Smirnov was born in Odessa to a family of minor Ruthenian nobility originally from the Minsk Governorate of the Russian Empire.

[1] With the start of the Russo-Japanese War, Smirnov was appointed commander of the fortress of Port Arthur, Manchuria with a total of over 50,000 men on 4 March 1904.

However, the previous commander, Anatoly Stessel, chose to interpret the orders to mean that Smirnov was assigned as his subordinate, and remained at Port Arthur, countermanding Smirnov's orders and denying his requests for supplies and reinforcements, and sending misleading telegrams to the Tsar blaming Smirnov for any setbacks and ignoring direct orders from General Aleksei Kuropatkin to leave Port Arthur by a destroyer on 3 July 1904.

Port Arthur was surrendered to the Japanese on 1 January 1905 by Stessel and his close crony General Alexander Fok without consultation to other senior Russian staff, including Smirnov.

After the end of the war, Smirnov published a condemnation of the events, charging Stessel, Fok and others of cowardice and dereliction of duty.