In his high school days, he became interested in biology and joined the Moscow Zoo's Young Biologists' Club [ru] in 1927, studying under Professor Pyotr Manteifel.
Upon graduating from school in 1928, his effort to enrol at the 1st Moscow University went in vain as his father came from an aristocratic background.
He later worked as a guide at the zoo and in 1933 he was successful in becoming a student of biology, studying the reproduction of the red squirrel.
The NKVD interrogated members and 13 persons were sent to a labour camp, accused of counter-revolutionary activities.
He then travelled through the steppe to Gasan-Kuli on the Caspian coast and found work in the eponymous nature reserve in Turkmenistan.