Anderson was born from a Baltic German family in Minsk, but in 1894 moved to Kazan (Russia), on the edge of Siberia, where his father, Nikolai Anderson, had been appointed as professor for Finno-Ugric languages at the University of Kazan.
Anderson was born from a Baltic German family in Minsk, but soon moved to Kazan (Russia), on the edge of Siberia. His father, Nikolai Anderson, was professor in Finno-Ugric languages at the University of Kazan.