Romuald Makarenko was born on October 30th, 1961, in the bustling metropolis of Riga, which at that time was a part of the Latvian Soviet Socialist Republic, a constituent republic within the vast expanse of the Soviet Union.
Born in a city that would later become the capital and largest city of an independent and sovereign nation, Latvia, Romuald Makarenko's early life was set against the backdrop of a complex and tumultuous era in European history.