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Soviet WWII vet saw enough death, devoted his life to diplomacy
By Ivonne D'Amato
Centre Daily Times, PA
June 18 2005
[email protected]
It was a warm July day in 1941 when Victor Israelyan, newly arrived at
the front lines of the Soviet-German conflict, heard the sirens blast.
He gathered a young nurse in his arms and they ran through the ruin
and death of a small town in the Soviet Union.
"I had her in my arms," Israelyan said, his eyes wide. "I heard the
German planes come over us with automatic guns firing."
He paused, somberly staring into the past.
"I felt her fall from my arms," Israelyan said. "Can you imagine the
young nurse had three wounds in her back, and I was safe? She was
only 20 years old."
Israelyan was 25 at the time, a physician. The day after he graduated
from First Moscow Medical Institute, he and 800 classmates were sent
to the front lines of World War II.
His experiences there would shape the rest of his life, prompting him
to abandon the practice of medicine to become a diplomat. He went on
to negotiate missile treaties, befriend a president and author more
than 10 books on diplomacy and the Cold War.
Eventually, it brought him to Penn State, and State College, where
he lives today with his wife.
Throughout Israelyan's home are mementos from his life. Pictures
of grandchildren share space with a picture and mounted letter from
President George H.W. Bush, a small Soviet flag astronaut Alan Shepard
took to the moon and a photo of himself in his Soviet army uniform,
his chest covered in medals.
At age 85, he moves in a slow shuffle across the room. He is of
Armenian descent, he says, but considers himself Russian because his
mother tongue is Russian.
"I want to salute the veterans of World War II. Soon, we will all pass
away," Israelyan says in a voice slightly slurred by the effects of
four strokes, but still thick with an accent.
He throws himself into his office chair and gestures with his hands:
"What do you want to know?"
Israelyan didn't become a physician to serve the military, he said.
"My father was a physician. ... I wanted to be a doctor like my
father."
But as he was attending medical school, Adolf Hitler's military was
invading the Soviet Union. The war, Israelyan said, was "unexpected."
Before it ended, the Soviet Army would lose 9 million soldiers and
another 19 million in civilian deaths, more than any of the Allied
armies.
"It is difficult to say how many battles I was in," Israelyn said,
"but it was terrible."
He still is haunted by one particular incident.
"In my regiment, there was a group of 18-year-old Kazakhs. They did
not even speak Russian, so they could not communicate with the rest
of us," said Israelyan, noting that the Soviet army consisted not only
of Russians but also ethnic groups such as Jews, Kazakhs and Armenians.
"They (the Kazakhs) were from a small village, so they did not
understand what the war was for."
Two Kazakhs were sent to scout ahead of Israelyan's regiment, he said.
"Two hours later, one of the two returns crying, shot in the arm, and
he says, 'The Germans shot us and killed my brother, my colleague.' "
Officers were suspicious of the young Kazakh's story. Israelyan was
ordered to investigate.
It turned out the two Kazakhs made a "secret deal," Israelyan said, to
shoot each other in the arm in hopes of gaining medical discharges. The
one who returned accidentally killed his friend.
"I had to report what happened to the colonel," Israelyan said.
The injured Kazakh was executed for treason.
"I felt quite guilty because he told me the truth," Israelyan said
apologetically. "I had to report it. I had tears."
The turning point of the war came when the Soviet forces
counterattacked near Stalingrad, now Volgograd, in November 1942.
Thousands of German troops and their allies were cut off. Shortly
after the Nazis' surrender at Stalingrad, Israelyan said he stood in
what had once been a thriving city.
"You cannot imagine," he said. "It was a horrible situation.
Everything was destroyed. Stalingrad was more destroyed than Berlin.
There was no living thing left."
Of the almost 800 people who graduated from medical school with
Israelyan, fewer than half returned from the war, he said.
"One of my closest friends, who was my roommate in medical school,
committed suicide because he was captured by the Germans," Israelyan
said. He was released, "and when he returned to Russia he was accused
of being a traitor."
Israelyan said the idea of being branded a traitor was too much for
his former roommate to handle.
But Israelyan said the war gave him a new purpose in life. "I was a
disappointed physician. I saw people my age killed so I had to become
a keeper of peace -- a diplomat."
Israelyan attended the Diplomatic Academy in Moscow from 1944 to
'46, later attended Cambridge University and, in 1960, earned a
doctorate in historical science from the Moscow State Institute of
International Relations.
"The war was five years, but the rest of my very long life was in
diplomacy, teaching, writing and lecturing," he said.
For 20 years, Israelyan lectured at the academy and the State
University in Erevan, Armenia. Another 20 were spent as a diplomat
to the United Nations.
In 1968, Israelyan was appointed ambassador and first deputy permanent
representative of the Soviet Union to the U.N.
>>From 1975 to '86, he headed the Soviet delegation to the U.N. and
worked on several treaties, including the Seabed and the Biological
Weapons and Non-Proliferation treaties in Geneva.
He was, he said, "regretfully, a cold warrior."
"You have to be grateful there was no World War III," he said. "And
that was a great success as a cold warrior."
It was while working on the non-proliferation of nuclear arms during
the 1980s that he met George H.W. Bush, who would later become
president. Over the years, they became friends, Israelyan said.
"He is a hero, not because he was the former president, because he
was my brethren and colleague," he said. "He was of the West and I
was of the East."
In 1987, Israelyan retired from the foreign ministry. He later became
a visiting lecturer at Stanford and Harvard universities. In 1991, he
was awarded a Fulbright fellowship to teach topics such as diplomacy,
political science and arms reduction at Penn State.
He has been a State College resident ever since. Although retired,
Israelyan is working on his 12th book.
Israelyan said he still thinks of Russia as his motherland, but said
he loves the United States.
And he said he hopes to see a stabilized, democratic Russia. "It is
not for me and not for my children, but for my grandchildren."
The 25-year-old physician who walked straight into the trenches of
war in 1941 saw many lives slip through his hands, but his was spared.
"God saved me."
By Ivonne D'Amato
Centre Daily Times, PA
June 18 2005
[email protected]
It was a warm July day in 1941 when Victor Israelyan, newly arrived at
the front lines of the Soviet-German conflict, heard the sirens blast.
He gathered a young nurse in his arms and they ran through the ruin
and death of a small town in the Soviet Union.
"I had her in my arms," Israelyan said, his eyes wide. "I heard the
German planes come over us with automatic guns firing."
He paused, somberly staring into the past.
"I felt her fall from my arms," Israelyan said. "Can you imagine the
young nurse had three wounds in her back, and I was safe? She was
only 20 years old."
Israelyan was 25 at the time, a physician. The day after he graduated
from First Moscow Medical Institute, he and 800 classmates were sent
to the front lines of World War II.
His experiences there would shape the rest of his life, prompting him
to abandon the practice of medicine to become a diplomat. He went on
to negotiate missile treaties, befriend a president and author more
than 10 books on diplomacy and the Cold War.
Eventually, it brought him to Penn State, and State College, where
he lives today with his wife.
Throughout Israelyan's home are mementos from his life. Pictures
of grandchildren share space with a picture and mounted letter from
President George H.W. Bush, a small Soviet flag astronaut Alan Shepard
took to the moon and a photo of himself in his Soviet army uniform,
his chest covered in medals.
At age 85, he moves in a slow shuffle across the room. He is of
Armenian descent, he says, but considers himself Russian because his
mother tongue is Russian.
"I want to salute the veterans of World War II. Soon, we will all pass
away," Israelyan says in a voice slightly slurred by the effects of
four strokes, but still thick with an accent.
He throws himself into his office chair and gestures with his hands:
"What do you want to know?"
Israelyan didn't become a physician to serve the military, he said.
"My father was a physician. ... I wanted to be a doctor like my
father."
But as he was attending medical school, Adolf Hitler's military was
invading the Soviet Union. The war, Israelyan said, was "unexpected."
Before it ended, the Soviet Army would lose 9 million soldiers and
another 19 million in civilian deaths, more than any of the Allied
armies.
"It is difficult to say how many battles I was in," Israelyn said,
"but it was terrible."
He still is haunted by one particular incident.
"In my regiment, there was a group of 18-year-old Kazakhs. They did
not even speak Russian, so they could not communicate with the rest
of us," said Israelyan, noting that the Soviet army consisted not only
of Russians but also ethnic groups such as Jews, Kazakhs and Armenians.
"They (the Kazakhs) were from a small village, so they did not
understand what the war was for."
Two Kazakhs were sent to scout ahead of Israelyan's regiment, he said.
"Two hours later, one of the two returns crying, shot in the arm, and
he says, 'The Germans shot us and killed my brother, my colleague.' "
Officers were suspicious of the young Kazakh's story. Israelyan was
ordered to investigate.
It turned out the two Kazakhs made a "secret deal," Israelyan said, to
shoot each other in the arm in hopes of gaining medical discharges. The
one who returned accidentally killed his friend.
"I had to report what happened to the colonel," Israelyan said.
The injured Kazakh was executed for treason.
"I felt quite guilty because he told me the truth," Israelyan said
apologetically. "I had to report it. I had tears."
The turning point of the war came when the Soviet forces
counterattacked near Stalingrad, now Volgograd, in November 1942.
Thousands of German troops and their allies were cut off. Shortly
after the Nazis' surrender at Stalingrad, Israelyan said he stood in
what had once been a thriving city.
"You cannot imagine," he said. "It was a horrible situation.
Everything was destroyed. Stalingrad was more destroyed than Berlin.
There was no living thing left."
Of the almost 800 people who graduated from medical school with
Israelyan, fewer than half returned from the war, he said.
"One of my closest friends, who was my roommate in medical school,
committed suicide because he was captured by the Germans," Israelyan
said. He was released, "and when he returned to Russia he was accused
of being a traitor."
Israelyan said the idea of being branded a traitor was too much for
his former roommate to handle.
But Israelyan said the war gave him a new purpose in life. "I was a
disappointed physician. I saw people my age killed so I had to become
a keeper of peace -- a diplomat."
Israelyan attended the Diplomatic Academy in Moscow from 1944 to
'46, later attended Cambridge University and, in 1960, earned a
doctorate in historical science from the Moscow State Institute of
International Relations.
"The war was five years, but the rest of my very long life was in
diplomacy, teaching, writing and lecturing," he said.
For 20 years, Israelyan lectured at the academy and the State
University in Erevan, Armenia. Another 20 were spent as a diplomat
to the United Nations.
In 1968, Israelyan was appointed ambassador and first deputy permanent
representative of the Soviet Union to the U.N.
>>From 1975 to '86, he headed the Soviet delegation to the U.N. and
worked on several treaties, including the Seabed and the Biological
Weapons and Non-Proliferation treaties in Geneva.
He was, he said, "regretfully, a cold warrior."
"You have to be grateful there was no World War III," he said. "And
that was a great success as a cold warrior."
It was while working on the non-proliferation of nuclear arms during
the 1980s that he met George H.W. Bush, who would later become
president. Over the years, they became friends, Israelyan said.
"He is a hero, not because he was the former president, because he
was my brethren and colleague," he said. "He was of the West and I
was of the East."
In 1987, Israelyan retired from the foreign ministry. He later became
a visiting lecturer at Stanford and Harvard universities. In 1991, he
was awarded a Fulbright fellowship to teach topics such as diplomacy,
political science and arms reduction at Penn State.
He has been a State College resident ever since. Although retired,
Israelyan is working on his 12th book.
Israelyan said he still thinks of Russia as his motherland, but said
he loves the United States.
And he said he hopes to see a stabilized, democratic Russia. "It is
not for me and not for my children, but for my grandchildren."
The 25-year-old physician who walked straight into the trenches of
war in 1941 saw many lives slip through his hands, but his was spared.
"God saved me."