Lev Iosifovich Naroditsky (Narodnitsky) was born in Mariupol, Ukraine in 1913. He took part in the Great Patriotic War (WWII) and was awarded two Orders of the Red Star for his military service. After demobilization he attended the Moscow State Art Institute named after V.I. Surikov where his instructors included G.M. Shegal and S.V. Gerasimov. He graduated in 1948 Naroditsky is best known as an author of war and patriotic themed paintings. His most important pictures include: “Attack of Parliament in Vienne” (1946), “Firstborn” (1949), “During rest hours” (1952), “In 1941” (1967), “In Stalingrad” (1969), “To the Southern Front” (1969), “Let’s smoke” (1970), “Von Paulus and others” (1970), and “Alert” (1975). Naroditsky began contributing to exhibitions in 1946 and joined the Moscow Union of Soviet Artists in 1948. Naroditsky was named Honored Artist of the USSR. His works are kept in the State Tretyakov Gallery and many other regional museums of Russia as well as in private collections throughout Russia and abroad. Lev Iosifovich Naroditsky died in 1977 in Moscow at 64 years of age.