Boris Konstantinovich Sivets was born in 1927 in the village of Poltavka (а Ukrainian settlement in Kazakhstan) in the Akmola region (now Nur-Sultan, the capital of Kazakhstan), but his family soon moved to Frunze (now Bishkek, the capital of Kyrgyzstan).
He began to draw when he was a little boy.
At the age of 17 he enrolled in the Art School of the Leningrad Academy of Art.
This was in 1944, at the time of the Second World War, and he was soon drafted into the army to join the troops at the front fighting against the Fascist Germany
After Germany’s surrender to the Allies, he served for 9 years in the Russian military forces situated in Germany, during which time he graduated in 1950 from the Sumsk Artillery High School.
Having retired from the army at the rank of Captain of Artillery in 1954, he returned to Frunze and worked as a graphic artist.
In 1962 he moved to Volgograd and enrolled on a correspondence degree course with the Moscow State University of Printing Arts, graduating in 1963.
He later took up the post of art director of the Nizhnya Volga Publishing House, where he worked for several years.
In addition to illustrating books, Boris Konstantinovich was prolific in both oil and watercolour paintings, and mosaics. He was very fond of lino cutting, which he later taught at the Volgograd State Institute of Arts and Culture as a lecturer.
He was a member of the Russian Federation Artists’ Union from 1968 and a chairman of the Volgograd section for eight years.
In the latter years of his life he turned to painting icons.
Two icons painted by him, the one of Saint Nicholas of Lycia and the icon of Our Lady of Vladimir, are now in the Church of St. Martyr Priest Sergey Mechev and The Holy Trinity Church respectively in Volgograd.
He died in 2010 on August 28th at the age of 82.