Vladimir Afanasyevich Obruchev was born on September 28, 1863, in his grandfather's estate in the village of Klepinino, Rzhevsky district, Tver province. He was the second child in the family of staff officer Afanasy Alexandrovich Obruchev, who received the rank of captain in 1864. His grandfather, General Alexander Afanasyevich Obruchev, received Polish lands for his service in Poland. His great-grandfather, Afanasy Fyodorovich Obruchev, was involved in the construction of military fortresses on the western borders of Russia. His mother, Polina Karlovna, née Gertner, was the daughter of a Lutheran pastor from Revel. His father's brother, Major General V. A. Obruchev, and his father's sister, M. A. Sechenova, the first female ophthalmologist in Russia, were also notable figures. The Sechenovs often welcomed Obruchev to their estate in Klepinino, where he enjoyed a rich family library.

Due to his father's frequent relocations for work, from the age of three to 17, Vladimir lived in various cities in Poland and learned Polish. He received home education in primary subjects, and his mother, who spoke German and French, instilled in him an interest in travel literature. He began his education at the Brest progymnasium, continued at the Radom gymnasium, and graduated from the real school in Vilno.

Obruchev received higher education at the Mining Institute in St. Petersburg, where he studied from 1881 to 1886. In 1885, he interned in the Urals. From August to December 1886, he conducted geological research during the construction of the Transcaspian Railway. From January to August 1887, he served in the military in St. Petersburg. In the same year, he published his first scientific work, "Sands and Steppes of the Transcaspian Region," which was awarded a silver medal by the Imperial Russian Geographical Society.

In 1892 and 1894, Obruchev participated in expeditions led by Grigory Potanin as a geologist. In 1895 and 1898, he led a mining team in Eastern Siberia, contributing to the construction of the Trans-Siberian Railway. He was the first staff geologist of Siberia and considered himself a successor to Ivan Dementyevich Chersky.

After the revolutions of 1905 and 1907, Obruchev was a member of the Constitutional Democratic Party and headed its Tomsk committee. In 1901 and 1912, he taught at the Tomsk Technological Institute and was the first dean of the mining department. In 1912, he had to leave teaching as the tsarist officials offered him a position at another institute where there was no geology department. During this period, he wrote the novel "Plutonia."

From 1916, Obruchev became an honorary member of the Russian Mineralogical Society. In 1918 and 1921, he taught at Taurida University in Simferopol. In 1919, he was awarded a doctorate in geognosy and mineralogy by the Don University Council. From 1921 to 1929, he was a professor in the Department of Applied Geology at the Moscow Mining Academy.

From 1930, Obruchev headed the commission for the study of permafrost, and from 1939 to 1956, he was the director of the Permafrost Institute of the USSR Academy of Sciences. In 1930, he became the first director of the Geological Institute of the USSR Academy of Sciences. In 1942 and 1946, he was the academic secretary of the Division of Geological and Geographical Sciences of the USSR Academy of Sciences, and from 1946 to 1953, a member of the Presidium of the USSR Academy of Sciences. Since 1947, he was the honorary president of the Geographical Society of the USSR.

Obruchev made significant contributions to the popularization of science, actively engaging in educational work among youth. He maintained contacts with schools and Pioneer Houses and corresponded with the local history teacher N. M. Revyakin. Vladimir Afanasyevich Obruchev passed away on June 19, 1956, and was buried in Moscow at Novodevichy Cemetery.