Vasilii Vasilevich Krestinin

Born 1729 in Arkhangel’sk; died there May 5 (16), 1795. Russian public figure, historian, student of local lore. The son of a merchant.

Krestinin was repeatedly elected to the town council; he founded the Society for Historical Research in Arkhangel’sk. In studies dealing with the history of Arkhangel’sk and of towns of the North and the Dvina Land, he concentrated on questions in trade and industry and the history of “civic society.” He expanded the circle of historical sources, especially on economic questions. His scholarly interests also embraced ethnography, geography, and economic and pedagogical problems. Krestinin belonged to the newly born bourgeois current of 18th-century historical thought.