Leo Berk
Russian spelling | Лео Берк |
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Born | 18.07.1888 |
Place | Belostok, Grodno, Poland |
Ethnic origin | Russian |
Religion | Roman Catholic |
Father | Paul Berk |
Mother | Anna |
Residence before arrival at Australia | Served in the Russian army (26 months, artillery) and took part in the Russo-Japanese war (21 months) |
Arrived at Australia |
from Far East on 20.05.1913 per Eastern disembarked at Brisbane |
Residence before enlistment | Brisbane |
Occupation | 1915 labourer, 1920 traveller for Paproff [Popoff] Co. |
Naturalisation | 1920 |
Residence after the war | Brisbane, Tumoulin, Ravenshoe, Qld |
Died | 1969, Queensland |
Service #1
Service number | 8766 |
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Enlisted | 16.09.1915 |
Place of enlistment | Brisbane |
Unit | 2nd DAC, 4th FAB |
Rank | Gunner |
Place | Western Front, 1916-1917 |
Casualties | WIA 1917 |
Final fate | RTA 31.10.1917 |
Discharged | 5.02.1918 |
Materials
Digitised naturalisation (NAA)
Digitised service records (NAA)
Digitised Embarkation roll entry (AWM)
Alien registration (NAA)
Publications
Елена Говор, Белорусские Анзаки. - Białoruskie Zeszyty Historyczne, 2013, no. 40, c. 53-108.
Blog article
Newspaper articles
W. Kallashnikoff, 'A Russian Protest', Daily Mail, Brisbane, 27 August 1918, p. 2; Daily Standard, Brisbane, 28 August 1918, p. 7.
L. Berk et al., 'Protest by Russian Soldiers'. - Daily Mail, Brisbane, 5 September 1918, p. 8.
W. Kalashnikoff, 'Russian Soldiers' Protest', Daily Mail, Brisbane, 12 September 1918, p. 2.
L. Berk et al., 'Russian Soldiers' Protest'. - Daily Mail, Brisbane, 17 September 1918, p. 7.
W. Kalashnikoff, 'A Rejoinder', Daily Mail, Brisbane, 26 September 1918, p. 4.
L. Berk, 'The Bolsheviks'. - Daily Mail, Brisbane, 8 November 1918, p. 6.
A. Mendrin, L. Berk, 'Can it be true? Bolshevism in Russia'. - Daily Mail, Brisbane, 18 November 1918, p. 4.
L. Berk, 'Treatment of Russians'. - Daily Standard, Brisbane, 20 May 1919, p. 3
Russians at law. Action for defamation. - Daily Standard, Brisbane, 13 May 1920, p. 5
From Russian Anzacs in Australian History:
Later on, disillusioned by the bloodshed of war, some Russians would bitterly say that this 6 shillings was the price of their betrayal. Walter Kalasnikoff, who came back from the war, half-blinded by an explosion was one who expressed this sentiment. In 1918 at the Russian Association in Brisbane he had the courage to say, pointing to his returned soldiers' badge: 'It is my dishonour! I have sold myself for 6s and went to kill my fellow-men!' The newspaper carried the response of a group of Russian returned soldiers, headed by Leo Berk, who dissociated themselves from Kalasnikoff, by saying, 'we think that Mr Kalashnikoff [Kalasnikoff] is the only returned Russian soldier who possess the bad instinct of the renegade'. They went on to declare, 'We went to the front not for 6/- as Mr Kalashnikoff did, but to give our lives in the fight for Russia and her allies in this Great World war for democracy and peace'.
[...] Kalasnikoff's opponents were all men from a different social background and with different political sympathies: Leo Berk, Serguey Kalinin, Nicholas Silantiff, Matfeus Oleinikoff, Akim Petroff, Steven Orloff, George Diaconescu, Conrad Shlipnekoff, and Nicholas Fedorovich. They accused Kalasnikoff of having connections with Simonoff, the Soviet-appointed consul, and declared that they 'will fight the so-called Bolsheviks to the bitter end'. Of these, Serguey Kalinin was considered to be a socialist who opposed bolshevism; but Leo Berk, the instigator of this campaign, was an informant for the security services, according to Raymond Evans. Moreover, in a couple of years' time two of the others, Nicholas Silantiff and Steven Orloff, will apply for Simonoff's assistance to return to Russia -- to join these very bolsheviks that, here, they claimed to be fighting.