Russian Anzacs

Karl Preis was a seaman from Pernau (Piarnu) in Estonia.
Enlisting in Lithgow in September 1915, he deserted two months later.
In the following years he worked in country New South Wales as a labourer, occasionally getting into trouble with the police for not registering as an alien.

Ivan Miconi from Riga came from a Russianised Italian family. He served in the Volunteer Russian Fleet and in 1898 he deserted his ship in Adelaide. By 1915 was farming in Victoria and had a family.
Enlisting in the AIF in Melbourne, he was allocated to the 1^st Remount Unit, but upon reaching Egypt he was invalided to Australia because of his advanced age.
After the war he lived in Adelaide with his family and was one of the organisers of the Russian Citizens’ Association there.

Leo Berk was born in Belostok in Grodno Province (now Poland) and might have been of Belorussian or Jewish origin, but after his service in the Russian Army in the Russo-Japanese war he seems to have become Russianised and upon arrival to Brisbane in 1913 was a part of the Russian community there. He worked as a labourer in different parts of Queensland.
Enlisting in the AIF, he served as a gunner in the 4^th Field Artillery Brigade on the Western Front. In May 1917 he was gassed and soon afterwards became sick and was evacuated to Australia.
During the Russian Revolution of 1917 he expressed more conservative positions and was at odds with the Russian community in Brisbane. Marrying a German woman, Margarite Stuewe in 1921, he moved to the Tumoulin – Ravenshoe area in North Queensland, working as labourer and millhand there and actively supporting the local RSSILA.

John Lindholm was a Finnish seaman from Abo.
He served on the Western Front with the 54^th Battalion. In October 1918 he was killed during the attack on the Hindenburg Line.
His brothers were found after the war in the USA.

Alexander Hulsen was a seaman from Riga.
He served with the 47^th Battalion on the Western Front and was killed in June 1917 at Messines.
His Australian friend Charles Lawrence could not provide any information about his family when the Australian authorities tried to locate them.