Human memory is an unreliable thing, especially when it comes to history. The history of a country, a town, a village, a family, when time erases all details, all nuances, all causes and effects from the human memory....

So it happened with the history of our favourite Lopasna. Some fifteen or twenty years ago, few people knew and remembered the names of the owners of the once famous estates - the noblemen Vasilchikov, Goncharovs, Ryumins, and the Lopasna merchants Medvedevs.

But there are always inquisitive, curious people with a special love for their small homeland.

Alexander Alekseevich Anufriev was such an indefatigable researcher in our town. A man known to many, especially in "Odnoklassniki", for his rich photo archive of "old" Lopasna, which was used by both residents of our town and museum workers.

Alexander Alekseevich was a frequent guest of the Lopasnya-Zachatievskoye Estate Museum, where he was always welcome.

He has long conceived of writing a book about the Medvedev brothers, owners in the nineteenth century of weaving factories in Venyukovo and Boris-Lopasna (Rovki).

Literally by bits and pieces Alexander Alekseevich collected the richest material about the Medvedev brothers' families. Thanks to his search work, the Medvedevs' genealogical connections have been almost completely restored. He brought to the museum dear guests Maria Sergeevna Mishina and Tatiana Stanislavovna Aksenova, who are descendants of the younger brother Gavriil Ilyich Medvedev, the owner of the Boris-Lopasnenskaya manufactory.

In their families, family relics have been carefully preserved for a long time and passed on from generation to generation. On A.A. Anufriev's initiative, some of these valuable items were donated to the Lopasnya-Zachatievskoye Estate Museum.

His last major unfinished work is dedicated, famous in Lopasna, to the family of Pyotr Mikhailovich Ryumin, owner of the Sadki estate. This book has almost 800 pages and is illustrated with a large number of previously unknown photographs. We have been eagerly waiting for the book to be published.

But on 12 December Alexander Alekseevich was gone. He had a heart condition.

It's a huge loss for all of us. Our friend and just a good man has gone. Thank you, Alexander Alekseevich, for your hard work and love for your native Lopasna!