In 1884, Shcherbachev graduated from the Nikolayev Academy of General Staff in the first category, after which he stayed in the Petersburg Military District.

On September 2, his detachment conducted an unsuccessful assault on the fortress, and inflicted the main blow at Sedliski.

Shortly after the February Revolution, Shcherbachev was appointed deputy to the Commander-in-Chief of the Romanian Front (King Ferdinand I), replacing General Andrei Zayonchkovski.

In July 1917, the Russo-Romanian forces commanded by General Alexandru Averescu defeated the Austro-German forces at Mărăști, but they failed to develop further success due to the telegram from the minister-chairman of the Provisional Government, Alexander Kerensky, who ordered the stop of the offensive in connection with the German breakthrough at Tarnopol.

General Shcherbachev managed to prevent the disintegration and was able to keep order in the army for some time under the influence of the revolutionary events and Bolshevik agitation.

In the end of 1917, Shcherbachev and his loyal troops were able to establish connection with General Mikhail Alekseyev, the former chief of staff of the army during WW1, who had arrived at the Don, where the enemy of the Bolsheviks flocked.

As a result, the Romanian Front had the idea of creating a Corps of Russian Volunteers for its subsequent dispatch to the Don.

In early November 1917, an organization was formed in Iași, the purpose of which was the formation of a reliable detachment capable of becoming the basis for the creation of the White Army.

Based on his assessment of the international situation, Shcherbachev believed that the denying assistance to the Poles was far more in line with the interest of the Whites.

So Shcherbachev advised General Wrangel not to launch any offensive, diverting the Bolshevik forces from the Polish Front.

He was buried with military honors by a French battalion of Chasseurs Alpins in the Russian Orthodox Cemetery in Nice.

His funeral was attended by French representatives, Marshal Constantine Prezan, the Romanian commander-in-chief during WWI, General Nikolai Yudenich, the hero from the Caucasus Campaign, and many more.