Savicheva Tatyana Nikolaevna ("Tanya Savicheva"; 1930–1944) was a Leningrad schoolgirl and the author of a diary that became one of the symbols of the Siege of Leningrad. She died in evacuation in the settlement of Shatki in Gorky Region (now Nizhny Novgorod Region), where she is also buried.[1]

The Diary

During the first winter of the siege, 1941–1942, Tanya kept a notebook in which she briefly recorded the deaths of her family members. The first entry appeared at the end of December 1941: in the notebook of her older sister Nina, Tanya wrote down the date of her sister Zhenya's death — December 28, 1941. Entries followed about the deaths of her grandmother, Uncle Lyosha, Uncle Vasya, her mother, and others. Nine pages of the diary cover the deaths of six relatives. The last entries read: "The Savichevs are dead. Everyone is dead. Only Tanya is left."[1]

Tanya Savicheva's diary was presented among the incriminating documents at the Nuremberg Trials.[1] The girl's fate has been reflected in dozens of books and films; the singer Edita Piekha performed "The Ballad of Tanya Savicheva"; a star has been named in her honor.[1]

The Fate of the Family

Tanya was the youngest of eight siblings. Six members of the family died in besieged Leningrad. Her sister Nina managed to evacuate on February 28, 1942, across Lake Ladoga; on the way she fell gravely ill and for several years had no news of her relatives. Her brother Mikhail was in the Pskov area on June 22, 1941, ended up in occupied territory, and fought for several years in a partisan detachment — the family believed him dead. Thus, contrary to the last words of the diary, two of the eight Savichev children survived — Nina and Mikhail.[1]

Shatki: Evacuation and Death

After a round of apartment checks, Tanya was found unconscious from exhaustion. She was taken out of Leningrad together with other children to Gorky Region. The effects of prolonged starvation proved irreversible: on July 1, 1944, Tanya died in the hospital of the settlement of Shatki. According to available information, of the 140 evacuated children of the same convoy, she was the only one who died. She is buried in the local cemetery in Shatki.[1]

Every year on July 1, veterans who survived the siege gather at her grave, members of the Nizhny Novgorod Society of Residents of Besieged Leningrad. On June 1, 2009, the 65th anniversary of Tanya's death, an Orthodox memorial service was held at her grave for the first time; it was conducted by the dean of the Shatki district, Priest Vasily Lyutyansky. About 30 siege veterans attended the service. Visits to the grave by her sister Nina Savicheva, who by then was over ninety years old, became an annual tradition.[1]

Links

  • Wikidata (Q48364 — entry in the free knowledge base)
  • VIAF (78663584 — Virtual International Authority File)
  • ISNI (000000005022146X)
  • GND (1089658702 — German National Library catalog)

Sources

  1. nn.aif.ru — For the First Time, a Memorial Service Is Held at Tanya Savicheva's Grave in Shatki — AiF Nizhny Novgorod
  2. ru.wikisource.org — Author:Tanya Savicheva — Wikisource
  3. news_enc.academic.ru — Tatyana Savicheva — What Is Tatyana Savicheva? (news_enc.academic.ru)