Kiselis, Petr Yul’evich (Yur’evich)

Petr Yul’evich Kiselis was born in what is now is the Republic of Lithuania. In 1906, he attended courses at the Central School of Technical Drawing, a school managed by artist Barron Aleksander Stieglitz. Kiselis continued his studies between 1907 and 1908 at the Drawing School Society for the Encouragement of the Arts. From 1910 to 1912, he again enrolled (under the surname Kissel) in the Central School of Technical Drawing. From 1913 to 1916 (and under the surname Kisselisov) he attended the Saint Petersburg Imperial Academy of Arts.

From 1908 to 1910, Petr Kiselis participated in the Russian revolutionary movement and went on to participate in the October Revolution of 1917, and he fought in the Russian Civil War. During the war he created posters supporting the Red Army. In 1921, Kiselis was on the staff of Narkompros (People's Department of Enlightenment) where he served as chief inspector of artistic organizations. The artist was made the lead-decorator of Leon Trotskii’s personal armored train during the Russian Civil War, and he briefly served under Trotskii as a secretary of the Revolutionary Military Council.

In 1922, he co-founded the AKhRR (Association of Artists of Revolutionary Russia) and taught at its Central Studios in Leningrad. From 1927 to 1928, Kiselis taught at Leningrad's VKhUTEIN (Higher State Artistic and Technical Institute) and he later became dean of the city's Visual Arts School.

During the 1930s, his life took a bad turn. He was removed from the membership of AKhRR (reportedly for political reasons) and in 1937, he was arrested during the Stalinist purges. While being held in a Vladivostok corrective labor camp, he died in 1940.