Peter Kusmin

Alias Kuzmin; correct name Samuel Zadorohney    Russian spelling Петр Кузмин, Самуил Иванович Задорожный

Born 20.07.1888     Place Kiev, Ukraine      Ethnic origin Ukrainian      Religion Greek Catholic (Russian Orthodox?)

Father Zadorohney, John

Arrived at Australia 08.1913

Residence before enlistment Newcastle, NSW

Occupation 1916 miner, 1921 wharf labourer

Service

service number 5766   enlisted 20.06.1916   POE Newcastle, NSW

unit 2nd Australian Tunnelling Co   rank Sapper

place Western Front, 1917       casualties WIA 1917

final fate RTA 17.06.1918       discharged 30.08.1918 MU

Naturalisation served as Russian subject

Residence after the war Newcastle, Sydney

Wife Mabel Louisa Kusmin, married in 1917 in England, deserted in 1918

Materials digitised service records (NAA) (Kusmin)

military Intelligence file (NAA) (Kuzmin)

alien registration 1    2  (NAA) (Kusmin)

From Russian Anzacs in Australian History:

But some Russians returning from the Western Front were indeed very critical of the reigning social order. In May 1918 the censor intercepted a letter Peter Kusmin wrote to his relative in Siberia. Kusmin, after being severely wounded in 1917, served in a depot in England and had enough time to observe life around him. He wrote: ‘Here in England they have a Bourgeois Government, i.e. worse than a Monarchy. The rich look down on the poor as if they were cattle. The poor are almost dying from hunger. In Russia the working people all have their own houses but in England the working classes have nothing. … I have already asked to be sent to the Russian Army but have received no reply. They tell me I made an oath to King George V to fight to the end of the war, but I am ready to send him to the same place the Russian soldiers sent their Tzar to. I have a lot of good friends who know why the war is being continued, but they are afraid to speak, but if the war continues a year or two more the same will happen here as in Russia and the people will fight the Capitalist whom they will find is their enemy and not the Germans.’ There was obviously some official concern about his ‘good friends’ who shared these radical views, and so Kusmin was boarded on the first transport back to Australia.

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