Mihailo Andriyovich Yemelyanov

Myhailo Andriovich Yemelyanov – a veteran of war and work, ethnographer, bibliophile and simply an old friend of the library. 

Books have always accompanied Myhailo Andriovich everywhere.  Still in his childhood years, with his miserable savings as a pupil, he bought his first books.  He never parted with his books, either in the days of fierce fighting on the front lines and nor in the post military period, when immediately following his initiative, the Kherson city book club for amateurs “Kobzar” was created.
Not by chance, already having acquired a military diploma from a political science institute, he later completed the Kherson world culture technical school with honors, and then the school of library studies in the Kharkiv Institute of Culture.
Myhailo Andriovich has years of work behind him in the position as a Party administrator of the provincial archives, in which he actively participated in publication science work.  He was a compiler and co-author of an entire series of books on the history of our region.   To this day, the veteran gives his efforts and knowledge of his work in the provincial council of veterans and in the management of the society for the protection of monuments of history and culture.
Wherever Myhailo Andriovich worked, whatever position he held, his interest in books and  collecting them never left him.  The materials collected by M. A. Yemelyanov have been displayed more than once at exhibitions in the library and in museums.  He himself, as a passionate book lover and advocate of books, took part in numerous large scale events which took place at the library. 
For the 225th anniversary of Kherson, Myhailo Andriovich gave as a gift to the city museums his famous collection “Pushkiniana” and a collection of fine art works, and for the provincial book repository – a contemporary edition of  “Kobzar” by T. Schevchenko.  In 2005, Myhailo Andriovich gifted to the library the collection “Blochiana” and some unique editions from the XVIII-XIX centuries and from the beginning of the XXth century. 
And the years following were no exception.  Each autumn for the Day of the City, Myhailo Andriovich makes gifts to the cultural institutions of the city – the library and the museum. 
So today, thanks to Myhailo Andriovich, we have the opportunity to turn the invaluable pages of book mementos, unselfishly donated to us.