 Lev Urusov was born in the family of State Councillor and Chamberlain Vladimir Pavlovich Urusov.In 1898 he graduated from Alexandrovski Lyceum in Saint Petersburg and from the same year started his career at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.His two big assignments came in 1910-1912 when he was appointed a head of Russian diplomatic mission in Bulgaria, and then in 1912-1916 when he served as the first secretary at the Russian embassy in Japan.