Medvedev studied at the Moscow Theatrical School. From 1853 he acted in provincial theaters. He managed theaters of drama and opera in Saratov (1862), Kazan (1866), and other cities. Medvedev helped bring the classical Russian repertoire to the provinces, while maintaining high production standards and paying careful attention to the stage ensemble. Medvedev did a great service to the Russian theater by discovering and training talented actors. Some of the actors who worked in Medvedev’s productions were P. A. Strepetova, M. G. Savina, V. N. Davy-dov, K. A. Varlamov, and M. I. Pisarev.

From 1890 to 1893, Medvedev was chief director and later an actor (until the end of his life) at the Aleksandrinskii Theater in St. Petersburg. He played in comedies (the Mayor in Gogol’s The Inspector-General, Raspliuev in Sukhovo-Kobylina’sKrechinskii’s Wedding, and Scapin in Moliere’s Scapin’sl’ranks). Medvedev wrote his Memoirs, which were published in 1929.

The State Museum of City Sculptures was founded in 1932 dedicated to the study, restoration and protection of city sculptures and gravestones and the museum is responsible for the upkeep of many of St Petersburg's most famous sculptures.  The museum has several branches around St Petersburg, but the main ones are concentrated within the former territory of the Aleksandro-Nevsky Lavra which was granted to the museum upon its founding.

The Aleksandro-Nevsky Lavra's Tikhvinskoe Cemetery was established in 1823 and named after the Our Lady of Tikhvin Church which was built here between 1869 and 1873.  In 1931 the church was closed and in 1932 the cemetery became a branch of the State Museum of City Sculptures, known as the Necropolis of Masters of Culture.  The branch is so named as many leading figures of Russian culture have been laid to rest here including: writers Fyodor Dostoevsky,  Nikolai Karamzin and Ivan Krylov; composers Aleksandr Borodin, Mikhail Glinka, Modest Musorgsky, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov and Pyotr Tchaikovsky; and artists Boris Kustodiev, Ivan Kramskoy and Ivan Shishkin, among many more famous names.