Mikhail Vladimirovich Alpatov was born on November 27 (December 10), 1902 in Moscow. He studied at the Real School, then in 1919-1921 at the philological faculty of Moscow University at the Department of Art History. In 1954, M.V. Alpatov was elected a full member of the USSR Academy of Arts. In 1958 he was awarded the title of Honored Artist of the RSFSR. In 1974, M.V. Alpatov became a laureate of the USSR State Prize, awarded for the books of Etudes on the history of Russian art (1967), Treasures of Russian art of the 11th-16th centuries (1971), Andrei Rublev (1927). In 1978 he was elected a corresponding member of the Austrian Academy of Sciences. This publication is a series of essays on Western European, Russian and Soviet art. Particular attention is paid to the essay on the preparation of the exhibition of Russian art in Paris in 1967.