Soviet Identity booklet?

[Mossy]

This is a small booklet i picked up on the weekend for a couple of bucks. There's a bit here, so bear with me.

Any one able to help?

Cover and inside cover.

Sam.

[Mossy]

Pages 1 and 2.

Sam.

[Mossy]

Pages 3 and 4.

Sam.

[Mossy]

Pages 5 and 6.

Sam.

[Mossy]

Pages 10 and 11.

Sam.

[Mossy]

Pages 15, 32 and 43.

Sam.

[Mossy]

Last page, 48.

What i was told when i purchased the booklet was that the man had fought at Leningrad and had then captured by the Germans and then released at the end of the war.

Sam.

[Guest Rick Research]

Vasily Andreevich Berestovsky was born in 1910 in the village of Zdvizhka, in Brusilovsky Raion of Zhitomir Oblast, where he attended village school to the 4th Class in 1926. A Ukrainian by nationality, his mother tongue was Russian, and he spoke no foreign languages. Working class, never a member of the Komsomol or Communist Party. A spinner by trade, he was called up for his compulsory military service 17 December 1933 at Vyborgsky Local Military Commissariat of the city of Leningrad. That page shows his clothing sizes-- 56 hat, 41 boots etc.

He was a trained automatic rifleman and machine gunner.

Called up at Krasnogvardiisky Local Military Commissariat, Leningard 2 August 1941 as a rifleman in the 55th Artillery Regiment.

He was indeed captured by the Germans on 8 August 1941 and remained in captivity in Germany in a camp in a city spelled in Russian like "Beute" until 22 January 1945.

Liberated, he then served as a rifleman with the 828th Rifles Regiment in 2nd Ukrainian Front from 28 January to 2(sic) May 1945. He was lightly wounded in the left hand or arm (there is no distinct word for either in Russian-- appendages being labelled like flippers from the shoulder down) 5 (?) May 1945.

Demobilized by decree of 25.9. on 13 November 1945.

This identity booklet, for him as a Red Army Private of the 1st reserve, was made out at Kaminsky District Military Commissariat, Leningrad on 24 January 1948.

The stamps are largely "proved as read" sorts of things, and attesting at some later point that he was a war veteran.

His sole medal shown is the Victory Over Germany.

This guy, at least to the point the book was issued, seems to have avoided the repercussions of being a P.O.W.

That's a qucik skim through and retyping my scribbly notes as I go along.

[Mossy]

Wow. Now, that was fast. Not that i'm implying anything of course...hehe.

Thank you very much. I'm suprised he would have survived the post war purge. Being a POW who wasn't a party member and had fought at leningrad.

Certainly not a bad buy for $5!

Sam.

[Riley1965]

Sam,

That's an excellent buy for $5!!! Rick, great job on quickly translating the document!!! I wish I could at least read Russian.

Doc

[Hauptmann]

Sam,

That's an excellent buy for $5!!! Rick, great job on quickly translating the document!!! I wish I could at least read Russian.

Doc

Ditto that! WOW! Rick never ceases to amaze... great job as always. Now everyone be good kids and start passing around the collection plate!

Wish I could find a nice document like that for $5... shoot, I wish I could just find a nice document like that! Terrific catch there... here's hoping that you find many more... and share them!

Dan

[slava1stclass]

He was lightly wounded in the left hand or arm (there is no distinct word for either in Russian-- appendages being labelled like flippers from the shoulder down) 5 (?) May 1945.

To all:

More precisely, he was wounded in the left shoulder. The Russian word for shoulder is used in describing the injury (in parentheses).

Regards,

slava1stclass

[Guest Rick Research]

I couldn't make that word out. It's always frustrating to get 95% and just have odd 'splotches" in the text that dim old eyes can't make out.