Tanya Savicheva: biography, blockade diary and interesting facts

The usual Leningrad girl Tanya Savicheva became known to the whole world thanks to her diary, which she led in 1941 - 1942. During the siege of Leningrad. This book became one of the main symbols of those terrible events.

Place and date of birth

Tanya Savicheva was born on January 23, 1930 in a small village called Dvorishchi. This place was near the Peipsi Lake. Parents raised and raised her in Leningrad, where she spent almost all her short life. The eldest Savichevs came from the northern capital. The girl's mother, Maria Ignatyevna, decided to give birth in a remote village because her sister, whose husband was a professional doctor, lived there. He played the role of obstetrician and helped to safely accept delivery.

Tanya Savicheva was the eighth child in her large and friendly family. She was the youngest to all her brothers and sisters. Three of them died before the birth of a girl in childhood in 1916 because of an epidemic of scarlet fever. So, at the beginning of the blockade Tanya left two older sisters (Eugene and Nina) and a brother (Leonid and Mikhail).

The Savichev family

Tanya's father was a Nepman - that is, a former entrepreneur. Even in tsarist times Nikolai Savichev owned a bakery, a pastry shop and even a cinema. When the Bolsheviks came to power, all these enterprises were nationalized. Nikolai Rodionovich not only lost all his property, but also became a disenfranchised - he was reduced in electoral rights, as socially unreliable.

In the 1930s, the Savichevs' families were even briefly evacuated from Leningrad, although they soon managed to return to their native city. Nevertheless, Nikolai did not survive all these shocks and died in 1936. His children did not have the right to study at universities or to join the Communist Party. The older brothers and sisters worked at various factories and enterprises in Leningrad. One of them, Leonid, was fond of music, because of which there were a lot of instruments in the Savichevs' house and amateur gay concerts were constantly held. Younger Tanya especially trusted her uncle Vasily (his father's brother).

The beginning of the blockade

In May 1941, Tanya Savicheva finished third grade. In the summer the family wanted to go to the village of Dvorischi to rest. However, on June 22 it became known that the Germans had attacked the Soviet Union. Then all the Savichevs decided to stay in Leningrad and help in the rear of the Red Army. The men went to the military enlistment office, but were refused. Brother Leonid had poor eyesight, and Uncle Vasily and Alexei did not fit the age. In the army was only Michael. After the capture by the Germans of Pskov in July 1941, he became a partisan in the rear of the enemy.

Senior sister Nina then went to dig trenches near Leningrad, and Zhenya began to donate the blood needed to transfuse the wounded soldiers. The blockade diary of Tanya Savicheva does not tell these details. In it, only nine pages fit the girl's short notes about the death of her loved ones. All details about the fate of the Savichev family became known much later, when the diary of the child became one of the main symbols of that terrible blockade.

Death of Eugene

The first in the Savichev family was Zhenya. She severely undermined her health due to regular blood donation at the transfusion station. In addition, the older sister Tanya continued to work at her factory. Sometimes she stayed to spend the night right there to save energy for additional shifts. The thing was that at the end of 1941 all public transport stopped in Leningrad. This was due to the fact that the streets were filled with huge snowdrifts, which no one had to clean. To get to work, Eugene had to walk every day on a huge distance of several kilometers. Stress and lack of rest strongly influenced her body. On December 28, 1941, Zhenya died in the arms of her sister Nina, who came to visit her after she was not found at work. Then the blockade diary of Tanya Savicheva was supplemented with the first record.

First recording

Originally, Tanya Savicheva's diary from besieged Leningrad was a notebook of her sister Nina. The girl used it at her work. Nina was a draftsman. Therefore, her book was half-written with different technical information about boilers and pipelines.

Tanya Savicheva's diary began almost at the very end. The second part of the book was divided alphabetically for ease of navigation. The girl, making the first record, stopped on the page marked with the letter "F". There, Tanya Savicheva's diary from besieged Leningrad forever preserved the memory that Zhenya died on December 28 at 12 o'clock in the morning.

The new 1942nd

Despite the fact that in the first months of the encirclement of the city many people died, as if nothing had happened, the blockade of Leningrad continued. The diary of Tanya Savicheva contained a few notes on the most terrible events for her family. The girl made her notes with the usual color pencil.

In January 1942, Grandmother Tanya, on the maternal line of Evdokia Grigorievna Fedorova, was diagnosed with dystrophy. This verdict has become a common occurrence in any home, in every apartment and family. In Leningrad, food was no longer supplied from neighboring areas, and domestic supplies were rapidly depleted. In addition, the Germans, with the help of air raids, at the very beginning of the blockade, destroyed the hangars where bread was stored. Therefore it is not surprising that the old 74-year-old grandmother Tanya died from exhaustion one of the first. She passed away on January 25, 1942, just two days after the girl's birthday.

The last notes

Following the grandmother of Evdokia, Leonid died of dystrophy. In the family, he was affectionately called Leka. The 24-year-old was a peer of the October Revolution. He worked at the Admiralty Plant. The enterprise was not far from the Savichevs' house, but Leka was almost never there, and every day he stayed overnight at the company to get on the second shift. Leonid passed away on March 17. Tanya Savicheva's diary kept the news of this death on one of its pages.

In April, Uncle Vasya did not, and in May - Uncle Lesha. Father Tanya's brothers were buried at Piskarevsky Cemetery. Just three days after Uncle Lesha, the girl's mother, Maria Savicheva, died. This happened on May 13, 1942. Then Tanya left in her diary the last three entries - "Savichevs died", "All died", "Tanya left alone".

The girl did not know that Misha and Nina had survived. The elder brother fought at the front and was a partisan, because of what for a long time there was no news. He became disabled and in peacetime moved only in a stroller. Nina, working at her Leningrad plant, was hastily evacuated, and she could not in time notify the family of her salvation.

Sister, after the war, first discovered a notebook. Nina sent her to an exhibition describing the days in which the blockade of Leningrad was going. Tanya Savicheva's diary became known throughout the country precisely after that.

Wandering Girls

After the death of her mother, Tanya was left alone. First, she went to the neighbors of Nikolayenko, who lived in the same house a floor above. The father of this family organized the funeral of Tanya's mother. The girl herself could not attend the ceremony, because she was too weak. The next day Tanya went to Evdokia Arsenyeva, who was her niece's grandmother. Leaving her home, the girl took the casket, which contained various trifles (including certificates of death of relatives and a diary).

The woman took custody of the younger Savicheva. Evdokia worked in the factory and often left the girl at home alone. She already suffered from malnutrition caused by malnutrition, which is why even with the onset of spring she did not part with the winter clothes (because she felt a constant chill). In June 1942, Tanya was discovered by Vasily Krylov, an old friend of her family. He managed to bring letters from his elder sister, Nina, who was in evacuation.

Evacuation

In the summer of 1942, Tatyana Savicheva, along with another hundred children, was sent to an orphanage in the Gorky Region. There it was safe in the rear. A lot of staff cared for the children. But by then Tanya's health was hopelessly undermined. She was physically exhausted due to long malnutrition. In addition, the girl fell ill with tuberculosis, because of what she was isolated from her peers.

The child's health was very slow. In the spring of 1944 she was sent to the house of the disabled. There tuberculosis passed into the last stage of its progress. The disease was superimposed on dystrophy, nervous breakdown and scurvy. The girl died on July 1, 1944. In the last days of her life she was completely blind. So even two years after the evacuation, they killed their captors with a blockade. Tanya Savicheva's diary was short, but one of the most impressive and capacious evidence of the horrors that the residents of Leningrad had to endure.