Early Years
Yakir was born into the prosperous family of a Jewish pharmacist. Because of governmental restrictions on Jewish access to higher education, Yakir studied abroad at the University of Basel in Switzerland. During World War I, he returned to the Russian Empire and worked in a military factory in Odessa, Ukraine. From 1915 to 1917, he was a student of Kharkiv Technological Institute. He was affected by the war and became a follower of Vladimir Lenin. In 1917, he returned to Kishinev, became a member of the Bolshevik Party and took active part in the Bolshevik seizure of power in Bessarabia. When Romania intervened to recapture Bessarabia in 1918, Yakir led Bolshevik resistance but his small force was overwhelmed by the regular Romanian army.
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