Ephraim Sklyansky was born into a lower middle class Jewish family in the township of Fastiv in Kiev Governorate (present-day Ukraine).

At the time of the October Revolution, Sklyansky was a member of the Military Revolutionary Committee of the Petrograd Soviet, and was spotted by Trotsky when he took over as People's Commissar for War early in 1918.

In his memoirs, Trotsky wrote: In spite of his youth (in 1918, he was barely 26) he was conspicuous for his businesslike methods, his industry, and his talent for appraising people and circumstances ...

[2]Sklyansky was removed from his post in April 1924, and replaced by Mikhail Frunze, and made chairman of the Mossukno state textile trust.

The high-ranking Soviet defector Boris Bazhanov was convinced that Sklyansky had been drowned on Stalin's orders, and the alleged accident had been organized by Georgy Kanner [ru] and Genrikh Yagoda.