Shulhyn was born in the village of Sofyne (Katsapshchyna), Khorol county in Government of Poltava (today Andriivka rural council of Khorol Raion) in the family of a historian and pedagogue Yakiv Shulhyn whose heritage is traced to the Cossack officers (starshina). He is related to Vasily Shulgin. Brother of Oleksander, Volodymyr perished at the Battle of Kruty. Shulhyn initially enrolled at the mathematics-physics department of the Saint Petersburg State University in 1908. In 1910 he transferred to the department of history and philosophy from which Shulhyn graduated in 1915. Later until 1917, he worked at the department as a professor's assistant.