the son of musician and music historian elkhonon yoffe and russian literature teacher lidia yoffe ("nee" artiushina), mark yoffe was born in riga, latvia, then part of the soviet union. his family spoke russian at home and he attended russian schools in riga. in 1975, he entered latvian state university in the department of russian philology where he was a student until 1977. unable to pass an exam on the history of the communist party during his third semester of study, mark yoffe took extended leave of absence during which he received drawing and design tutoring from yurii petropavlovsky, presently a controversial latvian political activist. in 1977, mark yoffe was admitted into riga's psychiatric facility, hoping to receive an exemption from soviet military service. after 21 days at the facility he received the desired exemption, which opened the door for emigration to the united states.