Vladimir Prokofiev graduated from Mikhailovsky Artillery School () in 1917 and Saint Petersburg State University in 1924. He was a student of Russian academician Dimitri Rozhdestvensky.
From 1919 up to 1956 he had been working in State Optics Institute. He was an assistant up to 1932, when he got Researcher position and Head of the Spectroscopy Sector position. In 1935 he became the Head of Spectral Analysis Laboratory.
At the same time he read lectures in Saint Petersburg State University (1925-1932), Academy of Artillery (1930-1937) and in LITMO. In LITMO he was the Head of Spectroscopy Department (1951-1953) and the Head of the Optics and Spectroscopy Department (1953-1956).
Prokofiev earned PhD degree at 1936 and became professor at 1944.
He moved to Crimea in 1956 to improve his health and employed in Crimean Astrophysical Observatory. He was buried at a cemetery in Nauchnyi.