Russian Anzacs

Michael Tanne, an Estonian seaman from Piarnu, came to Australia in 1911 and worked as a labourer in South Australia.
Soon after enlistment in the AIF he was found sick with TB, discharged from the army a year later, and died soon afterwards.

Leon Rothman, a young Jewish man born in Odessa, came to Australia in 1914 with his parents and lived in Brisbane learning the trade of a jeweller.
He enlisted in the AIF, but was soon discharged when his commander learned that he was just 19 and did not have the consent of his parents.
In 1917 he married a Jewish girl from Melitopol, Elsie Meerkin, and had a large family. First he worked in Brisbane as a salesman, but by 1930 he moved to Sydney, where he found employment as a painter.

Toivo Jala Simula, a Finnish seaman from Helsingfors (Helsinki) came to Australia in September 1915 and enlisted in the AIF a few days later in Melbourne.
He sailed with the 5^th Battalion to the Western Front, but there his service did not go right, he was court martialled for disobedience three times and had numerous AWLs. When he finally reached the trenches he was wounded at the Amiens advance in August 1918 and returned to Australia.
After the war he lived in Sydney, periodically getting into trouble with the police, until, in 1932, he married an Australian woman, Agnes Frances Leighton.

Alexander Alfred Sjoblom, another Finn, from Genbole, came to Australia in 1906 and worked in Australia as a miner.
Enlisting in the AIF, he served through the war as a gunner on the Western Front.
After the war he farmed in country NSW, specialising as a viticulturalist.

Ernest Anderson, a seaman from Riga, came to Western Australia in 1910 and worked as a sleeper hewer.
He served with the 11^th Battalion on the Western Front and was killed in action in July 1916 at Pozieres.
His mother in Riga was found after the war.