Dmitry Shuvayev graduated from Alexander Military School in 1872. Between 1873 and 1875, he participated in campaigns in Central Asia. He left
General Staff Academy in 1878. In 1879, he became a professor at the military school in Kiev. He used to command a
division (1905) and a
corps (1907-1908). In 1909, Shuvayev was appointed head of Chief
Quartermaster Department and chief quartermaster. He then held a post of Chief Field Quartermaster between December 1915 and March 1916. Shuvayev was appointed minister of war on 15 March 1916, succeeding
Alexei Polivanov. In this role he supported with
Mitrofan Voronkov and
Vladimir Groman, was regards setting the fixed price for grain: Voronkov and Groman argued for fixing prices at a lower value, but the minister
Aleksei Bobrinsky, a spokesperson for landed interest, at first succeeded in ensuring the prices were set quite high. However, when Shuvayev became involved, Bobrinsky's policy was overthrown and Voronkov became a much quoted spokesperson on the topic. On 3 January 1917 he was appointed to the
State Council and succeeded by
Mikhail Belyaev. After the
October Revolution, Shuvayev served in the
Red Army as a commander from 1918 to 1926 and taught at different military schools. His son,
Aleksandr Shuvayev, led the
4th Red Army in the
Battle of Warsaw during the
Polish–Soviet War. He retired from military service in 1926. On 5 December 1937, Shuvayev was arrested by the
NKVD. He was sentenced to death on 15 December and shot on 19 December 1937. He was
rehabilitated posthumously in 1956. ==Honours and awards==