Artist. Born in Lepel, Vitebsk province. In 1911 - 1916 he studied at the St. Petersburg at the Drawing School of the Society for the Encouragement Artists Roerich and AA Rylova. Since 1912, he participated in exhibitions, worked in the magazine "La Boheme." In 1917 he joined the Bolshevik Party, until his death was a staunch party organizer and promoter. In 1918 he worked in Nevel, Vitebsk province (now the Pskov region) as the head of the Subdivision for extracurricular education department. Administrative activities combined with artistic creativity. With his assistance, issued Nevel-day almanac "Art Day", which was first published work of the Russian philosopher Mikhail Bakhtin. From 1932 to 1934 was director of the State Russian Museum in Leningrad. In the last years of his life working on his memoirs.