Viktor Petrovich Obninsky, born in 1867 in the Borovsky district, was a representative of the noble family and a well-known Russian politician, belonging to the left Cadets. He was also one of the prominent Freemasons in Russia in the early 20th century.

Obninsky received his education at the 2nd Moscow Cadet Corps, and in 1884 he entered the 3rd Military Alexandrov School. In 1886, he became a non-commissioned officer, and in August 1887, he was promoted to the rank of second lieutenant and assigned to the Life Guards 4th Rifle Battalion. In 1891, he became a lieutenant, but in 1892 he was discharged from the army due to health issues.

After that, he worked for a year as a clerk at an elevator in the Penza province. In the 1890s, Obninsky served in the Moscow Treasury Chamber and in the Statistical Department of the Ministry of Railways, receiving the title of titular counselor in 1896. Later, he worked in a private company associated with the first Petersburg elevator.

In 1898, after marrying Cleopatra Alexandrovna Salova, he left his job and moved to Novgorod province to his wife's estate. Three years later, he returned to the Borovsky district of Kaluga province to his estate in Turliki.

In 1902, Obninsky was elected to the Borovsky District Zemstvo Assembly and became a provincial zemstvo member. In September of the same year, he worked for a month as a zemstvo chief. In 1903, he was elected the leader of the nobility of the Maloyaroslavets district and an honorary justice of the peace.

In December 1904, he became the chairman of the Kaluga Provincial Zemstvo Administration. Obninsky participated in congresses of zemstvo and city officials and was a member of the 'Union of Liberation' since 1903. In 1905, he drafted an appeal to the emperor from the Kaluga nobility and participated in the Moscow zemstvo congress.

In January 1906, he became one of the organizers of the Constitutional Democratic Party in Kaluga and was elected to the I State Duma. In the Duma, he was part of the 'autonomists' faction, advocating for the autonomy of peoples and regions.

After the dissolution of the I State Duma in June 1906, Obninsky participated in drafting the Vyborg Manifesto, for which he was sentenced to three months of imprisonment, serving time in solitary confinement in the Moscow prison 'Kamenshchiki.'

Later, he worked as a publicist in various publications and edited a collection dedicated to L. N. Tolstoy. In 1914 and 1915, he worked as a correspondent in Galicia and left a manuscript about the Galician campaign. In early 1916, he was elected to the Central Committee of the Cadet Party, where he proposed to include provisions on national autonomy and labor land use in the party's program.

Obninsky took his own life, explaining this in his suicide notes as a result of heart disease and a depressed mental state.