Pyotr Ivanovich Sokolov II

Painter, graphic artist, theatrical designer, illustrator. Studied at grammar school and Ivan Kopylov’s school of art in Irkutsk (1901–13). Attended a studio of art in Paris (1913). Returned to Russia following the outbreak of the First World War (1914). Enrolled at the State Free Art Studios in Petrograd (1917). Worked at the research studios of the Academy of Arts and as a theatrical designer. Taught drawing at the Institute of Northern Peoples in Leningrad (1927–28). Illustrated books (late 1920s–early 1930s). Moved to Moscow (early 1930s), where he was the principal designer of the Bolshoi Theatre. Arrested by the NKVD and sentenced to three years’ imprisonment at the Karaganda Corrective Labour Camp in central Kazakhstan (1935), where he met Vladimir Sterligov. Released and briefly remained at Karaganda as a free worker (1937). Believed to have returned to Moscow, where he was rearrested and shot (1938).