Yuri Sakharov was born on September 18, 1922 in Yuzovka (now Donetsk). His father was an official in the Donbass mining industry. In 1937 during the Great Purge he was arrested and executed. Yuri Sakharov became a "son of an enemy of the people." During the Great Patriotic War the Nazis sent him to work in a Belgian coal mine. When Allied Forces entered Belgium, Yuri Sakharov joined the US Army and fought against the Nazis. He earned a Purple Heart Medal. When his unit reached the Elbe in 1945, he was repatriated.