The dissolution of the Soviet Union occurred in 1991, during the period of his study, and on graduating in 1993 he joined the Russian Navy's Northern Fleet, serving in the torpedo departments of submarines.

He gradually rose through the ranks and positions, interspersed with further study at the navy's academic institutions, before taking on his own command, that of the Oscar II-class submarine Orel in 2004.

In August 2000 the Kursk suffered a series of explosions and sank in the Barents Sea, killing the entire crew.

[8] In September 2018 Varfolomeyev became a student at the Military Academy of the General Staff of the Armed Forces, in the faculty of national security and state defence.

[1] He also received the non-governmental medal "A Century of the Russian Submarine Forces", awarded by the United Russia political party in 2006.

[2] On 27 July 2017, as part of the celebrations of the 75 anniversary of the founding of the city of Severodvinsk, Varfolomeyev received an honorary watch from the Governor of Arkhangelsk Oblast Igor Orlov.