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Table of Contents Item Transcript DIGITAL COLLECTIONS ITEM TRANSCRIPT Milyavsky, Matthew full unedited interview ID IS059.interview PERMALINK http://n2t.net/ark:/86084/b47659j7d ITEM TYPE VIDEO ORIGINAL LANGUAGE RUSSIAN TABLE OF CONTENTS ITEM TRANSCRIPT ENGLISH TRANSLATION 2 CITATION & RIGHTS 11 2021 © BLAVATNIK ARCHIVE FOUNDATION PG 1/11 BLAVATNIKARCHIVE.ORG DIGITAL COLLECTIONS ITEM TRANSCRIPT Milyavsky, Matthew full unedited interview ID IS059.interview PERMALINK http://n2t.net/ark:/86084/b47659j7d ITEM TYPE VIDEO ORIGINAL LANGUAGE RUSSIAN TRANSCRIPT ENGLISH TRANSLATION —Today is March 24, 2008. We are in Jerusalem. We are meeting the Great Patriotic War veteran. Please tell us your name, tell us what you remember about your life before the war, what school you attended. How did the war begin for you? How did you get enlisted? What were the war years like for you? My name is Milyavsky Matvey Savelyevich. I was born on January 7, 1925 in a typical Jewish village Khoyniki in Gomel Oblast, Belarus. My father worked in the District Consumers' Union. My mom was a housewife and was busy with child-rearing. There were six children: three brothers and three little sisters . I was the youngest in my family. For me the war began in an unusual way. In 1940, the Komsomol Central Committee announced a competition in applied military sports: AAGD [antiaircraft and gas defense], RSD [ready for sanitary defense], Topography and Communications, and Voroshilov Sharpshooter. My guys, my neighborhood friends, and I were high school students and decided to take part in the competition. I was the Topography and Communications team captain. It so happened that the two of our teams—the AAGD and Topography and Communications—won the first place in the republican competition in Minsk and were among the participants in Moscow Competition. In 1941 we decided to continue this work. We created the third team—female RSD team. On June 10, 1941, the Komsomol District Committee called us up to the city of Mazyr and we were practicing on the military range. We were planning to depart around June 25-26 to go to Minsk to participate in the Belarus Competition. On June 22, though it was a Sunday, our training hadn't been cancelled. Having finished our training course around noon, we were walking to the hotel from the military garrison where we trained. We realized that something was going on. People were running around. We heard every minute: "War, war." When we went down to the city center, we heard Molotov's announcement on the radio: Germany attacked the Soviet Union. That's where I met my oldest brother. It was the last time I saw him. When we went to the Komsomol District Committee afterwards, we were told, "Go home, guys. The competition is delayed." We took our meager belongings and went to the station. It was such chaos! People everywhere, especially military men. The loudspeaker was constantly announcing train cancellations, including the train from Mazyr to Vasilevichy Station where we were supposed to transfer to the Gomel train. What were we to do? Somebody suggested: "Let's walk to Vasilevichy." And just like the modern song goes, we walked along the railway line. We were fifteen-seventeen-year-old boys, we were confident that the war would be over soon and that we would fight on the enemy's territory only with small 2021 © BLAVATNIK ARCHIVE FOUNDATION PG 2/11 BLAVATNIKARCHIVE.ORG DIGITAL COLLECTIONS ITEM TRANSCRIPT Milyavsky, Matthew full unedited interview ID IS059.interview PERMALINK http://n2t.net/ark:/86084/b47659j7d ITEM TYPE VIDEO ORIGINAL LANGUAGE RUSSIAN losses . We were joking and pushing our football as we were walking. Exhausted, we made it to Vasilevichy Station at midnight. That's when we took the Gomel-Golenki train. We took that train and arrived home early in the morning. The city center was five kilometers away. So we walked. When I approached my house I saw my mom sitting on the steps and waiting. When I came up to her, she embraced me and said in Yiddish, "Motele, son, the war has come." And that five-kilometer road from the station to the city center . Afterwards, in 1946, I met two guys from those two teams, who survived the war, and we gave our word that every year we would walk those five kilometers in the memory of our deceased friends. Starting from 1946 until 1994, when I used to come home for vacation to see my parents, those two friends and I made that trip. Last time in November of 1994 the weather was very rainy but I still walked those kilometers. When the evacuation began, my classmates and neighbourhood friends—boys and girls—met in the park and swore that we would meet after the war. But, regretfully, many didn't keep their word, especially the boys . From our two teams only three of us survived. My mom, my little sister, and I were evacuated. My father hadn't yet been allowed. We were evacuated to Sverdlovsk Oblast, Verkhniaia Tavda. I worked there at the plant for a year and a half, making mines. On January 5, 1943 I was drafted into the army. I became a cadet in Cherkassk Military School in the city of Sverdlovsk. A month before our graduation we were called off the field training to line up. The head of the college, General Ustyantsev, announced that he had received an order to send all the cadets to active duty. He read the order that mentioned about forty cadets, including me, all excellent combat training students who were supposed to stay to graduate. Many of us wrote petitions to go to the front together with our mates. At the end of June 1943, we boarded the trains and in a few days arrived in Moscow Oblast, the city of Noginsk. We were sent to the 6th Airborne Brigade. And all of my sixteen years of military service I spent in the paratrooper forces, except for two years in Moscow Military-Political School. I jumped from out of airplanes and aerostats 111 times. Military training in our military school as well as in the airborne forces was solid. I was a good student. In September 1943 we boarded the train. We were told that we would land behind the frontline. In August, September, and October we pursued the Germans and often had to switch airfields. On November 6, 1943, it was announced that we were going to land in the area of Armyansk, in Crimea. We were supplied with ammunition and grenades. We tucked them away. On November 7, around 11pm we set off. An airfield was close by. We got there and waited for the assignment. At 1am, the platoon's commander, Junior Lieutenant Kurakhtanov, took our platoon, sat us in a circle and himself stood in the middle. He was about four-five years older than us. He had already served at the front and been injured. And he literally 2021 © BLAVATNIK ARCHIVE FOUNDATION PG 3/11 BLAVATNIKARCHIVE.ORG DIGITAL COLLECTIONS ITEM TRANSCRIPT Milyavsky, Matthew full unedited interview ID IS059.interview PERMALINK http://n2t.net/ark:/86084/b47659j7d ITEM TYPE VIDEO ORIGINAL LANGUAGE RUSSIAN said these words: "Boys, in a few hours we will be in the enemy's rear. Some of us won't return, so let's swear: no matter how long we get to live we swear to remember our mates." And he grabbed a metal mug that we had with us, took a flask, and poured into the mug . It turned out to be diluted alcohol. Then he took a Finnish knife—every paratrooper had a sheath-knife—he cut a finger on his right hand, took a few drops of blood, slightly shook it, and took a sip. And then the mug was passed around. Those words were not only a vow for me but in the future . it helped me in my work with students. Around 4am we heard a command: Get up! We thought the next command would be "Board the airplanes!" But suddenly, it was: "Pack away your parachutes!" We asked with indignation: "Why? What do you mean pack away the parachutes?" We put them away and it was announced: "The infantry has taken Armyansk"; the landing was cancelled. During November and December we lived in Donbass and in the beginning of 1944 we returned to Noginsk. We continued our training and practicing our landing skills. On June 6, 1944 we boarded the trains. In a few days we realized that we were going north. We were right. We came to Leningrad Oblast, disembarked, and walked to the frontline for eight days. In the evening a few of us took our mess-tins and went to look for water. Suddenly a soldier we didn't know came up to us and said: "Guys, whose military unit is this, 71229-A?" We said, "It's our company." "Who is Milyavsky?" I said: "Me." "Your brother says hi." I said: "Which one?" He said: "I don't know." "Where did you see him?" "Our echelon made a stop and we exited"—all paratroopers had insignia on their sleeves—"an officer came up and asked: 'Guys, are you paratroopers?' 'Yes, we are.' 'My brother is a paratrooper as well. In case you bump into him, tell him I said hello.' And he wrote down: 'Milyavskiy Matvei'." As soldiers say: "Mission accomplished." We were walking for a few days. And finally, we came up to the town of Lodeynoye Pole. It had a small forest. At the sunrise artists arrived and gave us a big concert, it was great. At 5am we set off for the frontline.
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