The story of a mother (survivor of siege) and a daughter waiting for her to evacuate

The Presidential Library ahead of the next anniversary of the beginning of the siege of Leningrad illustrates the story of Galina Mikhailovna Sirota (born 1931) and her mother - Evdokiya Alexandrovna Braginskaya (1911–1993) This amazing story of a typical Soviet family of that time is available in the electronic library’s section, which includes diaries and personal archives collected during the campaign marking the 75th anniversary of the complete liberation of Leningrad from the Nazi siege.

Of particular interest is the typewritten book of memoirs of Galina Sirota entitled "The Way We Survived", most of the pages of which are dedicated to her mother. “Before the war, my mother was young and beautiful. In general everyone in our family was young and cheerful. But June 1941 came. “War!” - the grandmother breathed in a choked voice and settled on the bench. I did not really understand what happened. I was nine years old, and I had just finished the second grade of my secondary school...”, - Galina Mikhailovna begins her sad story.

In August 1941, a girl from Leningrad was evacuated to the village of Zubrilovo, Penza Region. “I cried, saying goodbye to my mother, and she stroked my head and kept saying: “I will come to you soon””, - we read in the book.

But letters from mother from besieged Leningrad came rarely. In addition, “small white leaflets were full of black blots of military censorship, and sometimes because of the blots in the letters there were very few lines”. My mother only briefly reported that she was working on defence work, digging trenches, and every time she added: "I will come to you".

At some point, news from the besieged city stopped coming, little Galya and her grandmother suggested the worst. But one morning, in April 1942, the postman herself did not come running into their house with a letter. It was strange, very short and dry. After reading it, the grandmother grabbed her heart: “Something bad happened to Dusya! Look, she writes: “If there is God, then I will come to you”. But she is irreligious!”

In the evening of the same day there was a knock on the window: That was my mother…

“We brought mom home”, - recalls Galina Mikhailovna. - She was sitting on the bench and was silent. We were silent too. I did not come to her, did not hug her. I was numb. This woman was not my mother! There was an old woman sitting in front of us. Her sallow face was thin and scary, and her hands hung like whips. She closed her eyes...

My aunt Marusya was the first to get over herself. She rushed to the stove, where there was a pot of cabbage soup. Mom ate cabbage soup quickly and eagerly.

“A series of hard days has begun. Mom asked for food all the time. She was given it often, but little by little. The local paramedic warned: "Do not feed much, she starts to swell - then there will be the trouble". And mom started to swell. She screamed all the time: "Give me some food!" Because of this, little Galya was afraid to return home and hardly slept at night.

However, my mother was destined to live for many more years. A tired woman was drunk with a decoction of medicinal herbs, she began to "look more and more like that pre-war mother" and began to talk about the siege, about what she had to endure ...

Mom was sent to defence work near Leningrad. She was digging trenches.

There were manifestations of mutual assistance. The memorable episode is associated with the unfamiliar Leningrad resident Anna Petrovna, who saved Galina Mikhailovna’s mother: she invited her to live in her place, took care of her, in the evenings she made jelly from wood glue.

The Presidential Library’s collections contain Alisa Bolshakova’s book A Girl During the Siege, where the author also shares her memories of this terrible period in our history.