Born in Kharkov into a teacher's family, Sinelnikov debuted on stage in 1874, as a member of the Kharkov-based Nikolai Dyukov's troupe.

He moved on to work in Zhitomir (1875—1877), Nikolayev (1877—1878), Stavropol (1878—1880), Vladikavkaz (1880—1881) and Kazan, where in 1882 he debuted as a stage director with The Wild Girl by Alexander Ostrovsky and Nikolai Solovyov.

[1] In 1889 Sinelnikov moved to Moscow and for two years worked with the private troupes run by Elizaveta Goreva and Maria Abramova.

In 1900 Sinelnikov signed a ten-year contract with the Korsh Theatre in Moscow and successfully staged there the classics by Edmond Rostand, William Shakespeare, and Alexander Ostrovsky, among many others.

For several years he worked in the province before returning to Kharkov in 1933 where he was appointed the head of the newly formed Russian Drama Theatre.