Volodymyr Medvedev was born in Kizel, Perm Krai, on 19 January 1948, in a family of workers, and is an ethnic Russian. He graduated from the special secondary education, and was a mining technician.[1]
In 1964, Medvedev was a student of the Kizel mining technical school.[1] In 1968, he was a mining master at Kizel.[1] From 1968 to 1970, he served in the Soviet Army.[1] In 1970, he was a senior laboratory assistant at the mining and geological laboratory "VNDIpromzoloto" in Chita.[1] In 1971, he became apprentice of the mine construction department No. 3 of the Dniproshaktobud plant of Dnipropetrovsk Oblast.[1] In 1981, he became the foreman of the miners of the mine named after Lenin Komsomol of Ukraine of the Pavlograd coal mining industrial association "Pavlogradvugil" of Dnipropetrovsk Oblast.[1] He was a member of the Ukrainian Republican Council of Trade Unions.[1] In 1990, Medvedev was nominated as a candidate for people's deputies by the labor collective of the mine named after Lenin Komsomol.[1]
On 18 March 1990, Medvedev was elected a member of parliament, People's Deputy of Ukraine, 2nd round, with 47.17% of the votes, and 12 applicants to the Verkhovna Rada.[1] He took office on 15 May. He was a member of the Commission of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine on Defense and State Security.[1] He had been the candidate for the Verkhovna Rada of the 2nd convocation nominated by voters 1st round 12.22% of votes 4th place out of 9 applicants, however, he failed to be reelected to parliament.[1]
