[1] Born in a Cossack family, at the age of 15, he went to study painting, first at the Odesa Art School (with Kiriyak Kostandi), then 5 years later, after successfully passing the exams, he ended up at the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts, where he studied with Ilya Repin and Franz Roubaud.

During his studies, he worked on Roubaud's panoramas "Defense of Sevastopol" and "Battle of Borodino".

[2] In 1911, for the competitive work "Oxen in the Plow" he was awarded the title of artist.

During the First World War he fought for three years at the front, from where he made many sketches.

[4] In 1927, the first personal exhibition of Mitrofan Grekov was held in Novocherkassk.