Levitov was born in the village of Dobroye, in Tambov Governorate, where his father was a sexton.

He learned to read and write in a school for peasant children set up by his father in their home.

He left the seminary before finishing his studies, traveled to Moscow, and then to St Petersburg, where he entered the Academy of Medicine and Surgery in 1855.

[2][3] In the 1860s and 1870s Levitov's stories and sketches were published in the Russian magazines Russkaya Rech (Russian Speech), Moskovsky Vestnik (Moscow Herald), Sovremennik (The Contemporary), Vremya (Time, edited by Mikhail Dostoyevsky), and Otechestvennye Zapiski (Annals of the Fatherland).

During this time he wandered through many of the towns and cities of Russia, drinking heavily, and living in poor conditions.