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I was recruited in November 1937. On my last day in the editorial office my colleagues gave me a cigarette case. There was an engraving: 'To the alumnus of the collective of the 'Proletarskaya Pravda' newspaper, Yakov Voloshyn, recruited to the glorious Red army, from the local committee of the editorial office. 30.11.37, Kiev'. I was sent to the Far East, 7,500 kilometers from home. The mandatory service lasted two years. I became a private in a chemical company. It was to perform chemical decontamination of the area in case of chemical offensive. I received my uniform. Only 2nd year military received high boots in the army; at the beginning of the service we got boots with leg wrappings. Leg wrappings were two-meter cuttings of cloth. After putting on boots we wrapped the leg wrappings around our legs and fixed them. Since I was good at drawing my military service was not bothersome for me. There were classrooms for political classes in every unit. Our commissar was very happy that I could draw posters and slogans for these classrooms. By the way, I never joined the Komsomol 21. Somehow I didn't join it when studying at school and when I was in the army my commandment insisted that I became a Komsomol member, but I wasn't really eager to. I can't even say why I was so reluctant. I never faced any anti-Semitism in all the years of my military service.
In 1938 there was an armed conflict with the Japanese in the vicinity of a very small lake called Hasan Lake. I took part in combat actions. There were minor conflicts with the Japanese on the border almost every day. They crossed the corner and there were minor fights with Soviet frontier men. They were not mentioned in newspapers, but it was a state policy at the time to conceal information. Newspapers didn't even mention major actions in the vicinity of the Hasan Lake. They didn't reveal the number of casualties on our side although they were significant. Perhaps, the Japanese were probing on our forces and equipment. The Japanese had advantageous positions on the hills while we were at the bottom of the hills. They fired from their machine guns. Stalin's order was not to cross the border with Japan. If our troops had crossed the border this local conflict might have turned into a war between the USSR and Japan. The combat actions lasted for eight days, I think. Mekhlis 22, chief of the political department of the Dalnevostochnaya army - a Jew, by the way - arrived at the scene.
In 1938 there was an armed conflict with the Japanese in the vicinity of a very small lake called Hasan Lake. I took part in combat actions. There were minor conflicts with the Japanese on the border almost every day. They crossed the corner and there were minor fights with Soviet frontier men. They were not mentioned in newspapers, but it was a state policy at the time to conceal information. Newspapers didn't even mention major actions in the vicinity of the Hasan Lake. They didn't reveal the number of casualties on our side although they were significant. Perhaps, the Japanese were probing on our forces and equipment. The Japanese had advantageous positions on the hills while we were at the bottom of the hills. They fired from their machine guns. Stalin's order was not to cross the border with Japan. If our troops had crossed the border this local conflict might have turned into a war between the USSR and Japan. The combat actions lasted for eight days, I think. Mekhlis 22, chief of the political department of the Dalnevostochnaya army - a Jew, by the way - arrived at the scene.
Location
Ukraine
Interview
yakov voloshyn