Grateful for Grass in Leningrad
July 11, 2008 – 8:42 amHere is one more story from Writing the Siege of Leningrad: Women’s Diaries, Memoirs, and Documentary Prose by Simmons and Perlina. This is quoted directly from the entry of Vera Vladimirova Miliutina, entitled “Vitamins - or Ode to Grass” (See previous entries for this week for other accounts of the lives of women during the Siege of Leningrad.)
“As soon as the sun warmed up our devastated and starving Leningrad, green sprouts immediately started forcing their way through all the cracks. There were no more dogs in the city–all of them had been eaten. Children, looking more like old men, were not running around trampling down the grass and, besides, there were so few of them left in the city…
“In the spring of 1942, the hunger was unbearable. The sun was shining yet you were so cold that you could not even think of removing your quilted jacket…Rations were slightly increased. but you never felt full–emaciation had reached inconceivable proportions. Scurvy, vitamin deficiency, boils, pellagra, even blindness–all of these besieged us. The yearning for food was immense, especially for greens.
“Ïn the morning, before setting out with two pails to fetch water from neighboring buildings, I could go with scissors and a basket to deserted lots…abondoned trenches …or quiet streets…to cut chamomile—its fluffy and aromatic little leaves went so well with the tender feather grass…In the past it was used as food for canaries. I made a delicious salad out of it to supplement the morning portion of our bread ration…A portion of ths grass and the remmants of the bread ration would be left for an evening meal…
“How grateful I am to it, my dear, green, fresh, dewy grass!”
For more World War II stories, go to www.peggeorge.com
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