Only Tany left... Tanya Savicheva and the Siege of Leningrad

Today, 25 January 2010, Tanya Savicheva would have been eighty years old – had she lived. But she died, near her hometown of Leningrad in 1944, aged only 14.

The Russian Anne Frank
But who was Tanya Savicheva? The name in Russia is what Anne Frank is to the West – a young innocent victim of World War Two, who left behind a small but lasting legacy.

But whereas Anne’s diary is a carefully kept journal over a period of two years, Tanya’s was little more than a few scribbled lines over six sheets of notepaper.

The Leningrad Siege
Leningrad was in the midst of a devastating 900-day siege that lasted from September 1941 until January 1944. The German army had laid siege to it, bombarded it and cut off all supplies in its attempt to ‘wipe it off the map’, as Hitler had ordered.

On September 12 1941, the largest food warehouse was destroyed and the situation, already severe, became critical.

As the Lake Ladoga, to the east of the city, froze, supplies came through by convoys of trucks, a hazardous journey over thin ice and through enemy bombardment. What was brought in, although vital, was only ever a fraction of what was needed.

Within the city, as that first winter progressed, whatever could be eaten had consumed – pets, livestock, birds, vermin. And whatever could be burnt had been. Tanya had kept a diary but this, as with every other book in the household, had been used for fuel.

Tanya, her mother and her five siblings, in common with every citizen of Leningrad, suffered terribly from hunger and cold. One by one, members of Tanya’s family died, and it was recording of each death that constituted the notebook.

Evacuation
Tanya herself was eventually evacuated out of the city in August 1942, along with about 150 other children, to a village called Shatki. But whilst most of the others recovered and lived, Tanya, already too ill, died of tuberculosis on July 1, 1944.

Her notebook was presented as evidence of Nazi terror at the post-war Nuremberg Trials, and today is on display at the History Museum in St. Petersburg.

The text of Tanya’s notebook reads as follows:

Zhenya died on Dec. 28th at 12:30 P.M. 1941

Grandma died on Jan. 25th 3:00 P.M. 1942

Leka died on March 5th at 5:00 A.M. 1942

Uncle Vasya died on Apr. 13th at 2:00 after midnight 1942

Uncle Lesha on May 10th at 4:00 P.M. 1942

Mother on May 13th at 7:30 A.M. 1942

Savichevs died.

Everyone died.

Only Tanya is left.

Rupert Colley
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