Adjutant General, Infantry General and senator, Sergei Pavlovich Shipov came from an old Russian noble family. He was born on February 5, 1790, in the village of Belkov, Kostroma Governorate, in his father’s ancestral estate.

In 1833, Sergei Shipov was promoted to Lieutenant General, and in 1835 he received the Order of St. George, 4th class, and a badge of distinction for 25 years of immaculate service. In October 1837, he was appointed a member of the Military Council.

After the rebellion in the Kingdom of Poland was suppressed, significant changes were made in all branches of government, but in order to completely pacify the region, the Russian authorities tried to attract as many experienced, conscientious and loyal people to serve in Poland as possible.

In 1837, the choice fell on Sergei Pavlovich Shipov — he was appointed chief director, chairman of the government commission of internal and spiritual affairs and public education of the Kingdom of Poland.

Sergei Shipov worked on popularizing state-approved concepts about history and relationship between the Russian and Polish peoples. Shipov was not pleased with the quality and distribution of materials that truthfully described the events of Russian and Polish history. Hence, to provide Poland with the needed materials, he himself wrote and printed many such works. He mainly supervised the spread of the Russian language in the region.

In a short time, Shipov replaced the directors and inspectors of educational institutions who did not speak Russian with those that did, introduced Russian-language office administration in educational institutions and in the Council of Education, and took great care of young people who graduated from universities with excellent success in Russian.

Thanks to his efforts, all educational institutions received new textbooks in the beginning of the 1837–1838 academic year. At his insistence, university courses on Russian language, history of Russia, world history, geography and statistics were significantly improved.

However, Shipov had some health issues that prevented him from continuing his efforts in the Kingdom of Poland and forced him to leave for Russia in 1840. For his work, he was awarded the Order of St. Alexander Nevsky.

In 1841, Sergei Pavlovich Shipov was appointed Kazan military governor and tasked with managing the civilian unit. In 1843, he was promoted to Infantry General, and in 1846, at his own request, he was transferred to Moscow to beome a member of the Moscow departments of the Governing Senate. After moving to Moscow, during the last 30 years of his life he rarely left the capital.