 His father Fyodor Grigorievich Shpalikov came from peasants of the Orenburg Governorate; he finished the Kuibyshev Military Engineering Academy in Moscow and was assigned to build a pulp and paper enterprise in Segezha.In 1939 his family returned to Moscow.With the start of the Great Patriotic War they were evacuated to the Kirghiz SSR along with the Academy and remained there until 1943.