Блокада
The Siege
C2 · Proficient · non-fiction · 10 scenes · Premium story
A proficiency-level documentary on the siege of Leningrad, written as arithmetic rather than as elegy. Eight hundred and seventy-two days, two and a half million people, and a ration that fell five times in one autumn to a piece of bread the size of a palm that was not entirely bread. It corrects the most durable myth of the siege, explains why the death toll is still argued over and gives both figures, and spends its third chapter on decisions taken by starving people about things that could have been eaten: a seed collection nobody touched, empty frames left hanging on purpose, and an orchestra recalled from the front to play one concert of no military value whatsoever. It ends with nine pages and no commentary.
Characters
- The city (Ленинград) — Besieged 8 Sept 1941 – 27 Jan 1944
- Karl Eliasberg (Карл Элиасберг) — Conductor, 1907–1978
- The VIR staff (Сотрудники ВИРа) — Plant Industry Institute
- Tanya Savicheva (Таня Савичева) — 1930–1944
Vocabulary from this story
- блокада — siege, blockade
- кольцо — ring, encirclement
- город — city
- житель — inhabitant
- голод — starvation, famine
- хлеб — bread
- карточка — ration card
- норма — ration, allowance
- грамм — gram
- мука — flour
- склад — warehouse
- обстрел — shelling