“Where the Dog came from…”
“When I was a little girl my parents often took me to visit our very good friends Grigori and Galina Yagdfeld. We lived in Russia in the city that was then called Leningrad. My father was a film director, my mother a costume designer and his best friend Grigori a well-known children’s writer.
As the adults talked what seemed to be forever I got to play with whatever toys I could find in the childless household. One particular toy always gripped my heart.
It was a hand-sewn dog. He was made of dark brown wool with one button eye (the second one missing) and wisp of fur on top of one ear.
My question of where the Dog came from was always answered casually. The Dog came from the Siege. Grigori’s friend- a young actress whose name was never mentioned was in the Siege of Leningrad during World War Two.
The winter of 1941 was especially cold with the temperatures falling bellow -30 degrees Celsius (-22 F). All furniture was burned for fuel. The rations were 125 grams of “bread“ (mostly saw dust) per person per day. In that dark winter Grigiri’s friend made a toy for a small child that she knew-
A little ray of humanity shining through against all odds.
Neither the young actress nor the child survived the Siege.
The mention of the World War Two and the Siege of Leningrad was a part of everyday life, something that was… and is for every surviving Russian- a part of one’s makeup as familiar and ever present as one’s blood type. And I too –the next generation -carry this blood type and feel it’s mark.
The Dog now lives in my bedroom in the glass-covered bookcase very far from Leningrad and the Siege. However the dog is Leningrad and The Siege and The ray of humanity against all odds.”