A Soldier Without a Country by Yasha Hain

Author:Yasha Hain [Hain, Yasha]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2022-09-17T16:00:00+00:00

Noson Yakovlevich – the Red Army officer

Latvian archival data on registration of the family of Noson Yakovlevich in Daugavpils in 1941.

Latvian archival data on the family of Noson Yakovlevich

Award list of Noson Yakovlevich – the Red Banner Order.

The decision of the Latvian authorities to refuse to grant Latvian citizenship to Noson Yakovlevich.

* * *

1 shmutka – stuff (slang)

Part two

Noske had been working in Israel as a high school sports teacher for over ten years. During this time, the Soviet Union managed to collapse, and Latvia again gained its independence.

The salary of a teacher in Israel allowed Noske to travel around the world, to see Europe and America, to visit his native Latvia, where he enjoyed speaking the language he knew, close to his nature, and his status as a well-to-do guest. He considered Latvia his homeland, spoke the beautiful Latvian language with pleasure, and every year he went on vacation to Jurmala, feeling with every cell the familiar smell of Latvian pines.

Returning home to a squalid apartment in a poor area, Noske was upset, but not for long. He had a positive character, he gradually got used to even his religious neighbours and made friends with them. After all, they lived in the same environment, helped each other, and gradually he got used to it.

Noske and his wife retired when they were seventy, they took care of their grandchildren and even improved their economic position thanks to monthly aid from Germany. Ida Natanovna received the ‘German pension’, as people called it because she rather quickly proved that her family had suffered from the Nazis during the war. For ten years Noske had been writing letters to German officials. Finally, after one more indignant letter, he also received a German pension.

Despite his good financial situation, Noske was gradually withdrawing into himself: there was not enough communication with people, and Israeli reality with its constant wars, rocket attacks and sirens in Tel Aviv did not attract him. His former habitual world turned to insecurity, and this tormented and exhausted him. He often complained to his wife and said that their move to Israel was a mistake, reminded her of how respected and happy they had been in Soviet Latvia, and liked to speak about the advantages of an independent Latvia over Israel.

Ida Natanovna was mostly silent, or used to utter only one phrase: “Your son and your grandchildren live here and are happy. Is that not enough for you? “After that, Noske usually fell silent and closed in on himself. He adored his son and granddaughter, who was named Dora after his mother, but did not confess to anyone that this was not enough for him.

Repeatedly, the feeling returned that his life was an accidental ripple on the surface of a deep well, which was his tired soul, and he wanted huge waves in which he could show his courage, willpower and nobility as officer and athlete.

This opportunity appeared when Noske became a volunteer at the Veterans’ Union and started communicating with former soldiers and officers of the Red Army like him.

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