Vladislav Mikhailovich was born on June 14, 1939 in the town of Polohy, Zaporozhe region (Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic). He finished school in 1956. From 1964 to 1968, he studied at the faculty of history at the I.I. Mechnikov Odessa State University. For several years, he worked as a school history teacher and then as a researcher of the Odessa history and regional history museum.

In August, 1971, Vladimir Latyshev came to Sakhalin and got a job as deputy director of the museum (1971-1975), then worked as director (1975-2003), since February, 2003 - leading researcher of the Bronislav Piłsudski heritage institute, since July, 2013 - senior researcher of the Sakhalin regional museum of local lore. 

During his years at the museum, Vladislav Mikhailovich has made a significant contribution to the development of museum affairs in the Sakhalin region. The Sakhalin regional museum of local lore, which he headed, turned into a scientific center for research of the island region - the staff conducted dozens of research expeditions and trips to archaeology, ethnography, history and nature. The museum collections were replenished with unique museum collections and the museum began to publish popular science and research journals, such as the yearbooks "Sakhalin museum bulletin," "proceedings of the Bronislav Piłsudski heritage institute," as well as books and monographs. The museum has established strong mutually beneficial international connections with scientific institutions of Japan, Poland, the USA and other countries.

During these years, the exhibitions of the national and international level were started to exhibit as well as regional and international scientific conferences on the history and culture of the far eastern peoples. Employees of the museum headed by the director V. M. Latyshev conducted a wide scientific and methodical work in the island museum community. Under his supervision the research workers created a new exposition "A.P. Chekhov and Sakhalin" in the regional museum branch in Aleksandrovsk-Sakhalinskii.

V.M. Latyshev has a lot of awards. In 1993 he was awarded the honorary title "Honored worker of culture of the Russian Federation". He was laureate of the prize of Sakhalin fund of culture (1999), the prize of Sakhalin governor (2001, 2006). In 2003, he was awarded the special award of the journal of the Polish academy of sciences "Przegld Wschodni" (Oriental review) for his great contribution to the study of the scientific heritage of Bronislav Piłsudski, researcher of the indigenous peoples of the Far East in the 19th century. In 2017, V.M. Latyshev became the recipient of the I.E. Zabelin state prize. I.E. Zabelin of the State historical museum (Moscow) for the book "State chancellor A.M. Gorchakov and the solution of the sakhalin question".

Vladislav Mikhailovich is the author of more than 200 scientific and popular scientific publications on the problems of history, ethnography, museology, source study and historiography of Sakhalin and the Far East of the XIX‒XX centuries. Last years V.M. Latyshev immensely works on revealing of unknown archive sources on the history of Sakhalin of XIX‒XX centuries and on introduction of them into scientific circulation. In co-authorship with G.I. Dudarets scientific monographs have been published, including those in series "Sakhalin and Kuril historical library".

The staff of the Sakhalin regional museum of local lore wishes Vladislav Mikhaylovich good health and new scientific achievements.