Anatoli Ilych Vasiliev was born on 18 March 1917 in Petrograd (former Saint Petersburg), Russian Empire, in a working-class family.

In July 1941 Vasiliev as volunteer went into the Red Army and took part in the Great Patriotic War, which led the Soviet people against Nazi Germany and its allies.

After demobilization in 1945, Anatoli Vasiliev continued his studies in the Leningrad Institute of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture named after Ilya Repin and graduated in 1950 from Victor Oreshnikov studio, together with Evgenia Antipova, Nina Veselova, Vecheslav Zagonek, Tatiana Kopnina, Nikolai Mukho, Alexander Pushnin, Alexander Sokolov, Yuri Tulin, and other young artists.

In 1950–70s he made trips through the Urals and the Kama River, visit Baikal Lake and Buryatia, and also the Russian North.

His paintings reside in art museums and private collections in Russia, Japan, France, England, Germany, Italy, in the U.S., and others.