Biography

Ilya Glazunov was born on June 10, 1930 in Leningrad, USSR. He was married to Nina Vinogradova-Benoit. He died on July 9, 2017 in Moscow, Russia.

He returned to Leningrad in 1944, and attended the Repin Institute of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture. Some of his paintings were reviled by Soviet critics, others were embraced. At one low point, he was punished by being sent to Siberia to paint scenes of workers building the Baikal-Amur railroad.

In the Mikhail Gorbachev era, his works became very popular. His interest in rescuing old churches and other historic buildings led him to a major role in restoring the Kremlin in the 1990s, and rebuilding the Cathedral of Christ the Savior in Moscow, which had been razed during the Stalin era.

During the siege of Leningrad, both of his parents died of starvation. He was rescued by his uncle in the armed forces who moved him to a village near Novgorod.