Vasiliy Griaznov

He graduated from the Stroganov Moscow State Academy of Arts and Industry with a diploma in technical drawing and landscape painting, then served as a draftsman in the silver workshop of the Sazikov jewelry company [ru].

[1][2] He made numerous trips throughout Lithuania and Belarus, seeking out monuments and landmarks, then taking photographs or painting watercolors.

Some of his photographs were published in the Vilnius city calendar for 1887; although it had to be produced outside of Lithuania, due to a lack of the necessary technical equipment.

He found traces of forgotten frescoes, including a depiction of the Holy Trinity, and determined that the church once had a wooden bell tower.

[5] Perhaps his best known discovery came about when he was searching through a church in Turov and came across a box of coal mixed with paper.