Tag #155987 - Interview #78231 (yakov voloshyn)

Then came the day of 22nd June 1941. At 5 o'clock in the morning our neighbor came to talk to us. He had a telephone and we used it in the case of an emergency. My wife's sister Raisa worked a night-shift at the confectionary. She was the first to hear about the war and called our neighbor. There were flak guns firing in Kiev already. German planes were bombing Solomenka [Editor's note: a district in Kiev], an aviation plant, and the Arsenal, a military plant. They seemed to know the whereabouts of industrial enterprises and hit their targets accurately. I went out to call my workplace from a telephone booth. They told me to come to work immediately. The editorial office became a military regime. There were beds, bed sheets, utensils and military uniforms delivered to our office and we stayed there for a month continuously printing news from the front and flyers. Then the headquarters of the military unit was relocated to Ternopol [400 km from Kiev], and the editorial office moved there as well. We stayed there several days and then returned to Kiev. Our troops were retreating.

On 22nd July we received an order for reduction of staff. I was chief of the illustration department, in the rank of a logistics technician. This was an administrative title and converted to military ranks I was a lieutenant. My unit consisted of invalid Abram Reznichenko, an artist, sergeant Petia Denisov and me. I received higher allowances due to having a higher rank. Perhaps, for this reason I was subject to dismissal. I was sent to the political department of the Kiev military regiment. An officer there asked me, 'Are you a Komsomol member?' 'No.' 'A Party member?' 'No'. 'Nothing I can do for you then'.