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Three years had passed since I finished my School, it was necessary to go on studying; I decided to enter the Higher Officers Classes for Hydrography Specialists in Leningrad. I was the best graduate: I became a lieutenant commander and was sent to the Pacific Ocean. As the best student, I had the right to choose fleet. They said ‘Sure, you may choose, but we know that you served in the south.’ – ‘I am ready to serve on the Baltic Sea. Do I have the right to choose fleet?’ - ‘Yes, you do.’ … And they sent me to the Pacific Ocean. Probably, my Jewish origin played its role: it happened in 1951.
I arrived in Sovetskaya Gavan on the Pacific Ocean: conditions there were even harder than in Vladivostok. [Sovetskaya Gavan is a city in the Far East of Russia.] [Vladivostok is a city-port in the Far East of Russia.] A nightmare! I went to headquarters and said ‘As I got to the Pacific Ocean, I ask you to give me an opportunity to go further - to Kamchatka.’ I already got to know that in Kamchatka one had an opportunity to serve only 3 years, whereas in Sovetskaya Gavan it was possible to spend a hundred years or even more. They told me that in Kamchatka there were no duties of a commander. I said ‘Guys, I’ll give you a receipt that I do not object to be appointed to any post, but in Kamchatka.’ My wife and my child (1 year and a half old) were together with me: they lived in a barge (there was no other place for living). It was heated by means of a small stove: ice on one side, warmth on the other one. That was the way officers lived at that time. Certainly, they sent me to Kamchatka.
We got to Vladivostok, got on board the steamship, and went to Kamchatka, to Petropavlovsk-Kamchatskiy.
I arrived in Sovetskaya Gavan on the Pacific Ocean: conditions there were even harder than in Vladivostok. [Sovetskaya Gavan is a city in the Far East of Russia.] [Vladivostok is a city-port in the Far East of Russia.] A nightmare! I went to headquarters and said ‘As I got to the Pacific Ocean, I ask you to give me an opportunity to go further - to Kamchatka.’ I already got to know that in Kamchatka one had an opportunity to serve only 3 years, whereas in Sovetskaya Gavan it was possible to spend a hundred years or even more. They told me that in Kamchatka there were no duties of a commander. I said ‘Guys, I’ll give you a receipt that I do not object to be appointed to any post, but in Kamchatka.’ My wife and my child (1 year and a half old) were together with me: they lived in a barge (there was no other place for living). It was heated by means of a small stove: ice on one side, warmth on the other one. That was the way officers lived at that time. Certainly, they sent me to Kamchatka.
We got to Vladivostok, got on board the steamship, and went to Kamchatka, to Petropavlovsk-Kamchatskiy.
Period
Interview
Boris Lesman