A Russian, Ivan Ananyevich Mashchenko was born on 24 June 1895 in Ust-Labinskaya, Kuban Oblast. He worked in the fisheries industry at Leonozovo, Baku Governorate, then in the oil industry at Baku from April 1913. Conscripted into the Imperial Russian Army during World War I on 17 May 1915, Mashchenko was sent to the 223rd Reserve Infantry Regiment at Aleksandropol. After graduating from the regimental training detachment in January 1916 he served as a junior and senior "unter-ofitser" in the Caucasus campaign at Erzurum. Mashchenko was wounded and hospitalized at Baku and Yekaterinodar between June and August, and then until late January 1918 served with the Expeditionary Corps of General Nikolai Baratov in Persia.