Semen Dmitrievich Ignat'ev, 1891 - 1974

S. D. Ignat'ev was born near the town of Ostrov, Pskovskaia guberniia, on 25 January 1891 (O. S.). While in the White army in South Russia, he married Aleksandra Ivanovna Kozlova, thus cementing his association with the Kuban' Cossacks. Evacuation to Gallipoli was followed by several years in Bulgaria. A musician by training, he formed a chorus and musical ensemble of émigré Kuban' Cossacks around 1926, touring with them across Europe through the 1940s. During these years, he lived primarily in Germany, and in one of his writings describes his experiences in Berlin in 1945.

The Second World War brought about the dissolution of the Kuban' Cossack Chorus. In 1950, Ignat'ev moved to Sweden (where he found employment mounting specimens for the botanical department of the Swedish Museum of Natural History), and then in 1955 to San Francisco, changing his musical venue to conducting church choirs (his education included the Pskov seminary, where he received a thorough grounding in liturgical music). Ignat'ev died in San Francisco in May 1974.

Detailed processing and preservation microfilming for these materials were made possible by a generous grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities and by matching funds from the Hoover Institution and Museum of Russian Culture. The grant also provides for depositing a microfilm copy in the Hoover Institution Archives.The original materials and copyright to them (with some exceptions) are the property of the Museum of Russian Culture, San Francisco.

Semen Ignat'ev Register