He was born in Norilsk, Siberia on 4/2/1941. He studied at the Moscow Conservatory under Sergey Rebrikov (1960 onwards), and continued in Milan under Renato Pastorino (1968/69). He was awarded at an international competition in Belgium (1969) and the Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow (1970). He debuted at the Bolshoi Theater as Pinkerton in Madama Butterfly. In the theater, he interpreted numerous romantic Russian and newer Soviet repertory roles (1966-1989). He has performed as invited artistic in Kiev, Kharkov, Tbilisi, Zagreb, Belgrade, Bucharest, Prague, Buenos Aires and Wiesbaden Festival. He won international acclaim for his performance in the demanding title role in Pietro Mascagni’s Guglielmo Ratcliff (Livorno Theater, 1984). He appeared in the Savonlinna Festival in The Khovansky Affair [Khovantshina] (1987), Musical May in Florence as Grischko [The Legend of Invisible City of Kitezh] (1990) and Berlin State Opera as Radamès [Aida] (1990) and Manrico (The troubadour/Il trovatore] (1991). He also sang the roles: Roger II [King Roger/Król Roger] (Palermo, 1992) and Prince Shuysky [Boris Godunov] (Bordeaux Opera, 1993). He recorded the operas Khovantshina and Rodion Shchedrin’s The Dead Souls (Melodiya) and Boris Godunov (Philips). He taught voice at the Russian Academy of Theatre Arts (1979-1985) and was a staff member of the Deutsche Oper Berlin (1989-1996). He is vice president of the Irina Arkhipova Foundation. He teaches voice at the Moscow State Conservatory and is a jury supervisor with international competitions. He appeared at the GNO as Hermann in the Queen of Spades [Pique Dame] under Odysseas Demetriadis (1982/3).