He graduated from the Soviet 7-year school in Uelen. He wanted to continue his education at the Institute of the Peoples of the North, but was not selected to study there, because of his young age. Consequently, he decided to go to Leningrad on his own, to continue his study. This travel was delayed for several years. In order to earn money for this journey, the future writer took odd jobs; for instance, he worked on the seas and on geological expeditions and trapped animals, stevedored at a hydrography base. He moved to Anadyr and enrolled in a vocational school. In 1947 he started writing articles for the Anadyr district-based magazine "Soviet Chukotka" (Советская Чукотка), which published his first stories and poems. In Anadyr, he met the Leningrad-based scholar , who was leading a linguistic expedition in the area and who was responsible for helping the young writer move to Leningrad.