---
title: "Felix served in the Russian army and deserted to come to Argentina"
url: https://smud.mateosmud.xyz/en/facts/felix-ejercito/
lang: en
work: "The Smud Family: A Jewish Family History from Ludza, Latvia to Entre Ríos, Argentina"
author: "Mateo Smud"
licence: CC0-1.0
summary: "That he was a soldier is said by Freedman and by Rubén. Only Rubén tells of the desertion. The cavalry account in the 2020 report remains open."
---
# Felix served in the Russian army and deserted to come to Argentina

**Evidence status: family memory.** That he was a soldier is said by Freedman and by Rubén. Only Rubén tells of the desertion. The cavalry account in the 2020 report remains open.

The desertion appears in no document: it is what the family kept and Rubén wrote down. The 2020 report tells of a different departure from the army, which is not ruled out either, and this research does not yet have a military record to settle it. What is known of Felix with its documents is in his entry.

## What each source says

- **Rubén's document, October 1996** (family memory): Felix was “enlisted in the Russian army, taking part in the Russo-Japanese war”. When the war ended he was not discharged, and to be able to travel to Argentina he “had to desert from the army”. He reached Buenos Aires in mid-1905.
- **Chaim Freedman's work** (documented): Yerakhmiel Falik, Koppel's son, had been a soldier.
- **The Komisaruk family, according to Freedman (February 2020)** (documented): He was conscripted into a cavalry unit, became a junior officer, something very rare for a Jew, and on leaving the army turned down the post of starosta of a town. The account carries no source note.

## Who it names

- Felix Smud — https://smud.mateosmud.xyz/en/people/felix-smud/
- Malke Noel — https://smud.mateosmud.xyz/en/people/malke-noel/

## In the timeline

- 1904 — The war with Japan and Aida's birth — https://smud.mateosmud.xyz/en/timeline/#e-1904-guerra-y-aida
- mid-1905 — Felix lands — https://smud.mateosmud.xyz/en/timeline/#e-1905-felix-desembarca

---

The Smud Family · genealogical research by Mateo Smud, published under CC0 1.0. Machine index: https://smud.mateosmud.xyz/en/llms.txt