His father, Aleksandr Borisovich Shatalov (1890–1970), was a railway engineer and an early recipient of the Hero of Socialist Labour.

In 1941, he took part in the Defense of Leningrad for a month and a half, along with his father at the "Svyazrem-1" repair and restoration train.

[4] In early 1945, Shatalov graduated from the 6th Voronezh Air Force Special School, which he was evacuated to Karaganda, followed by Lipetsk.

Shatalov continued his studies at the Kachinsk Military Aviation School, which was situated in Michurinsk, Tambov Oblast at the time.

From February 1961, Shatalov served as a senior inspector-pilot of the combat training department of the 48th Air Army of the Odessa Military District.

However, in 1962 Shatalov was asked to nominate the five best pilots under his command for consideration as cosmonauts, and put his own name forward at the top of the list.

[3] By order of the Commander-in-Chief of the Air Force No.14 on January 10, 1963, Shatalov was enrolled in the Cosmonaut Training Center as a listener-cosmonaut.

On April 28, 1972, he defended his dissertation at the Gagarin Academy, and received the degree of candidate of technical sciences.

[8] His funeral took place on June 17, 2021, at the Federal Military Memorial Cemetery in Mytishchi, Moscow Oblast.

Honorary citizen of the cities: Kaluga, Kurgan (1969), Nalchik (Russia), Karaganda, Petropavl (Kazakhstan), Prague (Czech Republic), Houston (USA).