My parents are from Bessarabia, which used to be a part of Romania before 1940.  In the beginning of the World War II they illegally crossed the border into the Soviet Union.  They were arrested there and sent to the prisoners' camp in Siberia.  I was born there in Siberia (Reshoty, Krasnoyarsk) on August 4th, 1946.  In 1948 my parents moved to Chernovitsy or Chernowitz (Soviet Ukraine after the war), where I grew up.  My high school years were spent at the High School #1 in Chernovitsy.

         In 1964 I was admitted to the Department of Physics of Novosibirsk State University and at the same time participated in the training program offered through Budker Institute of Nuclear Physics in Novosibirsk Akademgorodok. While attending the University I was also a  member of  "Sigma" and member of the board of "Kadr" cinema clubs.  I graduated from the University in 1969 with Master's Degree.  My master's thesis was published in Nuclear Physics Institute Print Series.

        After graduation I moved to Yakutsk and started to work at the Permafrost Institute. Then since 1970 I worked at the Institute of Physical and Engineering Problems of the North

        In 1972 I was captured by KGB for distributing   "anti-soviet materials" as they called it.  At this time I was the vice-president of the Bibliophile Club of Yakutsk.
        I obtained Ph.D. degree in 1982, specializing in thermophysics and molecular physics.  Shortly after that I became the head of the research group. My first book on Gas Hydrates was published in 1976 in Russian, and the second "Thermophysical properties of Gas Hydrates" was published in 1985.
        In 1992  I became the chairman of the Society for Jewish Culture and wrote a book on "Jews in Yakutia".  It was  published in 1994 (one edition in Yakutsk, Russia and the other in Tel Aviv, Israel).

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