His father used to work as a glazier and his mother was a cleaning lady.[4] He later went on to become the only one of his brothers to receive higher education attaining a degree from Energy Department of the Tashkent Polytechnic in electrical engineering in 1959.[4] After graduation, he was offered a job at Academy of Sciences of Uzbekistan.[4] He worked at the Angren Thermal Power Plant in the following positions: duty de-aerator installer, driver of feed pumps, assistant turbine driver, turbine driver, senior turbine workshop engineer, shift supervisor and became workshop director a year later.