Boris Petrov (1910–1981) was a Soviet painter and landscape artist whose work was closely connected to the mountains of the Caucasus. A member of the Leningrad Union of Artists, he was also an accomplished mountaineer and spent extended periods living and working in the mountains, producing a distinctive body of landscapes shaped by the unusual light and colour of the highlands.

Born in Orel on July 10, 1910, Petrov moved to Leningrad, where he graduated from a nine-year school in 1929 and worked as a carpenter. From 1931 to 1933, he studied in the painting department of the Institute of Proletarian Fine Arts, later the Repin Institute, but did not graduate. From 1933 to 1941, he worked as a graphic designer at Gorcomizo while continuing to paint landscapes. He participated in exhibitions of Leningrad artists from the late 1930s, showing 17 landscapes during the decade.

Petrov volunteered for the Red Army in 1941 and served on the Leningrad Front until 1945. He was awarded the medals For the Defense of Leningrad and For the Victory over Germany. Between 1943 and 1945, he participated in exhibitions of artists of the Leningrad Front. After being sent to the Leningrad Defense Museum in 1945, where he worked as an artist for about a year, he returned to civilian artistic work with Lenizo and the Painting and Design Art Plant of the Leningrad Region.

In 1955, Petrov first visited the Caucasus, which became the central subject of his work for the rest of his life. At the age of 45, he took up mountaineering and slalom and spent months living and working alone in the mountains. His paintings include At Night on Tersky Peak and Cheget (1961), Elbrus (1962), Moonlight Silence and New Year's Eve in the Mountains (1970), The Weather Is Deteriorating (1975), The Sacrament of Mountain Night (1978), and My Wintering (1980). His mountain landscapes were noted for their unusual treatment of colour and light, reflecting the different visual conditions of the highlands.

Petrov became a candidate member of the Leningrad Union of Artists in 1960 and a full member in 1965. Solo exhibitions of his work were held in Nalchik in 1960 and in Leningrad in 1963 and 1975. The 1963 exhibition was covered by both Leningrad and Central Soviet television. Petrov died in Leningrad in 1981. His works are held in museums and private collections in Russia, Japan, and other countries.

Boris Stepanovich Petrov