[2] A Second Cadet Corps (1857) and Nicholas General Staff Academy (1861) alumnus, Komarov started his military career in St Petersburg.

There he started to contribute essays to Russky Invalid, Voyenny Sbornik (Military Collection) and Moskovskiye Vedomosti, then hit the spotlight in 1871 when, alongside General Mikhail Chernyayev and Major General Rostislav Fadeyev, he co-founded the newspaper Russkiy Mir in Saint Petersburg (to become also its publisher) and in his essays started to criticize the sweeping military reforms conducted by Count Dmitry Milyutin.

Among the authors whose work appeared there regularly, was historical novelist Grigory Danilevsky, whose daughter Komarov had married.

[2] A staunch Slavophile and monarchist, Komarov was one of the leaders of the Slavic Charitable Society (where he met Dostoyevsky).

[1] In 1901 he became a co-founder of Russkoye Sobraniye, a loyalist right-wing monarchist political group.