He studied with Russian painters and followers of the Peredvizhniki ("Wanderers"), first under Nikolay Vasilyevich Rozanov (1869–1940) his art studio of Tashkent Art Museum (now Fine Arts Museum of Uzbekistan) (1924–1928), and later in the Art and Pedagogical Technical School, Penza (1928–1929), under Ivan Silovich Goryushkin-Sorokopudov (1873–1954) and Nikolay Filippovich Petrov (1872–1941).
He was born in Pokrovskoye, Moscow Oblast and studied at the Penza Art College from 1898 to 1903 under the well known Peredvizhniki member Konstantin Savitsky.