Benedykt Dybowski was born in Adamaryni, within the Minsk Governorate of the Russian Empire to Polish nobility.

He studied at Minsk High School, and later medicine at Tartu (earlier Dorpat) University in present-day Estonia.

He started studying the natural history of Siberia and in 1866 a governor Muraviov dismissed Dybowski from hard labour (katorga), renewed his civil rights and proposed him to work as a doctor in hospital.

He later settled in the small village Kultuk and began a detailed study of Baikal Lake with some technical support from the Russian Geographical Society.

He is buried in Lwów (present-day Lviv) on the Łyczakowski Cemetery among the participants of the Polish Uprising of 1863.