Equestrian, Russian cossak. As father was a fish exporter in his town, he was the only artist in his family. It is said that Gregorio Vassiliev was a member of the Russian Imperial Guard and a Lieutenant of the white army during the Civil War in Russia (1918-1921). He fleed from the war and went to live in Uruguay, where he married Sophie, daughter of a Russian farmer, and they imigrated to Brazil in 1927. It was in Brazil where he joined and travelled the country with the artistic groups Cossacos de Kuban and Cossacos de Don. In 1933, he settled down in Recife, northeast Brazil where he and his wife inaugurated the Russian School of Classic Dance, in Imperatriz Street. A few years later he left the group Cossacos and went to work for the Companhia de Tecidos Paulista (1934-1935). Gregorio was fluent in Portuguese and used to write articles about the Russian regime as well as interviews about the way Russian people were living. This called the attention of the local newspapers and he moved to São Paulo.  Additional information tells us that there, he might have been a teacher at two schools.