Chernyshevsky was born in Saratov into a priest's family. Nikolai studied at a theological seminary for three years, and from 1846 to 1850, he studied history and philology at St. Petersburg University. He was greatly influenced by the French socialist philosophers Henri de Saint-Simon and Charles Fourier.

In 1853, he married Olga Sokratovna Vasilieva. Chernyshevsky not only deeply loved his young wife but also viewed their marriage as a "testing ground" for new ideas. He advocated for absolute equality between spouses, which was a revolutionary idea for that time.

Moreover, he believed that women, as one of the most oppressed groups in society, should be granted maximum freedom to achieve true equality. He allowed his wife everything, including marital infidelity, believing that he could not perceive his spouse as his property. This personal experience later reflected in the love story of the novel "What Is to Be Done."

In 1853, Chernyshevsky moved from Saratov to St. Petersburg, where he began his career as a publicist. His name quickly became a symbol of the magazine "Sovremennik," where he was invited to work by N.A. Nekrasov. In 1855, Chernyshevsky defended his dissertation "Aesthetic Relations of Art to Reality," in which he rejected the search for beauty in the abstract realms of "pure art," stating: "Beauty is life."

In the late 1850s and early 1860s, he actively published, seizing every opportunity to express his views, and anticipated a peasant uprising after the abolition of serfdom in 1861. Due to revolutionary agitation, "Sovremennik" was closed. Soon after, the authorities intercepted a letter from A.I. Herzen, who was in exile. Upon learning of the magazine's closure, Herzen suggested that N.L. Serno-Solovyovich continue the publication abroad.

The letter became a pretext for arrest, and on July 7, 1862, Chernyshevsky and Serno-Solovyovich were imprisoned in the Peter and Paul Fortress. In May 1864, Chernyshevsky was found guilty and sentenced to seven years of hard labor and exile to Siberia for life. On May 19, 1864, a public ceremony of "civil execution" was performed over him.

During the investigation, Chernyshevsky wrote his main novel "What Is to Be Done" in the fortress. It was not until 1883 that he was allowed to settle in Astrakhan. By this time, he was already an elderly and ill man. In 1889, he was transferred to Saratov, where he soon died from a brain hemorrhage.