Ruvim Smoliak was born in the town of Klimovichi near Mogilev (Belarus). His father Naum was a tailor. Ruvim had two brothers and a sister. In 1929, he finished a vocational technical school in the town of Krichev, and went on to work in the Krichev Regional Consumers’ Union until 1941. In these years, he enjoyed steady promotions: from storekeeper to head of the trading department, and then to chief of the administration of the combine. Alongside his work there, Ruvim studied at the Moscow Cooperative Technikum (professional school) by correspondence, graduating from it in 1935.
In 1936, Ruvim was drafted into the Red Army for several months. In 1939, he was mobilized into the 97th regiment of the NKVD (the predecessor of the KGB) in Mogilev. In 1940, he joined the Communist Party.
On June 22, 1941, the very first day of the Soviet-German War, Ruvim was drafted again and appointed chief supply officer of the Krichev garrison. A month later, as the Nazis approached Krichev and were about to occupy it, Ruvim was sent to the quartermaster's department of the 13th Army, where he would remain until his demobilization. His job was supplying the frontline troops with food and fodder. In conditions of active combat, this task often proved challenging. In the course of the war, Ruvim Smoliak was awarded two Orders of the Red Star. He was discharged from the army in 1948, in the rank of senior lieutenant.
Ruvim's mother and his sister Galina survived the war (his father had died back in 1934). Both of his brothers were killed in action on the Leningrad Front.
