Column | Tanya Savicheva: Russia's Anne Frank who kept a diary of death during the siege of Leningrad

"She has become a totemic figure of the modern world — the moral individual mind beset by the machinery of destruction, insisting on the right to live and question and hope for the future of human beings."

These words, which described Anne Frank, who gained fame posthumously with the 1947 publication of her diary in which she documents her life in hiding from 1942 to 1944 during the German occupation of the Netherlands, apply equally to Tanya Savicheva. Tanya, like Anne, became a chronicler of the tragedy of war, suffering and death, which consumed not only her entire family, but also thousands of people in Leningrad, which witnessed the worst crimes against humanity during the Second World War, renamed the Great Patriotic War by the Soviet Union.

Tanya's diary was not a piece of literature as Ann's was, but it was no less poignant as it recorded, between December 28, 1941 and May 13, 1942, the deaths of six members of her family as and when it happened. Her diary, written by an 11- year-old girl, all nine pages and 42 lines only, became a testimony to the misery of Leningrad and the wiping out of an entire family, which was once popular, prosperous and happy. On the last page of the diary, she wrote: “The Savichevs are dead. All are dead. Only Tanya is left.” Two years later, on July 1, 1944 Tanya also died in an orphanage. Tanya's diary was found much later and considering its historic importance, her diary was embedded in marble in 1981 and a memorial for the children who died in the war was built around it. The Tanya Savicheva Museum remains a monument not only to the devastation of the war, but also to all those who fought heroically and perished.

‘The Story of Tanya Savicheva', authored by Ratheesh Nair, the Hon Consul of Russia and the Director of Russian House, in Malayalam was released in Thiruvananthapuram recently by Kerala Minister Saji Cherian. The story begins by describing the grandeur of St Petersburg, the then capital of Russia and its continued importance as a major city of the Soviet Union with the name of Leningrad. Adolf Hitler invaded the Soviet Union in 1941 and kept Leningrad on siege for 782 days, unleashing a reign of terror, which brought untold suffering to the people.

Her family

Tanya was born on 23 January, 1930 into a large family, but her three siblings had died long before Tanya was born. Five years after her father died, Tanya and her siblings lived with their mother and grandmother in an apartment building in Leningrad.

Crisis as the Germans arrive

The news of the German invasion came on June 22, 1941, when the family was about to travel to their native village on a holiday. Leningrad was completely isolated from the rest of the world even as the Soviet soldiers were fighting heroically. Even as the bombing continued, about 3 million people were left without amenities and even food for survival. Thousands died of starvation, while others survived on whatever they could muster. Those who survived suffered even more than the dead. The first death which occurred in Tanya's family was that of her elder sister. That was the day on which Tanya made the first entry in a diary she had preserved: “Shenya is dead. 28 December in the morning 1200 hrs.” The next to go was her grandmother, who also became an entry in Tanya's diary. Then it was the turn of her musician brother to surrender to death. Tanya noted that also without comment. Her uncle too died in April 1942. It appeared as though the whole family was waiting for their turn to be part of Tanya's diary of death.

Tanya had a stroke of good luck when an orphanage outside Leningrad took some of the unnourished and sick children out of Leningrad. She got food and medicines at different homes and hospitals, but she had caught tuberculosis, which consumed her body and spirit. She finally succumbed to her disease on 1 July, 1944. It must have been a deliverance for her after many years of starvation and disease. She was unaware as to what had happened to her death diary, but it turned out that her sister, who went to Leningrad spotted it with her mother's wedding dress. Nina, her sister, realised the historic value of the diary, but initially refused to hand it over to the authorities. She wanted it to remain in the family. A museum curator told her that the diary was not just the story of her family, but a monument of the thousands of the residents of Leningrad who sacrificed their lives for the country. He added that the diary would speak more authentically of the tragedy of Leningrad than any historian of the future.

Posthumous recognition

After the Soviet victory in the war, Tanya became a part of the legend of heroism and patriotism. The Soviet Government reflected the sentiments of the people by honoring her in many ways. More than anything else, her diary became the most eloquent expression of the agony of a people who suffered during the war. The uniqueness of the diary is that she did not add a word about the relatives who fell dead in front of her. What mattered to her was that her dear ones had died and no words would have reduced her pain.

Ratheesh's Malayalam account

Ratheesh Nair has reconstructed Tanya's story with compassion and a sense of history he has gained by his long association with the Soviet Union and Russia. The readers will benefit from his erudition, attention to detail and painful research. The original is in Malayalam, but it will be published in Russian, English and other languages. He has done much to project Russia and to observe in a befitting manner all national occasions of Russia. But his biggest contribution to Russia till now may be the writing Tanya's story and its propagation.

(The author is a former diplomat who writes on India's external relations and the Indian diaspora)