The Jewish family name Shklovsky or Shklover indicates that the person or their ancestors come from Shkloŭ.
In 1933 Shklovsky entered the Physico-Mathematical Faculty of the Moscow State University.
In Berlin, in 1923, he published his memoirs about the period 1917–22 under the title Сентиментальное путешествие, воспоминания (Sentimental'noe puteshestvie, vospominaniia, A Sentimental Journey), alluding to A Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy by Laurence Sterne, an author he much admired and whose digressive style had a powerful influence on Shklovsky's writing.