Selected text
I left for Kalmykovo and became a geodesist assistant. I delivered water to them at work and cooked for them. In August 1942 I was invited to the district town. The chairman of the district council told me that it was time for my recruitment to the army, but that he was going to make me stay since the district needed educated people and I had secondary education. I remember how in lines for bread local people were muttering about those in evacuation: 'they ran away from the Germans and don't want to fight...' I said that I would join the army so that nobody thought I was a coward. The gathering point was in the town of Uralsk, Orenburg region [2,500 km from Kiev]. The chairman of the district council gave me food to take with me and I left for Uralsk. There I entered the Leningrad military communications school evacuated to Uralsk. We had advanced eight-month training. After finishing the school we went to the front. I was awarded the rank of sergeant and sent to Sokolniki near Moscow. A captain came to our barrack and read the order that I and a few others were appointed communications operators in the 15th fighting engineering brigade.
Period
Location
Russia
Interview
lev mistetskiy