Yuri Bregel was born in Moscow, the son of Enoch Bregel (1903–1993), a noted Soviet political economist. When he was sixteen years old, his family relocated to the town of Fergana and in 1943 he joined the Soviet army where he was to serve in an anti-tank artillery unit. He fought in the Crimea, Belorussia, Poland, and Germany; he was injured twice and decorated.