He was born in Tsarskoe Selo, Russia. Nabokov studied criminal law at St. Petersburg University and taught criminology at the Imperial School of Jurisprudence, St. Petersburg. A prominent member of the Constitutional Democrat party, he was elected to Russia's parliament, the so-called First Duma. He was the editor of the liberal newspaper Rech since 1904. In 1917 V.D. Nabokov was made secretary to Russia's provisional government. He was forced to leave St. Petersburg in December 1917 and in 1918 became minister of justice in the Crimean regional government. In 1919 the Nabokov family emigrated to England and later moved on to Germany. From 1920 until his death V. D. Nabokov was the editor of the Russian exile newspaper Rul.
V. D. Nabokov married Elena Ivanovna Rukavishnikov in 1897, with whom he was to have five children. Their eldest son was Vladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov, who portrayed his father in his memoirs (Speak, Memory, 1967).
He died in Berlin (killed in the attempted assassination of publisher and politician Pavel Miliukov).