Born into the family of a financial officer, Vinokurov was educated at the Yekaterinoslav Gymnasium, which he graduated in 1888 and entered the Medical Faculty of Moscow University.

Vinokurov became a member of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party in 1898 and joined its Bolshevik wing in 1903.

In connection with the failure of the Moscow group of Social Democrats, he was arrested, spent two years in solitary confinement, and in from 1897 to 1902, in exile.

After the October Revolution, a member of the collegium of the People's Commissariat of Labour of the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic.

From 1918 to 1921 he served as People's Commissar of Social Security of the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic.