Serge Lifar was born on March 20 (April 2), 1905 (according to other sources — April 2 (15), 1904) in the then-suburb of Kyiv, the village of Pyrohiv, or in the village of Vita-Lytovska, into the family of Mykhailo Yakovych Lifar, assistant forester of the Trypilsko-Vitian Forest, and his wife Sofiya Vasylivna Marchenko. In the metric book of the Church of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross in Pyrohiv, where the Lifar family were parishioners, there is a record of his birth on March 20 and his christening on April 10, 1905.

The Lifar family had deep Cossack roots. Later, Sergei Mykhailovych recalled how, visiting his grandfather in Kaniv, he listened to stories about Ukraine’s heroic past and examined “yellowed, faded charters with wax seals, with which Ukrainian hetmans and Cossack leaders of the Great Zaporizhian Host had honored the Lifars.”

In 1913, Sergei began studying at the Imperial Alexander Gymnasium and later continued at the 8th Kyiv Gymnasium. The boy showed a refined musical sense. Since his childhood, Lifar sang in the choir of St. Sophia Cathedral, took violin lessons from Professor Voyachek, and attended piano classes at the Kyiv Conservatory.

A decisive moment in his life came with his meeting Bronislava Nijinska, sister of the famous dancer Vaslav Nijinsky. It was her Kyiv ballet studio, the “School of Movement,” that became the first step for the 17-year-old Serge toward fame. Ukraine, and Kyiv in particular, remained a bright dream for Lifar throughout his life. “Even the beautiful, brilliant Paris could not make me, a Kyivan, forget my wide, majestic Dnipro,” he said.

When awarding him the Legion of Honour, Charles de Gaulle once again invited Serge Lifar to become a citizen of France, addressing him:
“Monsieur Lifar! Not many famous French people have done as much for France as you have. Is it not the time for you to become a Frenchman by passport as well?”
Lifar replied: “I am sincerely grateful, Mr. President, for your offer. But I have never been and will never be a Frenchman, for I am Ukrainian, and my homeland is Ukraine.” He remained the holder of a Nansen passport, a “person without nationality,” unable to renounce his roots, ancestors, and the land of his birth.

Even after being removed from the theater, he once came to the Paris Opera in a vyshyvanka and later shared his most cherished dream: “I dream of returning to Ukraine. Yet, at home, no one knows me, and in France—they have forgotten.”

Oles Ilchenko recalled that Valeriy Parsehov, who knew Serge Lifar personally, said that Lifar always emphasized his Ukrainian origin in conversation.