Vladimir Zenzinov came from a merchant’s family. He was born in Moscow. After the graduation from the Third Moscow Gymnasium (1899), he studied in Germany, at the universities of Berlin, Halle, Heidelberg, where he majored in law, history, philosophy, and economics. In 1900, he met Nikolay Avksentiev, and Ilya Fondaminsky. It was under their influence that he joined Socialist Revolutionary Party (SRP) in 1903. 1904 saw him return to Moscow. Zenzinov was a leader of the Moscow Committee of SRP (1904–1905), a member of its Combat organization. In 1904, he was involved in the attempted assassination of the Minister of Interior Vyacheslav Plehve. He took part in December armed uprising in Moscow (1905). Since 1909, Zenzinov was a member of the Central Committee of the SRP. He was arrested and exiled several times. During his exile in Yakutia in 1910–1914, he studied ornithology and ethnography. In 1914 he returned to Moscow.

After the February Revolution of 1917, Zenzinov became a member of the Executive Committee of the Petrograd Soviet of Workers’ and Soldiers’ Deputies, a member of the Petrograd Committee of the SRP. In May 1917, the 3rd Congress of the SRP elected him to the Central Committee of the SRP.

He was a member of the Constituent Assembly. In the summer of 1918, on behalf of the SRP Central Committee Zenzinov moved to Samara, where he became a member of the Committee of Members of the Constituent Assembly (Komuch). At the Ufa State Conference (September 1918) he was elected a member of the Provisional All-Russian Government (Ufa Directorate).

After the military coup in Omsk (November 1918) Aleksander Kolchak expelled him from Siberia to China. In January 1919, Zenzinov reached Europe via Japan and America. In 1919–1939, he lived in Paris, Prague, and Berlin. He worked for a variety of émigré democratic and socialist newspapers and magazines Volia Rossii [Freedom of Russia], Golos Rossii [Voice of Russia], Dni [Days], Novaya Rossiya [New Russia], Sovremennye Zapiski [Modern Notes]. Since 1940, he lived in New York, where he was a member of the editorial board of the Novy Zhurnal [New Journal].