In 1919 Porfiriev as a voluntarily joined the Red Army and took part in the Russian Civil War.
After demobilisation he studied at Perm University and then transferred to the Exploration Faculty of the Petrograd Mining Institute, where he graduated in 1926.
The next year he defended a Doctor of Science dissertation in Geology and Mineralogy titled "Formation conditions of the Central Asia oil fields".
He then headed studies on hydrocarbon potential evaluation at the Institute of Geological Sciences at Kyiv State University.
At the beginning of World War II he was called up for military service in the Red Army but soon was demobilized and sent to the Geological Institute at the Academic Sciences University in Tashkent, where he worked as senior researcher until 1944.
In 1945, Porfiriev began a new phase of his career, beginning with his relocation to Lviv in the Western Ukraine.