My aunt Khasya barged into the apartment crying, telling us that while her son was standing in line, all of his ration cards had been stolen. This meant certain death. I then got a lesson that I have remembered all my life. My father rose up as best he could on the bed and turned to my mother: "Share with my sister." These were his last words. My mother...

My worst memories are of dried egg, which was revolting, and of the cheese, which was mousetrap. I thought I didn’t like cheese until well after the war, when things went back to normal. I then discovered its delights. Clothes were also on coupons, and a new dress for a special occasion had to be hoarded for and sacrifices elsewhere had to be made. I was lucky in having an older sister whose...

In their books horror-stricken American historians very often raise the following question: what would have happened if Hitler had had an atomic bomb? They put the blame on the Fuhrer claiming he would have used it ruthlessly if he had had one, because he is such a rascal in their conclusion. But the fact that it was not Hitler, but the USA itself that used the atomic bomb in the first place, as...

My childhood memories consist mostly of always going to sleep with searchlights continously passing across the wall and the distant sound of bombs dropping and gun fire. During the day barrage balloons all across the sky and how nice and cosy and almost homely they looked. Air raid sirens and the feeling of dread they produced in your stomach.

Our house was a place of communication between lost friends and relatives. Many people found each other with our help. My husband’s friend Vladimir Konokotin, a sapper, was injured during the Synyavinskiy Heights Battle and was sent to a hospital on Poklonnaya Hill. After his recovery he came and left us his details, because his house was destroyed, and...

I was still waiting for my mother and didn’t want to go away with strangers. But after all, as an orphan, I was given to an elderly and childless couple – Fyodor Bogdanov and Evdokia Bogdanova. They adopted me as their daughter and treated me kindly. But times were very hard and hungry. We ate only frozen potatoes and roots. Once a horse was killed by a...

In what was to be our last week or so that we were in Archangel, we were invited to a surprise concert and a dance – ‘English dancing’ it was called. Who would be the partners, we wondered. Anyway, we knew that the concert was likely to be worthwhile and rumour had it that the orchestra was especially flown up from Leningrad. In curiosity and hope, a...

While I walked in these lesser-seen parts of Archangel the infrequent ‘tram’ slid by, curious droshky-like transports which were a kind of open sled of large size and seemed to bring workers from the forests to change shifts, as it were. The occupants, if they saw me, never made any sign of life, but huddled together, sat or lurched as the ‘tram’ heaved...

In the last days of the war, Charles Lindbergh was sent to Germany to collect information about the new German aircraft that the Luftwaffe had developed, such as the fighter jet and rocket-powered aircraft. He arrived in Germany a few days after its surrender and travelledaround in search of information. He kept a journal of observations, givingus some idea of ​​the nation which had sought to...

The battle of Stalingrad caught up to me once again, when I was studying at the university. One night in my sleep I saw a bomb flying towards me, whistling. It seemed that I woke up one second before the explosion. Every night I saw either a bomb or bullets from a machine gun flying at me. I was inspected by medical doctors, my brain was scanned, they...

Our strength was fading. And so, my mother made a decision, we needed to move. We used to walk to Nikolski Market, then we went back and only after that allowed ourselves to eat. It was already dark, it was winter and there was no electricity. We lit our lamp using lamp oil or castor oil – but we tried to save the castor oil, so we could eat it.

Yes, I’ve experienced a lot in these last 5 years, since the moment we said goodbye, but all these have gone and there’s no need to remember. Now it’s time to think about my future life, I’m no longer a boy, I’m 24 now, and I don’t have any profession. Dad was right, he said, ‘Boris, learn from me. Once you learn, you’ll never forget it’. But I was...

In some letters I imagine a boy who has just left the school, who loves sweets and is interested in his classmates. In other letters there is a mature adult who had gone through all the terrors of war. Unshakeable faith in victory, humour and optimism resound in his letters. I have read aloud some lines from these letters during commemorative meetings...

At that time you were considered a child and were given the children’s food-card up to the age of twelve. There was neither water, nor electricity. There was no way to pipe water in, but there was water downstairs, in the cellar, and there were taps there, so at first we went to the cellar to get water. Later we went to another street for it, as the...