The study addresses the issue of attribution of photographs that have just been included in historical circulation as previously the photo album of Grigoriy Moiseevich Budagov, one of the engineers from the Trans-Siberian Railway, was in private hands. Attention is drawn to the issue of the location of the village of Krivoschkhekova, which has been causing controversy for more than a decade, and at the house of G. M. Budagov himself. The main content is devoted to the analysis of one of the photos which depicts fifteen people on the rink in Krivoshchekovo filmed in February 1895. Its first publication caused a storm of emotions in the local history community. The author tried to figure out and identify the person depicted in the image from 125 years ago. There are significant for the Russian culture and history names among them, such as Alpers, Auerbach, Link, Ignatiev, Gorlov. In the course of the study, various sources were used: encyclopedic publications, genealogical works, memoirs of eminent writers and composers, the personal diary of G. M. Budagov himself. As a result of the work, it is shown that quite prominent and previously little-known representatives of the Russian intellectuals, carriers of noble culture took part in the development of Novonikolayevsk.