His father, a former serf peasant who had been granted freedom and worked his way up the social ladder to nobility status, died young, and the boy was brought up by his stepfather, Colonel E.T.

Highly acclaimed were his translations of Beranger (1858, 1864 and 1874 collections) and Molière (Le Misanthrope ou l'Atrabilaire amoureux, 1867).

In 1861 Kurochkin joined the underground radical group Zemlya i Volya and a year later became one of the five members of its central committee.

After Dmitry Karakozov's attempt upon the life of Alexander II, he was arrested and spent two months in the Petropavlovsk Fortress.

Kurochkin died on 27 August 1875 in Saint Petersburg after accidentally overdosing on chloral hydrate prescribed to him by the doctor.