Russian AnzacsCentenary Stories
To mark the Centenary of the First World War in 2014-2018, this site, in a weekly post, celebrated the Russian Anzacs who enlisted in the AIF that week.
Nieminen, Kulmar, Rybakov, Myyrylainen, Brasche
- Adolph Nieminen, a Finnish seaman, enlisted in the AIF in Brisbane.
- Three months later he left his unit and continued to serve on the ships.
- Jan Kulmar, a Latvian sailor, whose mother lived in Libava (Liepaja), enlisted in the AIF in Melbourne.
- He arrived with reinforcements to the 2nd Pioneer Battalion on the Western Front in November 1916 and was killed a few weeks later at the Somme.
- His widowed mother Anna received an Australian pension after the war.
- Michael Silas Rybakov, a Russian seaman from Revel (Tallinn) in Estonia, enlisted in the AIF in Melbourne.
- He served with the 5th Battalion on the Western Front and was killed in September 1917 at the battle on Mennin Road in Ypres.
- When enlisting in the AIF he refused to make a will and his father was never found.
- Artur Wilho Myyrylainen, a Finnish sailor, came to Australia in February 1916, and, while in Adelaide, was assaulted by a Belgian seaman on suspicion that he was a German. He enlisted soon afterwards.
- A few days later he deserted the camp, was caught and court martialled, but in May 1916 he was released as medically unfit.
- After the war he continued his occupation as a seaman and most likely naturalized in the USA.
- Martin Brasche, a seaman from Riga, came to Australia in 1915.
- He enlisted in the AIF in Melbourne and served with the 2nd Pioneer battalion on the Western Front. In July 1918 he was gassed but returned to his battalion after recovery.
- After the war he continued his occupation as a seaman, living in Sydney.
Antipanoff, Chopovsky, Elfimoff, Gooshia, Provaka
- Peter Antipanoff, a clerk from Nizhni Novgorod, came to Australia from the Russian Far East in 1913.
- He enlisted in the AIF in Queensland, most likely in Rockhampton, but was soon discharged; his service records have not been found.
- After that he moved to Sydney with another unsuccessful enlistee, Gooshia, and worked as a labourer in Broken Hill and Queensland; in May 1918 he left for Russia.
- Jack Chopovsky (his name was also written as Jopowsky), who gave his place of origin as an the unrecognisable Ceaorowe, came to Australia in 1912 and worked as a smelter in Mount Morgan.
- Enlisting in the AIF in Rockhampton, he was discharged a few days later as medically unfit.
- After that he lived in North Queensland, applying to leave for Russia, but most likely stayed in Australia with his Russian wife Anastasia Ezersky.
- John Elfimoff, a Russian from Samara, came to Australia from the Russian Far East in 1913. He was accompanied by his wife Domna and a son. By the time of his enlistment in the AIF he was working as a miner in Mount Morgan and had three children.
- When his wife eloped with another Russian, John enlisted in the AIF, but was discharged a few days later as medically unfit.
- After the war he lived in North Queensland working as a labourer and miner. In 1921 he had plans to return to Russia, but his destiny is unknown.
- Garacime Gooshia (he also used name Gooshen), a Russian from Tomsk in Siberia, came to Australia in 1912 and worked in Mount Morgan.
- He enlisted in the AIF with the group of Russians in Rockhampton, but was discharged as medically unfit.
- After the war he worked in Mount Mulligan and was married to a Russian woman, Anna Petroff; in 1925 he died of tuberculosis, which he developed from his work in copper mines.
- Stephen Provaka, from Surazh in Chernigov Province, came to Australia in 1914 from the Russian Far East and worked as a miner in Mount Morgan. His original name was Stepan Proiavka and he served in the AIF under this name.
- He was the only one in the group of Russians who enlisted in the AIF in Rockhampton who saw active service on the Western Front, where he served with the 25th Battalion.
- After the war he wanted to return to Russia, but later married an Australian girl, Bertha Finnimore, and their family lived in Brisbane.
Petrowski, Rink, Ganivahoff, Goffin, Kiva
- George Alexander Petrowski from St Petersburg came to Australia in 1913 from the Russian Far East and lived in Sydney and Orange, working as a watchmaker.
- He served with the 3rd Pioneers Battalion on the Western Front, attaining the rank of Lance-Corporal.
- While stationed in Armenrieres, he married a local girl, Adele Clemence Decoopman, and stayed in France after the war, working as a watchmaker and jeweller.
- Christian Rink had multiple versions of his life. He enlisted in the AIF as the native of Odessa, but in his naturalization he stated he was born in Bordeaux in France, of a French father and a Romanian mother. According to the police investigation, he was actually Christian Lawrence Smidt Rinkoff. He came to Australia in 1899 and lived in different states, working, probably, as an engineer and electrician.
- He served with the Field Company Engineers as a sapper on the Western Front, but was returned to Australia as ‘undesirable’, being suspected to be of German origin.
- After the war he was a hotel licensee in Albany and, after a conflict with the law, left for New Zealand, where he was arrested for claiming false pretences. Released from prison, he married a local girl, Clare, and worked as an engineer, wine agent and builder.
- Abdul Ganivahoff, a Tatar man from Kazan, came to Australia as a seaman and enlisted in the AIF in Melbourne.
- He served with the 2nd Pioneer Battalion on the Western Front, being appointed a Corporal. In August 1916 he was wounded at Pozieres but remained on duty. In January 1917 he was transferred to the 19th Battalion.
- By the time of Ganivahoff’s enlistment in the AIF, his parents were dead, and an enlisting clerk, Henry Nicholson, offered to be recorded as his next of kin. He cared to make inquiries about his destiny after the war and discovered that his adopted friend was killed during the advance on German trenches in February 1917.
- Ben Goffin, a Jewish man from Tulchin in Ukraine, emigrated with his family to the USA in 1912 as a child. In 1916 he came to Australia as a ship’s painter and enlisted in the AIF the next day.
- He served with the 22nd Battalion on the Western Front. In May 1917 he was wounded in the back and both shoulders at Bullecourt. Six months later, after recovery, he returned to the front and was severely wounded in the chest and gassed in August 1918 near Villers Brettoneaux.
- After the war he worked as a plumber and ironmonger living in Melbourne, where he married an Australian girl, Anne Koodak. They moved to soldiers’ settlement near Albany in Western Australia and had three children. In 1931 Goffin died in an accident on his farm.
- Nikalas Kiva, a Ukrainian man from Odessa, came to Australia from the Russian Far East in 1913.
- Enlisting in the AIF in Townsville, he arrived with the reinforcements to the 9th Battalion on the Western Front January 1917 and was killed in April 1917 at Bullecourt.
- His mother in Odessa was never found, but the photograph of Nikalas survived in the archive of his Russian friend Osiph Rinkevich.
Winter, Abolin, Magnusson, Wirkanen, Finn
- Otto Winter, a Finnish seaman from Helsingfors (Helsinki), came to Australia in 1907. Not long before his enlistment he married a girl from South Australia, Irene Daley, and had a son.
- Enlisting in the AIF in Casula, Sydney, with the group of Finish seamen who were allocated to the Camel Corps, he was was separated from them and sent to the reinforcements of the Mining Corps. In March 1918 he was gassed and then wounded in July 1918, but remained on duty.
- After the war he lived with his family in Adelaide, South Australia, working as a fitter. During WWII he enlisted in the AIF and served in the Volunteer Defence Corps.
- Martin Abolin, a Latvian from Riga, came to Australia in about 1911 and worked as a timber worker in Jarrahdale in Western Australia.
- He served with the 44th Battalion on the Western Front and was killed in June 1917 at Messines.
- His brother John, living in England, was found after the war.
- Neils William Magnusson, a Finn from the Aland Islands, came to Australia in 1914, most likely as a seaman.
- Enlisting in the AIF in Newcastle, he served with the 35th Battalion on the Western Front, attaining the rank of Lance-Corporal. In July 1917 he was severely wounded, receiving shrapnel wounds to his head, leg, and arms, and repatriated to Australia. Recovering, he reenlisted in September 1918 and worked as a rigger in the camp.
- After the war he lived in Newcastle, working as a carpenter.
- Juho David Julius Wirkanen, a Finnish seaman from Nystad (Uusikaupunki), came to Australia in 1912 and worked on interstate and coastal boats.
- He served with the 1st Battalion on the Western Front until he got sick and was returned to Australia.
- After the war he continued his work as a seaman and drowned in June 1921 aboard the steamer Our Jack. His friend Florence Hayes commemorated his death in a newspaper two years later.
- Paul Elias Isaac Finn, a Jewish man from Vilno (Vilnius) in Lithuania, left Russia in 1907 and spent several years in Scotland, moving to Australia in 1913. He worked as a fitter and motor driver on the railway. By the time of his enlistment in the AIF he had become a Methodist.
- He served with the 35th Battalion on the Western Front, being later transferred to the 9th Light Trench Mortar Battery. He was wounded three times, first in July 1917 near Messines, then he was gassed at Villers-Bretonneux in April 1918, and in August 1918, during the Amiens advance, he was wounded in the arm. After the third casualty he was repatriated to Australia.
- After the war he lived in Sydney, working as a fitter, car driver, and engineer. In 1936 he married an Australian woman, Essie Lilias Crawford. During WWII he enlisted in the AIF and served in a garrison battalion.
Five Finnish Cameleers
- Five Finnish seaman enlisted in the AIF in mid-February 1916 in Casula near Sydney. They were Alfred Axel Syrjalainen from Vyborg, Juho Werner Jokinen from Lahti, Aksel Anselm Mattila from Borga (Porvoo), and two men from Rauma, Frans Wilhelm Salminen and Wilhelm Konsten. The last two arrived in Australia on the Finnish ship Imperator Alexander II in February 1914 with a score of other Finnish seamen; Jokinen, Mattila and Syrjalainen landed in Australia between 1910 and 1912. They must all have worked on the vessels trading on the coast. By the time of enlistment they lived in a few seamen’s hostels in Pyrmont and, obviously, decided to join together. Syrjalainen paved the way, enlisting on 9 February, all the rest followed him five days later.
- They were allocated to the reinforcements to the Camel Corps, which were forming in Egypt; all but Jokinen sailed for Egypt per the Morea in May 1916. Jokinen was kept behind for further training and left Australia with reinforcements in December 1916. They started service as Cameleers, but later they were transferred to Light Horse regiments and served in Egypt and Palestine. Wilhelm Konsten was killed during a patrol in North Gaza in April 1917. All the rest took part in the famous Beersheba charge in November 1917 and served to the end of war. Syrjalainen and Salminen were the last to return to Australia together in July 1919.
- After the war, life took them along different paths. Syrjalainen continued his mateship with Salminen; in 1920 the Repatriation Department gave them equipment to go rabbiting. They camped near Molong, where Syrjalainen, as a result of a fight in a bar with another returned soldier, killed two men. Newspaper reported that, when arrested, Syrjalainen was saying ‘in his broken English, “I spent four years killing men, now I take no more notice of killing a man than killing a fly”’. He was convicted for manslaughter. When released, he married an Australian woman, Dorris Thrift, and worked as a labourer in Yenda near Griffith. Later he moved to Sydney. His son served in the AIF in WWII.
- Salminen after the tragedy in Molong disappears from the records; he probably left Australia.
- Aksel Anselm Mattila married an Australian girl, Gertrude Cecilia Schwarze, and lived with his family in Sydney working as a crane driver.
- Juho Werner Jokinen married an Australian girl, Nora Kathleen Baxter, and lived in Sydney working as a seaman and later as a wharf labourer.
Paakola, Boronow, Mamchin, Zook, Sevald
- John Paakola from Uleaborg (Oulu) in Finland came to South Australia in 1914, most likely as a seaman.
- Enlisting in the AIF in Port Pirie, he served with the 48th Battalion on the Western Front. In April 1917 he was wounded in the leg at the battle for Bullecourt and later repatriated to Australia with a diagnosis of deafness. In the 1930s his commander, D.G. Mitchell, mentioned his stamina in his memoirs.
- After the war he stayed in South Australia, working as a labourer in Port Pirie, Broken Hill, Streaky Bay and Port Adelaide. He married an Australian woman, Charlotte Oborn, who had children from her previous marriage, and they had a large family.
- Alexander Boronow, a Russian man from Odessa, came to Australia in about 1889, most likely as a seaman, and was cane cutting and cane farming in North Queensland.
- He enlisted in the AIF in Townsville and was discharged six months later as medically unfit. If his naturalisation application is to be believed, at that time he was well over fifty.
- After the war he lived in Townsville and was an inmate of Dunwich Benevolent Asylum, suffering from asthma.
- John Mamchin, another native of Odessa, came to Australia in 1911 from the Russian Far East and worked as a labourer on the railway construction where he developed rheumatism due to working in water.
- His service in the AIF lasted only two months and he was discharged as medically unfit. He tried to enlist two more times afterwards but did not succeed.
- After the war he worked on the ships and died aboard the ‘Maori’ while in Lyttleton, New Zealand.
- Antoney Zook, a Russian born in Samarkand, in Central Asia, came to Australia in 1914 from the Russian Far East. He was a clerk by training, but found it difficult to obtain work in Australia.
- He enlisted in the AIF in Townsville, two days after Boronow, and served with the 12th Battalion on the Western Front. He was wounded in February 1917 in the shoulder and hand. Recovering in London he was discharged and employed by the Russian Government Committee.
- No documents were found about his life after the war.
- Edward Sevald, a Latvian seaman from Riga, came to Australia in December 1915 and enlisted in the AIF two months later.
- He served as an air mechanic in the Flying Squadron on the Western Front, attaining the rank of sergeant mechanic.
- After the war he married an Australian girl, Veronica, and lived in Melbourne working as a fitter and turner on the Victorian Railways.
Bepper, Rossoggsky, Upmal, Adolfsson, Talava
- John Ludwig Bepper from Riga came to Australia in 1913 and was a bush worker in Moonan Flat, NSW.
- Enlisting in the AIF, he served with the 34th Battalion on the Western Front. In March 1917, at Armentieres, he was wounded in the left arm, and in October 1917, at Passchendaele, in the right hand.
- While in England after the war he did a course in painting and decorating and married an English girl, Maud Hardman; they sailed to Australia together. They lived in Sydney where John worked as a painter and decorator. In 1939, when the new world war was approaching, he committed suicide; not long before that he told his wife ‘that if people knew what the soldiers had gone through there would never be another war’.
- Ivan Rossoggsky (his correct surname was most likely Rossovsky), a Ukrainian seaman from Bendery, worked in Moonan Flat with Bepper and they enlisted together.
- He served with the 34th Battalion on the Western Front, attaining the rank of sergeant. In June 1917, at Wimereux, he was wounded in the shoulder and thigh, but rejoined a month later and was killed in a week, in July 1917, at Messines.
- His family in Ukraine was never found, but his name was commemorated on the Moonan Flat and Scone WWI memorials.
- Ernest Upmal, a Latvian seaman from Riga, enlisted in the AIF in Sydney.
- He served with the 56th Battalion on the Western Front and was killed in December 1916 at the Somme.
- His family in Latvia was never found.
- Adolf Sven Adolfsson, a seaman from Kråkö in Finland, enlisted in the AIF in Melbourne.
- He served with the 24th Battalion on the Western Front, attaining the rank of Lance Corporal. He was awarded the Military Medal for his gallantry at Daisy Wood in October 1917, where he fought as a machine-gunner. In March 1918 he was gassed at Ploegsteert, but recovering in England, he returned to the front and gained a bar to his Military Medal at Peronne in September 1918, this time for stretcher-bearing.
- After the war he was sailing for several years, and then returned to his native Kråkö in Finland. His war service in the AIF is commemorated in the local Parvoo Museum in Finland.
- Ansselmi Talava, a Finnish seaman, at the time of enlistment in the AIF lived in Melbourne.
- He served with the 6th Battalion on the Western Front. In October 1917 he was buried by a shell explosion and experienced shell shock. Recovering, he returned to his battalion and was killed in August 1918 near St Martyns Wood.
- His family in Finland was never found.
Lange, Leyko, Tupicoff, Wagin, Sandell
- Adolf Lange from Helsingfors (Helsinki) in Finland came to Queensland in 1913 and was working as a labourer.
- Enlisting in the AIF Rockhapton, he served with the 3rd Pioneers Battalion on the Western Front.
- After the war he lived in Comet in Queensland and later moved to Sydney, where in 1929 he was killed by his drunken flatmate.
- Fedor Leyko, a Belarusian from Slonim, came to Queensland in 1914 from the Far East and was working in Mount Morgan as a labourer.
- He enlisted in the AIF in Rockhampton, but was discharged a week later as medically unfit.
- In 1916-1917 he worked in Pine Creek in the Northern Territory, but after that he disappears from the records; it is most likely that he returned to Belarus.
- Alexis Tupicoff, a young Russian from Perekopnoe in Samara Province, lived with his family in the Far East and followed his brother Nicholas to Australia in 1914. He worked as a railway labourer in Queensland.
- Enlisting in the AIF in Rochampton with Leyko and Wagin, he served with the 42nd Battalion on the Western Front. In June 1917, near Messines, he was severely wounded in the face, mouth and trachea; he survived, but his face was permanently disfigured.
- After the war he wanted to rerurn to Russia, but was not allowed by the Australian authorities. He tried farming in a soldiers’ settlement, Coominya, then worked as a linesman in Atherton and finally moved to Ipswich where his brother Nicholas lived with his family.
- John Wagin, a Russian from Voinovo village in Vladimir Province, came to Australia from the Far East in 1913, leaving his wife and daughter in Russia. By the time of his enlistment in the AIF, he worked as a miner in Mount Morgan. He participated in the political activities of the Union of Russian Emigres and in 1915 was elected as its Mount Morgan section secretary.
- He served with the 47th Battalion on the Western Front. In April 1918, at Dernancourt, he was wounded in the arm. After Russia’s withdrawal from the war in 1918 Wagin refused soldering and was finally returned to Australia.
- The Australian authorities kept him under observation because of his radicalism, which he did not hide. Unfortunately, in one of their raids they confiscated his private WWI journal. After the war, when his wife in Russia died, Wagin married an Australian woman, Mary Moyce, who was a widow of another Russian, Fred Joga, killed in a mining accident. After farming in Innisfail, Wagin worked as a waterside worker and motor driver.
- Emil Ferdinand Sandell, a Finnish seaman, by the time of his enlistment in the AIF, was working as a farm labourer in Leongatha in Victoria.
- He served with the 1st Pioneers Battalion on the Western Front. In August 1916 he was wounded in the head at Mouquet Farm and repatriated to Australia.
- After the war he lived in Melbourne working as a labourer. In 1924 he was convicted for drunkenness and his photo appeared in the Police Gazette. He died in 1931.
Fagerlund, Cantor, Petterssan, Vidura, Kaarna
- Johan Peter Fagerlund came to Australia from Finland, and by the time of his enlistment in the AIF was working as a labourer in Sydney, and had a family with an Australian girl, Ethel Rodgers.
- He served with the 56th Battalion on the Western Front. In August 1916 he was wounded in the leg, but recovered and returned to the front.
- After the war he lived in Bankstown, working as a labourer.
- Adolph Conrad Cantor, a Jewish man from Zagare in Lithuania, came to the USA as a young man and had a family there. In 1902 he came to Australia and was working as a draper.
- Enlisting in the AIF in Victoria, he went overseas with the 14th Battalion, was attached to the Administrative headquarters in London and later discharged there as medically unfit.
- In 1917 he returned to Australia, where he married Elizabeth Margarette Williams, and was working in Melbourne as a storekeeper and draper.
- August Severin Petterssan, a Finnish seaman, came to Australia in 1911 and lived in Melbourne working as a labourer.
- Enlisting in the AIF, he served with the 37th Battalion on the Western Front. In June 1917 he was wounded at Messines, but rejoined his battalion and was killed in October 1917 at Broodseinde, near Ypres.
- His family in Finland was found after the war.
- Carol Vidura, a seaman, said he was born in Warsaw, but his mother was probably a Romanian and lived in Romania. Carol came to Australia in 1914.
- Enlisting in the AIF in Adelaide, he served with the 50th Battalion on the Western Front. In September 1917 he was wounded in the leg at Polygon Wood and was returned to Australia as medically unfit.
- After the war he worked as a laborer and greaser in South Australia. He was married to an Australian girl, Evylen May Wright, and had five children; his elder son served during WWII on Borneo.
- Gusta Kaarna, a seaman from Kotka in Finland, came to Australia in 1905 and worked as a carpenter and mill hand in Western Australia and was in Kalgoorlie by the time of his enlistment in the AIF.
- A month after his enlistment he was discharged and disappears from the records after that.
Limbek, Nyman, Snider, Karllstrom, Domander
- Yai Limbek, a seaman from Dago (Hiiumaa) Island in Estonia, worked in Perth as a labourer.
- Enlisting in the AIF, he served with the 11th Battalion on the Western Front. He was wounded in the face at Bullecourt in April 1917, experienced delusional insanity and was repatriated to Australia.
- After the war, in 1919, he was employed on the railway, but disappears from the records after that.
- Julius Ivar Edmund Nyman came to Australia with his parents in 1899; they were followers of the charismatic Finnish leader Matti Kurikka, who tried to establish a Utopian community in Australia. Julius grew up in Yandina in Queensland, working as a carpenter and postal mechanic.
- Enlisting in the AIF in Warwick, he served with the 49th Battalion on the Western Front. In June 1917 he was wounded in the arm at Messines and in the leg at Polygon Wood in September 1917. After the second casualty he was repatriated to Australia.
- After the war he married an Australian girl, Hilda Frances Ward, and lived in Warwick working as a postal electrician.
- Alexander Snider from Kramkowa in Poland worked as a machine-man in Kurri Kurri, most likely in the mines there.
- Enlisting in the AIF in West Maitland, he served with the 34th Battalion on the Western Front; in 1918 he was transferred the Australian Army Ordnance Corps and awarded the Meritorious Service Medal for efficient service there.
- After the war he married an Australian girl, Ella Mackenzie, and lived in Ryde, working as a machinist. His son Alexander Matheson Snider served in the AIF in WWII.
- Gunnar Karllstrom, a Finn from Helsingfors (Helsinki), came to Australia in 1910 and worked as a labourer in Korumburra, Melbourne, and Ballarat. Already after enlistment in the army he married an Australian girl, Margaret Hanratty, and had a son.
- He went with the 39th Battalion to the Western Front in November 1916 and died of wounds in January 1917.
- When news about his death reached Ballarat, the flags on the City and Town Halls were flown at half-mast.
- Charles Domander, a Finn from Abo (Turku), came to South Australia in 1898 and worked as a fisherman in Port Adelaide.
- Enlisting in the AIF, he served with the 48th Battalion on the Western Front.
- After the war he continued working on his boat ‘Anna’ on the South Australian Coast.