PREFERRED COFFIN TO BARRACKS

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30563, 5 October 1964, Page 17

PREFERRED COFFIN TO BARRACKS

(N.Z. Press Assn.—Copyright) MOSCOW, October 4 Alexander Balinsky lived in a coffin for 19 years, said the Russian military newspaper, “Red Star.” Balinsky was 21 in 1944 when he built the coffin in his parent’s attic and got inside to escape service in the Red Army. His parents told neighbours that he had joined up and gone off to the front. German invaders came to his village of Chertok and almost beat

his father to death. "Only one person didn’t come to his father’s aid and that was Alexander,” “Red Star” said. Alexander stayed in his coffin. The war ended. Alexander feared being shot as a deserter. His parents told the neighbours he was missing in action. “The idler and coward got used to his position,” said "Red Star.” “But Alexander hated everything living round him. He envied everybody. He condemned his sisters for getting married because people were *

celebrating and drinking while be was lying trembling in his. coffin in the attic.” ■: Only once did Alexander come out' of the attic. That was when, his father died'. Alexander got so used to his coffin that he ignored a Government amnesty for all deserters. He began eating less when his widowed mother grew aged. He was 40 years old when one of his brothers-in-law happened to go into the attic. Alexander started whimpering. "I will die of hunger,” he

said. “Help me. Do anything, but help me. You can take me anywhere you like, but help me.” They brought Alexander down out of the attic and into the world. They cut off his beard and hair with sheep shears. They fed him. Still he whimpered, “I have no wife and no children.” “Red Star” said this "disgusting and criminal” deserter was now free to work as a free man. But it said he could never remove the shame he acquired in 19 years in a coffin.