Aleksei Konstantinovich Sokolov, born September 10, 1922, was a professor of painting and drawing at the Repin Institute of Painting, Sculpture, and Architecture. A colorful character and the son of a painter and an actress, Aleksei grew up around performers and artists in St. Petersburg.

From 1929 to 1937 he attended the Children’s Artistic School, studying with Solomon Levin and Konstantin Kardobovsky. From 1937 to 1941 he studied at the secondary art school at the Academy of Arts.

In 1941 he joined the Peoples’ Levy as a soldier and helped defend Leningrad during World War II. He was wounded in 1942 and demobilized from the army and sent to Siberia to recover from his wounds.

After returning to Leningrad, he began studies at the Repin Academy of Art in 1944, studying in the monumental painting studios of I. E. Grabar and V. M. Oreshnikov. He received a distinction for his diploma work “Flag Bearers of the World.”

In 1952 he was accepted into the Artists’ Union of the USSR. He began exhibiting his paintings that same year. From 1952 to 1968 he taught in the monumental painting department at the Mukhina School of Art (the State Academy of Industrial Arts).

In 1960 and 1961, Aleksei Sokolov took a sabatical to Paris. In 1961, the French government sponsored a competition and exhibition for young painters in Paris and for foreigners who were painting there during that calendar year. Aleksei received second prize which included publicity as well as prize money. In 1961, Pablo Picasso organized a selling exhibit with proceeds going to orphans of the Spanish war. He asked all painters in Paris to contribute work and Aleksei contributed two landscapes. The show sold out.

In 1968 Sokolov began teaching in the monumental painting department of the Repin Academy of Arts in Leningrad. He was the dean of the painting department from 1978 to 1983.