Nicholas Fedorovich

Russian spelling Николай Иосифович Федорович

Born 27.07.1891  Place Odessa, Ukraine    Ethnic origin Russian/Pole    Religion Russian Orthodox

Father Useff [Joseph]   Mother Efrosinia Zviginsova [Zviagintseva]

Residence before arrival at Australia journalist for Russian and Manchurian papers

Arrived at Australia

            from Russia  on 21.08.1911   per Kumano Maru     disembarked at Brisbane

Residence before enlistment Cairns

Occupation 1915 clerk, cane cutter; 1919 cinematograph operator; 1920 soldier selector; 1930 grazier

Service

service number 1952   enlisted 23.01.1915   POE Enoggera, Qld

unit 9th Battalion, Administrative Headquarters, London   rank Private, ER/Corporal

place Gallipoli, 1915, England, 1916-1917

final fate RTA 11.01.1918       discharged 22.05.1918 MU

Naturalisation 1921

Residence after the war Brisbane, Stanthorpe, Brisbane

Wife Eraida Fedorovich (1904-1968)

Died 18.05.1946, Brisbane, Qld

Materials digitised naturalisation (NAA)

digitised service records (NAA)

alien registration 1      2  (NAA)

application for admission relatives and friends (NAA)

offer of services as interpreter (NAA)

AIF Headquartes (London) file (AWM)

Publications

Russian Journalist. Experiences with the A.I.F. - Cairns Post, 19 December 1919, p. 8

Kismet. (By a Cairns Soldier).  - Cairns Post, 20 December 1919, p. 3

The Author of "Kismet". - Cairns Post, 22 December 1919, p. 4

Nicholas Fedorovich. Kismet. - The Queenslander (Brisbane), 28 August 1920, pp. 34-35

From Russian Anzacs in Australian History:

At the end of 1915 Nicholas Fedorovich, who was in the 9th Battalion, contracted enteric fever at Gallipoli and was invalided to London. Before being invalided out, he obtained permission from his commanding officer to seek leave, when he had recovered, to go to Odessa and visit his sick mother (Gallipoli was indeed that close to Russia). He obtained leave from the War Office in London, from where he set off to Odessa. ‘In his Australian uniform, he was an object of much admiration in the grain city’, he told the Cairns Post after the war. When he was in Petrograd on his way back to England, the paper reported, ‘the interest he had created in the south grew more and more. Russia was then the most powerful of the Allies, and was driving the Germans back from the eastern frontier. He was followed around by crowds of people. When he entered cafes people rose and greeted him warmly. Groups of people listened with amazement to his stories of the great Commonwealth beyond the seas where the minimum wage for labourers was 8/- a day! The Russian military authorities decided that Fedorovich would be a valuable asset in their army, in imbuing the soldiers with fighting qualities. The news of the Anzacs’ brilliant charges at Gallipoli had given them a high opinion of the Australians as fighters, and Fedorovich found himself under orders to proceed to the eastern front. In vain he protested. He had an interview with the British Ambassador, who was unable to help him.’ Only after spending several months on the Russian Front did he manage to get back to London and rejoin the AIF, serving as an interpreter.

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