Biography

Soviet and Ukrainian sculptor, tutor. People’s artist of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic. The author of the monument to the heroes of the Young Guard in Krasnodon “The Oath” (co-authored with sculptor Viktor Mukhin), the monument “The Eternal Glory” in Dnepropetrovsk, sculptural portraits of the T-34 tank designer, Mikhail Koshkin and poet Taras Shevchenko.

Agibalov was born into a peasant family in the village Lozovoye near Voronezh. Since 1932, he studied at the Kharkov Art College, later he entered the workers' faculty at the Kiev Art Institute. On the eve of the War, young gifted sculptor became a student at the studio of Professor Eleanor Bloch at the Kharkov Art Institute. In 1942, when the War was in full swing, Agibalov graduated from the institute and was employed at the Kharkov branch of the Union of Artists of Ukraine. 

During the World War II, he was on active service and since 1944, after the liberation of Ukraine from the fascist occupation, Agibalov reconstructed the Voroshilovgrad Art college and taught in it as well. He continued his creative work, participating in various republican, all-union and international exhibitions with his cabinet statuary and monumental sculptural works. In the early 50s, he became a tutor in his Alma Mater – the Kharkov Art Institute, combining teaching with work at the Kharkov sculptural factory under the Art Fund of the Union of Artists.

The feat of the young anti-fascist resistance fighters- the heroes of the Krasnodon city, who sacrificed their lives in the struggle against the Nazi invaders, inspired Agibalov to create a monument to the Young Guard members. The master began working in 1951, consulting with prominent sculptors of the Soviet Union - Vera Mukhina, Nikolai Tomsky, and Evgeny Vuchetich as well as with the eyewitness of this feat- the inhabitants of Krasnodon. The monument was unveiled in 1954; the heroes' parents were invited to the ceremony. In subsequent years, the list of the sculptor's works was supplemented by sculptural images of the prominent scientists, well-known representatives of art and culture, the Great Patriotic War veterans and Heroes of Labour.