His father was a notary and scribe in the Russian army and worked as a non-academic lawyer, but died prematurely of a brain tumor in his late thirties.
Although always painting, he supported his family in the post World War I years by working as a humoristic illustrator for French magazines – usually with a sexual theme – such as Fantasio, Sourire, Journal amusant, Eros, and especially La Vie Parisienne.
Sacha was involved in creating invitation posters & decorating the sets for their annual fundraising balls, which supported struggling young immigrant artists.
Members of the Horde frequented the famous coffee house La Rotunde, where they hobnobbed with the likes of Russian Bolshevik exiles, Henry Miller, Picasso, Modigliani, and Max Jacob.
After some recovery, a former student, Henri Engel de Salm, placed him in a nursing home and took possession of over 800 drawings and paintings from his studio on Rue du Moulin Vert, many of which he sold at auction, through June 28, 2005 (Bretagne Encheres, Rennes).
Sacha died peacefully at the Hospice on Rue Notre Dame des Champs in 1971 in the heart of Montparnasse, where he had continued to sketch until the end.