Terpigorev was born on May 24, 1841, in the village of Nikolsky in the Usmansky Uyezd of Tambov Governorate (now Dobrinsky District, Lipetsk Oblast) into an impoverished noble family.

For his involvement in student unrest he was exiled and sent to the family estate of his mother, where he lived for five years under police surveillance.

He sent them to the magazine Russian Word (Russkoye Slovo) and the St. Petersburg newspaper The Voice (Golos).

He published a series of essays on life in the steppe in the popular magazine Notes of the Fatherland, which he signed with the pseudonym "Sergey Atava".

Subsequent collections included The Yellow Book (Uzorochnaya Pestryad) and Historical Stories and Memories.