 Smirnov was the son of a worker and was born on 3 April 1916 in Kuznetsk, a town to the west of Samara, Russia, then part of Saratov province but now in Penza Oblast.He began his working life as an electrician in 1930 in Rostov-on-Don.He studied at the Novocherkassk Industrial Institute from 1933 to 1934 and graduated in 1939.