They say the country should know its heroes. But do we really know them? Who can we name without much thought? Five politicians and a couple of dozen actors from series? But are these names enough to claim that we see our Motherland in all its fullness and diversity? In pre-revolutionary Russia, this task was considered extremely important. Every gymnasium student knew that Belinsky was an outstanding connoisseur of literature, and General Ermolov was famous for his battles in the Caucasus. The education system of the empire was not the only one working on the enlightenment of citizens; the writers of that time also contributed. A bestseller became the work of Pyotr Kuzmich Martyanov, "The Color of Our Intelligentsia," which introduced readers to outstanding contemporaries. Here are a few interesting examples.

To Alexey Abrikosov, the confectionery king of Russia, the following lines are dedicated:

Lovers of commercial knowledge
In Moscow he is counted as the head
And treats them during meetings
With candies and pastila.

The legendary Cossack Nikolai Ashinov is also mentioned, who tried to push the French in Ethiopia and Somalia:

The ataman of the free Cossacks
Was with a saber in Sagallo.
He argued with the Gauls at will
And perished at the hands of a Gaul.

The poet did not forget the scientists, in particular, the electrical engineer and inventor of the arc lamp, Pavel Yablochkov:

He brought light down from the heavens to the earth,
Covered it, and for lentil soup
With the French, our eccentric technician
Exchanged his unusual catch.

Next comes Count Mikhail Speransky, a reformer and legislator:

Our great legal scholar-codifier,
An accidental man and an exiled governor,
From a seminary student became a count, a master of masons
And gifted the Fatherland a Code of Laws.

And finally, the lawyer, criminologist, and statesman Nikolai Tagantsev:

He, by God's grace,
With his catechism
Created a rally
Of judges with golden hearts.

Thus, the book "The Color of Our Intelligentsia" provided readers with a wealth of interesting information about the greatest contemporaries and today remains a significant bibliographic rarity.