Sergey Sergeyev-Tsensky was born on September 18, 1875, in the village of Babino, now called Preobrazhenye, located in the Rasskazovo district of the Tambov region. His father, Nikolai Sergeyevich Sergeyev, participated in the defense of Sevastopol in 1854-1855, and his mother, Natalia Ilinichna, was a Terek Cossack. His parents died in 1891. From the age of five, he lived in Tambov. In 1890, he graduated from the district school and entered the preparatory class of the Ekaterininsky Teacher's Institute, where he began writing poetry. In 1892, his first prose work, "Kochetovskaya Dam," was published in the "Tambov Provincial News." During this time, he added the pseudonym Tsensky to his surname, taken from the name of the Tsna River, along whose banks he spent his childhood. In 1895, he graduated with honors from the Glukhov Teacher's Institute and voluntarily served in the army. He served in the 19th Kostroma Infantry Regiment in Volhynia, rose to the rank of ensign, and retired.

His first literary publications appeared in 1898. Until 1904, he worked as a teacher. In 1904-1905, he participated in the Russo-Japanese War and was demobilized in 1905. In 1906, he acquired a plot of land on Eagle Mountain in Alushta, after which he fully devoted himself to literature.

With the onset of World War I in 1914, he was mobilized to the headquarters of the militia unit in Sevastopol and later transferred to the 400th Infantry Khortytsia Regiment. In 1915, he was discharged due to illness with the rank of lieutenant. After the war, he lived in Crimea and married Kristina Mikhailovna Naumova in 1919.

At the start of the Great Patriotic War, he evacuated with his wife to Kuibyshev and then to Alma-Ata. In 1943, he became a full member of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR and received a Doctor of Philology degree for his works on Russian classics. In 1944, he returned to Alushta.

He died on December 3, 1958, and was buried in Alushta on the grounds of his house-museum.

Since 1900, Sergeyev-Tsensky began writing short stories, and in 1901, his poetry collection "Thoughts and Dreams" was published in Pavlograd. In 1907, the novel "Babaev" was released, which brought him literary fame. Among his most famous works is the historical epic novel "Sevastopol Suffering," dedicated to the first defense of Sevastopol in 1854-1855.

For over 40 years, Sergeyev-Tsensky worked on the epic cycle "The Transformation of Russia," which includes twelve novels, three novellas, and two studies. The time frame of the cycle covers the period from the beginning of World War I to the February Revolution, and all works are united by several common characters. Five novels written between 1934 and 1944, dedicated to wartime events, are notable for their use of various historical documents, excerpts from newspapers, and commentary.