Whakaotihia te rerenga e whai ake nei: I whanau a Viktor Burenin i Moscow, te tamaiti tekau ma rua i roto i te whanau o te kaihoahoa Pyotr Petrovich Burenin. I a ia e ako ana i te Whare Wānanga o Moscow mo te Hoahoa (1852-1859), ka piri ia ki etahi o nga hoa i murua
Ko nga Decembrists (Ivan Pushchin, Ivan Yakushkin, Gavriil Batenkov me etahi atu) i whakauru i te taitama ki nga porowhita tuhituhi a Ruhia. He kaha te awe o te petrashevets Sergey Durov nana i tohutohu ki a ia kia whakamaori i nga "Iambes et poemes" a Barbier mo te maheni "The Word of the Underground" i Geneva. I te tau 1861 i noho a Burenin i etahi marama i Tiamana, Switzerland me France; mai i taua wa ka haere ia ki te Hauauru o Uropi i ia tau.