Afanassi Pood, aka Ewegeny Feinsilber, was born in 1951 in Saint-Petersburg Russia. Ewegeny is an artist who assumed a nom de plume, Afanassi Pud, as his signature name. He did this to disguise the fact that he was Jewish since he would never have been able to offer and sell his paintings do to the prejudices that continue to exist in Russia. Afanassi attended the Leningrad Polytechnical University where he received both Bachelor's and Master's degrees in combined physics and mechanical engineering. After graduating he attended the Scientific Research Institute where he was awarded a PhD. He later attended and received a degree in fine art from the Saint-Petersburg Academy of Painting and Sculpture and Architecture. In 1983 Afanassi joined the illegal Association of Experimental Fine Art. This organization was a collective of avant-garde artists devoted to pursuing a post-modern direction. Because the organization was devoted to and expressed a need for freedom of expression they found themselves diametrically opposed to the government sponsored U.S.S.R. Artist's Union. There were severe repercussions for those whose art work didn't follow the government's guidelines of Social Realism. Afanassi's paintings, along with other artists, were removed from shows and confiscated. He was brought before officials of the K.G.B. many times and interrogated. Only the collapse of the Communist regime saved him from being arrested and confined as a dissident. Many works by the artist are in private collections in Russia, USA, Germany, Canada, Austria, Australia, France, Italy, The Netherlands and Hungary.