Borisov was born in the village of Gluboky Ruchey in the north of Russia, now located in the Krasnoborsky District of the Arkhangelsk Oblast.

He was one of four children in the peasant family of Aleksey Yegorovich Borisov and Matryona Nazarovna Borisova.

Borisov studied there under landscape painters Ivan Shishkin and Arkhip Kuindzhi and graduated in 1892.

In 1900, Borisov organized his third and last Arctic expedition, during which he spent a winter in Novaya Zemlya and investigated the eastern coast of the islands.

In particular, he made a topographic map of Novaya Zemlya, performed meteorogical observation, and collected samples of minerals, plants and animals.

From Pineda to the Kara Sea.”[4] Borisov was a proponent of the construction of a railway which would link all-year harbors of the Kola Peninsula with the banks of Ob River, and he self-funded a research expedition which took place in 1915 and 1916.