Affanasey Korniack, a Ukrainian from Poritsk in Volyn Province, fought in the Russo-Japanese War. He came to Townsville from the Russian Far East not long before WWI broke out. By that time he was nearly forty, being a widover with two children left behind in Russia. He had the trade of a machinist and worked in the mines in Cloncurry and Friezland as a miner.
In September 1915 he enlisted in the AIF in Townsville together with two Russians, Loginoff and Semenkin. His service was not long, and although he reenlisted in February 1916 in Brisbane, he was discharged in April of the same year as medically unfit.
After the war he worked in North Queensland as an engineer and fitter, later moving to Brisbane where he worked at a meatworks. For six years he attempted to receive naturalisation in Australia, but was refused because the security officers had suspicions about his belonging to the Russian Association and ties with Communists. He finally succeeded in 1930.
George Loginoff from Kotelnich in Viatka Province, leaving Russia, spent two years in England, France, and Alaska, arriving in Brisbane in 1913. He worked as a labourer in Friezeland.
Enlisting in the AIF, he served as a gunner in the Division Ammunition Column on the Western Front. In October 1916 he received a contusion to the face and in November 1917 he was gassed at Passchendaele. He experienced deafness and was evacuated to Australia.
After the war he lived in Brisbane and Cairns. In 1921 he was naturalised and disappers from the records after that. It is most likely that he returned to Russia.
Michael Kusheff, a Russian from Viatka, came to Townsville in Australia from the Russian Far East in September 1915.
He immediately enlisted in the AIF, probably together with the group of Russians, which included his countryman George Loginoff from Viatka Province. A local newspaper informed that with a group of volunteers he has sailed to the training camp in Brisbane in September 1915. His service records are not found, but his portrait appeared in the Queenslander Pictorial in April 1916 among the 12th reinforcements of the 9th Battalion. He obviously did not embark for the overseas service and disappears from the Australian records after that.
After the war he probably lived in China, as in 1956 information about him appears in the Brazil immigration register according to which he moved from Hong Kong to San Paulo. By that time he was a widower and an accountant by trade.
Harry Johnson from Perrynory near Riga in Latvia was a ship’s carpenter. He stated that he naturalised in the USA. In 1912 he came to Port Melbourne and worked on coastal boats, and then on a farm in Cheltenham.
Enlisting in the AIF in Melbourne he was transferred for training to Bendigo, where he deserted.
Carl Jorgensen from Finland came to Australia in 1907, probably as a seaman. Here he worked as a labourer and stockman in Prosperine in North Queensland. In 1913 he married an Australian girl, Agnes McKinney.
Enlisting in the AIF in Rockhampton he served as a bombardier in the artillery units on the Western Front. In February 1918 he was gassed, but rejoined the unit. In October 1918 he was on leave in the UK where he contracted influenza and died a week later in the Military Hospital in Hamilton in Scotland, just five days before the armistice.
Russian Anzacs