Nikolay Stankevich was born in Uderevka, Voronezh Governorate, and in 1834 graduated from the Moscow State University, where he was influenced by Professor Mikhail Kachenovsky and followers of the so-called "skeptical school" in historiography.

His father Vladimir Ivanovich Stankevich (1786-1851) was the leader of the nobility of Ostrogozhsky district in 1837-1841.

He had been under police surveillance since 1833 due to his connections with a group of oppositionary university students led by Ya.I.

Stankevich is known to have considerably influenced some of the Russian and Muscovite intelligentsia in particular, including Vissarion Belinsky, Timofey Granovsky, Mikhail Bakunin, and Alexander Herzen.

Among Stankevich's literary works (mostly poetic and not numerous), there are a few verses dedicated to Moscow and a historical tragedy called Vasili Shuisky.