Anatoli Ivanovich Smirnov was born in 1924 in Podborog, Volgda Region. He studied at the art school in Leningrad (St. Petersburg) until 1949, and then at the Repin Institute from 1949 to 1955.

He has lived and worked in St. Petersburg since then and began teaching at the Repin in 1958. Important shows include “Soviet Russia”; Moscow, 1960.