Belyaev, Dmitri

1921 - 2009

Belyaev was born into a peasant family in the village of Bortnoye Ribnovskogo, Ryazan Province (Russia) in 1921.  A young Belyaev first pursued his art career when he took classes in the art studio of the Pioneer House under Vyacheslav Rutsai.  In 1937 he entered the Art College of 1905 where he studied until 1941 when his studies were interrupted by World War II.  Belyaev became a commander of a tank division in the Second Ukrainian Front and was seriously wounded in a battle near Chernigov.  After healing, he remained on active duty in the Red Army until the end of the war.  He received a Red Star Metal, an Order of the Great Patriotic War (1^st degree) and numerous small medals. 

Belyaev gained admission to the Repin Institute in Leningrad in 1945 and studied there until 1952, graduating from the studio of the great Boris Ioganson.  His diploma work, "For Peace", earned the highest grade.  In 1952, Belyaev received a great honor when he was accepted directly into the "All-Union" Artist’s Union.  He began to participate as an official Soviet artist in numerous spring and fall group exhibition in Leningrad, including the All-Union Art Exhibition, Moscow, 1952, All-Union Art Exhibition, Moscow, 1956 and the Soviet Russia, Moscow, 1960.  Furthermore, he received numerous other art prizes from the Russian Ministry of Culture and the Artist’s Union.  He even won an art prize from the Kirov Factory. 

Belyaev passed away in early 2009. His works are in numerous Russian Museums in such cities as St. Petersburg, Smolensk, Penza, Krasnodar, etc. and in private collections throughout the world.  He is listed on page 30 of Matthew Brown’s A Dictionary of Twentieth Century Russian and Soviet Painters.