Born Vladimir Aaronovich Mordecai Wolf Chavkin (Russian: Владимир (Маркус-Вольф) Аaронович Хавкин), the fourth of five children of Aaron and Rosalie (daughter of David-Aïsic Landsberg) in a family of a Jewish schoolmaster in Berdyansk, Russian Empire (now Ukraine), he received his education in Odessa, Berdyansk[4] and St. Petersburg.[5][6]