Read Tanya Savicheva's diary from besieged Leningrad. When the word "died" disappears

I learned the history of besieged Leningrad as a child from a TV show about Tanya Savicheva. I remember how the story of her fate struck me. The girl lost her family and was left alone... Her story is the story of thousands of children of the besieged city, the tragedy of her family is the tragedy of thousands of families.

Photo from 1938. Tanya Savicheva is 8 years old (3 years before the start of the war).
Photograph in the exhibition of the Museum of the History of Leningrad.

Tanya Savicheva is known for her diary, which she kept in her sister’s notebook. The girl wrote down the dates of death of her relatives on the pages of her diary. These recordings became one of the documents accusing the Nazis at the Nuremberg trials.
The diary is exhibited in the Museum of the History of Leningrad (Rumantsev's mansion on the English Embankment).


Diary of Tanya Savicheva (center).
Copies of pages from the diary are displayed around,
Each one contains the date and time of death of a loved one.

Tanya is the youngest child in the family. She had two brothers - Misha and Leka; two sisters - Zhenya and Nina.
Mother - Maria Ignatievna (nee Fedorova), father - Nikolai Radionovich. In 1910, Tanya’s father and his brothers opened their own bakery on Vasilievsky Island, “Labor Artel of the Savichev Brothers.”

In the 30s, the family enterprise was confiscated “for the just cause of the party,” and the family was expelled from Leningrad to the “101st kilometer.” Only a few years later the Savichevs were able to return to the city, however, remaining in the status of “disenfranchised” they could not obtain a higher education and join the Komsomol. My father became seriously ill and died in 1935 (at the age of 52).

The norm for the distribution of bread to Leningraders (in grams).

A room from the times of the siege of Leningrad. This is how Tanya Savicheva and thousands of Leningraders lived. In winter, the stoves were heated with books and furniture.

I would like to add that the atmosphere in the museum is very difficult. At first it seemed to me that I was tired due to the stuffiness. The employee suddenly turned to me. She said that it was stuffy in the museum, although the windows were open, there was simply no wind. Then I noticed that the objects of the dead people themselves caused a depressing feeling. “The atmosphere is funeral,” I unexpectedly formulated her thought. The employee agreed. I remembered how one woman who survived the war brought her grandchildren to the museum, but did not go herself. She said she couldn't.
Indeed, the exhibits make you immerse yourself in the atmosphere of the siege for a while and feel the pain of the dying.

In conclusion, poems by S. Smirnov about Tanya Savicheva.

On the banks of the Neva,
In the museum building
I keep a very modest diary.
She wrote it
Savicheva Tanya.
He attracts everyone who comes.

Before him stand villagers, townspeople,
From the old man -
Until a naive boy.
And the written essence of the content
Stunning
Souls and hearts.

This is for everyone living
for edification,
So that everyone understands the essence of phenomena, -

Time
Elevates
Tanya's image
And her authentic diary.
Above any diaries in the world
He rises like a star from the hand.
And they talk about the intensity of life
Forty-two saints of his lines.

Each word contains the capacity of a telegram,
The depth of the subtext
The key to human destiny
The light of the soul, simple and multifaceted,
And almost silence about myself...

This is a death sentence for murderers
In the silence of the Nuremberg trial.
This is the pain that swirls.
This is the heart that flies here...

Time lengthens distances
Between all of us and you.
Stand up before the world
Savicheva Tanya,
With my
An unthinkable fate!

Let it pass from generation to generation
Relay race
She walks
Let him live without knowing aging,
And it says
About our times!

You can see an exhibition of Tanya Savicheva’s diary and other exhibits from the time of the siege at the Museum of the History of Leningrad (Rumantsev Mansion, Angliyskaya Embankment 44). Adult ticket 120 rub.

Tanya Savicheva's diary - a symbol of the blockade and, according to legend, one of the indictment documents at the Nuremberg trials - is written in blue pencil in the phone book. 11-year-old Tanya took it, half filled with drawings, from her sister Nina. There are nine entries in the diary. Six of them are the dates of death of Tanya’s family members. Gradually the word “died” disappears: only names and dates remain.

VERBATIM:

The Savichevs died

Everyone died

Tanya is the only one left

SAVICHEVS

Tanya is the youngest child in the large Savichev family. Father, Nikolai Rodionovich, opened in 1910 on Vasilyevsky Island the “Labor Artel of the Savichev Brothers” with a bakery and confectionery shop, as well as a cinema. Nikolai himself, his three brothers (Dmitry, Vasily and Alexey) and his wife Maria Ignatievna worked in the bakery.

In 1935, the Savichev family, as a Nepman, was deprived of everything and expelled from Leningrad. While in exile in the Luga region, Nikolai fell ill with cancer and died at the age of 52. But the family was able to return to Leningrad.

When the war began, Tanya was 11 years old and had just finished third grade. With her in the city remained her 52-year-old mother, 74-year-old grandmother Evdokia Grigorievna, two sisters - Zhenya (32 years old) and Nina (22 years old), and two brothers - Leonid, whom his family called Leka (24 years old) and Mikhail (20 years old). years old), as well as two uncles - Vasily and Alexey.

For the summer, the Savichevs planned to go to Dvorishchi (near Gdov) to visit their mother’s sister. On June 21, Mikhail went by train towards Kingisepp. In two weeks, Tanya and her mother were supposed to leave for Dvorishchi, and Leonid, Nina and Zhenya would come when they were given leave. The reason for the delay was my grandmother’s birthday: we wanted to celebrate together.

On June 22, Evdokia Grigorievna turned 74 years old. The war has begun. The Savichevs remained in the city to help the army. Leonid and his guys came to the military registration and enlistment offices, but they were refused: Leonid - due to health, Vasily and Alexey - due to age.

Mikhail from Dvorishchi joined the partisan detachment and spent several years in it; there was no news from him, so his relatives remaining in Leningrad considered him dead.

Later, in February 1942, Nina also escaped from the besieged city: she was urgently evacuated along with the enterprise along the Road of Life. But the family did not know about this. When Nina disappeared, her family decided that she had died during shelling. Tanya never found out that Nina and Mikhail were still alive.

EVERYONE DIED

Zhenya was the first to die, in December 1941. Secretly from her family, she often donated blood to save the wounded; moreover, she worked at a factory, to which she had to walk seven kilometers one way. When one day Zhenya did not come to the factory, Nina asked for time off and hurried to her sister on Mokhovaya. Evgenia died in her arms.

Evdokia Grigorievna died in January. With a diagnosis of “third degree of nutritional dystrophy,” she needed urgent hospitalization, but the woman refused: others needed help more. Dying, she asked not to bury her right away, because her food card could be used until the end of the month.

Leonid died in March. He worked day and night at the Admiralty plant. Following him, uncles Vasily and Alexey died from exhaustion.

Tanya was the last to lose her mother. Maria Ignatievna worked in the production of military uniforms.

ONE TANYA

Left alone, Tanya turned to her neighbors Afanasyev for help. They wrapped Maria Ignatievna’s body in a blanket and took it to the hangar where the corpses were stored. Tanya herself could not see her mother off on her last journey: she was too weak.

The next day, taking the Palekh box with her mother’s wedding veil, wedding candles and six death certificates, Tanya went to her grandmother’s niece Evdokia Arsenyeva. The woman took custody of the girl. When Aunt Dusya went to work at the factory, for one and a half shifts without a break, she sent Tanya out onto the street.

125 children from orphanage No. 48 arrived in Shatki, Gorky region in August 1942. Tanya was one of five children who were infected and the only one who had tuberculosis. She was treated for a long time, and in March 1944 she was sent to a nursing home. Two months later, the girl was transferred to the infectious diseases department of the district hospital. Tuberculosis and dystrophy progressed, and on July 1, 1944, Tanya died. She was buried as a motherless woman in the local cemetery by the hospital groom...

Tanya’s diary, lying in Aunt Dusya’s box, was found by her sister Nina, who returned to liberated Leningrad. Now it is an exhibit of the Museum of the History of St. Petersburg.

Savicheva, Tatyana Nikolaevna

Tatyana Nikolaevna Savicheva
Occupation:

Leningrad schoolgirl
Date of Birth:

Dvorishchi, Gdov, Pskov region, USSR
Citizenship:

Union of Soviet Socialist Republics USSR
Date of death:

Shatki, Gorky region, USSR
Father:

Nikolai Rodionovich Savichev
Mother:

Maria Ignatievna Savicheva (Fedorova)

Tatyana Nikolaevna Savicheva (January 23, 1930, Dvorishchi, Gdovsky district, Pskov region - July 1, 1944, Shatki, Gorky region) - a Leningrad schoolgirl who, from the beginning of the siege of Leningrad, began keeping a diary in a notebook left by her older sister Nina. This diary has only 9 pages and six of them contain the dates of death of loved ones. Tanya Savicheva's diary became one of the symbols of the Great Patriotic War.

Tanya Savicheva was born on January 23, 1930 in the village of Dvorishchi near Gdov, but, like her brothers and sisters, she grew up in Leningrad.

Tanya was the fifth and youngest child of Maria and Nikolai. She had two sisters and two brothers: Zhenya (born in 1909), Leonid "Leka" (born in 1917), Nina (born November 23, 1918) and Misha (born in 1921). Many years later, Nina Savicheva recalled the appearance of a fifth child in their family as follows:
“Tanyusha was the youngest. In the evenings we gathered around the large dining table. Mom put the basket in which Tanya was sleeping in the center, and we watched, afraid to take another breath and wake up the baby. »

In the memory of Nina and Misha, Tanya remained as very shy and not childishly serious:
“Tanya was a golden girl. Curious, with a light, even character. She knew how to listen very well. We told her everything - about work, about sports, about friends. »

From her mother she inherited a fairly good “angelic” voice, which predicted a good singing career for her in the future. She had a particularly good relationship with her uncle Vasily, and since he and his brother had a small library in their apartment, Tanya asked all questions about life to him. The two of them often walked along the Neva.
[edit] Blockade

By the beginning of the war, the Savichevs still lived in the same house No. 13/6 on the 2nd line of Vasilievsky Island. Tanya, together with her mother, Nina, Leonid, Misha and grandmother Evdokia Grigorievna Fedorova (nee Arsenyeva, born in 1867), lived on the first floor in apartment No. 1. At the end of May 1941, Tanya Savicheva graduated from the third grade of school No. 35 on the Sezdovskaya line (now the Cadet Line) of Vasilievsky Island and was supposed to go to the fourth in September.

On November 3, the new school year began in Leningrad with a great delay. A total of 103 schools were opened, with 30 thousand students studying. Tanya went to her school No. 35 until, with the onset of winter, classes in Leningrad schools gradually stopped.
[edit] Zhenya

Zhenya was the first to die. By December 1941, transport completely stopped working in Leningrad, the streets were completely covered with snow. To get to the plant, Zhenya had to walk almost seven kilometers from home. Sometimes she stayed overnight at the plant to save strength and work two shifts, but she was no longer in good health. At the end of December, Zhenya did not come to the plant. Concerned about her absence, Nina on the morning of Sunday, December 28, asked for time off from the night shift and hurried to her sister on Mokhovaya. She managed to arrive just in time for Zhenya to die in her arms. She was 32 years old. Apparently Tanya was afraid that during the blockade they would gradually forget the date of Zhenya’s death and decided to write it down. To do this, she took Nina’s notebook, which Leka had once given her. Nina turned half of the book into a draftsman’s reference book, filling it with data on valves, valves, valves, pipelines and other fittings for boilers, and the other half, with the alphabet, remained blank. Tanya decided to write on it, because perhaps she thought that it would be more convenient to find the recording later.
“I still remember that New Year. None of us waited until midnight; we went to bed hungry and were glad that the house was warm. The neighbor lit the stove with books from his library. He then gave Tanya a huge volume of “Myths of Ancient Greece”. Just then, secretly from everyone, my sister took my notebook. »

Even Nina and Misha themselves believed for a long time that Tanya made notes with a blue chemical pencil, which Nina used to line her eyes. And only in 2009, experts from the State Museum of the History of St. Petersburg, preparing the diary for a closed exhibition, established with certainty that Tanya made notes not with a chemical pencil, but with an ordinary colored pencil.

They wanted to bury Zhenya at the Serafimovskoye cemetery, because it was not far from the house, but it turned out that there was nothing to count on, because all the approaches to the gate were littered with corpses, which no one had the strength to bury at that time. Therefore, they decided to take Zhenya by truck to Decembrist Island and bury him at the Smolensk Lutheran Cemetery. With the help of her ex-husband Yuri, they managed to get the coffin. According to Nina’s recollections, already at the cemetery, Maria Ignatievna, bending over the coffin of her eldest daughter, uttered a phrase that became fatal for their family: “Here we are burying you, Zhenechka. Who will bury us and how?”
[edit] Grandmother

On January 19, 1942, a decree was issued to open canteens for children aged eight to twelve years. Tanya wore them until January 22. On January 23, 1942, she turned twelve years old, as a result of which, by the standards of the besieged city, there were “no more children” in the Savichev family and from now on Tanya received the same ration of bread as an adult.

At the beginning of January, Evdokia Grigorievna was given a terrible diagnosis: third degree of nutritional dystrophy. This condition required urgent hospitalization, but the grandmother refused, citing the fact that Leningrad hospitals were already overcrowded. On January 25, two days after Tanya’s birthday, she passed away. In Nina’s book, on the page with the letter “B”, Tanya writes:
“Grandmother died on January 25th. 3 p.m. 1942 »

Before her death, my grandmother asked very much not to throw away her card, because it could be used before the end of the month. Many people in Leningrad did this, and for some time this supported the life of the relatives and friends of the deceased. To prevent such “illegal use” of these cards, re-registration was subsequently introduced in the middle of each month. Therefore, the Death Certificate that Maria Ignatyevna received at the District Social Security Service has a different date - February 1st. Nina Savicheva does not remember where exactly she was buried. By that time, she and Leka had been in barracks at the factory for a long time and were almost never at home. Perhaps Evdokia Grigorievna was buried in a mass grave at the Piskarevskoye Memorial Cemetery.
[edit] Leka

February 28, 1942 Nina was supposed to come home, but she never came. That day there was heavy shelling and, apparently, the Savichevs considered Nina dead, not knowing that Nina, along with the entire enterprise where she worked, was hastily evacuated across Lake Ladoga to the mainland. Letters almost never went to besieged Leningrad, and Nina, like Misha, could not convey any news to her family. Tanya did not write her sister down in her diary, perhaps because she still hoped that she was alive.

Leka literally lived at the Admiralty Plant, working there day and night. It was rare to visit relatives, although the plant was not far from home - on the opposite bank of the Neva, across the Lieutenant Schmidt Bridge. In most cases, he had to spend the night at the plant, often working two shifts in a row. In the book “History of the Admiralty Plant” there is a photo of Leonid, and under it the inscription:
“Leonid Savichev worked very diligently, and was never late for his shift, although he was exhausted. But one day he didn’t come to the plant. And two days later the workshop was informed that Savichev had died...”

Leka died of dystrophy on March 17 in a factory hospital. He was 24 years old. Tanya opens her notebook on the letter “L” and writes, hastily combining two words into one:
"Lyoka died on March 17 at 5 o'clock in 1942"

Leka, along with the factory workers who died at the same time in the hospital, was buried by the factory employees - they were taken to the Piskarevskoye memorial cemetery.
[edit] Uncle Vasya

In April 1942, with the warming, the threat of death from cold disappeared from besieged Leningrad, but the threat from hunger did not recede, as a result of which a whole epidemic began in the city by that time: nutritional dystrophy, scurvy, intestinal diseases and tuberculosis claimed the lives of thousands of Leningraders. And the Savichevs were no exception. On April 13, at the age of 56, Vasily died. Tanya opens her notebook to the letter “B” and makes a corresponding entry, which is not very correct and confusing:
"Uncle Vasya died on April 13, 2 a.m. 1942"
[edit] Uncle Lyosha

On April 25, evacuation along the Road of Life was stopped. On May 4, 1942, 137 schools opened in Leningrad. Almost 64 thousand children returned to school. A medical examination showed that out of every hundred, only four did not suffer from scurvy and dystrophy.

Tanya did not return to her school No. 35, because now she was responsible for caring for her mother and uncle Lyosha, who by that time had already completely undermined their health. Even hospitalization could not save him. Alexey died at the age of 71 on May 10. The page with the letter “L” was already occupied by Leka and therefore Tanya writes on the spread, on the left. But either she no longer had enough strength, or grief completely overwhelmed the soul of the suffering girl, because on this page Tanya skips the word “died”:
"Uncle Lesha May 10 at 4 pm 1942"
[edit] Mother

Well, was it possible to imagine that three days after the death of Uncle Lyosha, Tanya would be left completely alone? Maria Ignatievna was 52 years old when on the morning of May 13 she passed away. Perhaps Tanya simply didn’t have the courage to write “mom died,” so on the sheet of paper with the letter “M” she writes:
"Mom on May 13 at 7.30 am 1942"

With the death of her mother, Tanya completely lost hope of victory and that Misha and Nina would ever return home. On the letter "C" she writes:
"The Savichevs have died"

Tanya finally considers Misha and Nina dead and therefore writes on the letter “U”:
"Everyone Died"

And finally, on “O”:
"Tanya is the only one left"
[edit] “Only Tanya remains”

Tanya spent her first terrible day with her friend Vera Afanasyevna Nikolaenko, who lived with her parents on the floor below the Savichevs. Vera was a year older than Tanya and the girls talked like neighbors.
“Tanya knocked on our door this morning. She said that her mother had just died and she was left all alone. She asked me to help transport the body. She was crying and looked very sick. »

Vera's mother Agrippina Mikhailovna Nikolaenko sewed Maria Ignatievna's body into a gray blanket with a stripe. Vera's father Afanasy Semyonovich, who was wounded at the front, was treated in a hospital in Leningrad and had the opportunity to come home often, went to a kindergarten that was nearby and asked for a two-wheeled cart there. On it, he and Vera together carried the body across the entire Vasilyevsky Island beyond the Smolenka River.
“Tanya couldn’t come with us - she was completely weak. I remember the cart bouncing on the paving stones, especially when we walked along Maly Prospekt. The body wrapped in a blanket leaned to one side, and I supported it. Behind the bridge over Smolenka there was a huge hangar. Corpses were brought there from all over Vasilyevsky Island. We brought the body there and left it. I remember there was a mountain of corpses there. When they entered there, a terrible groan was heard. It was air coming out of the throat of someone dead... I became very scared. »

The corpses from this hangar were buried in mass graves at the Smolensk Orthodox Cemetery, so Tanya’s mother lies there. When the newspaper “Arguments and Facts” in January 2004 published an article about Nina and Misha entitled “Not all of the Savichevs died,” Vera’s son called its editorial office and said that his mother was burying Tanya Savicheva’s mother. The editors called her and found out all the details. After which Vera met with Nina. Nina was very surprised when she learned that her mother was buried at the Smolensk cemetery, because before that she was sure that her mother, along with her uncles, grandmother and brother, were buried in mass graves at the Piskarevsky cemetery. The State Memorial Museum of the Defense and Siege of Leningrad at one time even told her the numbers of these graves. However, the staff of the archive of the Piskarevsky cemetery established with accuracy that Maria Ignatievna Savicheva was buried at the Smolensk Orthodox cemetery, right next to the grave of her husband. True, during registration they made a mistake: for some reason the middle name Ignatievna was replaced with Mikhailovna. She is listed under this name in the electronic Memory Book of the cemetery.
[edit] Evacuation

So, Evdokia Petrovna Arsenyeva ultimately relinquished custody of Tanya and registered her in orphanage No. 48 of the Smolninsky district, which was then preparing for evacuation to the Shatkovsky district of the Gorky region (from 1990 Nizhny Novgorod region), which was 1,300 kilometers from Leningrad. Orphanages in besieged Leningrad were formed and staffed with teachers under the strict control of the NKVD, after which they were transported to the mainland. The train in which Tanya was was repeatedly bombed, and only in August 1942 finally arrived in the village of Shatki. One of the founders of the Shatka museum dedicated to Tanya Savicheva, history teacher Irina Nikolaeva, later recalled:
“A lot of people came out to meet this train at the station. The wounded were constantly brought to Shatki, but this time people were warned that in one of the carriages there would be children from besieged Leningrad. The train stopped, but no one came out of the opened door of the large carriage. Most of the children simply could not get out of bed. Those who decided to look inside could not come to their senses for a long time. The sight of the children was terrible - bones, skin and wild melancholy in their huge eyes. The women raised an incredible cry. “They’re still alive!” - the NKVD officers accompanying the train reassured them. Almost immediately, people began to carry food to that carriage and give away their last. As a result, the children were sent under escort to a room prepared for an orphanage. Human kindness and the smallest piece of bread from starvation could easily kill them. »

Despite the shortage of food and medicine, Gorky residents were able to take out Leningrad children. As follows from the report on the living conditions of the orphanage residents, all 125 children were physically exhausted, but there were only five infectious patients. One baby suffered from stomatitis, three had scabies, and another had tuberculosis. It so happened that this only tuberculosis patient turned out to be Tanya Savicheva.

Tanya was not allowed to see other children, and the only person who communicated with her was the nurse assigned to her, Nina Mikhailovna Seredkina. She did everything to ease Tanya’s suffering and, according to the recollections of Irina Nikolaeva, she succeeded to some extent:
“After some time, Tanya was able to walk on crutches, and later she moved around holding onto the wall with her hands. »

But Tanya was still so weak that at the beginning of March 1944 she had to be sent to the Ponetaevsky Home for the Invalids, although she did not get better there either. Due to health conditions, she was the most seriously ill patient, and therefore, two months later, Tanya was transferred to the infectious diseases department of the Shatkovo district hospital. Of all the children from orphanage No. 48 who arrived at that time, only Tanya Savicheva could not be saved. She was often tormented by headaches, and shortly before her death she became blind. Tanya Savicheva died on July 1, 1944 at the age of 14 and a half years from intestinal tuberculosis.
[edit] Diary of Tanya Savicheva
Diary pages.

* December 28, 1941. Zhenya died at 12 o'clock in the morning.
* Grandmother died on January 25, 1942, at 3 o’clock in the afternoon.
* Leka died on March 17 at 5 am.
* Uncle Vasya died on April 13 at 2 am.
* Uncle Lyosha May 10 at 4 pm.
* Mom - May 13 at 730 am.
* The Savichevs died.
* Everyone died.
* Tanya is the only one left.

Tanya Savicheva's diary appeared at the Nuremberg trials as one of the indictment documents against Nazi criminals. Nevertheless, the winner of the gold medal “Personality of St. Petersburg” Markova Liliya Nikitichna in the online newspaper “Petersburg Family” questions this fact. She believes that if this were so, then the diary would have remained in Nuremberg, and would not have been exhibited at the State Museum of the History of St. Petersburg.

The diary itself is today exhibited in the Museum of the History of Leningrad, and a copy of it is in the window of one of the pavilions of the Piskarevsky Memorial Cemetery. In the near future, it is planned to show the original for the first time in thirty-five years, but in a closed form.
[edit] Memory

Diary of Tanya Savicheva

Before the war, she lived on the 2nd line of Vasilyevsky Island, in house 13/6, the Savichev family - large, friendly and already with a broken destiny. The children of the Nepman, a “disenfranchised”, the former owner of a bakery-confectionery and a small cinema, the Savichevs Jr. had no right to enter college or join the Komsomol. But they lived and rejoiced. Little Tanya, while she was a baby, was put in the laundry basket in the evenings, placed under a lampshade on the table and gathered around. What was left of the whole family after the siege of Leningrad? Tanya's notebook. The shortest diary in this book.

No exclamation marks. Not even dots. And only the black letters of the alphabet on the edge of the notebook, which - each - became a monument to her family. The elder sister Zhenya - with the letter “F” - who, dying in the arms of another sister, Nina, very much asked to get the coffin, a rarity in those days, - “otherwise the earth will get into your eyes.” Grandmother - with the letter “B” - who, before her death, ordered not to bury her for as long as possible... and to receive bread from her card. A monument to brother Leka, two uncles and mother, who was the last to leave. After the “Savichevs died,” 11-year-old Tanya put wedding candles from her parents’ wedding and sister Nina’s notebook in which she drew her drawings into the Palekh casket, and then Tanya herself chronicled the death of the family and, orphaned and exhausted, went to distant relative Aunt Dusa. Aunt Dusya soon sent the girl to an orphanage, which was then evacuated to the Gorky, now Nizhny Novgorod region, to the village of Shatki, where Tanya faded away for several more months: bone tuberculosis, dystrophy, scurvy.

Tanya never found out that not all of the Savichevs died, that Nina, with whose chemical eyeliner pencil she wrote the 41st line of her short story, and brother Mikhail, who were evacuated, survived. That the sister, having returned to the liberated city, found a Palekh box from Aunt Dusya and gave the notebook to the museum. I didn’t find out that her name was heard at the Nuremberg trials and became a symbol of the Leningrad blockade. I didn’t find out that Edita Piekha sang “The Ballad of Tanya Savicheva”, that astronomers named minor planet No. 2127 - TANYA in her honor, that people carved her lines in granite...

But we know all this. We know and remember. 9 pages of Tanya Savicheva’s diary fit on one sheet of this book. And this is just the beginning...

The Savichevs died

Everyone died

Tanya is the only one left

Tanya used black eyeliner for her older sister Nina (on the right) to record the chronicle of the death of the Savichev family.

TASS photo chronicle.

Her diary, the shortest text in this book, became a symbol of the Leningrad siege.

Photo by RIA Novosti.

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A little girl whom everyone knows as the author of a terrible siege diary, nine pages long. These diary entries became a symbol of those terrible days that the residents of the besieged city experienced.

Biography

Tanechka was born on January 23, 1930 in the village of Dvorishchi. Her parents are Maria Ignatievna and Nikolai Rodionovich, native Leningraders. From the village, the family returned home to Leningrad a few months after the birth of the girl.

Tanya lived in a large and friendly family. There were brothers - Levka and Mishka, sisters - Evgenia and Nina. My father had his own bakery, a bun production shop and a cinema.

After the NEP years, persecution of private owners began and Tatyana’s father was exiled in 1935. The whole family went into exile. My father fell ill and died in March 1936. The remaining family members settled again in Leningrad.

They began to live in the house with other relatives. These are my father's brothers - Uncle Vasily and Uncle Alexey, who lived on the floor below, and my grandmother. The family's life gradually began to improve. And then the war broke out.

War years

On that ill-fated day, members of the girl’s family were thinking of going to visit relatives in Dvorishchi. First, we wanted to congratulate our grandmother, who, ironically, had her birthday on June 22. At 12:15 p.m. the radio said that Nazi Germany had attacked the Soviet Union. The family remained at home, all the Savichevs, in full force, helped in repelling the fascist invaders.

Nina, Tanya’s sister, dug trenches, the girl herself was looking for containers to make a Molotov cocktail, Zhenya became a blood donor for combatants, her mother sheathed the defenders of the Motherland, and Lyovka and uncle Lesha went to join the ranks of the active army. But uncle was already old, and Lyovka’s vision was impaired.

The city was surrounded by a tight blockade ring on September 8, 1941. The Savichevs were optimistic. We will stand, we will endure, that’s how it was in the family.

Diary

One winter day, Tatyana, while cleaning, found Nina’s notebook in one of the closets. It was partially covered with writing, but the part with letters in alphabetical order of telephone numbers remained clean. I left the find. After some time, she wrote in large letters: “Zhenya died on December 28 at 12:00 am 1941.” Evgenia, being in an exhausted state, worked as a donor until the end. And three days before the New Year, I was also going to go take the test. But I was exhausted and couldn’t do it. She died in the arms of her sister Nina from hunger and anemia.

Less than a month passed and on January 25, 1942, Tanya recorded the death of her grandmother. The elderly woman walked around almost hungry all the time. I tried to leave more food for my grandchildren. She refused hospitalization and rightly believed that she would take the place of the wounded. On February 28, Nina disappeared. Tanya did not take any notes. I hoped to the last that my sister survived.

Then Leonid (Leka) died on March 17, 1942, Uncle Vasya died on April 13, and Uncle Lesha died on May 10. Having made a note about the death of her last uncle, Tanyusha put the diary away. 3 days passed and Tanya again brought up the story of the death of the Savichev family. She wrote on four more sheets of paper: “Mom on May 13 at 7.30 am 1942,” then “The Savichevs died,” “Everyone died,” “Only Tanya remained.”

Immediately after her mother’s death, Tanechka went to her grandmother’s niece, whose name was Evdokia, and she took custody of the girl. T. Dusya worked a lot and Tanya was left alone for a long time. The girl wandered around the street almost all day. After some time, Tanya became even worse; she was severely exhausted. The aunt revoked guardianship and the girl was sent to an orphanage in the Gorky region at the beginning of the summer. The condition of all the children was serious, but Tanya was also diagnosed with tuberculosis.

At the beginning of the summer of 1942 she ended up in an orphanage, and in August he moved to the village of Shatki. After 2 years, she was transferred to a home for the disabled (Ponetaevka village). In addition to the listed inert tuberculosis and dystrophy, she also suffered from blindness and scurvy. The courageous girl passed away on July 1, 1944. Tanya did not know that her sister Nina and brother Misha survived. Nina was evacuated along with the plant and was unable to inform her family, and Mikhail fought against the Germans in a partisan detachment.

The girl’s notes were found by her sister Nina, with her grandmother’s niece. Then these recordings were seen by a family acquaintance who worked in the Hermitage. Thus, the fate of this courageous girl became significant for the Leningrad blockade, the fortitude and heroism of the Soviet people. The diary is kept in the “State Museum of the History of St. Petersburg”

• In fact, it is not clear now where Tanya left the diary. One version says that Mikhail found him in his parents’ apartment, and the other says that his sister found him in Evdokia’s apartment. It was kept in Tanya's box.
• Tatyana's brother and sister lived a long life. Mikhail until 1988, Nina until 2013.
• Tanya’s native school No. 35 in St. Petersburg has a museum named after her.