Mykhailo Poloz was born on 23 December 1891 in Kharkiv, in the Kharkov Governorate of the Russian Empire into a noble family of excise officials.

Upon graduation from a realschule, Poloz studied at the Shanyavsky Moscow City People's University (1910–12) and the Petrovskaya-Rozumovskaya Agricultural Academy (1912–15).

[citation needed] Being a member of the UPSR's left faction after its split, Poloz joined the Ukrainian Communist Party of Borotbists as one of its leaders.

On 4 June 1934, Poloz was found guilty of links with the Ukrainian Military Organization (UVO) and sentenced to 10 years in the Gulag.

On 9 October 1937, an NKVD troika sentenced Poloz to capital punishment (Vysshaya Mera Nakazaniya (VMN) in Russian).