Cemetery Guardian #24 – November 2022

By Tracey Olivieri

Walter Kalasnikoff (Владимир Калашников) – 2727A, Private, AIF

Walter was born 1 January 1889 in the township of Ostrov, near Pskov in northwestern Russia.

He had worked on ships as a fireman and his chest and arms were covered with tattoos including Russian and American flags and a variety of designs, many featuring an anchor – like a plea for protection. He arrived in Sydney onboard the ‘Star of England’ in August 1914. He was listed as living in the Rockhampton region before enlisting in the AIF in July 1915. In his war records he stated that his religion was Roman Catholic on his enlistment form but on his medical form it was Russian Orthodox. He married his wife Mary in Brisbane – 1918.

Kalasnikoff enlisted in the AIF in 1915 and embarked at Brisbane on the H.M.A.T. ‘Seang Bee’ on 21 October. In 1916 he was nearly blinded in an explosion at Bois Grenier. France, He was medically discharged and invalided to Brisbane with 75 per cent incapacitation, he struggled on for a while. In 1918 his pension was reduced, and he applied for naturalisation, as it was hard to find work without it. His application went through without a hitch and in February 1919 his naturalisation certificate was issued and just about to be mailed when ‘fresh evidence’ appeared. This new ‘evidence’ was the Brisbane Censor’s report that Kalasnikoff, when visiting the Russian Association in 1918, ‘disowned, as a disgrace, his returned soldier’s Badge, as it was a sign that he had fought against his German brothers’. Another of his ‘crimes’ was that a socialist revolutionary, Herman Bykoff (alias Resanoff), who also had arrived in Australia as a fireman, had lodged with the Kalasnikoffs for some time after Kalasnikoff’s return from the front. All this was enough for Kalasnikoff to be branded ‘a Bolshevik (member of a wing of the Russian Social-Democratic Workers’ Party) of dangerous propensities’ and for his naturalisation to be denied. A constable sent to collect information about Kalasnikoff recorded the opinions of an opponent of his, Leo Berk, who said that Kalasnikoff’s ‘wife is well known for her Bolshevik views… Kalasnikoff is led by his wife. He is not a bad man on the whole, but if Bolshevism attained to any degree of success in Australia Kalashnikoff would certainly come out as a Bolshevik.’

This investigation into Kalasnikoff coincided with the red flag riots – the worst possible time for a Russian to come to the attention of the security services. After the riots a friend wrote to Kalasnikoff, who was then in hospital, ‘I was nearly beaten for speaking Russian – by Englishmen. We must be as far from Russia as we possibly can. There is danger for the Russians on every step and corner.’ Nevertheless, the Brisbane RSL gave him its support: ‘Being unnaturalized, he finds it very difficult to secure work’; as well, a Queensland parliamentarian raised his case with the minister for Home Affairs. It was all in vain.

Meanwhile, Kalasnikoff’s health declined, and he died in December 1920 at the Red Cross hospital in Corinda, paying dearly for having once enjoyed his freedom of speech in Australia.

Back to menu