Biography
Boukreev was born in Korkino, within the Russian SFSR of the Soviet Union (in the present Chelyabinsk Oblast). He came from the narod, the common people, and his parents were both poor. After completing high school in 1975, he attended Chelyabinsk University for Pedagogy, where he majored in physics and earned his Bachelor of Science degree in 1979. At the same time, he also completed a coaching program for cross-country skiing.
After graduation, the 21-year-old dreamed of mountain climbing. Boukreev moved to Alma-Ata, the capital of the neighbouring Kazakh SSR (present day Kazakhstan) located in the Tian Shan mountain range. From 1985 he was part of a Kazakhstani mountaineering team, and he became a citizen of the Kazakhstan Republic in 1991 after the breakup of the Soviet Union.
Read more about this topic: Anatoli Boukreev
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