kuzma grebennik was born on 18 february 1900 in the village of bryansk in slavyanoserbsk uyezd in the yekaterinoslav governorate in a working-class family of russian ethnicity. his father worked as a miner in the coal mines of the donbass. grebennik graduated from elementary school and became a sorter at the coal mine at the age of 10. in 1914, his family moved to the village of kremen in kharkov governorate, where grebennik graduated from a two-year college in 1915. in 1916, he became a worker at the donets-rubezhnyi factory. grebennik returned to the donbass and became a worker at a coal mine in 1918.