Ivan Strod was born in Ludza into the medical attendant's Latvian family.
Ivan Strod volunteered the Red Army in 1918 fighting against the Whites in Siberia.
After the release, Ivan Strod headed the Volunteer Revolutionary Detachment.
In October 1920 he was a commander of a cavalry detachment of the People's Revolutionary Army of the Far Eastern Republic.
He was in charge of defeating a White general Anatoly Pepelyayev during the Yakut Revolt.