Mikhail Kornetsky

Mikhail Kornetsky (1926, Moscow, Russian SFSR – 2005, Riga, Republic of Latvia) –  an artist and an educator.

Mikhail Kornetsky was born in Moscow. 

Before the war Kornetsky lived with his family in Leningrad (now Saint-Petersburg), where he finished a seven-year school. After the beginning of Nazi German invasion of the USSR, he was evacuated to Isetskoe village in Tyumen oblast, where he finished 8th and 9th forms. From this village he was "conscripted into the ranks of the Red Army" in 1943. He served in a training division in Minsk. After being dismissed in the September of 1950 in the rank of senior sergeant (was awarded with medals "For the Victory over Germany" and "30 Years of the Soviet Army and Navy"), he arrived to Riga, where in 1951 he finished the 10th form of the Riga Evening School Nr. 18 for the Working Youth.

Without any preliminary preparation Kornetsky could not enroll into the Latvian State Academy of Arts. However, after having shown eagerness and persistence, in the February of 1952, he was accepted into the first year of the Department of Drawing "taking into account test results in special disciplines for the first semester". Soon, Kornetsky became one of the best students of the Academy. In 1954 he enrolled into the portrait class of J. Tilbergs. He graduated from the academy with outstanding marks for all subjects (!) with only one mark "good" in composition. 

After the graduation Kornetsky worked as an illustrator at the "Māksla" ("Art") workshop, and in the August of 1959 became a teacher at the Academy; for many years he had been leading the evening  preparation courses. Mikhail Kornetsky actively participated in republican exhibitions and the work of the Union of Artists of Latvian SSR (in 1968-1971 he was fulfilling the duties of a secretary of the Union). He became its member in 1961. As a member of the CPSU since 1966, Mikhail Kornetsky, for some time, was in charge of the party bureau of the Union of Artists.  

Kornetsky constantly worked on orders, which had been coming to him from all over the USSR; his works were often reproduced in all-Union magazines. In 1963 he became an Honoured Artist of Latvian SSR. 

Mikhail Kornetsky died in Riga on 10 of September 2005. 

Alexander Malnach