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Innokentii Zhukov (1875–1948) was a famous self-taught sculptor; path-breaking pedagogue; litterateur; prominent figure within the Russian scout movement; and one of the founders of the Soviet pioneer movement.

Biography
Innokentii Zhukov was born 5/17 October 1875 in the settlement of Gornyi Zerentui (Transbaikal region, Nerchinskii factory district). He was the fifth of eight children in the family of a titular sovetnik, manager of the Gorno-Zerentuiskii rudnik Nikolai Zhukov and Agripina (Agrofena) Savinskaia. At age 12 he was sent off to Chita, where he studied at gymnasium and acquired the nickname Kesha. As a student, he enjoyed literature and wrote poetry. He also developed a serious interest in drawing, sculpting with clay, and carving wooden figurines of birds, animals and people.

In 1895 Zhukov enrolled in the Faculty of History and Philology at St Petersburg University. As a student, he married a girl from his native region, Aleksandra Ryndina, with whom he had four children born in 1900–08. As a result of politically motivated repressions, Zhukov's graduation was delayed, until 1902. Immediately after graduating he began work as a geography teacher in Stolbov commercial uchilishche-gymnasium. This would remain his profession for the rest of his working life, before he returned on a personal pension in late 1931. In 1917–21 Zhukov taught at Chita gymnasium and served as an instructor for the Unified School Section in the Far Eastern Republic's Ministry for Enlightenment. His final workplace was School No. 41, Baumanskii RONO in Moscow, where he taught senior classes in geography from 1925.

As a committed pedagogue Zhukov was famous for his innovations and his active participation in the scouting movement and later the Pioneers movement. It was Zhukov who coined the term "pioneer". He was known as the Starshii drug razvedchikov of Russia, secretary of the "Russkii skaut" society, and the only individual to hold the honorary title of Starshii Pioneer RSFSR.

As part of his efforts to inculcate a spirit of internationalism among his pupils, Zhukov taught himself Esperanto, and propagated Esperanto among his pupils. His books for children contain references to Esperanto. Several of his works were published in Esperanto, some of them with a parallel Russian text.

But Zhukov never abandoned his beloved sculpting. Although he did not have the opportunity to receive an education in this field, he did take occasional lessons in sculpture and drawing at the Academy of the Arts in St Petersburg and later in Paris, at the Academy of Emile Antoine Bourdelle, where he studied in 1921 on a stipend raised by his friends and supporters. World War One interrupted these studies, but Zhukov continued to perfect his skills in his free time and achieved significant successes and fame both in his home country and elsewhere in Europe, especially after he took part in the so-called Autumn Exhibitions in St Petersburg, in P. Auer's gallery, and after the mass publication of photographic postcards depicting his sculptures.

Zhukov's fame was reflected also in articles on him in various encyclopedias. The prominent Esperanto scholar N. V. Nekrasov devoted a major article to Zhukov's works. A number of dissertations on pedagogy feature chapters about Zhukov, but no deep study of his sculptural work was carried out, nor do we have any scientific studies summarising Zhukov's rich artistic and pedagogical legacy.

Zhukov was accepted as a member of MOSKh, and in 1945 he was decorated with the medal "For doblestnyi labour during the Great Patriotic War". He died in Moscow on 5 November 1948 and is buried in plot 23 of the Vvedenskoe Cemetery.

Obshchestvenno-pedagogical activities

From 1901 Zhukov worked as a geography teacher at St Petersburg commercial uchilishche Shreknik.

In 1910 he took part in the autumn exhibition in the St Petersburg passazh.

From 1912 to 1914 he studied in Paris in the studio of the sculptor Emile Bourdelle, a pupil of August Rodin. It is likely that it was during his stay in Paris that Zhukov first became acquainted with pioneering Seton-Thompson. (Although in the scouting movement, according to Baden-Powell, pioneering is the building from bridges from brus'ev, shestov and other materials to hand, in the Russian army, military servicemen in the engineering units were called pioneers; but in the US and Canada, a pioneer is not only a sapper and bridge-builder, but the first to settle new lands, in the ideal: a knight, building bridges with nature, and with other cultures and generations, as in Fenimore Cooper's novel. Seton-Thompson's pioneering emphasised precisely this aspect, rather than the military intelligence aspect highlighted by Baden-Powell.

Upon returning to Petersburg in 1914, Zhukov resumed teaching, and also continued sculpting, as well as getting actively involved in creating scouts' organisations in Russia. He edited the journal "Petrogradskii skaut", and reworked the book by the founder the world scouting movement Baden-Powell, "Yunyi razvedchik. A Guide to Scouting".

In the summer of 1914–15 Zhukov lived outside Petersburg, where he led a detachment of scouts. In 1916 he published the book Russian Scouting and became secretary of the Petersburg branch of the Russia-wide "Russkii skaut" society. Following Seton-Thompson, Zhukov wrote that a scout is not a military intelligence scout but a "pioneer of culture". For Zhukov, a scout was an "altruist" and even "a knight, seeking people to help".

In 1918 Zhukov proposed organising an expedition to the Baikal region. Gathering together around one thousand boys aged 10-14, he declared the creation of an "expeditionary corps". His talk was to prepare for a "great expedition across the Baikal region". With the approach of Semenov's detachments to Chita, Zhukov disbanded his children's "expeditionary corps".

Later, at the 33rd session of the scientific-pedagogical section of the Chief Scholarly Council of Narkompros in Moscow, Zhukov delivered an address "On the boy scouts movement". In 1921 Zhukov wrote an open letter to all scout masters fighting for the new pedagogy and new methods of extra-curricular education in the RSFSR.

In 1922 Zhukov took part in working with children through the Central Committee of the Komsomol and Narkompros in Moscow. He stands at the roots of the pioneer movement. In 1922, while working as a geography teacher, Zhukov took part in creating a pioneers' detachment, based on two yuk-scout detachments comprised of pupils from the experimental school attached to the State Institute for Physical Culture in Moscow's Baumanskii district. He introduced the term "pioneers" for participants in the new children's organisation, the slogan "Be prepared!" and the response "Always prepared!" He also designed the campfire on the pioneer's badge and the pioneer's scarf: a triangular crimson loskut. On 23 March 1923 he became a member of the Glavkvartira of young pioneers (TsB YuP) and was awarded the title "Senior Pioneer of the Republic".

In mid-1924, amidst the beginnings of the politicisation of the work of the pioneers' organisation, Zhukov gave up practical cooperation with the children's movement. After Zhukov ceased to be a "senior pioneer", he continued sculpting and writing books for children that propagated pioneers' moral principles: "Voyage of the 'Red Star' Pioneer Troop to Wonderland" (1924) and "The Dead Fire (Adventures of Young Pioneers in Egypt)" (1926). He took part in conducting the First Union-wide Assembly of pioneers in Moscow (August 1929).

In 1931 Zhukov retired onto a pension. He was awarded a personal pension by arrangement of the Proletarian RK VKP(b), with the support of Nadezhda Krupskaia. In 1936–37 he corresponded with Romain Rolland. In August 1940 he held meetings with Hero of the Soviet Union K. S. Badigin on questions related to the future development of the pioneers' movement. In 1940 at a TsK VLKSM meeting Zhukov proposed returning to the methods of the scouting system. In November 1940 he worked on a draft "Polozhenie on the V. I. Lenin Children's Communist Organisation".

In 1941 he began studies at the University of Marxism-Leninism; after a break during the war, he graduated in 1946.

In 1923 the journal "The Drum" (Moscow) published Zhukov's story "Voyage of the 'Red Star' Pioneer Troop to Wonderland". In 1924-27 Zhukov published a series of articles about the practice of the pioneers' movement. In 1928 Zhukov published the book "Dead Fire (Adventures of Pioneers in Egypt)". In 1929 he took part in the 1st Assembly of Pioneers. In 1930 he conducted work on preparing an assembly of educators from Moscow's Baumanskii district. In 1931 by invitation of Nadezhda Krupskaia Zhukov joined the staff of the State Scholarly Council (GUS) for work on school programs. He was author of the manual "The Beginner Sculptor". His creative works were rated highly by his contemporaries (I. E. Repin, A. Rodin, M. Gorky, R. Rolland, A. V. Lunacharskii, L. N. Tolstoi, S. T. Konenkov, N. K. Krupskaia). His works are held in the Russian Museum (St Petersburg), the Penza Picture Gallery, the art museums of Ivanov, the V. P. Sukachev Irkutsk regional art museum, ChOKhM and ChOKM. A stand is devoted to him in the Museum of the History of Popular Education (G. A. Barkin, E. G. Imanakova).

Christesen (1911-2001) was the founder of the Department of Russian Language and Literature at the University of Melbourne (1946). She also founded the journal Melbourne Slavonic Studies (1967-85), later renamed Australian Slavonic and East European Studies (ASEES); and the Australian Slavists' Association, now the Australian and New Zealand Slavists' Association (ANZSA).

Biography
Nina Christesen was born Nina Mikhailovna Maksimova in Blagoveshchensk, Russia on 23 December 1911. In 1917 she and her mother left St Petersburg to join her father, Mikhail Maksimov, a captain in the merchant navy, in Kharbin.

In 1924 she emigrated to Brisbane, Australia, together with her parents. She graduated from the University of Queensland.

In 1942 she married Clem Christesen, founder of Meanjin literary journal.

In 1945 the couple moved to Melbourne. They moved into "Stanhope" in Eltham (designed by architect Harold Desbrowe-Annear, and lived there for the rest of their lives. Nina began to work at the University of Melbourne as an Organizing tutor for the Extension Board. In this role, she lobbied

Nina Christesen "pioneered the study of Russian in Australia." In 1946 Nina Christesen founded the first Department of Russian in Australia, at the University of Melbourne. According to Jane Sullivan's obituary, "Nina campaigned for a new Russian department at the university, but was so unassuming that she did not apply for the job of a founding lectureship in Russian language and literature. She had to be persuaded to sit down and type an application. She later wrote:"'In every way I was obliged to begin from scratch at Melbourne University. There was no established department, no staff, no suitable textbooks, no library (except my own), no secretarial support, and nobody to whom I could turn for advice on how best to structure the courses. To say the least, funding was inadequate. The only available typewriter with a keyboard of Russian characters belonged to the CSIRO, and I was allowed to use it only during lunchtime. I could not persuade the Registrar to spend fifty pounds on a fount of Russian matrices owned by an aged priest in Sydney, so I bought it myself and taught compositors at a commercial printery how to set the type for our examination papers and texts. I wonder if a man would have fared better? I am not altogether sure of that.'"She went on to head the department for the next three decades. During her career, she was a guest lecturer at the Universities of Oxford and Moscow, and visiting fellow at the Australian National University.

In 1947 her portrait was painted by the artist Lina Bryans.

In 1955 Nina and Clem Christesen were called before the Royal Commission on Espionage as part of the Petrov Affair.

Nina wrote of the Soviet invasion of Hungary (1956) and Czechoslovakia (1968) that she "experienced [these events] as personal traumas".

In 1985 she was made a Member of the Order of Australia (AM).

She died on 8 August 2001, in Eltham, Victoria.

Chris Wallace-Crabbe's obituary described Nina Christesen as "a major inspiration in her husband's founding of Meanjin, and of Russian teaching in Australia" and "a unique lady of Melbourne culture: alert, generous, and civilized."

Publications

 * editor of the monograph series Russians in Australia
 * Nina Christesen, "A Russian Migrant", in Patricia Grimshaw and Lynne Strahan (eds), The Half-Open Door: Sixteen Modern Australian Women Look at Professional Life and Achievement (Hale & Iremonger, 1982)
 * Nina Christesen, "August 1914", Australasian Universities Modern Languages Association, no. 36 (1971)
 * Nina Christesen, "Nekotorye nabliudeniia nad liubovnoi leksikoi v romanakh L'va Nikolaevicha Tolstogo", Melbourne Slavonic Studies, no. 8 (1973)