Vidayev was born in Samara Oblast, he was an ethnic Mordvin. He finished high school in Murmansk in 1930 and graduated with distinction from the M.V. Frunze Higher Naval School in 1937. He joined the Northern Fleet submarine division and started as a junior navigator on the submarine "D-2". In 1938 he took part in the rescue of four researchers from a drifting ice station. He took part in the Soviet Finnish War of 1939–40 blockading Petsamo.