Evsei Krasik

Evsei Krasik was born in 1924 in Gomel, Belorussia. A short time later, his family moved to central Russia, where Evsei spent his childhood. In June 1941, days before the German attack on the Soviet Union, Krasik applied to the prestigious Novosibirsk Military Institute of Transport Engineering (in Western Siberia), and in September 1941 he began his studies at the institute.

Krasik recalled that during his youth he was naïve, believing in Communism and Soviet propaganda. At the Novosibirsk institute he was a komsorg — chairman of the Komsomol (Young Communist League) organization of his faculty, idolized Stalin, and was a fervent Soviet patriot. At one Komsomol meeting he delivered a speech during which he said: "we should be ashamed to be students on the homefront at the time when our friends and brothers are at the front." Krasik must have been a persuasive speaker because the students, all of whom had an exemption from military service, rushed to volunteer to join the Red Army. The military authorities selected many of the volunteers and sent them to nearby Tomsk, to an artillery school (Krasik recalled believing that about 10 percent of its cadets were Jewish). 1

The training was difficult for Krasik, who disliked military discipline and argued with his commanders (in consequence, he was punished). Furthermore, he was not strong. However, he had two main motivations that guided him: his Soviet patriotism and the desire that no other soldier would look at him and say that Jews are cowards. This helped him graduate from the school as a lieutenant. In February 1943, together with his comrades, he arrived at the distribution center in Kolomna (near Moscow). He recalled: "I was eager to get to the front as soon as possible. Other cadets asked 'Why? Are you in a hurry to die?' He also heard the remark 'Jews like the Soviet regime more than others so Krasik wants to give his life for the Soviet regime as soon as possible...'." 2

In the spring of 1943 Lieutenant Evsei Krasik was assigned to the 1004th Howitzer Regiment as the commander of a platoon. He first fought on the Kursk Salient in the summer of 1943. In the fall of that year he fought in the Briansk area, where he was wounded. In the summer of 1944 Senior Lieutenant Krasik fought in the Nevel area (in western Russia) and in eastern Belorussia. His main responsibility, like that of his unit as a whole, was reconnaissance. Toward the end of the war, artillery reconnaissance became his specialty. At the end of 1944 and in 1945 he fought in Eastern Prussia and Pomerania; from February 1945 he participated in the liquidation of the Wehrmacht's Courland Pocket (in Latvia). Under the impact of the reality of the front lines, his Soviet enthusiasm gradually evaporated.

Evsei Krasik was awarded two military orders – that of the Patriotic War and that of the Red Star. He was contused twice (one of the contusions was accompanied by a wound).

After the war, Krasik completed his studies at a medical institute (university). After graduation, he settled in Tomsk, and worked as a psychiatrist. He was one of the leading psychiatrists in Siberia, a professor of the Tomsk University and at the medical institute there, and from 1967 – the head of the Department of Psychiatry at the institute. He published 18 monographs and hundreds of scientific articles.

In 1993 Evsei Krasik immigrated to Israel. He died in 2009.

• 1. From an interview given by Krasik in Israel in 2006, see http://iremember.ru /memoirs/artilleristi/krasik-evsey-davidovich/
• 2. ibidem