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Milyavsky, Matthew full unedited interview

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ITEM TYPE VIDEO ORIGINAL LANGUAGE RUSSIAN

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ENGLISH TRANSLATION 2 CITATION & RIGHTS 11

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Milyavsky, Matthew full unedited interview

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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

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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

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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. We had to force-cross the Svir River. We approached the outskirts and for some reason my head was just pulling to the right all the time. I saw a group of officers in front. I came up closer . . . oh my god, my brother was standing with them! I left the line and yelled: "Yankel!" He turned, saw me, and yelled: "Motik!" He was six years older than me. He was drafted in 1939 and was supposed to be demobilized right before the war. We embraced and started crying . . . I was so young, eighteen years old. The officer came up and said: "Yakov Savelyevich, our General is here. Let's go and your brother will stay here with you." I said right away: "What about my friends?" And Yasha said: "No, no, that can't be." We embraced and kissed each other. I ran to catch up with my company.

Around 10am we approached Lodeynoye Pole. We stopped about 500-600 meters from Svir River. We

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ITEM TYPE VIDEO ORIGINAL LANGUAGE RUSSIAN were warned: we were going to force-cross the river of Svir, and the camouflaged boats were moored by the bank. Before that I was given a Party Card—the Candidate's card. At 12 sharp red rockets went off, and we rushed towards the river. We boarded the boats . . . We reached the middle of the river. It seemed like there was no war. It was relatively quiet. Somewhere to the right and to the left there were explosions but in our area it was relatively quiet. But when we reached the middle of the river . . . it was awful. All of a sudden—columns of fire and water together with broken boats and human bodies. The river turned red in no time. As they say, our boat came out unscathed. We reached the bank and disembarked. The bank was unrecognizable, because right before the force-crossing the aviation had done a number on it. I don't ever remember seeing so many planes as I saw then. One group of planes would fly over, then another. I think there were hundreds of planes. When we disembarked everything was disfigured, the trees were broken, I mean everything. For about three-five kilometers we weren't under enemy's fire because the forward positions had been destroyed. Then we met the enemy. Finns and Germans began to put up resistance, and, of course, we opened fire. Our commanders were very good: Junior Lieutenant Kurakhtanov and Company Commander Senior Lieutenant Nikolai Trofimov. They were great officers. Our relations were very good. Trofimov was a very demanding person but he was also very just and friendly.

At about 3-4pm we lay in hiding at first, and then the artillery pulled up, opened fire at German trenches, and we went on the offensive.

When we approached the German trenches I was injured in my right leg. It turned out later that the injury wasn't serious. But my pain was considerable. I put bandages on myself. I couldn't walk but medical orderlies came and there were two-three women among them. They dressed the wound very well and took me to the river. The next morning they brought the injured to the right shore again. I spent a few days in the front hospital and we were sent to the town of Tikhvin. I wrote a letter home from Tikhvin: "I'm injured, in a hospital in Tikhvin, don't worry." My little sister wrote to our brother that "Motia is injured and is in a hospital in Tikhvin." After a month of staying in Tikhvin we were transferred to the hospital for the convalescent. One evening, I was standing by the table and was watching people playing chess. Suddenly, I heard the nurse's familiar voice, "Here he is." I turned and nearly lost my balance—Yasha was walking up to me! It turned out that at that time Finland left the war, their units were withdrawn too, and and he was in Tikhvin. He went to the head of the hospital, talked to him, took me with him for a day and brought me back.

I stayed in the hospital until the middle of June.

There were lots of paratroopers. Suddenly we found out that we were about to be transferred to regular rifle units. The officers gathered us and said: "Guys, they want to transform us into rifle units. But we are paratroopers. So we should stay with airborne forces. Let's run away." There were about 200 of us. We left,

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ITEM TYPE VIDEO ORIGINAL LANGUAGE RUSSIAN got on the train and arrived near the city of Kalinin (Tver'). That's where an airborne division was deployed. We were kept in Kalinin for a few days. The division's commander tried to convince us to stay in his division. But we wanted to be in our unit. And when we were on our way to the Karelian Front, the 6th Airborne Brigade was renamed the 99th Rifle Division and was deployed in Orsha, Belarus. The division's commander gave us leave, we got on the train and arrived in Orsha. We were welcomed there. We stayed in Orsha until January 1945.

In January of 1945 we got ready to be sent to the Sandomierz Bridgehead. We arrived there and spent two weeks in winter conditions. We were lined up again, boarded the echelon again and went in the direction of Hungary. This was in March of 1945. We crossed the bridge, we crossed the Danube, and in April we reached the frontline. It was on March 21, 1945. That very day we went on the offensive. We were thrown into battle without any artillery preparation and without tanks; the infantry was by itself. I can still see that hillock: we were at the bottom and Germans were at the top. They had large-caliber machine guns and kept running from one machine gun to another and firing at us. I could see how tracer bullets were flying past me and hitting my mates. Nevertheless, when the evening came and it got dark, the entire horizon instantly fired up. It turned out the artillery had arrived, opened fire and the entire horizon was in flames. At night we began our attack. We didn't see any Germans anymore. Rarely, only in a few separate cases, did the Germans resist during the day of the 22nd. On the 23rd we approached the German trenches. It was very difficult because the Germans opened intense fire. We were trying to counterattack but failed. Then the artillery pulled up again, opened fire, and we started a full-on attack. I was injured with a splinter. I was especially seriously injured in my right arm. Medical orderlies brought me to the hospital again. I was transferred from hospital to hospital, and ended up in the hospital 25 kilometers from Vienna. And all of sudden, on May 9, early in the morning, around 8am I heard gun fire and screams. Everyone who could rushed to the windows and we saw that the hospital staff was running with guns and firing. Our nurse came to us. She was very kind but she never smiled. She took a stool, sat down and burst into tears: "Boys, you will get to meet your parents. But I will never see my Kolya again."

At noon the hospital chief, the lieutenant colonel of the medical services, lined up the hospital staff and invited the patients whoever could stand. The chief congratulated us on the victory and said: "My dear friends. We have received the most prised decoration—we survived." And suddenly one wounded soldier without an arm started singing the Katyusha song. We joined in and afterwards we asked: "Why did you start singing "Katyusha"? Why not the national anthem? Why not "The Sacred War"? And he said—he was older than us by about ten years—he said: "Guys, this is a pre-war song but this song was with us throughout the war. It told us about the loyalty of our wives. So it's impossible not to think about them today."

I spent two-three more weeks at the hospital. I was discharged and returned to my unit, to the city of Kecskemét, Hungary. Then we made a long march to České Budějovice and at the end of 1945 we arrived at Moscow Oblast. We stayed there for about half a year and in June 1946 our division was transferred to

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ITEM TYPE VIDEO ORIGINAL LANGUAGE RUSSIAN the Far East. Around October-November we had an inspection. A special commission arrived from the Airborne Forces from Moscow. In the beginning of December after that inspection, I was summoned to the platoon headquarters. I was told: "Comrade Guards serviceman Milyavsky, we recommend that you go to the Moscow Military-Political College."

When I was little I had a dream—to graduate from a political school because my neighbor, Joseph Smolensky, went to Kharkov Military-Political College. When he would come visit, he would tell a lot of interesting things about his school . . . And there I was, going to Moscow Military-Political School.

At the end of December, I left and in early 1947 I came to Moscow but that college had already been relocated to Yaroslavl. I arrived in Yaroslavl and in August 1948, I graduated in the rank of a lieutenant. And again I was transferred to the Airborne Forces. I was sent to the 107th Airborne Division that was deployed in the city of Nikopol, Dnipropetrovskaya Oblast. I served in that division until 1955. In 1955, I was sent to Lviv, to the Advanced Course for political officers. And in 1956, I was demobilized and returned to Nikopol.

While in the military school, I enrolled in the Yaroslavl Pedagogic Institute, history faculty. I accelerated my studies and was able to graduate in two and a half years. And when I was demobilized, I was employed as a history teacher in school. I worked there until 1995. In 1991 I was conferred with the rank of "Honoured Teacher of Ukraine." In Moscow I gave a speech about the usage of regional studies in teaching the history of the Great Patriotic War. I finished my speech and sat down. I got a note with a question, "Matvey Savlyevich, in what hospital did you stay during the war?" I said: "It was the one that is located 25 kilometers from Vienna." It was a note from my friend whom I met at that hospital. It was the guy who started singing the Katyusha song.

In 1995 I came to Israel and now live in Jerusalem. My son and my daughter are here, so are my grandchildren who finished their military service and now pursue their education. My granddaughter graduated from the university. My grandson studies in the university. I do public service at a veterans' association.

—Do your grandchildren know the story that you have told us?

Yes. My granddaughter and my grandson do, I told them. I told my students a lot about the war. I didn't talk much about myself. I talked about my mates, people I served with. My book is published in Moscow in 1967. I did a lot of public service in the city . . . Children know my war story. Especially my grandson helps me a lot. I had to find information about one of our intelligence officers. They knew nothing about him in Nikopol. He was a Jewish intelligence officer. Once my grandson called me and said: "Grandpa, I have a

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ITEM TYPE VIDEO ORIGINAL LANGUAGE RUSSIAN gift for you." He gave me a book that had some information about that officer . . . He did a lot in the enemy's rear. He was betrayed and executed in Dnipropetrovsk in 1943.

—So you grandson knows. But do Israeli youths know about Jewish contribution . . .

I think that before the Aliyah they didn't really know. There was very little information about how Jews fought . . . And the role of WWII in the creation of Israel.

—Half a million of Jews served in the Red Army . . .

Now, in connection with the big Aliyah, of course Israelis learnt a lot since the 1990s. They have learnt that half a million Jews served in the Soviet Army, and almost half of them, around 200 thousand, died. I am the initiator of the foundation of the Museum of Jewish WWII Veterans in Israel. There will be a museum in Latrun. About three years ago a Knesset deputy claimed that it was the Americans who won the war, and that WWII has as much connection to Israel as the Korean War. But now such opinion significantly changed due to the Veterans' Union and the Disabled Veterans' Union work. Every year the Victory march takes places in Jerusalem.

—Are you invited to talk in schools?

I personally was only invited once . . . Here, in Jerusalem, is doesn't happen often, but I know that in other cities, it is an accepted practice.

—Were there many Jewish paratroopers?

Yes, there were. In my company there were two interesting guys: Misha Gelfand and Grisha Landsman. Misha Gelfand was very unsocial. He didn't have friends but he was constantly whispering something and writing down mathematical equations. We called him "the whisperer." Once our sergeant major said: "Guys, do you know that Gelfand's father is an Academician, a mathematician?" For us, young lads, this was . . . And so when we started approaching Lodeynoye Pole, in the evening, when we sat by the camp fire, he said: "Guys, set multiplication tasks for me." We started giving him two-three digit numbers. He answered immediately . . . He became a genius. Everyone was impressed with his memory. During the marches people from other companies started coming up to him. When we approached the frontline, a couple of Russian guys came up to me. I was the company's Komsomol secretary. They said: "Matvey, let's go to the company commander. Because Misha is probably one of a kind on the entire front. He might get killed. Our genius could die." We went to the company commander. One of the Russian soldiers said: "Comrade Senior Lieutenant, we have an unusual request. There is this private Gelfand. He is a genius, we don't want him to die. Will you speak to the commanding officers. We want them to transfer him to the

Milyavsky, Matthew full unedited interview

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ITEM TYPE VIDEO ORIGINAL LANGUAGE RUSSIAN home front." The Lieutenant was a demanding guy but very friendly. His eyes welled up with tears and he said: "No one can defeat such an army! We have been thinking about it too, but since you asked, we'll do something about it". Next day Misha came to us and said: "Guys, have I done wrong by you? Are you trying to get rid of me? I'm not leaving" . . . We went on the offensive. I wasn't there because I had been wounded but when I returned, here's what I found out: a small group of Germans broke through our company's sector. The company commander ordered the platoon captain to take a group of soldiers and follow those Germans. Gelfand was in that group. They ran for about 500 meters. There was a big wooden barn. Germans were behind it. The Lieutenant—the platoon commander—was wounded. And suddenly the guys, as they told me, heard Misha's voice: "At my command!" When he started leading the attack he was seriously injured. The guys told me that when the Germans were liquidated, "we came up to him and cried: Grisha, Gelfand, please be ok!" But he died.

The other one was Grisha Landsman. He was the absolute opposite of Gelfand: so cheerful, joking during marches . . . He could come up to any officer and ask for a cigarette. At first, he was punished a lot. But then everyone realized that it was just his personality and he just wanted to cheer everyone up. Before sending us to the Karelian Front, General Blazhevich was inspecting the regiment. The company was lined up. The General came up and was just about to leave when Grisha suddenly announced: "Comrade General, may I ask you a question?" The General turned around, came up to him. Grisha said: "Comrade General, you are probably inspecting because you want to send us to the front." The General looked at him and said: "Do you think you will be able to execute the military order?" Grisha said to him: "Comrade General, I can't speak for the division but I promise that our company and our battalion will execute the order for sure." The General saluted him and asked his name. "Grisha-Gershel Landsman." The General heard it and said, "Gershel, in childhood I had a few friends . . . I wonder if they are alive . . ." It was like a scene from "The Government Inspector": when he asked the question, everyone froze. But when the General saluted him and left, Grisha became a hero for a few days.

There was also Lieutenant Pavel Kogan. He joined us in Noginsk. It was a Saturday. When he entered our sector . . . It was a Saturday, we had no training and were getting ready to go into town. And the lieutenant asks: "Where is the third platoon located?" And one of us said: "On the right". But it was his right, not the lieutenant's right. So he turned and walked in the wrong direction. And someone said: "We need to go back to the straw and hey formula!" [A Suvorov's principle of teaching illiterate peasants to distinguish left from right.] This lieutenant, Pavel Kogan, completely changed the situation in the company. He was well- read, told us interesting stories, and he was an amazing physical education instructor. Alas, when we went to the Karelian Front, one evening—I wasn't there, I was told—there was a height that our lot couldn't take. So the lieutenant volunteered to take his platoon and get around the German positions. To my greatest regret, he died.

—Thank you very much

Milyavsky, Matthew full unedited interview

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ITEM TYPE VIDEO ORIGINAL LANGUAGE RUSSIAN

Milyavsky, Matthew full unedited interview

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