polotsk was given in 1967. He died in 1985. He was buried in Polotsk.

Ivan Petrovich Deinis is the author of more than ten manuscripts, he composed five albums with 230 hand-written sketches of the pre-war Polotsk. In different years from him and his relatives, the museum received more than three hundred items, among them valuable documents, rare books, photographs, albums.

For more information about this person please click here: http://local.polotsk.museum.by/node/22715.