Moysey Dossoeff

Alias Dosoeff        Russian spelling Моисей Доцоев

Born 21.01.1886     Place Ardon, Ossetia, the Caucasus    Ethnic origin Ossetian   Religion Lutheran (?)

Father Dossoeff, Asabe

Residence before arrival at Australia served 1 year in the Russian army, served in Russo-Japanese war with a Cossack regiment

Arrived at Australia 1913

Residence before enlistment Port Pirie, SA

Occupation labourer at Broken Hill Pty Works at Port Pirie

Service

service number 2189   enlisted 4.05.1916 POE Adelaide

unit 4th MG Company, 13th Light Horse Regiment   rank Private, Trooper

place England, 1917

final fate RTA 27.09.1917       discharged 29.01.1918 MU

Naturalisation served as Russian subject

Residence after the war Adelaide, Port Pirie, Melbourne; 1919 permitted to return to Vladivostok

Materials digitised service records (NAA)

army pay file (NAA)

Privates MOYSEY DOSSOEFF & Otto Abram RAISANEN: Russian subjects in the Army (NAA)

alien registration 1   2   (NAA)

From Russian Anzacs in Australian History:

An over-suspicious attitude on the part of one was often counterbalanced by commonsense from others. In August 1916 Major Hogan, from [...] machine-gun depot at Seymour, reported about Dossoeff and Raisanen, two privates in his unit who ‘are supposed to be Russian subjects … These men simultaneously asking for transfer from Machine Guns to Artillery and Light Horse struck me as being peculiar, and I thought possibly they may be Enemy Agents.’ He added, probably feeling he was making too much of it, ‘I forward this information for what it worth’. The Intelligence officer who had to deal with this ‘information’ did not seem particularly concerned about them: ‘The fact that both of them applied for a move at the same time would not mean anything as they evidently talked the matter over together and both came to the same conclusion’. The irony of this situation was that any contact between them would be highly unlikely: one, the smelter-man Moysey Dossoeff, was an Ossetian from the Caucasus; the other was a Finn, Otto Abram Raisanen, a former butcher who had enlisted just three days after his arrival in the country. Dossoeff’s file adds some more detail to the range of attitudes experienced by the Russians. In his application to be transferred from the machine-guns to the Light Horse Dossoeff argued that, while his limited knowledge of English prevented him from mastering machine-gunnery, he was ‘a very good horse-man’, having served ‘through the Russo-Japanese war with a Cossack regiment’. The commander of his company wrote on his application ‘Forwarded and strongly recommended. One of my best men but handicapped in MG work because of poor knowledge of language.’ Dossoeff was then transferred to the Light Horse, only to be later discharged with remark, ‘Deficient mentality’.

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