Premium Only Content
Russian ANZAC Peter Chirvin honoured in Sydney by veterans and diplomats.
Born in Vladivlastok, Peter Chirvin was one of over a thousand Anzacs of Russian descent. He served on Gallipoli, was wounded twice in action and was awarded the Military Medal for his bravery as a stretcher-bearer at Mont St Quentin. ‘By his splendid devotion to duty’, the citation reads, ‘numbers of wounded were saved’.
Chirvin was repatriated to Australia in 1919, not long after the Bolsheviks seized power in Russia. He became ‘moody and depressed’ on the voyage home, many of his comrades questioning his loyalty and calling him a ‘Bolshie’. A few days before Anzac Day, Chirvin was found hanging from a beam in the ship’s washroom. An inquest would return a verdict of ‘suicide whilst temporarily deranged’.
Before taking his own life, Chirvin wrote to a woman who befriended him in Brisbane, the Australian city he had made his home. ‘Do not think me a coward’ he asked her. ‘If you see the 49th Battalion boys, ask them and they will tell you’.
Chirvin’s story signals Australia’s drift to the right in the aftermath of the Great War. We became a less progressive and less inclusive society. And even an Anzac awarded for the Military Medal for bravery found his country of origin counted against him and mattered more than so-called ‘mateship’. Chirvin claimed he had been ‘true to Australia’. But had his country been true to him?
-
1:02:20
Aussie Cossack
1 month agoAussie Cossack on No2NATO
2.71K67 -
1:01:03
The Rubin Report
3 hours agoTech Legend Gives the Real Odds of Elon Musk Successfully Cutting Gov’t | Joe Lonsdale
34.7K7 -
LIVE
The Shannon Joy Show
4 hours ago🔥🔥Chip Roy's Fabulous Christmas Shutdown - Mr. Scrooge Or Miracle On K-Street? 🔥🔥
388 watching -
53:31
Dave Portnoy
4 hours agoThe Unnamed Show With Dave Portnoy, Kirk Minihane, Ryan Whitney - Episode 40
45.7K -
35:55
Tudor Dixon
1 hour agoCorruption and Influence: The Biden Family Saga | The Tudor Dixon Podcast
7.98K1 -
LIVE
The Big Mig™
15 hours agoGlobal Finance Forum Powered By Genesis Gold Group
1,944 watching -
2:45:29
Matt Kohrs
15 hours agoMarket Crash, Breaking Inflation News & Payday Friday || The MK Show
46.7K5 -
LIVE
LFA TV
15 hours agoWHAT IS HAPPENING IN DC?? | LIVE FROM AMERICA 12.20.24 11am EST
5,312 watching -
1:23:33
Caleb Hammer
3 hours agoDelusional Lady Destroys Life To Hurt Her Ex | Financial Audit
20.3K3 -
49:01
BonginoReport
6 hours agoThe Final Countdown to Shutdown (Ep.109) - 12/20/2024
94.6K227