From letters of Vladimir Svetlov to his daughter and his first wife in Russia:
“It was a pleasant surprise to me when I learnt that Dimitri wants to help us with the paintings. I am very pleased. Thank you very much. However, I don't know by whom and how I can transport the paintings (to Russia). That is rather complicated, but I shall try. It would be nice to make some contacts now and with some good luck to help the grandchildren. However, I can only dream of all these things. Life just passes by. In this Region it is nonsensical to hope for anything, - something has to change.
At the moment I am working on my old - new topic, the society. I am painting monks, harlequins, prostitutes and dominas with whips. Everything is symbolical. You can’t depict the world in a different manner. That is life, but how you live yourself …

That is my view of this form of expression,: I don’t touch politics and only paint my own expreriences.
Have borrowed a camera. As soon as the fotos of the paintings  are processed, I‘m going to send them to you…
… Over here practically any interest in art is misssing. They all have problems. However, a different kind of work can’t be found because of the problem with my back. Nobody wants to talk to me and no one is going to talk to me. It has become frightful.
I am painting monks – pilgrims. The symbolical perception of my situation. That is not a life but only the simple presence. Olga, please understand me right. I would have loved to have had a friendly talk with you, else there is just pain and loneliness. Write to me. I like to read your letters very much. Very often and with great warmth I remember our youth, the city of Jaroslavl… Life was totally different …

Somehow everything has just passed by so that you can’t remember anything. Like a terrible dream. Fate – fate…
Many thanks for the family calls and congratulations to my birthday. Oleg (he is the elder grandson) has also talked to his grandfather, that has touched me very much and it was the best birthday present! …”
“Normal human conversation has become strange to me. I am living alone and secluded from the outside world. That is why it is always at first confusing for me when the telephone rings.I am working on a new topic. I am depicting a domina with a harlequin and a pierrot. Like an echo of the situation … .” ______

We thought that the contacts could gradually be re-established. We thought we still had so much time… but these were the last letters from May 2007 (after his 50th birthday). After that he could no longer contacted by phone. In the autumn his mother sent him an invitation to Russia. There didn’t come any answer to the letters.

• Since 1980 domicile in Jaroslavl (twinned with Kassel) where he worked as a designer in an office for aesthetics. The museum in Jaroslavl has some of his works of art and  he is remembered there as an artist who worked and painted in an unusual manner.
• From 1982-1986 the family lived in the GDR, where the couple was working as designers in the Russian General Staff. After their return to Jaroslavl Perestroika began. He is admitted to the Russian Society of Artists, got a big studio, painted many pictures (mainly landscapes and animals), gets orders for pictures from Russian and foreign businessmen.
• 1992 Big exhibition in Hofgeismar
• 1993 Removal to Germany, divorce and second mattiage to Birgit, four children
• 1995 Member of the Artists Association Kassel
• 1996 Setting up of an open  studio in the town museum of Hofgeismar
• March-May 2008: Last exhibition in the Dreiklang Gallery in Hann. Münden