Peter Kusmin

Alias Kuzmin; correct name Samuel Zadorohney
Russian spelling Петр Кузмин, Самуил Иванович Задорожный
Born 20.07.1888
Place Kiev, Ukraine
Ethnic origin Ukrainian
Religion Greek Catholic [Russian Orthodox?]
Father John Zadorohney
Family

Wife Mabel Louisa Kusmin (naa Kneller), married in 1917 in England, deserted in 1918; son Peter Kusminoff, b. 1918

Arrived at Australia from Far East
on 08.1913
per Nikko Maru
disembarked at Thursday Island
Residence before enlistment Newcastle, NSW
Occupation 1916 miner, 1921 wharf labourer
Naturalisation Served as Russian subject
Residence after the war Newcastle, Sydney
Died 13.03.1959, Sydney

Service #1

Service number 5766
Enlisted 20.06.1916
Place of enlistment Newcastle, NSW
Unit 2nd Australian Tunnelling Co
Rank Sapper
Place Western Front, 1917
Casualties WIA 1917
Final fate RTA 17.06.1918
Discharged 30.08.1918 MU

Materials

Blog article

Russian

English

Newspaper articles

P.M. tells lawyer he's drunk. - Mirror, Perth, 10 April 1943, p. 13.

From Russian Anzacs in Australian History:

But some Russians returning from the Western Front were indeed very critical of the reigning social order. In May 1918 the censor intercepted a letter Peter Kusmin wrote to his relative in Siberia. Kusmin, after being severely wounded in 1917, served in a depot in England and had enough time to observe life around him. He wrote: 'Here in England they have a Bourgeois Government, i.e. worse than a Monarchy. The rich look down on the poor as if they were cattle. The poor are almost dying from hunger. In Russia the working people all have their own houses but in England the working classes have nothing. ... I have already asked to be sent to the Russian Army but have received no reply. They tell me I made an oath to King George V to fight to the end of the war, but I am ready to send him to the same place the Russian soldiers sent their Tzar to. I have a lot of good friends who know why the war is being continued, but they are afraid to speak, but if the war continues a year or two more the same will happen here as in Russia and the people will fight the Capitalist whom they will find is their enemy and not the Germans.' There was obviously some official concern about his 'good friends' who shared these radical views, and so Kusmin was boarded on the first transport back to Australia.

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