Leningrad: The Epic Siege of World War II, 1941-1944 (69 page)

Oral History Center, European University at St Petersburg (Blokada v sudbakh i pamyati leningradtsev).

Tsentralniy Gosudarstvenniy Arkhiv Istoriko-Politicheskikh Dokumentov Sankt-Peterburga (TsGAIPD SPb).

Tsentralniy Gosudarstvenniy Arkhiv Kinofotofonodokumentov Sankt-Peterburga (TsGAKFFD SPb).

Moscow:

Gosudarstvenniy Arkhiv Rossiiskoi Federatsii (GARF).

Rossiisky Gosudarstvenniy Arkhiv Literatury i Isskustva (RGALI).

Rossiisky Gosudarstvenniy Arkhiv Sotsialnoi i Politicheskoi Istorii (RGASPI).

Rossiisky Gosudarstvenniy Voyenniy Arkhiv (RGVA).

Tsentralniy Arkhiv Ministerstva Oborony (TsAMO).

Elsewhere:

Bakhmeteff Archive of Russian and East European Culture, Columbia University.

BBC Written Archives Centre, Caversham.

Bundesarchiv-Militärarchiv, Freiburg.

Hoover Institution Archives, Stanford University.

Widener Library, Harvard University (Harvard Project on the Soviet Social System).

Acknowledgements

A great many people helped to create this book. First, I must thank my agent Peter Robinson for raising, and my editors Bill Swainson, George Gibson and Ludger Ikas for providing, the funds that allowed me to work on it for rather longer than the 872 days the siege itself lasted. Events on the scale of the siege of Leningrad can never be done full justice, but I was exceptionally fortunate in being granted the time and resources to make the attempt.

Second, my heartfelt thanks go to the five scholars – Dr Tatiana Voronina of the European University at St Petersburg, Maria Svichenskaya of the National Library of Russia, Dr Lyuba Vinogradova, Pavel Rakitin of the Russian State University for the Humanities and Michelle Miles of Freiburg’s Albert-Ludwigs-Universität – who took time out from their own projects to take part in my research. As well as combing archives in Russia and Germany they advised, prompted and acted as sounding boards as I developed my ideas. Equally patient and insightful were Masha Bozunova, Masha Eremenko, Masha Kaminskaya, Dr Elena Khlinovskaya-Rockhill and Sofia Savage, who helped to translate dozens of voluminous oral histories and siege diaries. The credit for whatever merit this book possesses belongs in large part to all of them.

I was also extremely lucky in the encouragement given by fellow historians, chief among them Drs Sergei Yarov and Aleksandr Chistikov of the Petersburg branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Both were extraordinarily generous with their time and expertise, fielding rafts of questions and pointing me towards the latest debates and publications. In Freiburg Professor Ulrich Herbert and Dr Cornelia Brink fascinatingly explained German perspectives on the siege. In London Professors Orlando Figes and David Kirby, Simon Sebag Montefiore and in particular Antony Beevor –
velikiy vozhd
to all those of us posted to the Eastern Front – passed on wisdom and contacts and generally enlivened the long and solitary business of writing. So, too, did Judith Flanders, who found time between her own books expertly to pummel the final manuscript into shape. The last edits came under the eagle eyes of Richard Collins, Anna Simpson of Bloomsbury and Bernd Rullkotter, translator of the German edition.

Other busy people who gave interviews, made introductions or responded in detail to out-of-the-blue emails were Galina Afanasyeva of the St Petersburg zoo,  Marion Beaton of Glasgow’s Mitchell Library, Meriel Buxton, Felicity Cave, Dr Robert Dale of Newcastle University, Dr Alan Dangour, George Edgar, Olga Filochika of the Museum of the History of St Petersburg, Irina Flige of the St Petersburg branch of Memorial, Aleksandr Frenkel of the city’s Jewish Community Centre, Deborah Hodgkinson, Virta Kaija of the
Helsingin
Sanomat
, Olga Kalashnikova of Radio Baltika, Dr Nikita Lomagin and Dr Yekaterina Melnikova of the European University at St Petersburg, Dr Chiara Mayer-Rieckh, Giles Milton, Dr Yuri Nagovitsyn of the Pulkovo Observatory, Catriona Oliphant, Dr Vladimir Osinsky of the St Petersburg State University, Dr Siobhan Peeling of the University of Nottingham, Galina Retrovskaya of the St Petersburg Philharmonia, Nataliya Rogova of the National Library of Russia, Olga Smirnova and Renata Tairbekova of the BBC World Service, Dr Alexandra Smith of the University of Edinburgh, Tim Tzouliadis, Ludmilla Voronikhina of the Hermitage, Nicolas Werth of Paris’s Institut d’Histoire du Temps Présent, Stephanie Williams, Dr Emma Wilson and Dmitri Zhuravlev of Petersburg’s Military-Medical Museum.

Vladimir Nikitin of the State University’s journalism faculty gave invaluable help in unearthing the photographs used to illustrate this book, many of which appeared for the first time in his ground-breaking collection
The Unknown Blockade
. Galina Stolyarova of the
St Petersburg Times
set me on my feet during my first few visits to her beautiful city, as well as supplying a stream of press tickets to the ravishing Mariinsky. Sergei Zagatsky showed me the original of his grandmother Klara Rakhman’s siege diary, and transferred it to typescript. Sasha Orlov of the ‘Poisk’ organisation drove me round the battlefields of Myasnoi Bor, and Aleksandr Osipov gave me a tour of the Nevsky Pyatachok. (A commemorative museum, created entirely by himself, can be found above a shop in the village of Nevskaya Dubrovka.) At home, Commander Geoffrey Palmer hilariously recalled his years as a member of Britain’s wartime Military Mission to Moscow; my thanks go to his widow Angelina Palmer. Lyubov Dvoretskaya brought my Russian up to scratch and Robert Chandler introduced me to the SEELANGS online forum, whose contributors came up with numerous useful leads and suggestions. Gisela Stuart MP responded to a plea on behalf of the historical and human rights society Memorial with a question to the prime minister in the House of Commons. The staffs of the London Library and of the School of Slavonic and East European Studies library were as helpful and efficient as ever, as was the unique John Sandoe’s bookshop.

Most memorable of all were my interviews with siege survivors. Daniil Alshits, Irina Ivanova (née Bogdanova), Igor Kruglyakov, Anzhelina Kupaigorodskaya and Galina Semenova all consented to recall in detail a dreadful period of their lives, and have my most respectful gratitude and admiration. I am also indebted to the Bogdanov-Berezovsky, Hockenjos and Starodubtsev families for allowing quotation from unpublished family diaries. Last but not least come my husband, Charles Lucas, and our dear sons Edward and Bertie, to whom this book is dedicated. Without them I would have read more but understood less.

A Note on the Author

Anna Reid read law at Oxford and Russian History at UCL’s School of Slavonic and East European Studies. She started her career in consultancy and business journalism; from 1993 to 1995 she lived in Kiev, working as Ukraine correspondent for the
Economist
and the
Daily Telegraph
, and from 2003 to 2007 ran the foreign affairs programme at the think-tank Policy Exchange. Here previous books are
The Shaman’s Coat: A Native History of Siberia
and
Borderland: A Journey Through the History of the Ukraine
. She lives in west London with her husband and sons.

By the Same Author

Borderland: A Journey Through the History of Ukraine

The Shaman’s Coat: A Native History of Siberia

Copyright © 2011 by Anna Reid

Maps by ML Design

Images reproduced in the plate section (with the exceptions of peasant refugees outside the Hermitage, Ligovsky Prospect and the Nikitin family) are courtesy of the Tsentralniy Gosudarstvenniy Arkhiv Kinofotofonodokumentov Sankt-Peterburga

The part-title page image to Part 5: Aftermath is courtesy of the Gosudarstvenniy Muzei Istorii Sankt-Peterburga

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First published in the U.S. by Walker Publishing Company in 2011

This e-book edition published in 2011

E-book ISBN: 978-0-8027-7882-6

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