 Rogozin was born in Moscow to a family of a Soviet military scientist.He graduated from Moscow State University in 1986, with a degree in journalism, and in 1988, he graduated the University of Marxism–Leninism under the Moscow City Committee of the CPSU with another degree in economics.In 1993, Rogozin joined the recently created party Congress of Russian Communities led by General Alexander Lebed and, after its founder died in a 2002 helicopter crash, Rogozin became joint leader with Sergey Glazyev of what became the Rodina party, which was described by "Novaya Gazeta" liberal journalist Anna Politkovskaya as 'created by the Kremlin's spin doctors specifically ... to draw moderately nationalist voters away from the more extreme National Bolsheviks'.