Twelve-year-old Leningrad resident Tanya Savicheva began keeping her diary a little earlier than Anne Frank, a victim of the Holocaust. They were almost the same age and wrote about the same thing - about the horror of fascism. And these two girls died without waiting for Victory: Tanya - in July 1944, Anna - in March 1945. The Diary of Anne Frank was published after the war and told the whole world about its author. “The Diary of Tanya Savicheva” was not published; it contains only 7 terrible entries about the death of her large family in besieged Leningrad. This little one Notebook was presented at the Nuremberg trials as a document accusing fascism.
Today, “The Diary of Tanya Savicheva” is exhibited at the Museum of the History of Leningrad (St. Petersburg), a copy of it is in the display case of the Piskarevsky cemetery memorial, where 570 thousand city residents who died during the 900-day fascist blockade (1941-1943) are buried, and on Poklonnaya Hill in Moscow.
The child's hand, losing strength from hunger, wrote unevenly and sparingly. The fragile soul, struck by unbearable suffering, was no longer capable of living emotions. Tanya simply recorded the real facts of her existence - the tragic “visits of death” to her home. And when you read this, you freeze: “December 28, 1941. Zhenya died at 12.30 at night in 1941.”
“Grandmother died on January 25 at 3 o’clock in 1942.”
“Leka died on March 17 at 5 am. 1942."
“Uncle Vasya died on April 13 at 2 o’clock in the afternoon. 1942."
“Uncle Lesha, May 10 at 4 pm. 1942."
“Mom - March 13 at 7:30 am. 1942"
"Everyone died." “There’s only Tanya left.”
...She was the daughter of a baker and a seamstress, the youngest in the family, loved by everyone. Large gray eyes under light brown bangs, a sailor blouse, a clear, ringing “angelic” voice that promised a singing future.
The Savichevs were all musically gifted. And the mother, Maria Ignatievna, even created a small family ensemble: two brothers, Leka and Misha, played the guitar, mandolin and banjo, Tanya sang, the rest supported the choir.
The father, Nikolai Rodionovich, died early, and the mother spun with a spinning top to raise her five children. The seamstress at the Leningrad Fashion House had many orders and earned good money. Skillful embroidery decorated the Savichevs’ cozy home - elegant curtains, napkins, tablecloths.
Since childhood, Tanya also embroidered - all the flowers, flowers...
The Savichevs were going to spend the summer of 1941 in a village near Gdov, near Lake Peipus, but only Misha managed to leave. The morning of June 22, which brought war, changed plans. The close-knit Savichev family decided to stay in Leningrad, stick together, and help the front. His mother, a seamstress, sewed uniforms for the soldiers. Leka, due to poor eyesight, did not join the army and worked as a planer at the Admiralty plant, sister Zhenya sharpened shells for mines, Nina was mobilized for defense work. Vasily and Alexey Savichev, two of Tanya’s uncles, served in the air defense.
Tanya also did not sit idly by. Together with other children, she helped adults put out lighters and dig trenches. But the blockade ring quickly tightened - according to Hitler’s plan, Leningrad should have been “strangled by hunger and razed to the face of the earth.” One day Nina did not return from work. That day there was heavy shelling, people at home were worried and waiting. But when all the deadlines passed, the mother gave Tanya, in memory of her sister, her small notebook, in which the girl began to make her notes.
Sister Zhenya died right at the factory. I worked 2 shifts, and then also donated blood, and I didn’t have enough strength. Soon they took my grandmother to the Piskarevskoye cemetery - her heart could not stand it. In the “History of the Admiralty Plant” there are the following lines: “Leonid Savichev worked very diligently, although he was exhausted. One day he didn’t show up for his shift - the shop was informed that he had died...”
Tanya opened her notebook more and more often - one after another, her uncles passed away, and then her mother. One day the girl will draw a terrible conclusion: “The Savichevs all died. Tanya is the only one left."
Tanya never found out that not all the Savichevs died, their family continues. Sister Nina was rescued and taken to the rear. In 1945, she returned to her hometown, to her home, and among the bare walls, fragments and plaster she found a notebook with Tanya’s notes. Brother Misha also recovered from a serious wound at the front.
Tanya, who had lost consciousness from hunger, was discovered by employees of special sanitary teams who were visiting Leningrad houses. Life barely glimmered in her. Together with 140 other Leningrad children exhausted by hunger, the girl was evacuated to the Gorky (now Nizhny Novgorod) region, to the village of Shatki. Residents brought whatever they could to the children, fed and warmed the orphan souls. Many of the children got stronger and got back on their feet. But Tanya never got up. Doctors fought for the life of the young Leningrad woman for 2 years, but the disastrous processes in her body turned out to be irreversible. Tanya's arms and legs were shaking and she was tormented by terrible headaches. On July 1, 1944, Tanya Savicheva died. She was buried in the village cemetery, where she rests under a marble tombstone. Nearby is a stele with a bas-relief of a girl and pages from her diary. Tannin records are also carved on the gray stone of the “Flower of Life” monument, near St. Petersburg, on the 3rd kilometer of the blockade “Road of Life”.
Tanya Savicheva was born on January 25, the day of remembrance of the Holy Martyr Tatiana. The surviving Savichevs, their children and grandchildren, always gather at a common table and sing “The Ballad of Tanya Savicheva” (composer E. Doga, lyrics by V. Gin), which was first performed at the concert of People’s Artist Edita Piekha: “Tanya, Tanya ... your name is like an alarm bell in all dialects..."
The heart cannot stop remembering, otherwise our human race will be cut short.
Tanya Savicheva- a little girl, a primary school student from Leningrad, became famous throughout the world thanks to her diary. A terrible diary in which she filled out only 9 pages. And which became one of the main mournful symbols of the Great Patriotic War.
Tanya Savicheva (right) and her niece Masha Putilovskaya a few days before the start of the war, the village of Sablino, June 1941. Tanya is 11 years old, Masha is 6. Photo: Commons.wikimedia.org
Tanya Savicheva was born on January 23, 1930 into a large and friendly family - mother, father, two sisters Zhenya And Nina, brothers Leka And Misha. The house is a full bowl: Tanya’s father was an entrepreneur, owned his own bakery, bakery and pastry shop and even a cinema in Leningrad. But in the 1930s, private property began to be alienated, and private owners from Leningrad were exiled to the 101st kilometer. The Savichev family also went there. Tanya's father was very worried about what happened, because now he could not adequately support his large family. In the end, stress and lack of money made themselves felt - Nikolai Savichev fell ill with cancer and died on March 5, 1936.
The family, having lost their breadwinner, was soon able to return to Leningrad. They - mother, Tanya, brothers and sisters - settled with their grandmother on the 2nd line of Vasilyevsky Island, in house 13/6 in apartment number 1. Just below the apartment of their closest relatives - Tanya's father's brothers, Uncle Vasya and Uncle Lesha. Life was slowly getting better.
The year 1941 came. In the summer, Tanya and her mother planned to go to visit relatives in Dvorishchi; at first they wanted to go together, but then they decided that brother Misha would go first, and Tanya and her mother after: they did not want to leave their grandmother alone on her birthday - June 22. In the morning Tanya gave her grandmother a gift, and at 12:15 on the radio the People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs of the USSR Vyacheslav Molotov announced the beginning of World War II. Tanya and her mother remained in Leningrad...
Memorial plaque on the house where Tanya Savicheva lived. Photo: Commons.wikimedia.org / Mikhail Gruznov
The Savichev family helped the Red Army as best they could: sister Nina dug trenches, Zhenya donated blood for the wounded, Tanya collected Molotov cocktails, Tanya’s mother sewed uniforms for the soldiers, and Leka, together with Uncle Lyosha and Uncle Vasya, went to sign up for the front. But the military registration and enlistment office sent them home - Leka had poor eyesight, and his uncles had long since “outgrown” conscription age.
On September 8, 1941, the siege of Leningrad began, but the Savichev family was sure that together they would hold out, survive, survive... Following the hungry autumn came a harsh winter. One day, while cleaning the house, Tanya found a notebook forgotten by her sister Nina. Part of the book was filled with Nina's notes, but the other - with the alphabet for telephone numbers - remained untouched. Tanya did not throw away the find and kept it in her locker. Soon the first entry under the letter “Z” appeared in this diary: “Zhenya died on December 28 at 12:00 in the morning, 1941.” ( hereinafter, punctuation, spelling and grammar are preserved - ed.).
The sister, despite severe exhaustion, continued to donate blood for the wounded and walked seven kilometers to the factory and back every day. On December 28, Zhenya was no longer able to make this journey. She died in the arms of her sister Nina.
Less than a month had passed before another line under the letter “B” was written in Tanya Savicheva’s diary in a child’s handwriting: “Grandmother died on January 25th. 3 p.m. 1942.” Grandmother Evdokia She was constantly malnourished; she did not want to overeat her already hungry grandchildren. In January she became very ill. The doctor diagnosed me with nutritional dystrophy and suggested going to the hospital. But grandma refused. She understood that everything was pointless, and did not want to take up a bed in the hospital, which the wounded might need.
On February 28, 1942, sister Nina did not return home. Mom tried to make inquiries, but she never found out anything. This time Tanya did not write anything in her diary; the girl wanted to believe that her sister was alive.Less than a month after Nina, Tanya’s brother Leka left. But there was no hope here, Tanya knew that he was gone forever. Under the letter “L,” Tanya wrote in pencil: “Leka died on March 17 at 5 a.m. in 1942.” Leka, like his grandmother, died of hunger and severe exhaustion.
The next entry was not long in coming: “Uncle Vasya died on April 13, 2 a.m. 1942.” Famine, like the most terrible epidemic, killed the Savichev family one after another.
Before his death, Uncle Lyosha could no longer walk, the doctor threw up his hands. His family could only watch him fade away. Tanya took up her pencil again. I wrote down: “Uncle Lyosha on May 10 at 4 p.m. 1942.” and hid the hated diary. But three days later she had to get it again. Three days later, the last four most terrible inscriptions appeared in the small notebook of the little girl Tanya Savicheva:
Under the letter “M” - “Mom on May 13 at 7.30 am 1942”; under the letter “S” - “The Savichevs died”; under the letter “U” - “Everyone died”; under the letter “O” - “Tanya is the only one left”...
Tanya left forever, never knowing that not all the Savichevs died. Sister Nina and brother Misha survived. Nina and her colleagues were evacuated from Leningrad straight from work. Everything happened in such a hurry that she couldn’t even convey the news to her family. Misha was wounded, but still survived and returned from the front.
Nina, who returned to Leningrad after the siege was lifted, found a small notebook with 9 scary entries, written in pencil with an unsteady child’s hand, from Evdokia. By chance, the diary of a little girl who buried her family was seen by an acquaintance of Nina, the scientific secretary of the Hermitage. So the story of the life and death of a simple Leningrad schoolgirl Tanya Savicheva in 1946 ended up at the exhibition “Heroic Defense of Leningrad”. Today, 9 leaves from the diary of the girl Tanya are kept in “ State Museum history of St. Petersburg,” and copies of them were distributed all over the world as a memory of a little girl who described her childhood story of a terrible war.
Tanya Savicheva is a Leningrad schoolgirl who, from the beginning of the siege of Leningrad, began keeping a diary in a notebook left over from her older sister Nina. This diary has only 9 pages and six of them contain the dates of death of loved ones. Tanya Savicheva's diary became one of the symbols of the Great Patriotic War.
Tanya was the fifth and youngest child of Maria and Nikolai. She had two sisters and two brothers: Zhenya, Leonid “Leka”, Nina and Misha.
Zhenya was the first to die. By December 1941, transport completely stopped working in Leningrad, the streets were completely covered with snow. To get to the plant, Zhenya had to walk almost seven kilometers from home. Sometimes she stayed overnight at the plant to save strength and work two shifts, but she was no longer in good health. At the end of December, Zhenya did not come to the plant. Concerned about her absence, Nina on the morning of Sunday, December 28, asked for time off from the night shift and hurried to her sister on Mokhovaya. She managed to arrive just in time for Zhenya to die in her arms. She was 32 years old. Apparently Tanya was afraid that during the blockade they would gradually forget the date of Zhenya’s death and decided to write it down. To do this, she took Nina’s notebook, which Leka had once given her.
On the letter “F” Tanya writes: “Zhenya died on December 28 at 12.30 in the morning 1941.”
Tanya in a group photo
They wanted to bury Zhenya at the Serafimovskoye cemetery, because it was not far from the house, but it turned out that there was nothing to count on, because all the approaches to the gate were littered with corpses, which no one had the strength to bury at that time. Therefore, they decided to take Zhenya by truck to Decembrist Island and bury him at the Smolensk Lutheran Cemetery. With her help ex-husband Yuri managed to get the coffin. According to Nina’s recollections, already at the cemetery, Maria Ignatievna, bending over the coffin of her eldest daughter, uttered a phrase that became fatal for their family: “Here we are burying you, Zhenechka. Who will bury us and how?”
At the beginning of January, Evdokia Grigorievna was given a terrible diagnosis: third degree of nutritional dystrophy. This condition required urgent hospitalization, but the grandmother refused, citing the fact that Leningrad hospitals were already overcrowded. On January 25, two days after Tanya’s birthday, she passed away. On the page with the letter “B” Tanya writes: “Grandmother died on January 25th. 3 p.m. 1942 »
Before her death, my grandmother asked very much not to throw away her card, because it could be used before the end of the month. Many people in Leningrad did this, and for some time this supported the life of the relatives and friends of the deceased. To prevent such “illegal use” of these cards, re-registration was subsequently introduced in the middle of each month. Therefore, the Death Certificate has a different date - February 1st.
Tanya and NinaFebruary 28, 1942 Nina was supposed to come home, but she never came. That day there was heavy shelling and, apparently, the Savichevs considered Nina dead, not knowing that Nina, along with the entire enterprise where she worked, was hastily evacuated across Lake Ladoga to Big Earth. Letters almost never went to besieged Leningrad, and Nina, like Misha, could not convey any news to her family. Tanya did not write her sister down in her diary, perhaps because she still hoped that she was alive.
Leka literally lived at the Admiralty Plant, working there day and night. It was rare to visit relatives, although the plant was not far from home - on the opposite bank of the Neva, across the Lieutenant Schmidt Bridge. In most cases, he had to spend the night at the plant, often working two shifts in a row. Leka died of dystrophy on March 17 in a factory hospital. He was 24 years old. Tanya opens the notebook on the letter “L” and writes, hastily combining two words into one: “Leka died on March 17 at 5 o’clock in 1942.”
On April 13, at the age of 56, Vasily died. Tanya opens her notebook to the letter “B” and makes a corresponding entry, which is not very correct and confusing:
“Uncle Vasya died on April 13, 2 a.m. 1942.”
Tanya never returned to her school No. 35, because now she was taking care of her mother and Uncle Lyosha, who by that time had already completely undermined their health. Even hospitalization could not save him. Alexey died at the age of 71 on May 10. The page with the letter “L” was already occupied by Leka and therefore Tanya writes on the spread, on the left. But either she no longer had enough strength, or grief completely overwhelmed the soul of the suffering girl, because on this page Tanya skips the word “died”: “Uncle Lesha on May 10 at 4 p.m. 1942.”
Maria Ignatievna was 52 years old when on the morning of May 13 she passed away. Perhaps Tanya simply didn’t have the courage to write “mom died,” so on the sheet with the letter “M” she writes: “Mom on May 13 at 7.30 a.m. 1942.”
With the death of her mother, Tanya completely lost hope of victory and that Misha and Nina would ever return home. On the letter “S” she writes: “The Savichevs are dead”
Tanya finally considers Misha and Nina dead and therefore writes on the letter “U”:
"Everyone died"
And finally, on “O”: “Only Tanya remains”
Tanya was registered in orphanage No. 48, which was then preparing for evacuation. As follows from the examination report of the children at the orphanage, all 125 children were physically exhausted, but only five were infectiously ill. One baby suffered from stomatitis, three had scabies, and another had tuberculosis. It so happened that this only tuberculosis patient turned out to be Tanya Savicheva.
Despite treatment in the village of Shatki, Tanya was still so weak that at the beginning of March 1944 she had to be sent to the Ponetaevsky Home for the Invalids, although she did not get better there either. Due to health conditions, she was the most seriously ill patient, and therefore, two months later, Tanya was transferred to the infectious diseases department of the Shatkovo district hospital. Of all the children from orphanage No. 48 who arrived at that time, only Tanya Savicheva could not be saved. She was often tormented by headaches, and shortly before her death she became blind. Tanya Savicheva died on July 1, 1944 at the age of 14 and a half years from intestinal tuberculosis.
Tanya Savicheva's diary appeared at the Nuremberg trials as one of the indictment documents against Nazi criminals.
Tanya Savicheva's diary - a symbol of the blockade and, according to legend, one of the indictment documents at the Nuremberg trials - is written in blue pencil in the phone book. 11-year-old Tanya took it, half filled with drawings, from her sister Nina. There are nine entries in the diary. Six of them are the dates of death of Tanya’s family members. Gradually the word “died” disappears: only names and dates remain.
VERBATIM:
The Savichevs died
Everyone died
Tanya is the only one left
SAVICHEVS
Tanya – youngest child in the large Savichev family. Father, Nikolai Rodionovich, opened in 1910 on Vasilievsky Island the “Labor Artel of the Savichev Brothers” with a bakery and confectionery shop, as well as a cinema. Nikolai himself, his three brothers (Dmitry, Vasily and Alexey) and his wife Maria Ignatievna worked in the bakery.
In 1935, the Savichev family, as a Nepman, was deprived of everything and expelled from Leningrad. While in exile in the Luga region, Nikolai fell ill with cancer and died at the age of 52. But the family was able to return to Leningrad.
When the war began, Tanya was 11 years old and had just finished third grade. With her in the city remained her 52-year-old mother, 74-year-old grandmother Evdokia Grigorievna, two sisters - Zhenya (32 years old) and Nina (22 years old), and two brothers - Leonid, whom his family called Leka (24 years old) and Mikhail (20 years old). years old), as well as two uncles - Vasily and Alexey.
For the summer, the Savichevs planned to go to Dvorishchi (near Gdov) to visit their mother’s sister. On June 21, Mikhail went by train towards Kingisepp. In two weeks, Tanya and her mother were supposed to leave for Dvorishchi, and Leonid, Nina and Zhenya would come when they were given leave. The reason for the delay was my grandmother’s birthday: we wanted to celebrate together.
On June 22, Evdokia Grigorievna turned 74 years old. The war has begun. The Savichevs remained in the city to help the army. Leonid and his guys came to the military registration and enlistment offices, but they were refused: Leonid - due to health, Vasily and Alexey - due to age.
Mikhail from Dvorishchi joined the partisan detachment and spent several years in it; there was no news from him, so his relatives remaining in Leningrad considered him dead.
Later, in February 1942, Nina also escaped from the besieged city: she was urgently evacuated along with the enterprise along the Road of Life. But the family did not know about this. When Nina disappeared, her family decided that she had died during shelling. Tanya never found out that Nina and Mikhail were still alive.
EVERYONE DIED
Zhenya was the first to die, in December 1941. Secretly from her family, she often donated blood to save the wounded; moreover, she worked at a factory, to which she had to walk seven kilometers one way. When one day Zhenya did not come to the factory, Nina asked for time off and hurried to her sister on Mokhovaya. Evgenia died in her arms.
Evdokia Grigorievna died in January. With a diagnosis of “third degree of nutritional dystrophy,” she needed urgent hospitalization, but the woman refused: others needed help more. Dying, she asked not to bury her right away, because her food card could be used until the end of the month.
Leonid died in March. He worked day and night at the Admiralty plant. Following him, uncles Vasily and Alexey died of exhaustion.
Tanya was the last to lose her mother. Maria Ignatievna worked in the production of military uniforms.
ONE TANYA
Left alone, Tanya turned to her neighbors Afanasyev for help. They wrapped Maria Ignatievna’s body in a blanket and took it to the hangar where the corpses were stored. Tanya herself could not see her mother off on her last journey: she was too weak.
The next day, taking the Palekh box with her mother’s wedding veil, wedding candles and six death certificates, Tanya went to her grandmother’s niece Evdokia Arsenyeva. The woman took custody of the girl. When Aunt Dusya went to work at the factory, for one and a half shifts without a break, she sent Tanya out onto the street.
125 children from orphanage No. 48 arrived in Shatki, Gorky region in August 1942. Tanya was one of five children who were infected and the only one who had tuberculosis. Her for a long time were treated, and in March 1944 they were sent to a nursing home. Two months later, the girl was transferred to the infectious diseases department of the district hospital. Tuberculosis and dystrophy progressed, and on July 1, 1944, Tanya died. She was buried as a motherless woman in the local cemetery by the hospital groom...
Tanya’s diary, lying in Aunt Dusya’s box, was found by her sister Nina, who returned to liberated Leningrad. Now it is an exhibit of the Museum of the History of St. Petersburg.
Tanya Savicheva and the pages of her diary
This diary of 11-year-old schoolgirl Tanya Savicheva became one of the most terrible evidence of the horrors of the war. The girl kept these notes during the siege of Leningrad in 1941, when hunger took away her loved ones every month. Just nine pages, on which Tanya tersely reports on the death of her loved ones, have become a real chronicle of death. Tanya Savicheva's diary was presented at the Nuremberg trials as evidence of the crimes of fascism. The girl survived the blockade, but never learned about the long-awaited Victory on May 9, 1945.
Maria Ignatievna Savicheva, Tanya's mother
She was born in 1930 into a large family. She had 2 brothers and 2 sisters, they did not need anything - her father owned a bakery, bakery and cinema in Leningrad. But after private property began to be alienated, the Savichev family was sent beyond the 101st kilometer. Tanya's father took his helplessness and lack of money very hard, and in March 1936 he died suddenly of cancer. 
Tanya Savicheva at 6 years old and at 11 years old (right) with her niece Masha Putilovskaya a few days before the start of the war, June 1941
After the death of her father, Tanya and her mother, grandmother, brothers and sisters returned to Leningrad and settled in the same house with relatives on the 2nd line of Vasilievsky Island. In June 1941, they were going to visit friends in Dvorishchi, but were delayed because of their grandmother’s birthday. On the morning of June 22, they congratulated her, and at 12:15 they announced the start of war on the radio. 
Tanya's grandmother, Evdokia Arsenyeva
In the first months, all family members provided all possible assistance to the army: the sisters dug trenches and donated blood for the wounded, extinguished “lighters,” Tanya’s mother Maria Ignatyevna sewed uniforms for the soldiers. On September 8, 1941, the blockade of Leningrad began. The autumn and winter were very difficult - according to Hitler’s plan, Leningrad should have been “strangled by hunger and wiped off the face of the earth.” 
Memorial plaque on the house where Tanya Savicheva lived. Vasily Savichev
Tanya Savicheva and her siege diary
One day, Tanya’s sister Nina did not return home after work. There was heavy shelling that day, and she was considered dead. Nina had a notebook, part of which - with the alphabet for the phone book - remained empty. It was there that Tanya began making her notes. 
Leonid Savichev
There was no fear, no complaints, no despair in them. Just a terse and laconic statement of the terrible facts:
“December 28, 1941. Zhenya died at 12:00 in the morning of 1941.”
“Grandmother died on January 25 at 3 o’clock in 1942.”
“Leka died on March 17 at 5 am. 1942."
“Uncle Vasya died on April 13 at 2 am. 1942."
“Uncle Lesha, May 10 at 4 pm. 1942."
“Mom - May 13 at 7:30 am. 1942."
“The Savichevs are dead.” "Everyone died." “There’s only Tanya left.” 
Tanya Savicheva. Fragment of a group photo
Tanya never found out that not all of her relatives died. Sister Nina was evacuated directly from the factory and taken to the rear - she did not have time to warn her family about this. Brother Misha was seriously wounded at the front, but survived. Tanya, who had lost consciousness from hunger, was discovered by a sanitary team visiting the houses. The girl was sent to an orphanage and evacuated to the Gorky region, to the village of Shatki. She could barely move from exhaustion and was sick with tuberculosis. For two years, doctors fought for her life, but they failed to save Tanya - her body was too weakened by prolonged starvation. On July 1, 1944, Tanya Savicheva passed away. 
Pages from Tanya Savicheva's diary
Tanya Savicheva’s diary, which was soon seen by the whole world, was found by her sister Nina, and her friend from the Hermitage presented these notes at the exhibition “Heroic Defense of Leningrad” in 1946. Today they are kept in the Museum of the History of St. Petersburg, and copies have been distributed throughout the world . Next to Tanya Savicheva’s grave there is a wall with a bas-relief and pages from her diary. The same notes are carved on a stone next to the Flower of Life monument near St. Petersburg. 
Diary of Tanya Savicheva in stone next to the monument *Flower of Life* near St. Petersburg
