[3][4] Petrovsky was born in the village of Pechenihy in Kharkov Governorate on 4 February (O. S. 23 January) 1878, in the family of a craftsman (some sources claim - son of tailor and laundrywoman).

At this period of time he actively participated in the political agitation for the Bolsheviks from Mykolaiv to Mariupol, from Donets Basin to Kharkiv, for which he was arrested in 1900 and 1903.

During the Russian Revolution of 1905, Petrovsky became one of the organizers and leaders of the Yekaterinoslav City Council of Worker's Deputies and the local Battle Strike Committee.

In his speeches Petrovsky was addressing the issues related to improving working conditions and life of miners and workers of Donets Basin.

Some Ukrainian historians believe that Petrovsky and Lazar Kaganovich were the main executors of Stalin's 1930s policies in Ukraine, part of which was the 1932–33 man-made famine, now known as the Holodomor.

[8]Other historians, like Vasyl Marochko, a member of an official commission that investigated the Holodomor, say that when Petrovsky fully understood what was being perpetrated and realized the extent of the famine, he pleaded with Stalin to provide Ukrainians with food but this request went unheeded.

[2] He was not purged during the Great Terror, but was shocked and saddened by the executions of close friends such as Stanisław Kosior, Vlas Chubar and Sukhomlin.

[2][12] Petrovsky himself was present at the provisional District Congress of Workers', Peasants' and Soldiers' Deputies that recommended this renaming and he did "accept this honor with great gratitude.

[16] A statue of Petrovsky in Kyiv (the capital of Ukraine) was demolished in late November 2009, just days before the annual Ukrainian commemorating of the victims of the Holodomor.

President of Ukraine Viktor Yushchenko had issued a decree ordering the removal of monuments to Soviet leaders, "in memory of the victims of the Holodomor".