Likhonosov was born in Topki, Kemerovo Oblast, Soviet Union.

In the 1960s, he was part of the Village Prose movement, and was supported by Alexander Tvardovsky who published his debut stories in Novy mir, claiming their author to be 'a Soviet heir to Ivan Bunin'.

In the mid-1970s, through Yuri Kazakov, Likhonosov met Boris Zaitsev and Georgy Adamovich and became deeply involved in researching the history of Russian emigration.

Unwritten Memoirs: Our Little Paris, a 1986 novel dealing with the modern history of Russian Cossacks abroad, is seen as his major work.

Likhonosov lived in Krasnodar where he edited the literary magazine Rodnaya Kubanh.