The son of an Orenburg Cossack, Obukhov fought on the Eastern Front of the Russian Civil War and commanded cavalry against the Basmachi Revolt until the late 1920s. He held staff positions during the late 1930s after a stint as an advisor in China and commanded a tank division in Belarus at the outbreak of Operation Barbarossa. His division suffered heavy losses, but Obukhov broke out of encirclement with the remnants and reached Soviet lines. He spent more than a year as a cavalry inspector and from May 1943 commanded the 3rd Guards Mechanized Corps, which he led for the rest of the war. Made a Hero of the Soviet Union for his leadership of the corps during Operation Bagration, Obukhov continued in command of the corps after the end of the war. Postwar, he held army command and ended his career as deputy chief of the Soviet tank troops, retiring in the mid-1960s.