Raised in the family of his uncle, Ropet studied at the Imperial Academy of Arts under Alexey Gornostaev, pioneer of Russian Revival and a master of tented roof design.

Together with Viktor Hartmann, Ropet aspired to revive a truly national style of architecture, based primarily on ornate wooden huts of rural Russia.

Basically, Ropet's circle propagated the same theories of the romantic nationalism as The Five did in regard to Russian music.

In Russia, he was responsible for the influential polychrome pavilions at the Polytechnic Exposition of 1872 in Moscow and the Nizhny Novgorod Fair of 1896.

Among the more permanent works ascribed to Ropet are the Bassin Apartment House in St. Petersburg and the Russian Embassy in Tokyo.