Fyodor Yakovlevich Korablyov was a man of difficult fate. Since he was a child, he had to go through many trials. His father died at the front, and his mother was left with two children and was forced to wander in search of food. As a boy he contracted bone tuberculosis, which made him bedridden for many years.

His love for drawing helped him survive and not spiral into despair. He never parted with his pencils and paints. After graduating from school with a silver medal, Fyodor Korablyov went to Moscow to study at the Krupskaya People’s University of Arts for Correspondence Students. In one year he managed to complete the “Course Fundamentals” three-year program.

His great capacity for work, perseverance and thirst for knowledge were his distinctive qualities that helped him become an artist. In 1960, he entered the Shlein Kostroma Art School. Soon the educational institution was transformed into the Art and Graphic faculty of the Nekrasov Kostroma State Pedagogical Institute. There he continued and successfully completed his studies.

In 1964, he held his first solo exhibition which was followed by a number of others. Fyodor Korablyov educated himself extensively. He studied Russian and foreign philosophy, literature, art history, the technique of old masters, the technology of making paints and ground. Korablev recalled: