Efim Ivanovich was a regional medical officer and doctor, and Maria Eduardovna was a dentist.
The family was strictly focused on education: the children were raised with three governesses from England, France, and Germany, and were allowed to speak in Russian only on Sundays.
In 1919 Fridman graduated from gymnasium with a silver medal and became a student of Irkutsk University, Department of Jurisprudence.
During this time he worked for a two-year stint (1932–34) in the Red Army, as a senior doctor with the 56th Cavalry Regiment.
Doctor in Medicine, with the dissertation "Motion points in muscles of upper extremities of human, and their practical significance".