Ivan P. Iuvachëv was born on 23 February 1860 (Old Style), in St. Petersburg, to a family of floor polishers employed by the Anichkov Palace. In 1874, following grammar school (gimnaziia), Iuvachëv enrolled in the Department of the Navy's Technical Institute, located in the Kronshtadt Fortress, where he learned navigation. Four years later, he joined the navy as a navigator and began his service in the Black Sea Fleet.

It is unclear if any particular event or just the tenor of the times inspired him, but by 1880, Iuvachëv was openly espousing radical political views. This led to his being assigned to shore duty in Nikolaev, in southern Ukraine, where he served as assistant director for the meteorological station there.

In March 1881, the regime's worst fears were realized when the revolutionary terrorist organization The People's Will (Narodnaia volia) assassinated Alexander II.

One year later, Iuvachëv met Mikhail Iu. Ashenbrenner, a military officer and member of the People's Will. He also met, apparently around this same time, Sergei P. Degaev, another narodovolets, whom several years earlier the military had cashiered for political unreliability. Under the influence of one or both of these men, Iuvachëv organized a political circle within the navy, as was confirmed years later by the famous political terrorist Vera Figner, who stated that he was central to propagandizing Nikolaev's military officers. Iuvachëv may also have participated in the plan to assassinate the late tsar's son and successor, Alexander III.

Iuvachëv's career as a propagandist and conspirator was, however, brief. Due to his connection to Degaev (who managed to escape to America), he was soon arrested, during a visit to the city of Verkholensk, in Transbaikalia, on 2 March 1883. Eighteen months later, Iuvachëv found himself in the dock alongside other defendants in the celebrated “Trial of the 14.” On 6 October 1884, the court sentenced Iuvachëv to death. According to well-established practice, his punishment was immediately commuted to 15 years penal labor (katorga).

Those sentenced to katorga usually served their time in Siberia. However, shortly before Iuvachëv's arrest, six political prisoners had escaped from a prison in Transbaikalia, and so the regime was reluctant to send additional state criminals there or anywhere else east of the Urals.