Question on "the siege of St. Petersburg"

[Lila W. Zaharkov]

At 09:34 AM 05/24/2005, you wrote:
>Dear all,  are you thinking of Tania savicheva's diary?
>
>I am posting this message on request from a friend: this is a question from
>his student. You can reply directly to Bill Rosenberg at wgr at umich.edu
>
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>I have heard from Russian friends of a book they studied in Soviet
>era schools not dissimilar from "The Diary of Anne Frank", written by
>a young girl who is starving during the seige of St. Petersburg. She
>describes starvation felling her family and ultimately stops writing
>just before she, too, succumbs. Obviously, hundreds of thousands
>starved and I have no reason to doubt the subject matter. In trying
>to learn more about this girl and her journal, I have encountered
>verbal claims that the general subject was of course "real" but that
>the book is a stunning example of disinformation, namely that it was
>written after the fact by an adult (KGB?) ghost writer. I find this
>plausible yet in conflict with the general Soviet policy of
>projecting invincibility and minimizing open information about
>disasters. Do you know the title and name of the young author of this
>journal? Is the authenticity of her diary really a controversy? Is it
>a macabre piece of literature or brainwashing of Soviet grade school
>children? Does it exist in English translation? If not, is it your
>impression that this book might be worthy of translation?
>
>I am personally intrigued at the challenge of translating this book
>if it is authentic and not available in English...
>Thank you profoundly for taking the time to consider my questions.
>
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