Nikolay Blagodatov, a Russian collector of Soviet nonconformist art and member of the Section of Criticism and Art Criticism of the Saint Petersburg Union of Artists, died on February 23, 2026, at the age of 88.
Born in Leningrad on December 21, 1937, he graduated from St. Petersburg State University of Water Communications in 1962.
He began collecting modern art in 1975 and later built one of Russia’s most significant collections of Soviet Nonconformist Art, spanning 1970 to 1990. From 1979, he also wrote more than 250 articles on art and took part in more than 50 exhibitions as a collector, organizer and participant.
Nikolay Innokentievich Blagodatov (Russian: Николай Иннокентьевич Благодатов; 21 December 1937 – 23 February 2026) was a Russian collector of Soviet nonconformist art. He was a member of the Section of Criticism and Art Criticism of the Saint Petersburg Union of Artists.