Adam Byrnes: My grandfather’s surname was Shcherbakov

Russia’s new Australian-born player Adam Byrnes spoke in detail about his Russian origins.

«Our family has entirely Russian origins on my mother’s side. My grandfather’s Russian surname was Scherbakov, he was born in 1915. Our family moved to Australia after the World War II. As far as I understand, we moved from Russia to Europe before the war and from there we went to Australia. My mother was 3 years old. The move was necessary to go through everything that took place in Europe after the war. The rest of our family were killed at war, so we didn’t have any more relatives in Russia.

«My mother keeps in touch with her sisters and relatives in Australia and, of course, speaks Russian. My brother studied in Australia, but he learned Russian on purpose and he also speaks it. Actually, everybody in our family understands Russian to some extent; I even spoke a little bit in of Russian as a child, but later all the knowledge was gradually effaced,» Byrnes told in his interview for Moscow News.