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The 'Fabritsius' with probably 200 of us aboard reached Kherson in one night. In Kherson we boarded another ship, a small one, and sailed up the Dnieper at night anchoring at daytime to not reveal our whereabouts. We had patriotic spirits: we were to fight and struggle. We reached Dnepropetrovsk where I was enlisted in the 56th artillery equestrian regiment. We got washed, changed into uniforms, packed our civilian clothes into rucksacks and handed them in for storage, and they told us, 'When it's time for you to demobilize, you will get them back'. They gave us scrapers and we went to clean horses. It was fearful - a mare kicking with her hind legs - I was afraid of getting closer. Our first sergeant was an uneducated man - one could tell he came from a village. We lined up in the evening and he said, 'I don't care that you have education! You will wash the mares' tails!' For several days we were cleaning the stables, and unloading barges in the port. Then we were sent to excavate trenches and tank ditches. Finally, though they had never trained us to shoot with rifles, they gave us rifles and sent us to the trenches in the direction of Dnepropetrovsk.
Period
Interview
Arnold Fabrikant
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