Pyotr Kogan

[1] Born in to the family of a physician, Kogan attended high school in Mogilev and then studied at the historical and philological faculty of the Moscow University graduating in 1896.

During his studies he was introduced to Marxist ideas and polemicized in publications against Yuly Aykhenvald and Mikhail Gerschenson and others.

[2]  With Konstantin Balmont, Valery Bryusov and Vladimir Fritsche, Kogan founded the Circle of Friends of Western European Literature in 1894.

[4] He also became president of the State Academy of Arts of the RSFSR in Moscow, founded in 1921, which pursued similar goals to the Bauhaus and existed until 1930.

He was an employee of the People's Commissariat of Education of the RSFSR and served as chairman of the artistic section of the State Academic Council.