Born on January 8, 1885, in Narym, Tomsk Governorate, in the family of Nikolai Pepelyaev, a general of the tsarist army.

169 “with instructions to State Duma member V. N. Pepelyaev to be the port commander of Kronstadt and the commissar of the Provisional Government.

From the October Revolution to the spring of 1918, he remained in Petrograd and took part in the underground struggle against the Bolsheviks during the Russian Civil War.

On instructions from the "National Center" and the Central Committee of the Cadet Party, Pepelyaev went to Siberia in August 1918.

He was the only politician loyal to the admiral and, together with the Supreme Ruler, was transferred by the Czechoslovak command to the Irkutsk Political Center.