His mother, of Polish descent, had hoped that he would enter the church as a monk, but he was attracted to the thought of adventure by hearing stories from travelling sailors, and volunteered for the Imperial Russian Navy instead.

He became involved with revolutionary activities from an early age and after publishing an article in a Kronstadt newspaper in 1903, was arrested from spreading "subversive propaganda".

However, due to the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–05, he was soon released, and with his records marked "unreliable" was transferred to the 2nd Pacific Squadron's battleship Oryol, on which he participated at the climactic Battle of Tsushima.

He fled to Finland in 1907, and between 1907 and 1913 lived in England, visiting France, Spain, North Africa and Capri, where he befriended the exiled Maxim Gorky, who provided him with advice on his writing.

During World War I, from 1915 to 1918, Novikov-Priboy worked on hospital trains, and afterwards settling at Barnaul, where he lived until 1920 in a commune with fellow writers and artists.