Chechen painter Lechi Shamsudinovich Abaev was born in November 1957 in Kirgizia due to the mass deportation that the entire Chechen-Ingush population faced in 1944.

In the end of 1970s, he served in the Soviet army and after that he worked at the Baltic Factory. After a while, he entered to the Leningrad Institute of Cinematography, but, however, at the end of his firt year, he abandoned the institute. Since his childhood, he was dreaming to become a painter, finally, he has decided to follow his desire and in 1981 he entered to the Academy of Fine Arts Named After Repin with his elder brother Sultan Abaev. After his graduation from the fine arts academy in 1987, he started to live in Grozny. Since then, he has organized diversity of exhibitions and actively participated to the social life in Chechnya.