Schipczinsky was born in 1886 in Helsinki, Finland, the son of an accountant quartermaster and a housewife.

In 1909 he graduated from the Russian school in Helsinki, and started studying biology at the Physics and Mathematics Faculty of the Saint Petersburg State University.

As of 1910, he studied the flora of the Far East in the Herbarium of the Saint Petersburg Botanical Garden under Vladimir Leontyevich Komarov.

In 1915, he joined the staff of the St. Petersburg Botanical Garden, where he continued to work until his death at first as lecturer (1915), then conservator in the Herbarium (1915-1931), senior botanist for living plants (1931-1933) and director of the Museum (1933-1934).

During World War II, Schipczinsky assisted in the defense of Saint Petersburg by designing a camouflage landscape for the city.