Her name was Serafima Rabinovich, a Jewess. If I am not mistaken, she was born in Belarus (in Mogilev) in 1928, on 31st December. But before the war she lived in Sevastopol with her parents Abram and Raissa. Raissa was a housewife, and I do not remember her father’s profession. Her family was not religious, her mother tongue was Russian.
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Boris Lesman
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At that time I got acquainted with my future wife – it happened in the House of Officers during some celebration. We got married when I returned home from abroad finally.
,
After WW2
See text in interview
In Kerch I served during one year (in 1947-1948), until they sent me back to Sevastopol and half a year later - abroad, to the Danube River.
Suddenly they called me and told that there came an order from Moscow to send me on Danube, to the Danube Military River Flotilla. ‘Very good!’ I got my documents and left for Izmail. [Izmail is a city on the Danube River near the Romanian border.] After my arrival they said ‘You go adroad for postwar creeping.’ Danube was stuffed with mines: Germans dropped them, Russians dropped, Americans and French did it. It meant that Danube was completely unsuitable for navigation: mines were everywhere. As for me I was an experienced specialist in creeping: I did it on the Black Sea and on the Azov Sea, too. On the Azov Sea I was blown up and thrown overboard, nearly died… And there it was necessary to creep all Danube long: through Germany, Austria, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, Romania, and Bulgaria. It was necessary to creep, and I was appointed for that job – I do not know for what sins or battle services. We were in the process of training for about a month, our commander estimated our achievements, taught us the way to behave (you know, in the USSR authorities always taught people how to behave), etc. And we started: from Germany to Bulgaria twenty two times! That means that we shuttled over each area 22 times, because Germans made special magnetic mines, which reacted only to the 22nd pass of a ship: the first ship passed by – nothing happened, the second one passed – nothing happened, and only the 22nd one caused explosion. That means that twenty one ships could pass over that dangerous place safe, and the 22nd one had to be lost. That is why we moved there and back over every area 22 times, and then passed on to the next one – again and again along the whole river. Only after we finished, navigation was opened.
Vienna was damaged greatly. In Budapest all five bridges across the Danube River were destroyed [editor's note: the interviewee is wrong, there were seven bridges across the Danube]; and in 1948 all of them were still in ruins down in the Danube; people used bridges of boats, though 4 years had passed since Hungary was liberated. Situation in Belgrad was better. In Belgrad they started to develop uninhabited islands in the mouth of Drava River: they arranged communist subbotniks [24] (they were all Communists), where millions of people worked under banners and flags to ‘build the best decoration of the Earth.’ They worked so enthusiastically! They were building new city. At present that place is very beautiful.
I saw Marshal Tito, Rankovich, Kardel, Milutinovich, and doctor Ribar: in fact, I saw all the Yugoslavian history. Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary, Czechoslovakia followed our socialist way of development, except Yugoslavia. However hard Stalin tried to break them down, Tito went capitalist way. Therefore in Pravda Newspaper there appeared an article, signed by the CC [the Communist Party Central Committee] - we all knew that that signature meant Stalin himself, he wrote it personally (we recognized his style). It was titled ‘What is the future of the country leaded by the Anti-Communist Tito’s clique?’ There was a caricature: Tito holding an axe, and blood flows down from it. At that time the 5th congress of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia was held in Belgrad. And I was in Belgrad at that moment. In the streets there were tanks, portraits of Stalin and Tito, and slogans ‘Long live Marshal Tito! Long live comrade Stalin!’ Tito gave a five-hour report, I understood it a little (we learned their language), listening to the report by the radio.
Two weeks later they offered us to leave, to go home. By that time I moved from a flat in Belgrad to our ship (they ordered us to move). And as soon as we finished creeping, they ordered us to go home. So I witnessed to moment, when they separated from us, from the Communist International. And only Khrushchev [25] managed to renew contacts many years later. And other countries were with us. I visited Bratislava several times (the former Czechoslovakia), but I have never been to Prague. I have been to Budapest, Bucharest, Bulgaria, and Austria (in Vienna). I simply went there for a walk, when our ship moored there. And in Yugoslavia I managed to spend about 20 days in a hospital. In Novi Sad city there was a Hospital of Yugoslavian National Army - Hospital no.3. I caught cold, and had 22 furuncules and running temperature. I could not sit, lie down, I ate and slept upright. At first I was treated by our doctors, but it went from bad to worse, and they decided to send me to a hospital. They brought me there and left alone.
I was placed in the officer’s ward: 5 beds (4 Yugoslavs and me). But they loved us: ‘Oh! Here is our friend captain!’ I was a lieutenant commander (a captain). They spoke Russian a little, and I knew Yugoslavian a little, because in 1945, 5 Yugoslav's came to study in our School: 2 captains, a senior lieutenant, a lieutenant and a private. And I was appointed to show them Leningrad, to teach them Russian. We made friends. They were Mario Ostoich, Rade Stiela, and Tonko Zanetich. All of them were given Soviet uniform (they arrived in Yugoslavian uniform). I brought them round the city, taught them Russian. And they studied at our School, finished it and left for Yugoslavia. Therefore when I talked to Yugoslavs in the hospital, I already understood a lot of their words. I spent there about 20 days, and then my guys visited me and told me that they were going to leave for Vienna (Austria). ‘What shall we do with you?’ I answered ‘It’s enough, I am going to leave the hospital!’ The hospital command did not object: I was a Soviet officer, they gave me a certificate of health and I left.
But still I was sick. It lasted 2 months more, but not in a hospital. Therefore they gave me a holiday and I went to Simferopol, to my father’s. People working abroad had 45-day leave, in contrast to others (others had only 30 days). I reached Bucharest by transeuropean train Paris – Bucharest, and then I moved to Galatz, crossed the Soviet border and arrived in Izmail. [Galatz is the city-port on the Danube River in Romania.] We did not receive salary during a year, we had savings books. Therefore I arrived very hungry: I could not buy food, having no cash. First of all I went to the bank and received 22 thousand roubles. Rye-bread cost 16 copecks, white bread cost 9 copecks, sausage cost 2 roubles and 20 copecks per kilogram. I wore white uniform (it was summer), I was filling my pockets with money and people stared at me… A car waited for me, I ordered the driver to go to a restaurant. There I ordered meals for the driver and for myself. Then we went to buy a train ticket, and the next day morning I arrived in Odessa. I immediately went to the airport and on April 30 I was already in Simferopol in the face of my father. May 1st was my birthday.
Suddenly they called me and told that there came an order from Moscow to send me on Danube, to the Danube Military River Flotilla. ‘Very good!’ I got my documents and left for Izmail. [Izmail is a city on the Danube River near the Romanian border.] After my arrival they said ‘You go adroad for postwar creeping.’ Danube was stuffed with mines: Germans dropped them, Russians dropped, Americans and French did it. It meant that Danube was completely unsuitable for navigation: mines were everywhere. As for me I was an experienced specialist in creeping: I did it on the Black Sea and on the Azov Sea, too. On the Azov Sea I was blown up and thrown overboard, nearly died… And there it was necessary to creep all Danube long: through Germany, Austria, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, Romania, and Bulgaria. It was necessary to creep, and I was appointed for that job – I do not know for what sins or battle services. We were in the process of training for about a month, our commander estimated our achievements, taught us the way to behave (you know, in the USSR authorities always taught people how to behave), etc. And we started: from Germany to Bulgaria twenty two times! That means that we shuttled over each area 22 times, because Germans made special magnetic mines, which reacted only to the 22nd pass of a ship: the first ship passed by – nothing happened, the second one passed – nothing happened, and only the 22nd one caused explosion. That means that twenty one ships could pass over that dangerous place safe, and the 22nd one had to be lost. That is why we moved there and back over every area 22 times, and then passed on to the next one – again and again along the whole river. Only after we finished, navigation was opened.
Vienna was damaged greatly. In Budapest all five bridges across the Danube River were destroyed [editor's note: the interviewee is wrong, there were seven bridges across the Danube]; and in 1948 all of them were still in ruins down in the Danube; people used bridges of boats, though 4 years had passed since Hungary was liberated. Situation in Belgrad was better. In Belgrad they started to develop uninhabited islands in the mouth of Drava River: they arranged communist subbotniks [24] (they were all Communists), where millions of people worked under banners and flags to ‘build the best decoration of the Earth.’ They worked so enthusiastically! They were building new city. At present that place is very beautiful.
I saw Marshal Tito, Rankovich, Kardel, Milutinovich, and doctor Ribar: in fact, I saw all the Yugoslavian history. Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary, Czechoslovakia followed our socialist way of development, except Yugoslavia. However hard Stalin tried to break them down, Tito went capitalist way. Therefore in Pravda Newspaper there appeared an article, signed by the CC [the Communist Party Central Committee] - we all knew that that signature meant Stalin himself, he wrote it personally (we recognized his style). It was titled ‘What is the future of the country leaded by the Anti-Communist Tito’s clique?’ There was a caricature: Tito holding an axe, and blood flows down from it. At that time the 5th congress of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia was held in Belgrad. And I was in Belgrad at that moment. In the streets there were tanks, portraits of Stalin and Tito, and slogans ‘Long live Marshal Tito! Long live comrade Stalin!’ Tito gave a five-hour report, I understood it a little (we learned their language), listening to the report by the radio.
Two weeks later they offered us to leave, to go home. By that time I moved from a flat in Belgrad to our ship (they ordered us to move). And as soon as we finished creeping, they ordered us to go home. So I witnessed to moment, when they separated from us, from the Communist International. And only Khrushchev [25] managed to renew contacts many years later. And other countries were with us. I visited Bratislava several times (the former Czechoslovakia), but I have never been to Prague. I have been to Budapest, Bucharest, Bulgaria, and Austria (in Vienna). I simply went there for a walk, when our ship moored there. And in Yugoslavia I managed to spend about 20 days in a hospital. In Novi Sad city there was a Hospital of Yugoslavian National Army - Hospital no.3. I caught cold, and had 22 furuncules and running temperature. I could not sit, lie down, I ate and slept upright. At first I was treated by our doctors, but it went from bad to worse, and they decided to send me to a hospital. They brought me there and left alone.
I was placed in the officer’s ward: 5 beds (4 Yugoslavs and me). But they loved us: ‘Oh! Here is our friend captain!’ I was a lieutenant commander (a captain). They spoke Russian a little, and I knew Yugoslavian a little, because in 1945, 5 Yugoslav's came to study in our School: 2 captains, a senior lieutenant, a lieutenant and a private. And I was appointed to show them Leningrad, to teach them Russian. We made friends. They were Mario Ostoich, Rade Stiela, and Tonko Zanetich. All of them were given Soviet uniform (they arrived in Yugoslavian uniform). I brought them round the city, taught them Russian. And they studied at our School, finished it and left for Yugoslavia. Therefore when I talked to Yugoslavs in the hospital, I already understood a lot of their words. I spent there about 20 days, and then my guys visited me and told me that they were going to leave for Vienna (Austria). ‘What shall we do with you?’ I answered ‘It’s enough, I am going to leave the hospital!’ The hospital command did not object: I was a Soviet officer, they gave me a certificate of health and I left.
But still I was sick. It lasted 2 months more, but not in a hospital. Therefore they gave me a holiday and I went to Simferopol, to my father’s. People working abroad had 45-day leave, in contrast to others (others had only 30 days). I reached Bucharest by transeuropean train Paris – Bucharest, and then I moved to Galatz, crossed the Soviet border and arrived in Izmail. [Galatz is the city-port on the Danube River in Romania.] We did not receive salary during a year, we had savings books. Therefore I arrived very hungry: I could not buy food, having no cash. First of all I went to the bank and received 22 thousand roubles. Rye-bread cost 16 copecks, white bread cost 9 copecks, sausage cost 2 roubles and 20 copecks per kilogram. I wore white uniform (it was summer), I was filling my pockets with money and people stared at me… A car waited for me, I ordered the driver to go to a restaurant. There I ordered meals for the driver and for myself. Then we went to buy a train ticket, and the next day morning I arrived in Odessa. I immediately went to the airport and on April 30 I was already in Simferopol in the face of my father. May 1st was my birthday.
On the 3rd course I became a lieutenant commander for my long service: I was at war! Being an excellent cadet and a former front-line soldier, I had the right to choose the fleet to serve at. I chose the Black Sea, because I was born there. I arrived in Sevastopol and said ‘I want to serve in Kerch.’ As I was a specialist in hydrography, I was appointed to research hydrographic group. [Sevastopol is a city-port in Crimea.] I arrived in Kerch: earlier I was simply Boris, and by that time I became a four-star lieutenant commander.
I started thinking where I to go after the hospital. Of course, to the front. Later I decided that it would be better to join Lev. By means of field mail he informed me that he was able to take me to his unit. And it meant serving not at the front line, but somewhere in a financial department. By that time I already was a senior lieutenant. And my uncle arranged a request from the front line, from his unit ‘… to detach the senior lieutenant Lesman to our unit.’ But at that time I got to know by chance that according to Stalin’s order, all man-of-war's men had to return to fleet. All of us were in infantry: they threw us to Stalingrad on feet, because the course of war events was extremely hard. I addressed the hospital command, and they answered ‘We have no right to send you to the School: we do not know such order of comrade Stalin.’ – ‘But I have official information that they return seamen!’ – ‘Certainly we can send you to the front line. Otherwise you have to recall your assignment.’ And I wrote my uncle (nervously and urgently) ‘Lev, I have an opportunity to get back to the Navy School, please recall your request.’
And they sent a telegram from the front line ‘We do not object to sending Lesman to the Navy School.’ That was the way I got back to the School and finished the 2nd, the 3rd, the 4th course and became a seaman. So Lev made a good act, a very good act for me: my uncle turned to be very fine to me! We were 5 on the course, who returned from the front according to the Stalin’s order; in total 22 cadets from 300 were back at School. I returned to School, which was in evacuation in Baku, at the end of April 1944. On 4th July 1944 the School got back to Leningrad, because the siege had been already raised. Destructions were not great, but people changed a lot, naturally: they starved 900 days during the siege. Leningrad looked not very attractively, but it was already clean: its citizens already introduced order in it.
And they sent a telegram from the front line ‘We do not object to sending Lesman to the Navy School.’ That was the way I got back to the School and finished the 2nd, the 3rd, the 4th course and became a seaman. So Lev made a good act, a very good act for me: my uncle turned to be very fine to me! We were 5 on the course, who returned from the front according to the Stalin’s order; in total 22 cadets from 300 were back at School. I returned to School, which was in evacuation in Baku, at the end of April 1944. On 4th July 1944 the School got back to Leningrad, because the siege had been already raised. Destructions were not great, but people changed a lot, naturally: they starved 900 days during the siege. Leningrad looked not very attractively, but it was already clean: its citizens already introduced order in it.
Once on the Ukraine front in Antratsit city we held the line during April, May, and June 1943. Germans did not disturb us, neither did we. Peaceful life was around us: Ukraine, summer - amazing time... I was a batallion commander, a senior lieutenant. I do not remember how it happened, but there appeared a photographer, and took a photo of us together with Boulatnikov, a headquarters commander. We were standing in the street, when a very young girl passed by. I said ‘Let’s have our picture taken!’ And she agreed. After that she left and I know nothing about her name or place of residence. She lived in Antratsit, and she was about 17 or 18 years old - that was all I knew about her.
At that time I served in the 51st army, where I managed to get, thanks to my teacher of physics.
About 40 years have passed. In 1983 or 1982 I was invited to Antratsit to participate in some celebration. We were 7 (former soldiers). Hospitality of local citizens was fantastic - we had been among those who liberated their city. They arranged tasty meal for us and invited to the local museum, where showed an exposition devoted to our division and regiment.
At that time I served in the 51st army, where I managed to get, thanks to my teacher of physics.
About 40 years have passed. In 1983 or 1982 I was invited to Antratsit to participate in some celebration. We were 7 (former soldiers). Hospitality of local citizens was fantastic - we had been among those who liberated their city. They arranged tasty meal for us and invited to the local museum, where showed an exposition devoted to our division and regiment.
November 19 became the Day of Artillery and Rocket Troops, because it was the day of full-scale offensive in Stalingrad. I was a lieutenant, an assistant of company commander, but by the end of the day I already became a company commander. Statistics tells us that during that battle, a terrible, a dreadful battle platoon leader commanders lived 3 days. On the fourth day they were either killed or wounded; company commanders lived 7 days. I became a company commander and managed to drag out my life from November 19 till December 2. The temperature was 30 degrees below zero, and we wore thin socks and naval boxcalf boots. We were in field caps! 30 degrees below zero!
I went to commissary and asked to give me a pistol. They gave me a rifle, an old Russian rifle, rusty. Sergeant fired it several times to clean it and gave it to me. ‘I am a lieutenant.’ – ‘Procure a gun in action! We have no pistols!’ To tell the truth, by evening 18 people remained from 100, and only 1 officer – me. So, I was a company commander, I was a platoon leader commander, and I was a section leader at the same time. There was no place to take cover: it was impossible to dig trenches, because the ground was frozen – that was the way we ‘amused ourselves’.
There I got my feet and hands frostbitten and also was wounded - therefore in the hospital they treated me both for my wound and for chilblain. A German sniper managed to take aim at us: we had to lie down on the ground covered with snow; we could not move our hands or legs (he would have shot us). And we were underclad… We had to lie still till dark. We were two: I and a political officer [23] lieutenant Diveykin. Our hands and feet got absolutely frostbitten: we were in boxcalf boots and in rag gloves – not suitable for winter conditions. And only after dark we started rolling over and crawling away. At that time the sniper wounded me in the buttock by an explosive bullet. And the same bullet caused a fatal wound in the stomach of Diveykin. When we reached our positions, we were brought to a hospital. In the hospital a doctor looked at me (I was 19 years old – a child) and said to a soldier ‘Bring him (me) to the operating-room, and take that guy over there.’ – ‘Where?!’ – ‘Over there, I said: he is dead.’ On our way to the hospital he spoke to me, he called me ‘lieutenant’! So, I was quickly operated, and Diveykin…
They took me away to Uralsk to a hospital, where I spent a month and several days. [Uralsk is a city in Kazakhstan.] After that I left hospital and went to the front via Saratov. [Saratov is a city on the Volga River.] In Saratov I spent a day or two. And once early in the morning I was walking to Saratov railway station to learn about the departure time of the train from Saratov to Stalingrad front (in south direction). And I was walking along an empty street (January, 7 o’clock in the morning, snowstorm) and suddenly saw a figure across the street: that was my uncle Lev! Can you imagine that it could happen during the war, at 7 o’clock in the morning! I embraced him. He was a junior lieutenant, I was a lieutenant. We embraced and kissed ‘Where are you from?’ – ‘I am from hospital. And you?’ – ‘I go from the Caucasus (Germans were already in the Caucasus by January 1942) to our headquarters to get informed about my destination.’ – ‘Do you have a place to live here?’ – ‘No, I don’t’ – ‘Come with me!’ And we spent 2 days together with him. Later I left Saratov, but I gave him my father’s address in Chapaevsk, and through my father we found each other: got to know our field mail addresses.
It was my first wound. I have got to Stalingrad front. By that time Paulus troops had already been encircled, but not taken yet. So I was moving to the south by train. I was lying on the upper berth (my wound still bothered me). Three officers were sitting below: two lieutenants and one junior lieutenant. They were talking, suddenly I looked at that junior lieutenant … and understood that I knew him! ‘Konstantin Vassilyevich! Hi!’ He looked at me. I said ‘Konstantin Vassilyevich, don’t you recognize me? You are my teacher of physics, and I am Lesman …’ – ‘Oh, Boris!’ We embraced …
He was a junior lieutenant. He said ‘Boris, where are you going?’ – ‘To our headquarters.’ – ‘Listen, come with me, to our army. We will be there together.’ – ‘But can it cause any troubles for me?’ – ‘No, you will go to the front line, not to back areas!’ – ‘Where shall we go? To the front headquarters?’ – ‘No, it is not necessary! We will go directly to the army headquarters.’ And so we arrived there. They asked me ‘Do you want to serve in our army?’ – ‘Yes, I do.’ – ‘Good. What position did you occupy before you were wounded?’ – ‘I was a company commander.’ – ‘Good.’ And I found myself in the rifle division no. 302 as a company commander. Thanks to my teacher I became one of them through and through. We liberated half of Ukraine, when Germans managed to defeat our division, and we were taken off from the front line and sent to Voronezh region, to heartland (it happened in July). [Voronezh is a city in the Central Russia, 500 km far from Moscow.] There we got new weapon, new soldiers, because we had lost many people. And I was appointed a battalion commander (about thousand people). And you remember that I was a twenty-years-old senior lieutenant! Two fourty-years-old captains and several senior lieutenants much older than me were subordinate to me. I fought for my country very well.
From Voronezh region we were transferred to Ukraine, where I was wounded badly for the last time: for about seven months I have been treated in hospital in Kuybyshev.
I went to commissary and asked to give me a pistol. They gave me a rifle, an old Russian rifle, rusty. Sergeant fired it several times to clean it and gave it to me. ‘I am a lieutenant.’ – ‘Procure a gun in action! We have no pistols!’ To tell the truth, by evening 18 people remained from 100, and only 1 officer – me. So, I was a company commander, I was a platoon leader commander, and I was a section leader at the same time. There was no place to take cover: it was impossible to dig trenches, because the ground was frozen – that was the way we ‘amused ourselves’.
There I got my feet and hands frostbitten and also was wounded - therefore in the hospital they treated me both for my wound and for chilblain. A German sniper managed to take aim at us: we had to lie down on the ground covered with snow; we could not move our hands or legs (he would have shot us). And we were underclad… We had to lie still till dark. We were two: I and a political officer [23] lieutenant Diveykin. Our hands and feet got absolutely frostbitten: we were in boxcalf boots and in rag gloves – not suitable for winter conditions. And only after dark we started rolling over and crawling away. At that time the sniper wounded me in the buttock by an explosive bullet. And the same bullet caused a fatal wound in the stomach of Diveykin. When we reached our positions, we were brought to a hospital. In the hospital a doctor looked at me (I was 19 years old – a child) and said to a soldier ‘Bring him (me) to the operating-room, and take that guy over there.’ – ‘Where?!’ – ‘Over there, I said: he is dead.’ On our way to the hospital he spoke to me, he called me ‘lieutenant’! So, I was quickly operated, and Diveykin…
They took me away to Uralsk to a hospital, where I spent a month and several days. [Uralsk is a city in Kazakhstan.] After that I left hospital and went to the front via Saratov. [Saratov is a city on the Volga River.] In Saratov I spent a day or two. And once early in the morning I was walking to Saratov railway station to learn about the departure time of the train from Saratov to Stalingrad front (in south direction). And I was walking along an empty street (January, 7 o’clock in the morning, snowstorm) and suddenly saw a figure across the street: that was my uncle Lev! Can you imagine that it could happen during the war, at 7 o’clock in the morning! I embraced him. He was a junior lieutenant, I was a lieutenant. We embraced and kissed ‘Where are you from?’ – ‘I am from hospital. And you?’ – ‘I go from the Caucasus (Germans were already in the Caucasus by January 1942) to our headquarters to get informed about my destination.’ – ‘Do you have a place to live here?’ – ‘No, I don’t’ – ‘Come with me!’ And we spent 2 days together with him. Later I left Saratov, but I gave him my father’s address in Chapaevsk, and through my father we found each other: got to know our field mail addresses.
It was my first wound. I have got to Stalingrad front. By that time Paulus troops had already been encircled, but not taken yet. So I was moving to the south by train. I was lying on the upper berth (my wound still bothered me). Three officers were sitting below: two lieutenants and one junior lieutenant. They were talking, suddenly I looked at that junior lieutenant … and understood that I knew him! ‘Konstantin Vassilyevich! Hi!’ He looked at me. I said ‘Konstantin Vassilyevich, don’t you recognize me? You are my teacher of physics, and I am Lesman …’ – ‘Oh, Boris!’ We embraced …
He was a junior lieutenant. He said ‘Boris, where are you going?’ – ‘To our headquarters.’ – ‘Listen, come with me, to our army. We will be there together.’ – ‘But can it cause any troubles for me?’ – ‘No, you will go to the front line, not to back areas!’ – ‘Where shall we go? To the front headquarters?’ – ‘No, it is not necessary! We will go directly to the army headquarters.’ And so we arrived there. They asked me ‘Do you want to serve in our army?’ – ‘Yes, I do.’ – ‘Good. What position did you occupy before you were wounded?’ – ‘I was a company commander.’ – ‘Good.’ And I found myself in the rifle division no. 302 as a company commander. Thanks to my teacher I became one of them through and through. We liberated half of Ukraine, when Germans managed to defeat our division, and we were taken off from the front line and sent to Voronezh region, to heartland (it happened in July). [Voronezh is a city in the Central Russia, 500 km far from Moscow.] There we got new weapon, new soldiers, because we had lost many people. And I was appointed a battalion commander (about thousand people). And you remember that I was a twenty-years-old senior lieutenant! Two fourty-years-old captains and several senior lieutenants much older than me were subordinate to me. I fought for my country very well.
From Voronezh region we were transferred to Ukraine, where I was wounded badly for the last time: for about seven months I have been treated in hospital in Kuybyshev.
Most of all I was afraid of being captured: I was Jewish, a Communist Party member, an officer. I joined the Communist Party at the front; I went into actions crying ‘For our native land! For Stalin!’ We had no idea that Stalin was a devil incarnate. And we knew nothing about ideology of Fascism.
,
During WW2
See text in interview
I entered the Naval School on July 3, as soon as I arrived from Kerch, and in August I was already at the front, here in Leningrad. I was a machine gunner (they changed our cloths for infantry uniform). At the end of September they brought us back to Leningrad and changed our uniform for naval one. We starved in blockade for three months, till December 9. On December 9, 1941 we were brought to Ladoga Lake [39 km far from St. Petersburg]. The Lake was already ice-bound, and 1 day and a half we went on foot across the Ladoga Lake to Kobona. [Kobona is a settlement on the east coast of the Ladoga Lake, where they accepted people evacuated from the besieged Leningrad.] And we happened to loose our way at night walking through the ‘ice desert’ and went towards German positions. We were lucky to be noticed and set on the right way by ski patrols of the Road of Life [20].
We walked about 50 km across the Ladoga Lake: it was terribly windy and frosty. On my left there walked Sergey Akhromeev (later he became a USSR Marshal and a Hero of the Soviet Union [21]), and on my right – Evgeniy Markin. All of us were cold and lousy, because we had no opportunity to wash. We suffered from starvation! During the hardest period of the siege people received 125 grammes of bread per day, and we got 250 gr. From Kobona we went on foot to Tikhvin. [Tikhvin is a city 140 km far from the Ladoga Lake; front line went across Tikhvin.] At that time Tikhvin was recaptured and was full of corpses: both German and Soviet. We were told to take away corpses. They promised to give us supplementary ration for it. We did it and received half-pack of porridge concentrate and two small bits of sugar each. In Tikhvin we got into the train and moved to Astrakhan: our School had been already evacuated there. [Astrakhan is a city in the Delta of the Volga River.]
It took us a month to get to Astrakhan by train. We got terribly dirty - black! But we were well fed, in compare with Leningrad.
We arrived in Astrakhan on 10th January 1942. Immediately from the railway station we were brought to bath-house, they gave us clean uniform and took to our School. And we started our studies. At first I studied at the command faculty. But soon we got to know that a lot of students from Hydrographic school perished on the ice of Ladoga Lake. Therefore in Astrakhan they offered us to change the faculty in case we wished. I agreed to change for hydrographic department, because I wanted to get engineering education.
Having finished the first course, we went for practice to a village near Astrakhan. As far as I was a specialist in hydrography, I fulfilled topographical survey.
By that time German troops approached Volga (Stalingrad, Volgograd at present). Our School students immediately finished their practical studies and moved to Baku. But we, specialists in topography (‘educated’ already after a year of studies) were made lieutenants: those who had not very good marks for exams became junior lieutenants, and those who had good and excellent marks (like me, for example) became lieutenants. And we were sent to Stalingrad hell [22]. It was the time of the famous Stalingrad battle. By the way, not all students, specialists in hydrography were sent to the front line (only 28 from 100). And the rest 72 did not participate.
We walked about 50 km across the Ladoga Lake: it was terribly windy and frosty. On my left there walked Sergey Akhromeev (later he became a USSR Marshal and a Hero of the Soviet Union [21]), and on my right – Evgeniy Markin. All of us were cold and lousy, because we had no opportunity to wash. We suffered from starvation! During the hardest period of the siege people received 125 grammes of bread per day, and we got 250 gr. From Kobona we went on foot to Tikhvin. [Tikhvin is a city 140 km far from the Ladoga Lake; front line went across Tikhvin.] At that time Tikhvin was recaptured and was full of corpses: both German and Soviet. We were told to take away corpses. They promised to give us supplementary ration for it. We did it and received half-pack of porridge concentrate and two small bits of sugar each. In Tikhvin we got into the train and moved to Astrakhan: our School had been already evacuated there. [Astrakhan is a city in the Delta of the Volga River.]
It took us a month to get to Astrakhan by train. We got terribly dirty - black! But we were well fed, in compare with Leningrad.
We arrived in Astrakhan on 10th January 1942. Immediately from the railway station we were brought to bath-house, they gave us clean uniform and took to our School. And we started our studies. At first I studied at the command faculty. But soon we got to know that a lot of students from Hydrographic school perished on the ice of Ladoga Lake. Therefore in Astrakhan they offered us to change the faculty in case we wished. I agreed to change for hydrographic department, because I wanted to get engineering education.
Having finished the first course, we went for practice to a village near Astrakhan. As far as I was a specialist in hydrography, I fulfilled topographical survey.
By that time German troops approached Volga (Stalingrad, Volgograd at present). Our School students immediately finished their practical studies and moved to Baku. But we, specialists in topography (‘educated’ already after a year of studies) were made lieutenants: those who had not very good marks for exams became junior lieutenants, and those who had good and excellent marks (like me, for example) became lieutenants. And we were sent to Stalingrad hell [22]. It was the time of the famous Stalingrad battle. By the way, not all students, specialists in hydrography were sent to the front line (only 28 from 100). And the rest 72 did not participate.
Before war my father worked as a civilian legal adviser at a military training ground, which was based near Kerch. As my father was not subject to call because of his disease, in 1941 he together with his wife and child was evacuated to Chapaevsk of Kuybyshev region. [Kuybyshev is a city in Urals, Samara at present.
Here I entered the Naval School named after Frunze [19]. I sent there my document beforehand, in 1940. That School celebrated its 300th anniversary in 2001 (it is older, than St. Petersburg itself, because it was created in 1701, and St. Petersburg - in 1703). According to the decree of the President Eltsin it was renamed Naval College of Peter the Great.
Seamen were always rich, having 8 variants of uniform. No.1 - white trousers, white jacket with high collar and white cap; no.2 - black trousers, white jacket with high collar; no.3 - black trousers, black jacket with high collar and black cap; no.4 - no.3 + pea-jacket; no.5 - no.3 + overcoat and sailor's cap or uniform cap; no.6 - the same + fur-cap; no.7 - the same + tied up fur-cap; no.8 - a sheepskin.
I had a lot of friends at the College: Markin Eugeny (he died already); Pautov Nikolay (he lives in Petrodvorets); Alexander Zaharov (he died); Baboshin Eugeny (handicapped: he lost his leg at the front; he has already died); Chernov Yury (he was a member of Association of Writers: he managed to graduate from the Literary College in Moscow after retirement in the rank of captain, he died already); Novimzon Abram (we served together on the Black sea (in Kerch), later he served in Vladivostok, and I went to Kamchatka, and we met in Vladivostok several times. Later we moved to Leningrad, and he visited me million times. Now he lives in Haifa). We use to gather at the Naval School every year on the 9th of May (to celebrate the Victory Day).
Seamen were always rich, having 8 variants of uniform. No.1 - white trousers, white jacket with high collar and white cap; no.2 - black trousers, white jacket with high collar; no.3 - black trousers, black jacket with high collar and black cap; no.4 - no.3 + pea-jacket; no.5 - no.3 + overcoat and sailor's cap or uniform cap; no.6 - the same + fur-cap; no.7 - the same + tied up fur-cap; no.8 - a sheepskin.
I had a lot of friends at the College: Markin Eugeny (he died already); Pautov Nikolay (he lives in Petrodvorets); Alexander Zaharov (he died); Baboshin Eugeny (handicapped: he lost his leg at the front; he has already died); Chernov Yury (he was a member of Association of Writers: he managed to graduate from the Literary College in Moscow after retirement in the rank of captain, he died already); Novimzon Abram (we served together on the Black sea (in Kerch), later he served in Vladivostok, and I went to Kamchatka, and we met in Vladivostok several times. Later we moved to Leningrad, and he visited me million times. Now he lives in Haifa). We use to gather at the Naval School every year on the 9th of May (to celebrate the Victory Day).
When the World War II burst out, we did not attach importance to it. Probably, it happened because we were boys, not adults.
On June 14, 1941 I finished my school, on June 22 we were going to hold a meeting in celebration of it, but that day the war burst out. They cancelled our banquet, gave us urgently our certificates, and that was all. Approximately for a week I stayed in Kerch, and Komsomol leaders appointed me to be a company commander. We participated in patroling the city streets (2 or 3 men together). And a week later I left for Leningrad.
On June 14, 1941 I finished my school, on June 22 we were going to hold a meeting in celebration of it, but that day the war burst out. They cancelled our banquet, gave us urgently our certificates, and that was all. Approximately for a week I stayed in Kerch, and Komsomol leaders appointed me to be a company commander. We participated in patroling the city streets (2 or 3 men together). And a week later I left for Leningrad.
At that time we had only 2 holidays: the 1st of May and the 7th of November [18], nothing else. And I had my birthday on the 1st of May! We did not celebrate the New Year day: it was not a day off, it was forbidden to decorate New Year trees. Only in 1938 Stalin permitted it. We used to celebrate holidays participating in demonstrations. After that we came home and had dinner. That was all.
During vacations we walked all over the southern Crimea, beginning from Kerch and finishing in Evpatoria. [Evpatoria is a city-port on the western coast of Crimea.] Once (I remember it well) three of us went from Kerch to Feodosiya by bikes. We started early in the morning and arrived in Feodosiya in the evening; but we daren't get back by bikes and went by train. And it was a long way from Kerch to Feodosiya – so cheerful guys we were! One of us, Vova Khomutov was lost during the war; and I do not remember the name of the other one. We also went on foot from Simeiz to Alupka, through Yalta. I remember that we visited the palace of Bukhara emir, situated in Yalta. [Simeiz, Alupka and Yalta are towns on the southern coast of Crimea.]
In Kerch there was a perfect beach (fifteen minutes by bus from our place) in a small settlement on the Black Sea shore. We went there for swimming. We also went for swimming to the Azov Sea in Enikale.
In Kerch there was a perfect beach (fifteen minutes by bus from our place) in a small settlement on the Black Sea shore. We went there for swimming. We also went for swimming to the Azov Sea in Enikale.
When I studied at school, it was very fashionable to be a member of aviation club! I entered aviation club being a pupil of the 10th class (at the age of 17). They did not allow younger schoolchildren to become its members. They used U-2 planes. I finished the theoretical course and flied together with instructor. But by that time I already handed in my documents to a military college and gave up aviation. At that time everything connected with aviation was in fashion, for instance Tsiolkovsky. I did not read his works; I only knew that there was Tsiolkovsky, a teacher at Kaluga school. [Tsiolkovsky was a well-known Russian scientist and inventor (1857-1935).] At that time very famous were soviet pilots Chkalov [17], Baidukov, Belyakov, Gromov, Kokkinaki, Grizodubova, Raskina, and Ossipenko. Everybody got really crazy about them!
When a military college student, I played in cadets’ jazz band. But in the beginning of 1942 I left for front line.
Though I played piano, I rarely took part in amateur perfomances: I did not like to act on a stage.
I also took great interest in water tourism and gymnastics. I was a good gymnast: in 1940 I managed to become a champion of Crimea in gymnastics. I achieved ranking in gymnastics, and in 1941 I started working to become a master of sports, but the war burst out... Gymnastics is a perfect kind of sport; I was able to turn somersaults here and there. I belonged to Vodnik sports society; I was a member of their team. But in future I was going to become a sailor.
,
1940
See text in interview
At school we had lessons of manual training: metalwork and joinery.
She was a great specialist in financies: during the Olympiс Games of 1980 she (already a pensioner!) was invited specially to be the main financier of the Olympic Games. She was awarded an Order of Honour after the Games. And Igor Lekney worked as director of the famous Olympic swimming pool Chaika; he was an Honoured Worker of Culture of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (a special title for distinguished workers).
Igor married Lora Gankina – our classmate, too.
,
Before WW2
See text in interview
And you know that I often visited Leningrad, especially in summer during summer vacation. There we used to meet with him. I remember that once (in 1939 or 1940) we went to Petrodvorets, we started at 5 p.m. and somewhere by 3 o’clock in the night we already got tired and lay down to have a sleep under a tree on our way there (it was warm in summer). We slept a little and went home about 7 o’clock in the morning. [Petrodvorets is a suburb of St. Petersburg, full of fountains; it used to be a summer residence of Russian emperors.] All night long we chattered.
I remember special biscuits – hamantashen? One day uncle Abram gathered all members of our family to celebrate one of Jewish holidays. We were children: two my sisters [cousins] and I. Uncle Abram invited all brothers and sisters with their spouses and children – about 30 persons. There was no bread on a table, only matzot, and sweets were also made from matzah. The table was laid perfectly. A special table was laid for children in another room and a housemaid brought us meals. Of course, there was gefilte fish, chopped herring (looked like caviar) to spread bread with. The first course was meat or chicken.
In Crimea we knew nothing about matzah. I got to know about it in Leningrad.
In Crimea we knew nothing about matzah. I got to know about it in Leningrad.
In Kerch I knew no religious Jews. All of them were russianized. We did not celebrate Jewish holidays, until now I know nothing about them. In Kerch we lived among Russians. Only my grandmother knew Yiddish. But she always talked Russian to me, therefore neither I, nor my father knew Yiddish. When she talked to Mum, I understood ‘kushen tohas’.
I was in touch with my paternal relatives, and uncle Abram celebrated Jewish holidays.
I was in touch with my paternal relatives, and uncle Abram celebrated Jewish holidays.
We knew that we were Jews, but we did not pay much attention to it: we were russianized. I remember that colleagues of my father always called him Mikhail Borissович, it became the custom. And when I joined Komsomol organization [15] in 1930s I wrote in the questionnaire ‘Lesman, Boris Mikhailovich, a Jew’ (they always insisted to indicate nationality). Later I accidentally got to know that I was Boris Moisseevich. I came to my Daddy and asked ‘Daddy, are you Moissey or Mikhail?’ He answered ‘My name is Moissey.’ – ‘If you are Moissey, it means that I am Moisseevich!’ And I thought I was Boris Mikhailovich! So, when they exchanged Komsomol-membership cards, I told everybody with pride ‘I am Boris Moisseevich!’ Since then I was not Mikhailovich, but Moisseevich. And my father was called Mikhail until his last days. But I still remember my horror when I got to know his real name! ‘Daddy, are you Moissey?!’ I remember it very well. So I am Boris Moisseevich and I am not ashamed of my patronymic.
Boris Benkler was badly wounded at the front. Later he became a head physician at the hospital in Tyumen, an honoured physician of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, and was awarded an Order of Labour Red Banner. [Tyumen is a city in the Urals.] [Honoured physician of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic was a honorary title for the most distinguished persons.] [Order of Labour Red Banner they gave for feat of working.
We also used to go to the cinema: there were two cinema houses in Kerch. They showed only soviet films: at that time there were no foreign films, they appeared after the end of the war: German, English, and American captured films. And before the war we watched Chapaev [14], Seven Courageous Polar Explorers and other soviet films.
I took some interest in philately and liked to read Jules Verne and Belyaev. At home we had a lot of books. My father liked books, he always bought them. And it was important that we had an acquaintance at the bookshop.
I took some interest in philately and liked to read Jules Verne and Belyaev. At home we had a lot of books. My father liked books, he always bought them. And it was important that we had an acquaintance at the bookshop.
You see, our life events were concentrated in the street. I had a lot of friends not only among my schoolmates; there were many street guys, but no hooligans. We were very friendly: ran and played like other boys.
At the age of 6 or 7 I started my music studies. I was not a schoolboy yet, I visited a kindergarten. My father hired a teacher for me: she used to come to us. We had a grand piano at home. I studied under the whiplash. I remember my Mum sitting beside me, holding a long ruler in her hands.
At that time children went to school at the age of 8. My school was very good, it was named after Zhelyabov, a Russian revolutionary, a member of the Executive committee of Narodnaya Volya Organization (in 1860s he lived in Kerch).