From 1959 to 1961 Sokolsky went through professional training at
Soyuzmultfilm's animation courses, then finished the
Moscow High School of Arts and Industry. Originally all segments were developed collectively. Sokolsky worked both as a director, art director and animator on various segments. After the team left the project, it turned into a more traditional animated series. They still continued working together on each other's cartoons. In 1974 Sokolsky,
Anatoly Petrov and
Valery Ugarov tried to start another anthology series aimed at schoolchildren, but it was rejected by
Goskino and the pilot was reedited into a 10-minute short
Prodelkin at School. In 1993 Sokolsky, Petrov,
Galina Barinova and
Leonid Nosyrev united for the last time to work on
Jester Balakirev, a film based on the national folklore about
Ivan Balakirev and
Peter the Great. As a director Sokolsky became famous for his comedy and environmental films. Among them was
Silver Hoof (1977) based on
Pavel Bazhov's fairy tale;
Little Mouse Pik (1978), an adaptation of
Vitaly Bianki's short story about a little mouse lost in the woods;
Ivashka from the Pioneers Palace (1981), a comedy fairy tale written by
Eduard Uspensky; and
The Adventures of Lolo the Penguin (1986-1987) which Sokolsky co-directed with
Kenji Yoshida. The latter became the first joined animated project by the USSR and
Japan. Sokolsky also directed a number of
Fitil episodes, as well as animated sequences to several movies such as
Sergei Gerasimov's
The Love of Mankind (1972) and
Alexander Mitta's
How Czar Peter the Great Married Off His Moor (1976). During the 1990s Sokolsky switched to
book illustration, mostly children's literature. From 1998 to 1999 he taught animation in
Vilnius,
Lithuania. He was buried at the
Pyatnitskoye Cemetery. He was survived by his wife Tatiana Georgievna Sokolskaya (born 1946), an art director and regular collaborator on her husband's films. ==Selected filmography==