Page 6 - August 2020 Wheel

THE 900-DAY SIEGE SURVIVOR city from the west and south while the
Finnish army proceeded towards Len-
WAL RESIDENT EMILIA BRODSKAYA RECOUNTS ingrad from the north.

HER LIFE DURING THE LENINGRAD BLOCKADE “We were all taken by surprise when

the siege began. Of course, no one ex-
pected [the Nazis] to arrive so soon.
By Rashawnda Atkinson
Our family usually spent three months
resting in the village and it was three
hours away from Leningrad. Once the
announcement was made, my father
brought us back to Leningrad,” Emilia
says.

What they found on their return were
fires burning across the city, fires that
threatened the now meager food supply
and destroyed the city’s infrastructure.
According to A.G. Medvetsky, 840 fac-
tories, 526 schools and kindergartens,
21 scientific institutions and 15 million
square meters of living space were de-
stroyed.

“Everything [in the city] was disrupted,
broken...,” Emilia recounts child and
adolescent survivors entitled
[translated] Leningrad Blockade
A family photo of Emilia (center), her father Naum, and her mother Sofia, taken before Through the Eyes of Children and Ado-
the Siege of Leningrad began. Photo: Emilia Brodskaya lescents: A Sociocultural Aspect. The
Nazis targeted key warehouses and cut
How many days could you survive under the threat of star- off trains and roadways leading to the city. The original
vation, disease and bitterly cold temperatures in the midst plan of razing the city down as a symbolic defeat to
of a war that would mean certain death if the opposing Stalin’s rule was replaced by the formation of a blockade
forces won? Emilia Brodskaya, a long-time WAL resi- to avoid the potential for heavy casualties due to street
dent, managed to do it for 872 days as a 10-year-old child fighting. The hope would be that Leningrad’s 2.5 million
living in the Russian port city of Leningrad, now known as citizens, about 400,000 of those citizens being children,
St. Petersburg. The following is a recollection of her life die from starvation so the remaining supplies could be
before, during and after the Leningrad Blockade (also used to support the Wehrmacht, or the combined naval,
known as the Siege of Leningrad or the 900-Day Siege). air and armed Nazi Germany forces. Historians estimate
about 1.1 million people died during the siege as a result
A Summer “Surprise” of the severe food shortage combined with winter temper-
“I was a happy, happy child,” says Emilia. “My mother, atures dropping as low as -40 °F.
my father, and I lived in an apartment on Chekhov Street
in Leningrad with five different families. It was where I “One of my aunts, a doctor, and my father volunteered in
the Leningrad frontlines,”
“I think it [the siege] made me stronger…I’ll fight says Emilia. “I stayed
with my mom until she
through anything that comes my way.” was taken to dig the
~ Emilia Brodskaya trenches. Once they were
built, we stayed in Lenin-
grad. She was a shy and
was born. It was an ordinary communal apartment. There modest person who was afraid to evacuate,” she added.
was a kitchen and a toilet. There was no shower or bath
[but] I have good memories of my childhood.” “Mother thought the war would be over soon. We re-
mained in the city the entire time even as everybody was
Every summer, her family spent their days relaxing in a leaving, including my [other] aunt and her children who
village outside Leningrad. But September 8, 1941, proved fled to the Urals,” Emilia said.
to be a very different day. Nazi forces began to encircle the

Page 6 Wheel August 2020