Arnold Fabrikant

This is me, Arnold Fabrikant, as a cadet of the military school. This photo was taken in Piatigorsk on 20th December 1941. We patrolled Piatigorsk during the war, when people were still spending time at resorts. Street photographers invited passers-by to have their photographs taken. I got tempted to be photographed during one of my patrols. A few days later I picked up my photo and sent it to my mother. On 3rd July the guys I knew began to receive subpoenas to the army. I also received one. On 22nd July, the day of the first bombing of Odessa, we, recruits, were gathered in a port club, lined up in columns at about 4pm and marched to the port. Our parents were seeing us off. I took with me what was included in the list of the military office: a spoon, a pot, a pair of underwear, a towel, soap and a toothbrush. In autumn 1941, after participating in combats near Dnepropetrovsk, I happened to be in the group that was sent to the town of Piatigorsk where the 68th separate Navy shooting brigade was being formed. I was enlisted in a mortar unit of a bombardment company of 50-mm mortars. Our unit consisted of five people: the commanding officer, three mine deliverers and a gun layer. I happened to be a gun layer. We began to learn the mortar discipline. The company deployed at the Mashuck Mountain. Winter started and we began to learn how to ski. We skied up to the hill where Lermontov had had a duel. Then we either skied, if we managed, or rolled down the hill.