Oryol Governorate
Konrad was born in Riga, Latvia to a German father who was a railway engineer while his mother was the daughter of a priest from the Oryol Governorate. He studied at the Oriental Faculty of St Petersburg University, attending lectures by Lev Shternberg at the Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography. After graduation he travelled to Japan and Korea, studying the languages and undertaking ethnographic study. World War I prevented his return to Russia until 1917.