Prishchepa was born on 14 April 1900 in the village of Bolshaya Sultanovka, Vasilkovsky Uyezd, Kiev Governorate. He worked at the Kiev Arsenal and during the October Revolution in November 1917 fought as part of a worker's detachment in the suppression of an anti-soviet uprising in Kiev, then worked at a railroad in the city. During the Russian Civil War, he joined the 1st Kiev Red Guards Detachment on 18 January 1918, and was seconded to a railway guard detachment, transferring to the Red Army in February. After the German occupation of Kiev, the detachment retreated to Bryansk, subsequently fighting against the Ukrainian People's Army, Polish troops, and the Armed Forces of South Russia. Wounded in battles near Kiev on 1 October 1919, Prishchepa was evacuated to a hospital until February 1920. During March he was assigned to the Expeditionary Railroad Detachment of the headquarters of the 12th Army, sent to the front in April. As a squad and platoon leader, he fought in the Polish–Soviet War on the approaches to Zhitomir.