Kammala jumla mai zuwa: An haifi Borodin Mikhail Markovich Gruzenberg () ga dangin Yahudawa a Yanovichi, Daular Rasha, yanzu wani ɓangare na Yankin Vitebsk, Belarus, a ranar 9 ga Yuli, 1884. Sa'ad da yake matashi, ya soma aikin tukin jirgin ruwa a Kogin Dvina na Yamma, yana ƙetare kogin daga Vitebsk, Dvinsk, zuwa Riga, babban birnin Latvia na yanzu. Daga baya ya koma Riga, inda ya halarci makarantu na dare na yaren Rasha yayin da yake aiki a tashar jiragen ruwa na birnin. Ya shiga Janar Jewish Labor Bund yana da shekara goma sha shida, ya canza aminci ga Vladimir Lenin's Bolsheviks a 1903. Ya zama babban abokin aiki na Lenin, yana amfani da iliminsa na yaren Yiddish, Jamusanci, da Latvian a cikin aiki a matsayin wakilin Bolshevik a yankin arewa maso yammacin daular. A tsakiyar 1904, an umurce shi ya tafi Switzerland don ya sadu da Lenin, wanda ya tafi gudun hijira. Bayan kisan kiyashin "Bloody Sunday" na masu zanga-zangar da ba su da makamai da sojojin Tsarist suka yi a Saint Petersburg a ranar 9 ga Janairu, 1905, Borodin ya koma Rasha, ya shirya ayyukan juyin juya hali a Riga, kuma daga baya aka zaɓe shi don halartar
Taron Bolshevik a Tampere, inda ya sadu da Joseph Stalin.