It became known that yesterday Leonid Sokov, an outstanding sculptor, one of the main artists of social art, who died in New York at the age of 76, joined folklore with politics.

He was born in the Kalininskaya (Tver) region, the son of Sokov Petr Sergeevich, the deceased at the front in 1941, the director of a village dairy, and Sokova Tatiana Pavlovna, who worked as a postman. In 1951 he moved to Moscow.

In 1956-61 he studied at the Moscow Secondary Art School at the Academy of Arts of the USSR (MSHSh), there gradually formed a circle of like-minded artists (studied with Eugene Barabanov, Alexander Kosolapov, Vitaly Komar). Also, a special influence on his creative path was rendered by Mikhail Roginsky, with whom Sokov was friendly. In 1961 he entered the Moscow Higher Art and Industrial School (formerly Strogonovskoye), a department of monumental decorative ornamentation, but in the same year he was drafted into the army, only after the service he resumed his studies (1964-1969). From 1966 to 1969 he worked in a studio with Alexander Kosolapov and Boris Orlov (2nd Shchukinsky pr.. , eleven).

In 1972 he joined the MOSH, before emigration he worked as an animal sculptor for sculptural works. By the beginning of the 1970s he came to his own style, based on the processing of the figurative system of Russian folklore and the use of pop-art receptions.

In 1973 he moved to a new workshop at the address: B. Sukharevsky per. , 16, where in 1976 was organized one of the most famous apartment exhibitions of works by unofficial artists. Since 1977 participates in exhibitions abroad. In 1979 he left the USSR, real recognition came in exile.