Shoigu was born in 1955 in the remote town of Chadan in Siberia.
The Soviet Union was a world power and the Cold War just beginning.
A man outside the former central temple for Buddhists of Tuva, near the settlement of Chadan, in Russia's Tuva region.
Ilya Naymushin/ReutersThe town is close to the Mongolian border.
Shoigu's mother was Russian but born in Ukraine, while his father was Tuvan — an ethnic group that is indigenous to Siberia.
Persons:
Shoigu, Ilya Naymushin
Organizations:
Moscow
Locations:
Chadan, Siberia, Soviet, Tuva, Russia's Tuva, Mongolian, Russian, Ukraine