Grigory Petrovsky was born in Kharkiv into a family of a tailor. He studied at an elementary school at the Kharkiv Seminary. Since 1893, he worked at the Bryansk Metallurgical Factory in Yekaterinoslav. Since 1897, Petrovsky was a member of the Yekaterinoslav Union for the Struggle for the Liberation of the Working Class. In 1898, he joined the Russian Social Democratic Party (RSDLP), a Bolshevik. During the revolution of 1905–1907, Petrovsky was an organizer and leader of the Yekaterinoslav Soviet of Workers’ Deputies and of the city Strike Committee.

In 1912, Petrovsky was elected an MP of the Russian 4th State Duma as a representative of workers of Yekaterinoslav governorate. He was Chairman of the Bolshevik faction. In January 1913, Petrovsky was included in the Central Committee of RSDLP. November 1914 saw him arrested along with other Bolshevik MPs. In 1915, he was sentenced to deprivation of all rights of the state, and a lifetime exile in Turukhansky Kray (today, the northern part of Krasnoyarsk Kray), in 1916, he was transferred to Yakutia.

After the February Revolution of 1917, Petrovsky was released. He became Chairman of the Yakutsk Public Security Committee, Commissar of the Yakutsk Region, and Chairman of the Yakutsk Committee of the RSDLP. July 1917 saw him return to Petrograd. Petrovsky was sent to the Donbass in order to conduct activities for the Party. A member of the Yekaterinoslav Committee of the RSDLP(b). Glasny [MP with voting rights] of the Yekaterinoslav City Duma, Chairman of the Bolshevik faction. Member of the Constituent Assembly.

In November 1917 and March 1919, Petrovsky held the post of People’s Commissar for Interior Affairs of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic.

He was a founder of the Workers’ and Peasants’ Militia. He was a member of the Soviet delegation at the peaceful negotiations with Germany, took part in signing the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk on March 3, 1918. He also participated in the suppression of the Left SRs [socialist revolutionaries] uprising in Moscow (July 1918). Petrovsky took part in the elaboration of the organizational structure of the Soviet authorities as well as the first Constitution of the Russian SFSR (1918). Petrovsky was among the officials who signed the Decree “On the Red Terror” (September 5, 1918).

He took an active part in the establishment of Soviet power in Ukraine. His subsequent career included the following: December 1919 – February 1920, Chairman of the All-Ukrainian Revolutionary Committee of the Ukrainian Socialist Soviet Republic, in 1919 and 1920–1938, Chairman of the All-Ukrainian Central Executive Committee (VUTsIK) of the Ukrainian SSR. On December 30, 1922, on behalf of the Ukrainian SSR, he signed the Treaty on the Creation of the USSR. In 1922–1938, he was Chairman of the Central Executive Committee of the USSR representing the Ukrainian SSR.

In 1921–1939, he was a member of the Central Committee of the Russian (since 1925, All-Union) Communist Party (Bolsheviks). In 1926–1939, he was a candidate member of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the Bolshevik Party. In 1938–1939, he was Deputy Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR. He was dismissed from the highest authorities over his connections with “enemies of the people”. Since 1940, he was Deputy Director of the Museum of the Revolution of the USSR. Petrovsky died on January 9, 1958. He was buried in the Kremlin Wall Necropolis.