Bersanov was born in the village of Shami-Yurt to Chechen parents. His father died at the age of five, leaving his mother to struggle to raise her four children. Nevertheless, Bersanov was regarded as intellectual youth among his community—he had advanced two grades within one academic year at the boarding school in the nearby village of Sernovodsk—and was often seen as wise and helpful. Bersanov was unable to finish school, however, as it had been closed during the war against Finland in 1939, and all senior students were conscripted into the Red Army while the others were forced to return home. He returned to work as a secretary in his native village. At the age of seventeen Khozh-Akhmed and his family were removed from Shami-Yurt to Kazakhstan on February 23, 1944, as a result of the forced deportations of most Chechens to Central Asia. The experience would profoundly affect his life and writing, as his time in the Kazakh steppes led him to develop a more conscious appreciation for his Chechen homeland.