Vasili Andreevich Smagin was born in 1921 in the village of Repnoe, the Voronezh province. In 1961, he became a member of the USSR Artists Union. He worked as an artist of the Voronezh Association “Artist” (1943 - 1947; 1949 - 1952) and guide of the Voronezh Regional Fine Arts Museum (1947 - 1949). At the same time, he studied in the art studio of the Voronezh department of the Artists Union under A.P.Vasiliev. In 1952, Vasili Andreevich moved to the city of Ufa where he worked as an artist in the painting workshop of the Association “Bashkir Artist”. Since 1947, he participated in regional, zonal and republican exhibitions. In 1984, Smagin moved back to Voronezh where he later died in 1987.

Smagin held his personal exhibition in Ufa in 1971 and 1982. His paintings are kept in the M.V.Nesterov Ufa Art Museum.

He worked in the genres of thematic painting, composition portrait, landscape and still life. He created a number of artworks in the historico-revolutionary and industrial areas: “Virgin soil” (1955), “Building big chemistry” (1964), “Bashkir chekists” (1969), “Army commanders of the Revolution” (1974); the series of portraits of working-people: “Welder” (1959), “Erectors” (1964), “The railwayman A.Smolyanov” (1985) and others.