Alexander Jonathan Vidgop was born in Leningrad in 1955. In 1974 he was expelled from what is now called the Saint-Petersburg State University of Culture and Arts "for behavior unworthy of the title of Soviet student." Having worked as a locksmith, loader and White Sea sailor, he was drafted into the army and sent to serve in the Arctic Circle. He is now a theatre director, author, screenwriter, and founder of the Am haZikaron Institute for Science and Heritage of the Jewish People.