He was born in the village of Budayka in the Cheboksary district, which is now within the city limits of Cheboksary, into a peasant family. After moving to the village of Balakovo, he studied at a parish school but did not finish it. In his childhood, he worked as a servant and apprentice to merchants and craftsmen, then, together with his father and brothers, engaged in carpentry on the Volga. He married the daughter of a priest, despite the disapproval of parents on both sides. In this marriage, he had two sons and a daughter. With the onset of World War I, he was drafted into the army, where he underwent training at a non-commissioned officer school. He was awarded three St. George's crosses and the St. George's medal, holding the rank of sergeant major. After a serious injury, he served in a reserve regiment in Nikolaevsk and in the summer of 1917 joined the Bolshevik party. At the soldiers' deputies congress in Kazan, he was appointed commander of the reserve regiment. After the October Revolution, he became an organizer of Red Guard units in the Nikolaev district, commanding a regiment, brigade, and division of the Red Army. He fought against the Ural Cossacks and Czech legionnaires who opposed Soviet power. He was sent to study at the Academy of the General Staff of the Red Army but left it, unable to cope with the studies. Later, he was appointed commander of the 25th rifle division, where he distinguished himself during the capture of Ufa, for which he was awarded the Order of the Red Banner. He died on September 5, 1919, as a result of a sabotage by Ural Cossacks on the headquarters of the 25th division in Lbishchensk.

The name of the division commander became widely known in the Soviet Union after the release of the novel "Chapaev" by Dmitry Furmanov in 1923, who was a commissar in his division, and the film of the same name by the Vasiliev brothers in 1934. Due to the nationwide popularity of the heroes of the book and film, the name Chapaev was assigned to many populated areas, streets, as well as military and civilian ships. During the Great Patriotic War, his name was carried by partisan units. Although modern historians and publicists believe that Chapaev's role in the Civil War was exaggerated, he remains one of the most famous Red commanders of that era, a hero of films, TV series, and books, including those by authors such as Viktor Pelevin, Zakhar Prilepin, and Eduard Volodarsky. In the former Soviet Union and in the post-Soviet years, jokes featuring characters from the film about the division commander: Chapaev, Furmanov, orderly Petka, and machine gunner Anka became very popular.