Leningrad

Other busy people who gave interviews, made introductions or responded in detail to out-of-the-blue emails were Galina Afanasyeva of the St Petersburg zoo, Marion Beaton of Glasgow’s Mitchell Library, Meriel Buxton, Felicity Cave, Dr Robert Dale of Newcastle University, Dr Alan Dangour, George Edgar, Olga Filochika of the Museum of the History of St Petersburg, Irina Flige of the St Petersburg branch of Memorial, Aleksandr Frenkel of the city’s Jewish Community Centre, Deborah Hodgkinson, Virta Kaija of the Helsingin Sanomat, Olga Kalashnikova of Radio Baltika, Dr Nikita Lomagin and Dr Yekaterina Melnikova of the European University at St Petersburg, Dr Chiara Mayer-Rieckh, Giles Milton, Dr Yuri Nagovitsyn of the Pulkovo Observatory, Catriona Oliphant, Dr Vladimir Osinsky of the St Petersburg State University, Dr Siobhan Peeling of the University of Nottingham, Galina Retrovskaya of the St Petersburg Philharmonia, Nataliya Rogova of the National Library of Russia, Olga Smirnova and Renata Tairbekova of the BBC World Service, Dr Alexandra Smith of the University of Edinburgh, Tim Tzouliadis, Ludmilla Voronikhina of the Hermitage, Nicolas Werth of Paris’s Institut d’Histoire du Temps Présent, Stephanie Williams, Dr Emma Wilson and Dmitri Zhuravlev of Petersburg’s Military-Medical Museum.

Vladimir Nikitin of the State University’s journalism faculty gave invaluable help in unearthing the photographs used to illustrate this book, many of which appeared for the first time in his ground-breaking collection The Unknown Blockade. Galina Stolyarova of the St Petersburg Times set me on my feet during my first few visits to her beautiful city, as well as supplying a stream of press tickets to the ravishing Mariinsky. Sergei Zagatsky showed me the original of his grandmother Klara Rakhman’s siege diary, and transferred it to typescript. Sasha Orlov of the ‘Poisk’ organisation drove me round the battlefields of Myasnoi Bor, and Aleksandr Osipov gave me a tour of the Nevsky Pyatachok. (A commemorative museum, created entirely by himself, can be found above a shop in the village of Nevskaya Dubrovka.) At home, Commander Geoffrey Palmer hilariously recalled his years as a member of Britain’s wartime Military Mission to Moscow; my thanks go to his widow Angelina Palmer. Lyubov Dvoretskaya brought my Russian up to scratch and Robert Chandler introduced me to the SEELANGS online forum, whose contributors came up with numerous useful leads and suggestions. Gisela Stuart MP responded to a plea on behalf of the historical and human rights society Memorial with a question to the prime minister in the House of Commons. The staffs of the London Library and of the School of Slavonic and East European Studies library were as helpful and efficient as ever, as was the unique John Sandoe’s bookshop.

Most memorable of all were my interviews with siege survivors. Daniil Alshits, Irina Ivanova (née Bogdanova), Igor Kruglyakov, Anzhelina Kupaigorodskaya and Galina Semenova all consented to recall in detail a dreadful period of their lives, and have my most respectful gratitude and admiration. I am also indebted to the Bogdanov-Berezovsky, Hockenjos and Starodubtsev families for allowing quotation from unpublished family diaries. Last but not least come my husband, Charles Lucas, and our dear sons Edward and Bertie, to whom this book is dedicated. Without them I would have read more but understood less.