Ship from Germany, hardcover. Фрида Вигдорова (1915 – 1965) – известная писательница и журналистка, автор повести «Мой класс», трилогии «Дорога в жизнь. Это мой дом. Черниговка», дилогии «Семейное счастье. Любимая улица», недавно вышедшего сборника «Право записывать». Ее запись суда над молодым поэтом Иосифом Бродским принято считать первым в России правозащитным документом. «Девочки» – это глубоко личный дневник Вигдоровой, но за описанием частной жизни встают и образ определенной эпохи, и вечные вопросы: что такое детство, что такое любовь, что такое материнство?
Неплохая книга. Дает пищу и для размышлений, и для улыбки. Уже точно знаю, что некоторые моменты и записи буду перечитывать, т.к. мысли в них очень глубокие.
Most people know Фрида Вигдорова for her participation in the Иосиф Бродский's trial and stenographing it by heart (because it was prohibited to write it down during the trial). I've also read and appreciated her simple but moving books about Калабалины's family and their work in orphanages: "Дорога в жизнь," "Это мой дом," "Черниговка."
This book is a mother's diary about her two daughters: older Галя and younger Саша. Галя was born in 1937, and that's when the diary was started; Саша was born in 1942. The diary was finished in 1955, when Галя was 18 and Саша was 13.
As you can see, the diary encompasses very interesting years for the Soviet society, and this aspect is reflected there partly, although the diary was just a private document dedicated to regular life of regular children, plus Фрида Вигдорова self-censored it a lot, of course. Nevertheless, we can see many remarkable details and opinions distinctive for this or that "social epoch."
The book was prepared for publication after Фрида Вигдорова's death by her dear friend Лидия Чуковская and planned to be published in 1968. However, "Оттепель" had already ended, and the personality of Фрида Вигдорова was too "political" even for such sweet and innocent book (surely Лидия Чуковская deleted everything even slightly doubtful and left only general family entries for publication). So the diary was published first only in 2010-2012 in magazine "Семья и школа" - but this is even better because then it was prepared for publication in full, with everything that was inappropriate during Soviet times, by the younger daughter Саша, Александра Александровна Раскина ("по образованию лингвист, в настоящее время живет с семьей в США, в городе Новый Орлеан, и преподает русский язык и литературу в университете Тулейн").
So, the book is mostly a regular diary about children, their silliness, their sweetness, their growth, how their personalities formed, how they developed beautiful intelligence and moral qualities, etc. It might look trivial for many, but there are several very interesting aspects in it.
First of all, the overall hilarity of these children. Yes, they are regular children, but they are intelligent, well-read, had a lot of great friends among children and adults (Чуковские, Пастернаки, and so on), and their parents are writers and journalists, and so their development is quite brilliant and very interesting overall.
Secondly, I paid special attention to all the situations where children sometimes taught their parents things that only children can. Things that we do not realize in us or consider them normal until our children start to mirror them and you can see that they are ugly. This is a very powerful lesson for every parent, I believe.
Among the most striking aspects of the book for me were situations where children demonstrated much more emotional intelligence, a stronger morality, and more advanced ethical norms than their parents (and this is with parents who already were exceptionally honest and scrupulous in their social relationships and overall behavior in society, true intelligentzia). Apparently, sometimes Фрида Вигдорова did not realize it even after writing it down and just left these situations as strange and not quite understandable for her.
Influences of the society were various and also very interesting. One part of them is those things that we now already consider mostly very inappropriate, although we, of course, remember similar attitudes even from our own childhood (personal questions, opinions about the role of women in that society, ethics of teachers in school, etc.). And, of course, specific Soviet perversions and how they corrupted children's minds.
Despite all the self-censoring efforts, some aspects of the surrounding horror are also reflected in the diary. There is a painful story about their friends who were repressed within an anti-Semitic campaign and poor kids of this family who spent some time with Фрида Вигдорова's children and family. Overall, quite a lot of striking stuff about anti-Semitism and how children processed this in their minds.
So... It's a simple mother's diary... but it's not only a simple mother's diary.