Siege of Leningrad: Diary of the Second World War: by Alexandra Nikiforovna Borovikova

The rally lasted from 4 to 7:30 pm.

In the evening with Voevodin I draw out a mug of beer.

Today I’m spending the night alone, on the galerka (*Upper tier in a theater with cheap seats), the workshop is not working.

Here, as I am writing these lines, I can hear 4 blows in the distance, probably artillery.

Today Popov again offers me Faktorovich’s apartment.

I really don’t want to move, the main thing is that I don’t like my neighbors – Voevodin and Anakin.

I don’t want to move to its.

Okay, Sasha, good night.

8/IX/1941

8/IX. I woke up at 6 o’clock, but then, after listening to the radio, I took a nap until 8 o’clock.

There were battles along the entire front.

The military reports have not been bad lately; the Germans are being crushed and crushed.

Someday, they will be cut up, basically, and the rest will understand the power and invincibility of our country.

At 10:02 they gave «air alert».

76th alarm in a row.

It passed calmly, you didn’t even hear the anti-aircraft guns.

But the weather was cloudy, therefore dangerous for the Germans.

Fascist vultures stealthily sneak into the city in this weather.

Say, that «Iv. Anakin» was also called to the military enlistment office.

By God, I really want him to be accepted into the Army.

Such a coward in practice, but a hero in words.

Just yesterday this hero said that the shells fly without any whistle.

Also a warrior, and also the authority of the Factory.

I’m sitting, writing, and I want something sweet.

I climbed into the drawer, to my supplies, which she was saving for a friend.

If he doesn’t write, then let him not write, oh well.

I probably scared him with my last letter.

After all, you need to write something.

If he is boycott, I am also his daughter-in-law, always in retaliation (*Phraseologism: daughter-in-law in retaliation – to spite someone; taking revenge for something).

Yesterday Katya told a joke:

One woman became pregnant very often and decided to seek help from a doctor.

The doctor prescribed her to drink cream soda.

She left him and remembered that she had not asked when to drink, before or after.

She’s back. The doctor says, drink Instead of…

(*Text breaks off).

I’m sitting and thinking whether or not I should go to Borovaya.

I’m completely unaccustomed to being away from home.

I have a good bed here and two mattresses.

At 18:32 they gave «air alert», such was the hurricane gun fire.

I am very curious, I run around the office with a phone and receiver in my hands.

Suddenly, three fascist planes were flying towards Smolny, and they were being fired upon.

The whole sky was dotted with haze from anti-aircraft guns.

But the fascist vultures moved forward calmly, smoothly, with their engines turned off.

The tower reported that there was a very large fire in the direction of the Moskovsky Station.

Pavel Nikolaevich Erofeev assumed that the «Red Neftyanik» was burning (*One of the main reserves of petroleum products for Leningrad was concentrated here. Gasoline, kerosene, and oil were stored in 46 above-ground tanks with a capacity of 30 to 5000 cubic meters).

At 19:06 «Iv. Anakin» reported that in the direction of Vasilyevsky Island a fire was visible in 4 places.

I myself looked out the window and saw clouds of smoke in the Moscow district.

The devil knows, he still broke through.

Just as these planes were flying, and the crushing fire of anti-aircraft guns was hitting, only two girls were sitting on the tower.

Any of the bosses afraid to show themselves on the tower.

The workers were all sent to a bomb shelter.

I’m not afraid of anything yet, what will happen ahead – I’ll say it and write it in my diary.

The sky is clouded with haze.

Our planes appeared in the air.

In the evening they informed me that 11 enemy vultures were flying.

The impacts of dropping bombs was not heard.

This, one might say, was Leningrad’s first baptism of fire.

Oh, what a panic we had at the Factory, not only among women and men, but also among the leaders of the Factory.

They didn’t even speak their own language, Anakin and Sokolov went to the tower, and while they were climbing, the shooting intensified, and they didn’t show their noses until everything died down.

Oh, and there was laughter at them.

I personally was very angry with myself that I couldn’t move away from the phone.

By God, in the hottest moments, I would climb the tower, because I’m curious, I need to see everything for myself.

Headquarters reported that the raid consisted of 44 aircraft.

I during «air alert» stealthily, I climbed the tower and looked at Borovaya.

Still alive.

Then I came to my place, I call Nyura Kurochkina, and we cook some potatoes.

Sokolov instructed me to look around the territory to see if there were any leaflets.

It was already dark and nothing could be seen.

I treated Titov and Popov to potatoes.

Then Titov and I went to the tower.

Just got up to the 4th floor, «air alert» again.

I got up to tower, there was darkness all around, but searchlights were working everywhere, but in my opinion this is a very good reference point for the enemy.

At 10:45 bombs were dropped twice in the direction of Smolny.

The anti-aircraft strikes do not stop.

The tower reports that the shooting over the city is intensifying.

At 11 o’clock explosions in the Moskovsky district.

Yes, life has become interesting – today you are alive, but tomorrow you don’t know what will happen.

Tokarny workshop and Katushka were sent to the bomb shelter at 11:03.

The anti-aircraft guns are firing closer and closer all the time, and I, as an observer, write everything down in this diary.

Anakin, like a mother-in-law, keeps grumbling that someone is supposedly making noise on the phone, sits there, and sulking.

I’m sitting with my pipe, but I really want to sleep, although the shooting doesn’t subside.

The tower reported that lighting rockets launched from the Lenin Plant.

There was impenetrable darkness outside.

The fascist vultures break through one by one and do their vile deed.

This is how 8/IX passed, this restless day and, we can say that this is the first, most restless day of the entire war.

If on Saturday shells flew through us, if then they didn’t know where the shell was coming from and where, although no less safely, here you know that «air alert», you have been warned and sit tensely.

Today I don’t say goodnight, Sasha, because the time is 11:35 pm, and the anxiety is still going on, and how long I’ll sit with the receiver on the phone is unknown.

Now, I think I’ll go to bed with the tube, I’m tired of sitting crooked for 20 hours.

9/IX/1941

9/IX. 0:00, «air alert», it’s still going on, but it’s quiet for now.

And I really want to sleep, if anyone knew, my eyes don’t look at all.

And in the morning the radio will wake me up again.

The sounds of anti-aircraft guns begin again and get closer.

At 0:20, the pillow workshop was ordered to work, as there was no immediate danger.

Lights out «air alert» at 0:40.

Oh, who would know how much I want to sleep.

Okay, I’m going to bed now.

I still woke up at 6 o’clock.

Fights along the entire front.

Near Smolensk there were battles for 26 days for the city of Yelnya, where many fascist divisions and regiments were destroyed.

After which our troops took the city of Yelnya.

At 7:33 air raid warning

This is the 79th alarm in a row, it passed calmly.

At 10:42 air raid warning

At 12:00 «air alert», again.

At 14:37 «air alert».

At 16:13 «air alert».

At first you could hear shooting, then it became quiet.

The tower reported that there was a fire at the Lenin Mill.

Yes, there really was a lot of smoke.

This is during air raid warning the enemy was shelling the city, and a shell hit an oil tank.

The planes are buzzing and buzzing in the air, in my opinion, they are ours.

At 17:30, anti-aircraft gun fire was heard.

At 18:50 «air alert» again, it passed calmly.

At 20:06 air alert

After the shift ended, Nyura and I set to boil potatoes in the dining room.

We started having dinner with Nyura, and of course invited Fedya, my crush according to Popov, Ha-Ha-Ha.

Here is the public, even men, and they occupy big positions, but they engage in gossip.

Is it really impossible to talk to a person who has nothing more than a friendly relationship with Fedya, because he’s not my type.

Poor thing, my friend is somewhere.

How many bumps rained down on my head and his head if we treated each other, person to person, as it should be.

Eh, acquaintance, acquaintance, will I really forget you and replace you with someone else?

No, he will always be with me, even in the most difficult moment for me and for him.

After all, just yesterday I wanted to write a will to him…

Yes, friend, whether we meet again or not, I think we will.

I broke away from the topic of today with this friend.

I had just eaten 90% of my dinner, and the radio broadcast «air alert», a raid (*In wartime, a raid is a situation when enemy aircraft or artillery begin to bomb any territory or object).

Nyura and Fedya ran away, and I took up this diary.

This is already the 9th «air alert» today.

I’m so tired, it’s good that during the day the alarms passed calmly, but I don’t know what will happen in the evening, at night.

The tower reports that there are red rockets over the Lenin Plant.

Here you are, bastards, corrupt souls.

Today there was already a message, on the radio and in the newspaper, about yesterday’s raid.

Insert №10. Article «The raid of German planes on Leningrad».

I don’t know what the curse is on these rabid vultures for these attacks on the civilian population, in particular on our handsome man, Lenin town.

The tower reports that at 22:03, two missiles were fired from the Lenin Plant.

Anti-aircraft gun strikes are heard less and less often.

In the direction of the 1st G.E.S. 2 missiles were dropped, from bottom to top.

That’s how many more, bastards, corrupt souls, deceivers of the people.

They report from the tower that anti-aircraft guns are firing in the direction of the Porokhovs.

I’m sitting, writing, but I want to sleep again, because last night I slept little.

The night is dark, there is shooting all around, and I am sitting alone, the workshop is not working.

At 10:25, in the direction of the Badaevsky warehouses, a fire (*In September 1941, massive air raids by German aviation took place, 280 incendiary bombs were dropped on the territory of the warehouses. As a result, 38 wooden warehouses and 11 buildings, which contained 3,000 tons of flour and 2,500 tons of sugar).

The rumble of an enemy plane is heard, approaching closer and closer.

At 10:40, fragments of anti-aircraft shells fall on the drying shop.

At 11:45, 7 rockets were fired over the Lenin Plant.

To the right of the Moskovsky station there are strong explosions.

There are rockets at the Finland Bridge.

«Air alert» ended at 23:32.

Well, I fell asleep soundly.

10/IX/1941

I0/IX. Wednesday rose again, along with the Information Bureau.

Fights along the entire front.

I washed my face, walked around the workshop, and started working on yesterday’s potatoes.

At 9:08 air raid warning

Today I was informed that the launch of missiles is a conventional sign for the direction of anti-aircraft gun fire.

Me have to find out to have an idea.

The insidious enemy will still break his head.

Insert №11. Article «The bloody enemy will break his head on the granite strongholds of the city of Lenin».

You, Sasha, will have to work more on your diary.

I record the material sequentially, and the clippings come later.

It’s okay, just be patient and there will be a memory not only for you, but also for your generation.

Insert №12. The article «Women all over the world – to fight against fascism!»

I myself notice that I am writing my new diary awkwardly.

Somehow I got tired of everything, but once I started, I have to continue.

The mood today is at schwah (*SCHVAH – an evaluative characterization of someone or something as being in a bad, weakened, exhausted state; bad, very bad).

Or rather, it’s already the second day.

Popov ruined it all with his tragedy, he’s also a Director, and he scratches his tongue worse than a woman.

The control room met 2 times, because of «air alert».

During the alarm, the 91st in a row, I was on a brevenka and heard machine-gun fire – an air battle in the direction of Murzinka (*Murzinka is a village between Obukhov and Rybatsky).

There were 3 planes visible, I didn’t understand whose.

Yesterday, during 9 alarms near Leningrad, 31 planes were shot down.

It’s two o’clock in the afternoon, listening to the morning message.

Fights along the entire front.

100 tanks, 70 anti-tank weapons, etc. were destroyed.

The military reports have become very good lately.

That’s why, out of anger, he probably launches 9 raids on Leningrad.

If 7 divisions were destroyed for Yelna, then more of their stupid heads were killed for the big cities.

At each alarm, high-explosive and incendiary bombs were dropped.

Spent the night at home.

During «air alert» went out into the corridor to see what was going on there.

These uterus gathered, descendants from behind, children in front, in large shawls, in winter coats, and disappeared under the arch of room No. 3.

Here are the women, waiting for salvation.

Then I went to bed and didn’t hear when the anxiety ended.

In the evening, when leaving home, I received a letter from a friend.

How much joy it brought me.

11/ I X/1941

11/IX. Day off is Thursday.

I was delighted and lay in bed all day.

There was no firewood delivered, no boiling water, and nothing to eat.

So, the girls went to the bathhouse, burned their boards from the bed, and prepared dinner.

So very ran into it (*Ushakov’s Explanatory Dictionary: ran into something – to eat greedily), bursting my sides..

I made the girls laugh so much that today they burned the boards, and on the next day off they can burn the mattresses.

An interesting moment happened yesterday.

When I was lying in my bed and crocheting, I remembered my childhood years, how I went to school, went home from school.

And at that moment, I completely forgot that I was in Leningrad, already an adult, and, in addition, in a military situation.

There were 11 «air alerts» during the day.

At 11 p.m., «air alert» reports.

Immediately there was fire from anti-aircraft guns, and immediately a bomb hit so hard that the walls shook, and I couldn’t sleep for a long time.

It’s a shame to tears at Popov, and all the «shepherd» of the Factory, who are pretending to be themselves (It ’s not clear what they pretend).

Do they really think that someone will be chasing their pants?

By God, I’m so angry at them that I don’t know how to express myself.

This left Anakin, Popov, Sokolov, Voevodin.

The pants are shiny from the seat.

When it was embarrassing, everyone signed up for the rear of the militia as volunteers, and just as now they call one to the military registration and enlistment office, two go to defend him.

So it goes on and repeats itself every day.

They stayed and scratched their tongues, worse than seedy women.

They signed up as volunteers, but they walked around with their pants covered in rust and no way to wash them.

12/ I X/1941

I2/IX. I stood up together with the Information Bureau.

At 7:30 I went to the Factory, there was no «air alert» yet.

Arrived safely.

At 8:58 air raid warning

From the tower, Anakin reports that 25 planes are flying from the north, towards the Bolshevik Plant, there is shooting, then an air battle over the Sortirovochnaya.

At 9:32, a shell exploded on Tkachi Street, then another was heard, a shot – an explosion.

Yes, we are now starting to get used to these sounds and shocks.

At 11 o’clock Belova, Rodionova, Bazhina came running with their children in their arms, as the windows in the nursery garden were broken.

The shelling of the area intensifies.

I went to the control room and received two letters, one from Vinogradov, the other from a friend.

Oh friend, friend, I wanted vodka.

I wrote him a tearful letter because it was a crazy day.

There was shooting all around, shells exploding, on Palevsky and other places.

I dropped off a letter to a friend, and suddenly I see «M.K. Russkih» is coming – my favorite, dirty, with a rifle, sat with me for a while and went to the director.

I had a great argument with Anakin today, he grew up from a laboratory assistant to a chief engineer, he doesn’t know anything, but he pretends to be, I don’t know who.

I angry at all these four.

At 13:55 a shell exploded, so unexpectedly that ink dripped from my pen as I was writing an order for the workshop.

You sit and sit, and suddenly there is an explosion.

And they are shelling somewhere close, near us.

In the evening I wrote a letter to an acquaintance, boring, but in the mood.

The evening was cloudy and drizzling rain.

It was so dark that you couldn’t see anything, but I had to go out and check the light masking.

I think there will be no worries today.

Lelya Osipova is on duty with me today and brought me fresh and lightly salted cucumbers.

But at 9:35, air raid warning

The tower reports that 4 fires are visible in the Kirovsky district.

They report that missiles are being launched against our Factory, then from the Nogin Factory.

There is a suspicious car parked in front of our Factory; the headlights are switched on and off.

The alarm lasted 48 minutes and passed calmly.

Good night, Sasha.

13/IX/1941

13/IX. I slept so soundly that I didn’t hear the bulletin at 6 o’clock morning – this is the first time during the war.

Fights along the entire front.

After fierce battles, our troops abandoned the city of Chernigov.

I jumped out of bed so much that I couldn’t sleep anymore.

Last night Lelya and I went to bed and talked for a very long time about my knew friend.

I told her how we called him and found out his temperature, in general, from the beginning to the end of our meetings.

It’s my fault and no one else’s.

Today it’s quiet, as long as there is no «air alert», and you can’t hear the cannonade in the distance

Yesterday, long-range shells landed on Palevsky.

These sounds of close cannonade are unpleasant.

When the signal is «air alert», then you are warned, when there is shelling, you expect a strike every minute.

As I was told today:

– On Palevsky, 2 old women were drinking tea when a shell fell, one had her head blown off, the other’s legs;

– One schoolgirl went to a friend for books, while he was looking for them in the next room, this schoolgirl, sitting by the window, was killed to death, the boy remained alive.

Is it really true, with Levanevsky, that he is lying in Moscow, wounded, and who flew to bomb Moscow (*Disappeared pilot, who, along with the plane and crew, went missing in 1937).

But these rumors are from the free public, and they love to chat.

After the control room, Popov sends a car to me, let him still feel that I’m angry with him.

Unhappy shepherds.

Today we started equipping post IV.

What is the situation now in Kyiv.

Devil, he climbs and climbs wherever he can get the strength.

The weather today is cloudy and gloomy, the weather itself contributes to the defense of Leningrad.

Oh, today was the night.

It’s dark, dark, you stand by the window and don’t see any light.

When during «air alert» I was on a brevenka, it was just creepy, you walk and you could fall into the hands of a saboteur.

And he may well make his way from that shore, dark nights, he may well swim across.

Our guards are far from each other, and they like to take a nap.

I’m going home today.

Sent 14 people to defense work.

At 2 p.m. I’m waiting for a message from Moscow, suddenly unexpectedly: «Speaks the Leningrad!»

Tears of indignation come to my eyes.

We sit in a circle, but do not lose heart.

Leningrad performed for the entire Soviet Union, the audience was warned three times that: «Speaks the Leningrad! Listen, the Moscow!»

The first speaker was a professor from one institute.

We will not let the enemy into our city, his boots will not step on our avenues.

Here are his main words.

Then a report from the Leningrad front, but I’m in a hurry to have lunch, I have to drag my feet.

It’s okay, we’ll survive everything, and then we’ll flourish.

«Listen, dear country! Listen, dear country!»

A mechanic, a gun commander, is at the microphone.

I can’t listen calmly, tears come to my eyes.

I had lunch, went to the brevenka, and escorted the car with firewood to Borovaya.

I wanted to drink a glass of beer, but there were a lot of men at the kiosk, so I went to the Factory.

Shelling of the city can be heard in the distance, they say it is hitting the Fontanka and Sadovaya.

Here is an idiot, rushing from one area to another, he interested in the center for something.

Is it really his desire to beat women and children, to destroy the beauty of the city?

Who would know, of course, not from the military public, but from the civilian public, what it feels like when artillery strikes.

If there is a signal «air alert», then you are warned, you hear the hum of engines, then you see them, then you hear the clang of anti-aircraft guns.

And these shells are shelling, you can sit there, not thinking anything, and you’re ready.

It’s good if you die immediately, but you will remain crippled, who needs you then.

It’s close to the front line, the sounds of cannonade are heard all the time, and continuously.

The only bad thing is that we are still poorly oriented.

I personally don’t experience much horror, but it’s unpleasant, because every day it’s the same thing.

It’s only a pity for the hero of the city, a city created over decades.

Okay, I’m off, I’m going home.

Shooting could be heard all the time towards the city center.

When I entered the yard on Borovaya, Dusya and Alya, with knapsacks on their shoulders, in front of the guys, ran to the bomb shelter.

Suddenly a shell explodes, very close, and they don’t know where to go.

I come to home, not a soul.

Until 9 o’clock In the evening no one came, I prepared dinner.

The shelling continued all the time.

Then Lenka came, after dinner with her, we went to bed.

14/IX/1941

I4/IX. At 3 o’clock in the morning they gave the «air alert» signal, but I didn’t even hear the all-clear – I overslept.

In the morning I got up from the Information Bureau.

Fights along the entire front.

Again they hit the enemy the Nazis on the Western Front.

But they crumble and crumble him, and he just keeps rushing and rushing.

They climb like cockroaches to certain death.

Will the Leningrad Front really not hit the enemy them as it should?

Yes, it’s a hot time.

I feel sorry for the city, and I’m afraid to remain disabled.

If they kill you, it’s not a pity, even death, but I want at least kill one fascist for this.

The weather is cloudy and drizzling rain.

The weather itself protects the city, giving it gloom and dissatisfaction with the current situation.

I was at the Factory already at 8 o’clock.

The city is a front, camouflaged military vehicles are passing everywhere.