"My 'roots' couldn't be more modest," says Michael Cherney. "My mother was a bookkeeper, and my father was an engineer who never made more than 200 rubles a month. We had a big family - three sons, a grandfather on my father's side, my mother's parents.

As a child, I remember my father having to take odd construction jobs. Since I was six or seven, I would join him on these jobs; they'd give me a small hammer, so I could help out, too.

This went on to the age of fourteen. Then Michael went to work, first as a telephone lineman, then as an electrician. Then he was drafted, then back to work, and then technical college.

His favorite pastime in his youth was sports: boxing, and then volleyball and basketball. Later, sports were to become the mainstay of Michael Cherney's philanthropic activities.