Vladimir Peller
Vladimir (Faivl) Peller was born on May 15, 1913 in Olgopol, Vinnitsa Region, Ukraine. His father was a farmer. From his boyhood on, the son helped his father with his farm work. In 1935 Faivl was drafted into the Red Army. Upon his demobilization in 1938, he moved to the Jewish Autonomous Region (Birobidzhan) and settled on a kolkhoz west of the town of Birobidzhan. At the beginning of the Soviet-German war on June 22, 1941, as an experienced farmer, he was the chairman of the kolkhoz. In June 1941, Peller was drafted again. He took part in combat at the Prut River and in the defense of Odessa. In 1942 he fought at Stalingrad and, in 1943, he was transferred to the northwestern sector of the Soviet-German front. He was among the first Red Army soldiers to enter Vitebsk on 26 June 1944. In 1945, Peller took part in the liquidation of the Wehrmacht's Courland Pocket (today the place is in Latvia). Peller was wounded four times during the war. He barely survived being wounded in January 1943. In July 1944 in Lithuania, Peller assumed command of his platoon after his superior was killed in combat. Peller was shell-shocked in this battle, but continued fighting.
Peller was awarded the Medal for Battle Merit in March 1944 and Orders of Glory of all three classes in June 1944 (3rd class), in October 1944 (2nd class) and in March 1945 (1st class). He received his first Order of Glory for the heroism he displayed in enabling his company to continue its offensive. In April 1944, operating in the northwestern sector, his company's advance was halted by a German machine-gun bunker. Peller volunteered to put the bunker out of commission. With two soldiers, he crawled close to the bunker and destroyed it with two anti-tank grenades. Despite his four military awards, Vladimir Peller ended the war with the fairly low rank of junior lieutenant.
After the war, Peller returned to Birobidzhan, where he served as the chairman of the Valdheym kolkhoz.
Peller combined sincere Soviet patriotism with a sense of Jewish identity. In 1970 the Soviet authorities, upset the growing number of requests by Soviet Jews to be allowed to leave the USSR and immigrate to the State of Israel, decided to arrange a propaganda event intended to show that the majority of the Soviet Jews were loyal Soviet citizens. On March 4, 1970 they convened an anti-Zionist TV-conference of Soviet Jews in Moscow. Numerous Jewish celebrities, from movie stars to renowned scientists, were invited to take part. One after another, they swore loyalty to the Soviet Union. The 56-old Red Army veteran and Party member since 1947, Vladimir Peller also took part in this propaganda event. He delivered a short patriotic speech, in which he repeated the words "Jew" and "Jewish" many times. Apparently as a resident and representative of the official Jewish territory Biribidzhan he was allowed to display his identity in such an open manner.
Peller died on December 25, 1978 in Valdheym.
