Diaries and letters : part I
Diary of Liubov' Vasil'evna Shaporina, hospital nurse during Siege; later an artist
Diary of Anna Petrovna Ostroumova-Lebedeva, artist
Letter from Leningrad : Elza Greinert to children
Letter from Leningrad : German family remembered
Diary and letters of Evgeniia Shavrova, introduced by her sister, Elena Fassman, librarian
Diary of Vera Sergeevna Kostrovitskaia, ballerina and dance teacher
Diary of Mariia Viacheslavovna Kropacheva, school teacher
Diary of Anna Ivanovna Likhacheva, doctor
Diary of Tamara Petrovna Nekliudova, entertainer at the front
Olga Mikhailovna Freidenberg, classicist scholar, first woman department chair in a Soviet university, The Race of Life
Memoirs and oral histories : part II
Vera Vladimirovna Miliutina, artist, Evacuation and The Scottish Album
Valentina Nikolaevna Gorokhova, doctor, The War, the Blockade, the Military Hospital
Sof'ia Nikolaevna Buriakova, housewife, A Half-Century Ago
Olga Nikolaevna Grechina, literary scholar, "Saving, I Am Saved"
Interview with Natalia Borisovna Rogova, librarian, archivist
Interview with Valentina Fedorovna Petrova, archivist
Oral history of Natal'ia Vladimirovna Stroganova, child during the Siege; later philologist
Interview with Valentina Ilinishna Bushueva, factory worker
Avgusta Mikhailovna Saraeva-Bondar', art historian, Silhouettes of Time
Interview with Kseniia Makianovna Matus, oboist in the Leningrad Symphony
Yuliia Aronovna Mendeleva, doctor, memoir excerpts from The Defense of Leningrad
Lilia Solomonovna Frankfurt, librarian, "The Saltykov-Shchedrin National Public Library"
Interview with Olga Ilinichna Markhaeva, museum researcher, and Olga Anatolevna Trapitsina-Matveenko, chemist
Documentary prose : part III
Elena Oskarovna Manilla, artist, Grave Months for the Blockaded City
Lidiia Samsonovna Razumovskaia, university student, "To the People"
Irena Lvovna Dubitskaia, Cold Sum Stories
Liudmila Ivanovna Veshenkova, "Sweet Earth"
Antonina Emel'ianovna Maslovskaia, "Blockade Lullaby"
Vera Vladimirovna Miliutina, artist, "Vitamins, or Ode to Grass"
Liubov Borisovna Beregovaia, The Joyous, the Inimitable

The Siege of Leningrad by German and Finnish armies during World War II was one of the most horrific events in world history, and one widely studied. From 1945 to 1991, on average one book per day was published on the subject in the USSR alone. Yet a conspicuous void has remained in the historical literature concerning the experiences of women - the vast majority of Leningrad’s civilian population during the Siege. The diaries, letters, memoirs, and oral accounts collected by Cynthia Simmons and Nina Perlina present an honest, heroic, and heartbreaking account of women’s lives and emotions during the nearly 900 days of blockade and bombardment. This stirring and inspiring collection opens a window into the lives of ordinary women enduring extraordinary times. Shared are tales of heartache, loss, and tragedy; hope, survival, and heroism. In a city under siege with a population at risk, the blokadnitsy (women survivors) persevered and prevailed. This is their story, told in their own words. German troops poured onto the southern shore of Lake Ladoga on September 8, 1941, establishing a war front just two and one-half miles from Leningrad and barring southward travel out of the city. Meanwhile, Finnish troops reoccupied the boundary north of Leningrad. When Hitler opted to besiege the city rather than force an invasion, Leningrad was trapped - blockaded from outside sources of food and fuel. In a city already drained of able-bodied men through conscription, volun-teerism, and Stalin’s political purges, the daily tasks of domestic life and labor, as well as nightly air-raid defense, fell upon Leningrad’s women. The female population responded immediately to the German offensive. They dug trenches, tank traps, and mine fields, and built fortifications within the city. After the mobilization of male factory workers to the front, tens of thousands of women volunteered or were assigned to take their places in factories, mills, and mines. Nearly two million Soviet citizens lost their lives during the Siege, including at least one million civilians in Leningrad, mainly during the terribly cold winter of 1941 - 1942. Starvation was the main cause of death as rations dwindled. The shrinking male population suffered most: male casualties tripled those of females in January and February of 1942. As a result, more women were forced into heavy industrial jobs traditionally held by men. Once intense bombing of the city began, they also served as the primary source for the local anti-aircraft defense. And yet, despite the circumstances in which they lived, the women of Leningrad were still responsible for domestic duties such as raising children and maintaining households. The personal accounts collected by Simmons and Perlina tell of extraordinary heroism and acts of bravery. Many women workers gave up their daily rations so their families could eat; many survived only because mothers, aunts, or elder sisters sacrificed themselves. Women also provided an important moral and spiritual voice for Leningrad. Women’s poetry, artwork, and song inspired a besieged populace; their writings offered important commentaries on the moral deprivation they witnessed during the Siege as well as the perceived lack of political and military support from Moscow. It was in their roles as arbiters of morality that these women made their greatest contribution to the official history of the Siege. Whether it is in the writings of a young mother lamenting the coming of war or through the grim descriptions of a city choked by starvation, Simmons and Perlina’s collection draws greater attention to the contributions of the blokadnitsy and to the heritage of Russian women’s writing. Cynthia Simmons is associate professor of Slavic studies at Boston College. Nina Perlina, who survived the Siege of Leningrad as a young child, is professor of Slavic languages and literatures at Indiana University

Simmons, Cynthia\ed., transl., comp.\
Perlina, Nina\ed., transl., comp.\