 Qoshqarbaev was born on 19 October 1924 in the village of Akmolinsk within the Kirghiz ASSR (later Kazakh SSR), currently located within the present-day city of Astana.His mother died in 1928 and he was eventually sent to an orphanage at the age of 13 after his father was repressed and declared an "enemy of the people" during the Great Purge in 1937.After completing seven years of secondary school he worked in a factory until he was allowed to join the Red Army.