Koptsov joined the Red Army during the Russian Civil War and by the late 1930s rose to command a tank battalion.

In May 1942, Koptsov became commander of the newly formed 15th Tank Corps, which he led during the summer in unsuccessful Kozelsk Offensive.

Vasily Alexeyevich Koptsov was born on 1 January 1904, in Tiflis, Russian Empire (now Tbilisi, Georgia) to a working-class family.

Between March 1927 and September 1928, he served as an instructor platoon commander for preinduction training at the Bronnitsy Military Enlistment Office.

Future General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union Leonid Brezhnev was one of the students in the training battalion.

In March 1941, he was appointed deputy commander of the 21st Mechanized Corps' 46th Tank Division in the Moscow Military District.

[1] Koptsov took command of the 46th Tank Division on the day after the German invasion of the Soviet Union began on 22 June.

In September, the division was converted into the 6th Tank Brigade and transferred to the 7th Separate Army, fighting in battles against Finnish troops on the Karelian Isthmus.

During the Tikhvin Offensive Operation, the brigade was reported by Soviet sources to have killed 1,500 German soldiers and destroyed eight tanks, six armored vehicles, eleven guns, and large amounts of other military equipment.

Operating in conjunction with the 12th Tank Corps, the 15th broke through German defenses and on 17 January closed the encirclement ring, linking up with troops from the 40th Army at Alexeyevka.

[6] After the end of the offensive, the corps continued its advance against stiffening German resistance, suffering increasingly heavy losses.

A few hours later, Koptsov died of his wounds and was buried by the German troops south of the Krasnyi State Farm.