His father, Ivan Andreevich Shingarev, was a prosperous merchant, first in the Tambov Governorate and then in Voronezh.

When Andrei Shingarev was ten years old, he entered a secondary school in Voronezh, graduating in 1887.

Then he continued his studies at Imperial Moscow University in the faculty of physics and mathematics and graduated in 1891, in 1894 getting a further degree in medicine.

In July 1917 Shingarev resigned from the Provisional Government, as he was against the agreement with the Central Rada of Ukraine.

He was an active member of the irregular freemasonic lodge called Grand Orient of Russia's Peoples.