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DIGITAL COLLECTIONS ITEM TRANSCRIPT Henrikh Dudnik. Full, unedited interview, 2012 ID FL003.interview PERMALINK http://n2t.net/ark:/86084/b4bz61b2w ITEM TYPE VIDEO ORIGINAL LANGUAGE RUSSIAN TABLE OF CONTENTS ITEM TRANSCRIPT ENGLISH TRANSLATION 2 CITATION & RIGHTS 12 2021 © BLAVATNIK ARCHIVE FOUNDATION PG 1/12 BLAVATNIKARCHIVE.ORG DIGITAL COLLECTIONS ITEM TRANSCRIPT Henrikh Dudnik. Full, unedited interview, 2012 ID FL003.interview PERMALINK http://n2t.net/ark:/86084/b4bz61b2w ITEM TYPE VIDEO ORIGINAL LANGUAGE RUSSIAN TRANSCRIPT ENGLISH TRANSLATION —Today is November 29, 2012. We are in Miami, meeting a veteran of the Great Patriotic War. Please introduce yourself and tell us when and where you born. My name is Henrikh Yakovlevich Dudnik, and I was born in 1920 in Tulchyn, Vinnitsa [Vinnytsya] Oblast, Ukraine. —What was life like in Tulchyn before the war? It was not too bad. Most people were craftsmen. There were five factories. It was a small town with a population of 20,000-30,000, if I remember correctly. I graduated from a ten-year school in Tulchyn. —Was this a Jewish school? No, it was Russian. There was one Jewish school and the rest were Russian. —Were there many Jews in Tulchyn? Yes . almost the entire town was Jewish. However, there were not only Jews, but also Russian and Ukrainians. —How did everyone get along? They got along fine. —Did the children play together? Was there no . No, there was no ethnic tension at all. Everyone got along. —Did your parents speak Yiddish? They knew it and spoke a mix of Yiddish and Russian to each other. —Did you have any siblings? Yes, I had a younger brother. He passed away. 2021 © BLAVATNIK ARCHIVE FOUNDATION PG 2/12 BLAVATNIKARCHIVE.ORG DIGITAL COLLECTIONS ITEM TRANSCRIPT Henrikh Dudnik. Full, unedited interview, 2012 ID FL003.interview PERMALINK http://n2t.net/ark:/86084/b4bz61b2w ITEM TYPE VIDEO ORIGINAL LANGUAGE RUSSIAN —Did you celebrate Jewish holidays at home? Yes, thanks to my grandfather who was very religious. We mostly celebrated the holidays at my grandparents’ home. The table was laid out with Jewish dishes. We ate Jewish . it was very good. There was more at my grandparents'. My grandfather was a tailor while my grandmother took care of the home. They observed and celebrated all the holidays. —What did your parents do? My mother took care of the house and my father was an accountant. He was not born in Tulchyn, but in Berdichev [Berdychiv]. My mother was a native of Tulchyn; all her brothers were also born there and got their education there. There's nobody left now. —You completed ten grades? Yes. —When did you graduate? In 1938. —What did you do after that? I finished the ten-year school in Tulchyn, but I spent seven years in school in Kharkov [Kharkiv]. We also lived in Kharkov because my father worked for the security services. —What did you do after you graduated? I went to study at the Automobile and Highway Institute in Kharkov. However, I was seriously in love with a young woman, so I left Kharkov to follow her to Odessa [Odesa]. —When were you drafted? In 1939. —Was this when Timoshenko’s order about universal conscription was issued? Timoshenko? May he be forgotten. He introduced a rule that there would be no special allowances during 2021 © BLAVATNIK ARCHIVE FOUNDATION PG 3/12 BLAVATNIKARCHIVE.ORG DIGITAL COLLECTIONS ITEM TRANSCRIPT Henrikh Dudnik. Full, unedited interview, 2012 ID FL003.interview PERMALINK http://n2t.net/ark:/86084/b4bz61b2w ITEM TYPE VIDEO ORIGINAL LANGUAGE RUSSIAN military drills. For example, when we were on guard duty, we could not lower the flaps of our hats even when it was really cold, because the rules forbade it. Back then we wore Budyonny hats. There was an order to draft those born in 1920 and also those who were twenty-seven or twenty-eight years old but had not served due to various reasons. Timoshenko . I did not know how people respected him. I personally did not. The classroom where everything was taught to us had a clear rule that no shortcuts or exceptions could be made at any time. —What type of unit did you serve in? In a tank unit. I was drafted and served in Luga. I was drafted toward the end of the war with Finland and I caught the tail end of the war. —So you served at the front there? Yes. —In which unit? I was a tank commander and sometimes a gunner. All the crew members knew how to perform every task in the tank. I could easily do the job of the driver-mechanic or the gunner and radio operator. We had universal skills. I did not spend a long time there. Then I served in Luga, which had been nicknamed Luga the Drunk because a long time ago merchants would gather there and have parties. I also served in a tank unit there. I was the commander of a tank and the driver-mechanic. I also spent some time as a tank repair technician. —Were these light tanks? You could say that. A large-caliber machine gun could pierce the armor. I had additional armor because the front section where the driver sits has extra protection. The armor was spaced so there was a pocket of air between the two slabs of armor. This air pocket helped dampen the shells. We also had two-turreted tanks, which could be pierced clean by a machine gun. A good friend of mine burned to death in one of them. —How many people were in a tank crew? Three: the commander, driver-mechanic, and the radio operator and gunner. —You are Jewish, what about the other two? 2021 © BLAVATNIK ARCHIVE FOUNDATION PG 4/12 BLAVATNIKARCHIVE.ORG DIGITAL COLLECTIONS ITEM TRANSCRIPT Henrikh Dudnik. Full, unedited interview, 2012 ID FL003.interview PERMALINK http://n2t.net/ark:/86084/b4bz61b2w ITEM TYPE VIDEO ORIGINAL LANGUAGE RUSSIAN There were not too many Jews in my unit. —The crew was made up three men . One was Russian, the other Ukrainian. —How did you get along? Pretty well. How could it be otherwise? Back then everyone got along. We loved our neighbors. We lived in Tashkent; we actually came here from Tashkent. We were surrounded by Uzbeks. My wife learned Uzbek and I picked up a little too. I have forgotten it now, but we understand Uzbeks. They are not a bad people. —Where were you when the war began on June 22, 1941? I was serving in my unit near Leningrad, in Pushkin. —What happened when it was announced that the war had begun? I was washing my footwraps . I took part in the war from the very first day. I was sitting on the riverbank washing my feet. At night it was announced that we were at war. The sentry came running and told me the war had started. I laughed. We were sure that there would be no war because Stalin and Molotov had signed an agreement. It turns out that it was not worth the paper it was written on. Hitler did not follow the terms of the deal and violated every single clause. I did not believe him and told him to leave me be. What war?! He tried to tell me the news again. A few hours later the bombing began. We were based in Pushkin, opposite of the Catherine Palace. Our main positions were a few kilometers away. During combat or during an air raid we had a backup position. Our backup positions were in Pargolovo. When the war began, that's where we started. Our tanks were kept in barns that once housed the horses of the 49th Cavalry Regiment. We all went to retrieve our tanks in Pargolovo. —What happened next? There was a muster point in the forest where we all gathered. We were issued uniforms and weapons, including semi-automatic rifles. The tankmen had pistols because rifles are unwieldy in a tank, but pistols are quite easy to use. —Where did you go from Pargolovo? 2021 © BLAVATNIK ARCHIVE FOUNDATION PG 5/12 BLAVATNIKARCHIVE.ORG DIGITAL COLLECTIONS ITEM TRANSCRIPT Henrikh Dudnik. Full, unedited interview, 2012 ID FL003.interview PERMALINK http://n2t.net/ark:/86084/b4bz61b2w ITEM TYPE VIDEO ORIGINAL LANGUAGE RUSSIAN We traveled to the Karelian Isthmus. First our positions were close to Leningrad at Pushkin and Krasnoye Selo. Later we were moved further out toward the outer lines of defense. —What was an average day there like? If there was no combat, things were pretty quiet. People tried to get a bite to eat in the morning and wash up. Not everyone could wash up because there was not enough water. It was freezing. We would melt snow in an old oil drum. We kept warm by burning logs soaked in diesel. We had the diesel because it was the fuel for our tanks. There was no shortage of diesel. —How were you fed? You mentioned breakfast, what did it consist of? The breakfast . had to be drawn. We only had crackers, so we ate those. —Was there any combat where you were based? Yes, we both attacked and defended. Our tanks got hit and burned. We had light tanks, tankettes. —Where were you sent after that? First we were on the Leningrad Front and then on the Volkhov Front. There was heavy fighting there. There are some settlements near Leningrad like Gatchina, and there were a few battles there. Most of the fighting was in Tikhvin, on the Finnish side, Mga, Lyuban. —What was the mood like in 1941-42? Were your spirits dampened, or did you continue to believe in victory? We were raised in Soviet times.