313. My First Partner
I had further interactions with Ivan Dobrik subsequently. Until he
was seriously wounded in the head in September 1942 we fought
side by side.
When I went out ‘hunting’ with Dobrik, I felt more confident.
Ivan was a cheerful and courageous lad, a good mate and an
excellent shot. You could rely on him absolutely. He hailed from
the Poltava region. His home town – the village of Khudoleyevka
- was ‘under the Germans’, he told me in thick Ukrainian and he
had not ‘heard a word’ as to the fate of his parents and numerous
brothers and sisters.
It had been difficult for his parents to maintain their simple
holding, to support a big family. And after consulting with them,
the eldest – Ivan – went off to Astrakhan to find work. He spent
time there with fishermen on the Caspian Sea and dragged in nets.
But everything he earned he sent back home. He got by with one
thing or another. And dreamed of joining the army. Wherever he
wrote, whoever he turned to, the army would not take him. ‘Too
young! Grow up and bit and we’ll call you up ourselves!’ he was
told at the recruiting office.
Indeed, in October 1940, when the date fell due, he was called
up into the Red Army.