Alexander Grigoriev was a Mari Soviet artist, public figure, academician and founder of the Art and History Museum which now bears his name.

He was born on May 28, 1891 in the family of a teacher near Kozmodemyansk. He graduated from Morenovsk Agricultural College and Kazan Teachers’ Seminary, and then was one of the first among the Mari people to receive professional art education at the Kazan Art School, where he was taught by the artist Nicolai Ivanovich Fechin.

Later, Alexander Grigoriev studied at the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture, where he developed as a realist painter in the workshops of the painter Konstantin Alexeevich Korovin, genre painter Abram Yefimovich Arkhipov and others.

In 1919, Grigoriev returned to his homeland, where he headed the township department of public education. Thanks to his work, a decorative arts workshop was opened in Kozmodemyansk, where sets for plays and performances were made. The first local art exhibition was organized, and an art school was established. In 1919, Alexander Grigoriev founded a museum in Kozmodemyansk.

In 1922, the artist was recalled to Moscow to continue his work in the field of museum affairs and fine art. He became one of the founders and head of the Association of Artists of Revolutionary Russia the same year. At different times, Alexander Grigoriev also headed the Union of Soviet Artists and the cooperative organization “Vsekohudozhnik”.

He also served as head of the department at Glavnauka and deputy director for science at the Tretyakov Gallery.

In the 1930s, Alexander Grigoriev organized the first and only exhibition of his own works in the club of the Moscow plant “Kauchuk”.

In 1938, he was arrested and sent to one of the NKVD state farms near Karaganda.

He spent eight years there. In 1946, Alexander Grigoriev was released from the camp and lived in the town of Tarusa, Kaluga region.

In 1954, Grigoriev was rehabilitated.

In 1956, he was elected a delegate to the First Congress of Soviet Artists.

In 1959, he was awarded the title of Honored Art Worker of the Mari ASSR.

Alexander Grigoriev died on August 25, 1961, and is buried at the Novodevichy Cemetery in Moscow.