Vladislav Petrovich Krapivin was born in the city of Tyumen, on October 14, 1938, into the family of Peter Fyodorovich and Olga Petrovna Krapivin.

In 1956 he became a student of the Journalism at the A. M. Gorky Urals State University.

While still at the university, he joined the staff of the "Evening Sverdlovsk" newspaper. For a number of years he worked in the editorial department of the "Ural Stalker" magazine. From 1965 he has been a full time writer.

In 1961 Vladislav Krapivin founded the Young Scout Troop "Caravel" (A number of publications maintain that the Troop was founded at the request of the 'Pioneer' youth magazine, but in fact the magazine only took the Troop under its wing in 1965.) The range of activities of the Troop are journalism, nautical studies, and fencing. The Troop still exists today, earlier it had the status of a Young Pioneer's Section, the press-center and the sailing flotilla of the 'Pioneer' magazine. Vladislav Krapivin was in charge of the Troop for more than thirty years.

Vladislav Krapivin's first book, "The Voyage of the 'Orion'", appeared in Sverdlovsk in 1962.

Today Vladislav Krapivin has more than one hundred fifty publications to his credit in various languages. His books were included in the "Golden Library of Selected Works for Children and Youth," "The Library of Adventure and Science Fiction," "The Library of World Literature for Children," and in the 26 volume Japanese series "Selected Works for Teenagers" (which allocated two volumes for his works).

Vladislav Krapivin's books have been reprinted numerous times in Poland, Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria, Germany, Japan, Hungary, they have been translated into English, Spanish, Persian, and other languages.

Some of Vladislav Krapivin's stories have been filmed and are shown frequently on Central Russian TV. The movie "Lullaby for my Brother," for which Vladislav Krapivin wrote the screenplay, received a number of awards.

Vladislav Petrovich Krapivin is the recipient of the Leninist Comsomol Award, the Aelita Award of the "Ural Stalker" magazine, the A. Gaidar memorial award of the "Pioneer" magazine, and other literary awards.

For his literary and social activism he was awarded the Red Banner of Labor [The highest civilian award within the old Soviet system. - J.C.], the Friendship of Peoples medal, the medal "For Valorous Work," and the A. Gaidar badge of the Comsomol Central Committee.

He has been a member of the Writers' Guild since 1964. Honorary Resident of cities of Yekaterinburg and Tyumen.

He lives and works in Yekaterinburg.