Not sure where to post this…
My mother died last march. I’m the son that got tasked with scanning her old photo albums and papers to share with my siblings. Sadly we didn’t even know some of this stuff existed 
so now there are pictures that we don’t know who my mom was with.
Anyway… I found a document that looks like a Cyrillic character set. Anyone care to translate it for me?
Its a document detailing someone’s service in the Russian/Soviet military. He was called up in 1910, was never wounded and received no honors or medals. It is really hard to decipher the stuff written in pen as the language changed a lot over the last century and cursive is hard to read as it is.
Wow. Thanks, Cornelius. It’s my grandfather.
Do you have any suggestions where I could go to get some more of it deciphered?
Try going on proz.com and posting a bid for translation. It’ll cost you, but it’ll be accurate.
Are you near a university (that offers Russian)? Maybe you could hire a professor to do a translation job.
If your grandfather was Jewish, try posting it via the appropriate geographic listserv at www.jewishgen.org. Otherwise, I don’t have as much experience with the non-Jewish genealogy sites, but you might have some luck with these guys.
Also, I work in an interpreting department. Let me see if my Russian interpreter will take a stab at it.
Now that it’s been bumped, you might wait for a few more people to see it here. There’s a handful here who can read Russian.
I have a Ukrainian dictionary in front of me but speak only a little bit.
I can tell you that послужной листЪ is approximately “obedience letter” which is probably more literally “letter of service.” “Фамилiа, имя, отчество” is last name, first name, and patronymic. “званiе” is rank. “МЪсто жителЬcтва” is city of residence.
Pretty much statistical stuff. I can’t for the life of me make out Cyrillic handwriting though, which of course is probably of the most interest to you.
Nope, we’re not Jewish. I’ll check out the site. Thanks.
I just sent an email to a friend of mine who’s degree is in anthropology. I’m hoping he might have come across somebody in his coursework that he could recommend.
My Russian interpreter will “write out” the translations underneath if I can get her a printout. She says it’s an old record of service, and that curiously, the rank held is “young soldier”.
My printer, however, is refusing to print.
Why curiously? You mean because that’s not exactly an official rank? I don’t think I have any restrictions on my picasa site that would prohibit anyone from downloading this. Let me know if you need me to email it to you. It’s on my computer at home, so it would be this evening, or I could download the one the I posted and email it to you, but the copy at home might be a higher resolution.
Would “young soldier” approximate “infantryman”?
His name seems to be Karl Johann Miller. Sounds more German than Russian.
My family is German, but my grandfather was in the Russian Cavalry (according to old stories from my mother, RIP).
This is one of the many reasons I want this translated. My mother passed last March. We found all of these old photo albums and other bric-a-brac that we never even knew existed. It was always kept in the forbidden drawer of doom that we were NEVER allowed to go through as a kid. Now I want to expand on my family’s genealogy. I scarcely know more than my grandparents names. They died when I was very young, and my mother didn’t believe it “living in the past.”
She says “young soldier” just denotes entry-level, but isn’t specific to infantry. I’m trying to print it larger. Working on it now.
Date of issue: October 1st, ?? (can’t read the year)
Father’s name is Georga (George) Karl Johannes. It’s a German name.
Person’s name: Karl Johannes Georga Miller (she says in german it would be George, but in Russia they would have changed the spelling)
Family status: Settlers. (the word means “someone who came to start new life”. It is an old word, no longer used.)
Marital status: bachelor
Religion: Lutheran
Former profession/craft: Cobbler
Service begun:1910
Discharged from military service at the age of 28.
In 16 battles, wounded 16 times. (?!)
In 1920, he was activated reservist, 2nd unit. He was to be discharged in 1926.
She’s going to take it home and look at it under magnification, with her dicitionary. She says some words are too old to understand. I wish I knew how to print a magnified version over several pages…
Hmmm, sounds intriguing! My grandparents never talked about the past either, but I think it was only because they were poor and life was bleak and they wanted to get away from all of that.
Please keep us informed!
Well, this will never be as interesting as “the wallet” thread that was going strong, but I find it pretty fascinating.
By the way, what ever happened to “the wallet?” Was the owner ever found?
Minor correction. This actually reads “Was not in a campaign. Was not wounded.” The word “не” [not] is what looks like a 16 when handwritten.
He was also literate (no “not” in the last section of the line above this).
Interesting stuff.
there are russian and ukrainian orthodox churches in and around atlanta. as it is christmas eve today, and christmas tomorrow you would have a chance at finding an oldish russian or ukrainian that would be able to help.
someone who immigrated after ww2 would know the older words.
give a few a try. you are sure to get someone answering the phone! look for the ones that are patriarchal or roccor.