Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

The following newspaper report, in 1930, concerns Anatole Palchevski and his background.
At the time, during the Great Depression, Palchevski was travelling to north QLD looking for work in the canefields. He and his friend Vladimir Vitte found work in the canefields of Tully.

'The Morning Bulletin' (Rockhampton) Tuesday 20 May 1930, p.10
“NO WORK: NO FOOD”
What Russian’s Say
Will Not Return
(By A.F. Rodie)
"While Mr Frank Nolan is busy making arrangements to go to Moscow, there are two young Russians in Rockhampton who are glad they are not in their homeland. They are moving north to seek work in the sugar industry, and although times are hard with them, they say they would be worse off if they were in Russian.
Their names are Anatole Palchevski and Vladimir Vitte, and they have crowded a lot of travel and experience into their score or so of years.
Palchevski was a rating in the Russian Navy until the 1917 Revolution, and he was in the crew of one of the 32 gunboats that "deserted" from Vladivostok and made for Shanghai and Manila where the ships were sold and the proceeds divided amongst the officers and men. This happened about 10 years ago, and since then he has sailed the seven seas and worked in several countries.
In company with his friend, Vitte, he sought work in the cotton fields around Wowan, but he secured only a few days’ work in three months and they decided to push on to the cane lands of the north.
According to letters Palchevski receives from his family in Irkutsk, times are hard under the reign of the commissars. “No work, no food” is the cry, but work is difficult to get, even for those who are competent and anxious to find it.
“I have no desire to return to Russian,” he said. “I have had trouble to find work in Australia, but I know I should be worse off at home”.
In the opinion of these young men it is probable that Mr Nolan will return from Russia impressed with the success of the Communist regime. He will be royally entertained, lodged in the best hotels and his hosts will take care to show him the best side of Russian life. He will be taken to factories bustling with business and to the schools and theatres subsidized by the Government, but they will not allow
him to see the idle, ruined workshops in the back streets, nor the women and children hungry for bread."