Vasily Vasilyevich Pochitalov (1903–1973) was born in Uglich into a large family of a cabinetmaker. When his family moved to Moscow, he ended up in a summer labor colony for children and teenagers of poor workers. The institution was headed by the famous teacher Stanislav Teofilovich Shatsky.

At the colony, children had music lessons, were taught to draw, staged performances, including opera, and studied foreign languages. They were fully self-sufficient. After the Russian Revolution, the colony was called “Vigorous Life”.

Many of its graduates later became prominent cultural figures. Vasily Pochitalov faced a choice: to become an opera singer or an artist. He opted for studying at VKhUTEIN (VKhUTEMAS), where his teacher was Alexander Vasilyevich Shevchenko. After graduation, he taught and at the same time worked at the Meyerhold Theater together with the Kukryniksy (caricaturists).

Vasily Vasilyevich Pochitalov brought up several generations of Soviet artists: he taught painting for many years at the Moscow Art School, the Surikov Art Institute, and the Textile Institute. Pochitalov was one of the founders of the Moscow Secondary Art School. The artist Ivan Vasilyevich Sorokin wrote,