How Lucky Are We

The Diary of Lena Mukhina: A Girl's Life in the Siege of Leningrad by Lena Mukhina

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


'The Diary of Lena Mukhina' was a Christmas gift and to be honest I was doubtful about it, mainly because the blurb overtly likens it to the uniquely powerful and moving diary of Anne Frank. Uh-oh, I thought, here is something trying to ride on the coat-tails of something else....

It turns out however, that the parallel is justly drawn. Lena Mukhina's journal entries never reach the heartbreaking candour and disintegrating innocence of Anne Frank - the quality of the writing simply isn't as good, nor is there the depth of observation - but the reader is drawn in nonetheless, gripped by the drip-drip, harrowing testimony of what it is like to experience the iron fist of war, seige and famine closing round a once ordered world.

The diary starts in the spring of 1941 when Lena is an ordinary teenage schoolgirl, worrying about homework and boys. By June, Hitler has broken his pact with Stalin and declared war on the Soviet Union. Almost immediately Leningrad is besieged and the fight to survive for Lena, her family and the rest of the city begins. Within months hundreds of thousands are literally starving to death, their struggles made worse by the bitter cold of the Russian winter. Lena records it all, from the daily viewpoint of a 'normal' family, having suddenly to forage for truth as well as food and money.

Even to 'criticise' such a book feels wrong. Impossible. The very fact of its existence is testimony to the most formidable resilience and courage of its young author. What struck me most as I read was the way in which all her early lively everyday concerns shrink so steadily and rapidly to one sole preoccupation: How to eat. A stale crust of bread, a handful of raisins, a half teaspoon of sugar, one match, a piece of firewood - by such tiny threads does Lena's life hang. During one period she even learns to boil up glue in order to make a sort of jelly, having learnt that it contains a shred of nutritious benefit thanks to its fish bone origins. Most astonishing of all is her determination to live. Time and time again she writes: I will stay alive.

Whether she does or not, I will leave for future readers to find out for themselves. That aside, The Diary of Lena Mukhina is a book that should be read by all of us fortunate enough to live in freedom with roofs over our heads and food in our bellies. Sometimes we need to be reminded that everything we take for granted is a luxury.



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