Leiba Bronstein lived at his parent's farm for the early years of his life, his father David Bronstein being one of the most dynamic farmers in the area, and his farm located a few miles outside of Yanovka which is located on the edge of the Jewish agricultural colony known as Gromokleya in Kherson province's Yelizavetgrad district. While his father was a fairly well-off farmer he was illiterate and used his children to write down the farm's financial accounting records; but slowly yet surely David went from living in a mud hut on the farm land to a house made of brick with a croquet field and his own mill on the farm to grind his grain too.