Lyapchev was born in the Macedonian city of Resen, which was at the time a part of the Ottoman Empire, and played a leading role in Bulgarian politics.

Lyapchev's family is thought to have originated from a certain Dore, a Megleno-Romanian potter who fled the Islamization of his native Notia and settled in Resen in the 18th century.

In 1879 Lyapchev signed in the Bitola gymnasium and two years later he moved to the newly established Bulgarian Men's High School of Thessaloniki.

Together with other Macedonian students of the Plovdiv gymnasium, like Pere Toshev and Nikola Genadiev, Lyapchev got closer with Zahari Stoyanov and the Bulgarian Secret Central Revolutionary Committee which was preparing the future unification between Eastern Rumelia and the Principality of Bulgaria.

In the summer of 1886 Russia organised a coup d’état which resulted in the disposal of Knyaz Aleksandar I and in a drastic interference of Russian generals in the internal affairs of Bulgaria.

Tensions between authorities and the Macedonian emigration intensified even further after Kosta Panitsa was jailed and sentenced to death over allegations of organising a coup d’état.

He also secured two loans from the League of Nations to help bolster the economy, although economic problems were exacerbated by an earthquake in Plovdiv.