After graduating from a gymnasium in Kerch in 1869, Zhelyabov got into a Law School of the Novorossiysky University in Odessa.

In 1873, Zhelyabov lived in a town of Gorodische (present-day Cherkas'ka oblast' of Ukraine) and maintained close ties with revolutionaries from Kiev and activists of the Ukrainian "Hromada".

After his acquittal in 1878, he moved to Podolsk province for the purpose of spreading revolutionary propaganda among the peasantry.

Zhelyabov was accepted in “Zemlya i volya” at the Voronezh Congress of its members and came forward as one of the chief defenders of terrorism.

He was executed by hanging on April 3, 1881, with the rest of the terrorists, including his wife Sophia Perovskaya.