Sukhodrev was born into the family of a Soviet intelligence officer who worked in the United States.

[1] As a young boy during World War II, Sukhodrev spent six years in London with his mother, who worked at the Soviet trade mission.

[2] In 1956, Sukhodrev began his career in the translation bureau of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA).

In the 1980s, Sukhodrev was the deputy head of the department for the United States and Canada at the Soviet MFA.

[8] He had a very good understanding of idiomatic expressions in English with a firm grasp of the varied nuances of meaning in different parts of the English-speaking world.