“Gerneral Count Paul Michailowich Bermond-Awaloff”,to give him his full name,was born in Vladivostok, the son of the baptized Jewish goldsmith by the name of Raphael Bermond.In the Russo-Japanese war he served as an officer’s orderly. He succeeded in getting a commission, but was a failure as an officer and returned to Vladivostok where he first worked in his father’s shop,and leter became the conductor of a military band.During the Great War he held a commission in the Russian army but managed to avoid active fighting,and ultimately arrived in Germany with a group of refugees.
It was then that his real career started .Germany was just staging a remarkable adventure in the Baltic Provinces of Russia,in the present Latvia and Esthonia.There she was forming an army post out of the remnant of the German troops that were to occupy the whole area under teh pretense of a fight against the Bolsheviks.For this adventure they required a suitable man ,with good connections among the Russian officers .Bermond succeeded in gaining the confidence of the German authorities and was appointed to lead the whole affair.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
