He was born into the aristocratic Baryatinsky family, a scion of the Rurik dynasty, on 14 May 1815 in Ivanovsky village of Lgovsky district in Kursk Governorate.

[1] His father, Prince Ivan Ivanovich Baryatinsky (1767-1825), son of Princess Catherine of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Beck, was one of the wealthiest people in Russia, having inherited numerous estates and about 35,000 serfs.

His mother was Countess Marie Wilhelmine von Keller (1792-1858), daughter of a Bavarian diplomat, Count Dorotheus Ludwig Christoph von Keller (1757-1827) and his younger German wife, Countess Amalie Luise of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Ludwigsburg (1771-1853), younger sister of the Russian field marshal Peter Wittgenstein.

The upbringing of both brothers was carried out by an Englishman - Thomas Evans, a well-known teacher at that time, who taught young men "classics and literature."

From 1848 to 1856 he took a leading part in all the chief military events in the Caucasus, his most notable exploits being his victory at Mezeninsk in 1850 and his operations against Shamil in Chechnya.

By publishing a detailed account of the history of the Caucasian War, Fadeev hoped to draw public attention to the person of the retired field marshal in order to prepare his return to the political scene.

At the beginning of the Russo-Turkish war, it was expected that the emperor would appoint Baryatinsky as commander-in-chief, but the sovereign entrusted this post to his brother.

He spent the last days of his life abroad and died of heart disease in Geneva, after forty-eight years of active service.