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.
Robin, Snellman, Tarasowf
- David Kalmen Robin, or Rabinowitz, from Belostok in Poland came to Western Australia in 1903 as a young man. He lived in Bunbury and Fremantle and was engaged in commence. In 1909 he moved to the US and applied for naturalisation there, but by 1913 he came back to Australia, settled in Sydney and married an Australian girl, Florence Rogan. In 1914 they had a son.
- Enlisting in the AIF he fought with the 18th Battalion at Gallipoli and then was transferred to the Western Front, where he was killed on 16 April 1916, being the first to fall on the Western Front among the Russian born soldiers.
- His son Max Robin served during WWII in the Royal Australian Navy in the North Africa and Middle East.
- John Victor Snellman, a seaman from Hango in Finland, came to Australia in 1912.
- Enlisting in the AIF he landed with the reinforcements to the 18th Battalion at Gallipoli in September 1915. By December he became mentally ill, was was evacuated to Abbasia hospital in Egypt, and finally to Australia.
- In Australia he recovered and worked as a postal assistant and tramway employee in Sydney. In 1916 he married Australian girl Grace Smith and had a family.
- Thomas Tarasowf, born in Minsk, Belarus, came to Queensland via the Russian Far East in 1913. He was a fitter by trade and worked in Townsville.
- Enlisting in the AIF he sailed to Egypt with the 26th Battalion, but upon arrival was transferred to the 2nd Pioneer Battalion. He served for nearly 3 years in France, suffering from different ailments and occasionally getting into trouble for AWLs.
- Returning to Australia he worked in Mackay and Rockhampton (probably as a cane-cutter) and then in Mount Morgan as a miner, until he succumbed to TB from which he died in 1940.
Lemish, Renaud, Dorfman
- Aaron Lemish from Vishnevichi in Volyn Province of Ukraine deserted from the Russian army soon after conscription and fled to Australia from Harbin in 1911. He worked in Brisbane and Bundaberg as a labourer and flour-mill hand.
- Enlisting in the AIF in Brisbane, he was discharged six months later as medically unfit.
- In 1917 he married a Jewish girl, Rae Crucheck, in Melbourne and had a large family. During WWII he and his two elder sons enlisted in the AIF.
- Martin Nicolay Renaud from Riga in Latvia came to Australia in 1908, probably as a seaman. After working in coastal shipping and on smelters at Ravensthorpe in Western Australia, he settled in Perth.
- He fought at Gallipoli with the 11th Battalion and then on the Western Front with the 51st Battalion. He was severely wounded in the head at Armentieres in July 1916 and returned to Australia.
- After the war he settled in Mandurah, south of Perth, working as an orchadist, and made several trips to the UK.
- Wolf Dorfman came from Rovno in Volyn Province in Ukraine. After three years of service in the Russian Army he became engaged in trade in Eastern Asia.
- Arriving in Sydney in May 1915, he enlisted in the AIF a few weeks later and sailed to Egypt with the reinforcements of the 13th Battalion. After training in Egypt he was transferred to the 54th Battalion and sent to the Western Front. A few days after his arrival in July 1916, he was reported as missing in action during his first battle. This was the battle of the Sugarloaf salient near Fromelles. It turned out that he was taken prisoner of war by the Germans and spent over two years in captivity, making an unsuccessful attempt to escape.
- Upon returning to Australia in 1919 he settled in Melbourne and was engaged in trade with the Far East. In 1931 he married and had a daughter.
Brodsky, Gustafsson, Bartels
- Louis Brodsky, a Jewish seaman from Odessa, came to Australia in 1901. He was a sympathiser for the socialist cause. He lived in Sydney and then in Melbourne, working as a cleaner and dryer. He married and had a family.
- Enlisting in the AIF, he reached Egypt, but deserted from his battalion and sailed on the ships as a steward.
- Returning to Australia after the war, he was not prosecuted. In the 1920s he tried to develop trade relations with Soviet Russia and made a trip to Russia. During WWII he tried to enlist in the AIF once again, and not long before his death he dreamt to take his new young family to the Soviet Union.
- Gustaf Adolf Gustafsson was born in Nyland (Uusimaa) in Finland and came to South Australia in 1912 probably as a seaman. He lived in townships on the Eyre Peninsula, working as a labourer and a packer.
- Enlisting in the AIF, he came to Gallipoli with the reinforcements of the 10th Battalion and continued his service on the Western Front in the 4th Pioneer Battalion. In July 1917 he received shrapnel wounds to his back and right leg, but recovered and returned to the trenches.
- After the war he left for the US, and had a family there.
- John Bartels, a young sailor from Pärnu, Estonia, enlisted in the AIF in Sydney.
- With reinforcements to the 3rd Battalion he sailed to Gallipoli, where he was wounded in the neck in December 1915. After recovery he was sent to the Western Front with his unit, where, as a result of conflicts with his NCO, he was court martialled in June 1916 and sentenced to one year’s imprisonment with hard labour, but the sentence was commuted and he was sent back to the trenches. A month later he was killed at Sugarloaf, in the first major battle.
- His mother Anna Bartels was found in Pärnu in 1922 and received his medals.
Korenew, Merkulski, Sepp
- Jan Korenew, born in Odoev in Tula Province, came to Australia in 1912. Although he had the trade of a cement worker and engineer, he worked on a poultry farm on the outskirts of Adelaide in South Australia.
- Enlisting in the AIF, he came to Gallipoli with the 12th Battalion not long before the evacuation of the troops from the peninsula. He continued his service on the Western Front with the 52nd Battalion. In September 1916 he was killed at the battle for Mouquet Farm.
- His family in Tula was never found.
- Johannes Benjamin Merkulski was born in the township Vaivara near Narva in Estonia. In his naturalisation application he provided his nationality as ‘Russian Finn’, but it is more likely that he was Baltic German or Estonian. Arriving to Australia in 1903, he settled in the township of Ross in the eastern part of Tasmania and was engaged in general farm and other work. He also mastered the trade of a blacksmith.
- Enlisting in the AIF, he served on the Western front with the artillery brigade and finished the war with the rank of farrier sergeant.
- After the war he moved to Melbourne and married an Australian girl, Josephine Hodgson.
- Hendri Teodor Sepp, an Estonian seaman, came to South Australia in 1911 and settled in Port Adelaide, working as a wharf labourer.
- He came to Gallipoli with the 12th Battalion not long before evacuation of the troops from the peninsula. He continued his service on the Western Front; in April 1917 he was wounded at Bullecourt and died of wounds the same day.
- His brother, a seaman as well, was found after the war, while his Australian friends placed commemorative advertisements in the local newspaper on the day of his death, and remembered him for a long time afterwards.
Leksman, Brenka, Ivanoff
- Richard Leksman from Vindava (Ventspils) in Latvia lived in Birkenhead (Port Adelaide) with the Glazbrook family.
- He fought on the Western Front with the 27th Battalion. In November 1916 he was killed in the battle for the Somme.
- He had no living relatives, but his Australian friends, the Glazbrook family, commemorated his death in the local newspaper.
- John Brente Brenka, when enlisting in the AIF, provided his place of birth as ‘Wolkowiskai’, which could be Vilkaviskis in Lithuania, but, according to the consular letter confirming his nationality, he came from ‘Vilkomir’, which is now Ukmerge in Lithuania. At the same time his name suggests that he might have been of German stock. He landed in Australia in 1914, deserting a ship, and worked at Shepperton’s Sawmills, Gumeracha near Blumberg in South Australia.
- Enlisting in the AIF he came to Gallipoli with the 10th Battalion, not long before the troops’ evacuation from the peninsula. He continued his service with the 50th Battalion on the Western Front. He was wounded in June 1916, but returned to duty three days later. In August 1916 he received multiple gunshot wounds at the Mouquet Farm battle and died a week later in hospital in Boulogne.
- His mother Agi Brenke was never found, but residents of Blumberg (later renamed Birdwood) commemorated his supreme sacrifice in the war memorial, where his name was listed along with other ‘Birdwood boys’.
- John Ivanoff, a Russian ship’s fireman from Libava (now Liepaja, Latvia), came to Sydney in 1915 and enlisted in the AIF three weeks later.
- He served with the 20th Battalion at Gallipoli and on the Western Front. During the war he was court matrialled a couple of times, but also commended for ‘excellent sniping work’ in May 1918 and recommended for the Military Medal in August 1918 for his bravery during the Amiens advance. His commander wrote: ‘during the attack […] an enemy machine gun greatly hampered the advance. This soldier on his own initiative outflanked and bombed the gun single-handed, which he captured, killing the crew of five’.
- Earlier, in May 1917 Ivanoff was wounded in the chest and arm at the attack at Bullecourt. While recuperating in a British hospital he met a local girl, Lilian Fox, and married before he was despatched back to the trenches. In April 1918 he was wounded for the second time, but remained on duty, and finally, after his exploits in the Amiens advance, he was wounded in the right hand and evacuated to England just in time to meet his daughter Lillian Violet, born in September 1918.
- Ivanov returned to Australia in December 1918, followed by his wife and daughter. In Australia they had three sons. Ivanoff, after working for several years stevedoring on the Sydney wharves, took on a shop in Alexandria, and then had a fruit run for some years at Newtown, which involved the whole family. Finally, owing to the Depression, ‘they moved to Berowra, where John worked on the Pacific Highway operating the jack-hammer at the construction site of the S-bends at Mt Kuring-gai’. During WWII John Ivanoff enlisted in the AIF and served in the garrison battalion at Hay Internment Camp, guarding Italian and Japanese POWs. His elder son Ronald John enlisted as well and served in the RAN.
Ravolaine, Adamson, Hendrickson
- David Ravolaine, a Finnish sailor from Vyborg, came to Australia in 1910 and worked as a labourer in Bourke, Muswellbrook, Narrabri, and Wee Waa in NSW.
- Enlisting in the AIF, he was appointed Lance Corporal and joined the 3rd Battalion on the Western Front. In July 1916 he was killed in the Battle for Pozieres.
- Hendrik Adamson from Pärnu in Estonia came to Australia, probably as a sailor, in 1913 and settled in Port Adelaide.
- He served with the 10th Battalion on the Western Front, was wounded in June 1916 and was returned to Australia as medically unfit.
- After the war he lived in South Australia.
- John Hendrickson, a Finnish seaman, served for three years in the Russian Army before coming to Australia.
- Enlisting in the AIF, he reached Gallipoli at the time of the evacuation of the troops in December 1915 and continued his service on the Western Front with the 29th Battalion. In December 1916 he was wounded at the Somme, but returned to the trenches; a few days later he died from a stroke. At that time he was 42 years old.
Kavitski, Weinberg, Fraser
- Vasily Kavitski, a Ukrainian seaman from Kiev, came to Australia in 1913 and worked as a labourer in South Australia.
- He served with the 27th battalion on the Western Front. In September 1917 he was returned to Australia suffering from ‘trench foot’, a condition that plagued the army during trench warfare.
- After the war he lived in Port Pirie, working as a boilermaker. In the early 1920s he received permission to leave Australia and most likely returned to Ukraine.
- Atti (Otto) Weinberg from Riga worked as a labourer in South Australia.
- He served with the 11th Battalion on the Western Front. In July 1916 he was wounded in his right arm at the battle for Pozieres and evacuated to Australia.
- After the war he took different jobs in outback New South Wales: he lived in Broken Hill, Moree and Cootamundra.
- Ernest Fraser, a sailor from Riga, lived in Wyalong in New South Wales.
- Enlisting in the AIF he fought with the 13th Battalion at Gallipoli, and then served on the Western Front as a gunner in the 10th Field Artillery Brigade. In October 1917 he was gassed at Passchendaele, but continued service, latter attaing the rank of Farrier Corporal.
- After the war he lived in Liverpool, NSW.
All, Kara, Wiseman, Allikas
- Peter All, an Estonian seaman from Saaremaa Island, came to Australia in 1914 and enlisted in the AIF in Sydney.
- He sailed to Gallipoli with reinforcements to the 2nd Battalion. He continued his service on the Western Front where he died of wounds at the battle of the Somme in October 1916.
- His widowed mother was found after the war in Estonia and was supported by an Australian pension.
- Niilo Kara, a Finnish seaman from Pihlajavesi, Tampere, came to South Australia in 1914, deserting his ship.
- He enlisted in Melbourne, came to Gallipoli with the 24th Battalion and was wounded in the right knee at the end of the Gallipoli campaign.
- Being invalided to Australia, he settled in Manangatang, a soldier settlement in Victoria, becoming a wheat farmer, but later moved to Queensland working as a prospector and sugar cane cutter.
- When WWII broke out he enlisted in the AIF once again and served in Egypt, Palestine, Syria, Lebanon, and New Guinea.
- Martin Wiseman, a Latvian from Riga, settled in Semaphore (Port Adelaide) in South Australia, working as a stevedore and labourer. He married a local girl, Violet, and had a daughter.
- Enlisting in the AIF he sailed to Gallipoli with the 10th Battalion and continued his service on the Western Front with the 50th Battalion. In August 1916 he was wounded at the battle for Mouquet Farm, but remained on duty. A year later he was severely wounded by shrapnel to the right thigh and arms and, after treatment in an English hospital, was invalided to Australia.
- After the war he lived with his family in Semaphore, but had to survive one more blow, when their only child Edna died in 1922.
- Alexander Allikas, a seaman from Estonia, came to Australia in 1909 and settled in Arno Bay in South Australia.
- He served with the 27th Battalion at Gallipoli and then, as a sapper, with the 7th Field Company Engineers on the Western Front. He was wounded at the Somme in November 1916 and then once again in April 1918 and invalided to Australia.
- After the war he lived in Tasmania, having a large family with Beatrice Free, working as a labourer and occasionally putting to good use his knowledge of nautical knots.
Kallio, Wolkowsky, Skowronski
- Tovio John Kallio from Vyborg in Finland came to South Australia in 1912 and was working as a farm hand on the Yorke Peninsula.
- In the AIF he joined the 3rd Light Horse Regiment and fought at Gallipoli and in Egypt. In July 1916 he became seriously sick and was invalided to Australia.
- After the war he married and farmed in Burra in South Australia. He was an active member of the local community and RSL.
- Cezar Wolkowsky from Lipki near Kiev in Ukraine came from a Polish family and studied in a military school in Russia. He sailed to Australia in 1914 on the invitation of his elder brother Theofil Volkofsky, who successfully settled in Bourke.
- Enlisting in the AIF he came with the 19th Battalion to Gallipoli in August 1915 where he was severely wounded two weeks later and invalided to Australia in April 1916.
- After the Russian revolution of 1917 Cezar supported Bolshevik ideas, but his marriage to the Australian girl Gwynnyth Woodberry and the Australian authorities’ refusal to naturalize him somewhat moderated his political allegiances. He worked as a tram conductor in Sydney and fathered two daughters, one of which, Marea, became a soprano singer and a writer.
- Stanley Skowronski, a young Pole from Lodz, sailed at Sydney on the eve of the Great War with Gerard Skugar, another Pole from Vilno. Their occupations were recorded as artists. Stanley’s brother Joseph moved to Australia two years earlier. In Australia Stanley worked as a motor driver. Stanley joined the Polish Society and was involved in the organization of concerts to aid war victims, particularly in Poland.
- He enlisted in the AIF a month after the Gallipoli landing, but stayed in the training depot and was discharged in September 1915 suffering from a bullet wound in the leg (a result of an accident).
- After the war he settled in Sydney, married and established himself as glass etcher, patenting some of his technical inventions. He was also actively involved in Polish communal life in Sydney, becoming the president of the Polish National Alliance of Australia. In 1949 he left for Poland for a visit and his tracks disappear after that.
Vesala, Dahlstrom, Lesnie
- Frans Viktor Vesala, a Finnish seaman, came to Hobart in 1905. He worked in Hobart and Port Adelaide in coastal shipping.
- Enlisting in the AIF as Carlson he came to Gallipoli with the 19th Battalion and was wounded during the August 1915 battles. Recovering, he continued his service on the Western Front where he was killed at the Somme in November 1916.
- His relatives in the Finnish village of Koylio were found after the war.
- Emil Dahlstrom, a Finnish seaman, came to Australia on a Norwegian sailing ship from South America when the war broke out.
- Enlisting in the AIF he fought at Gallipoli and on the Western Front, being wounded at Broodseinde near Ypres in October 1917. He recovered and won a Military Medal at the end of war risking his own life to save the wounded.
- After the war he settled in Bomaderry near Nowra, marrying a local girl, Winifred Jones, and working as a PMG linesman.
- Frank Bernard Hershorn Lesnie was born, according to his mother, in Warsaw. When he was a young child his family came to England, where he received good education. In around 1914 he emigrated to Australia, aiming to engage in farming.
- He was rejected on medical grounds when he tried to enlist, but at the second attempt, after the Gallipoli landing, he succeeded and joined the 19th Battalion, later being transferred to the 17th Battalion. He enlisted under the name of Frank Bernard, a native of London. While serving in Gallipoli and on the Western Front he wrote detailed letters to his family in England, graphically describing his everyday life and horrors of war. In December 1916 he was granted leave and visited his family in London. In March 1917 he was killed during the attack on the German trenches near Bapaume.
- After the war his mother, who moved to Australia, donated a copy of his war letters to the Australian War Memorial.