Leningrad Under Siege: First-hand Accounts of the Ordeal by Granin Daniil Alexandrovich

Author:Granin, Daniil Alexandrovich [Granin, Daniil Alexandrovich]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Bisac Code 1: HIS027100
ISBN: 9781844683826
Publisher: Casemate Publishers
Published: 2012-08-24T00:00:00+00:00

12

I Dream of Bread

Yura’s diary continues:

21 October 1941. I was on duty at school from eight in the morning until six in the evening. Still, I did manage to take the edge off my hunger today. Or, rather, I drowned it out.

An unpleasant conversation about food again in the evening. Hunger is no kindly aunt…

Mother bought the week’s allowance of sweets on her ration card – 150 grams – and gave it to Anfissa Nikolaievna (she owed it to her). The latter just thanked her and took it absolutely calmly. Now all we have left at our disposal for the ten days of the ration period are just six or eight little sweets! You can bet your boots they won’t be there tomorrow!

On the various fronts the situation is grim. As if we hadn’t enough to cope with, fighting has broken out in the Taganrog direction. Is it possible that we will be unable to defeat the German assault troops and won’t be able to restore communication between Leningrad and the rest of the USSR before 1942?

If only I could be sure that they won’t reduce our rations for food and bread any further! If only I could be sure! But they will reduce them. They will reduce them at least twice more. And this will happen just before the October anniversary, the anniversary of the greatest proletarian revolution in history, which took place on 25 October!

It turns out that there are many books on chess in the school library, amongst them Modern Opening Gambits.

22 October 1941. I hung about in queues for beer all morning. With great difficulty I obtained two bottles; my feet were frozen. Then I redeemed three coupons for cereal. In the evening I was on duty at school. There were no air-raid alerts. Taganrog has been taken by the Germans. The German offensive continues…

I have been engrossed in reading a novel by Alexandre Dumas: La Dame de Monsoreau. A fascinating story.

Mother has exchanged the two bottles of beer for 400 grams of bread. I am being sent off to the beer queue again.

23 October 1941. I got two more bottles of beer. I went to the cinema and saw The Festival of Saint Jorgen. I read La Dame de Monsoreau.

At home we have both cold and hunger. Both at the same time.

24 October 1941. I spent the whole day from ten in the morning until six in the evening in the queue for beer, instead of reporting for duty at school. There was not even time to stand in line for a passport at the militia post. And, in spite of all that, I didn’t manage to get any beer. Mother came home in the evening and used up another head of cabbage. One way or another I managed to take the edge off my appetite. There was nothing of particular interest in the news bulletins. Mother told me that the Trade Unions’ Central Committee has been evacuated to Kuibyshev. I can just imagine the situation in Moscow.

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