He joined the Fine Arts School in Moscow at the age of 16;[3] his drawings and designs were featured on many of Joseph Stalin's posters.
He escaped the prisoner-of-war camp after a year and a half, in March 1944, and spent four weeks walking to Burgundy, France.
Later he joined the French Resistance, under the code name Le Jeune Russe,[6] but was machine-gunned down and severely wounded by Germans.
He was rescued and hidden in safety by a French family (JC and MF de Montalembert) until the arrival of the Allied Forces.
The San Francisco Chronicle called him "The Michelangelo of Highway 101", in reference to the advertisements which he hand-painted on large roadside billboards.