Olga Berggolts (1910-1975) was a Soviet poet, playwright
and journalist, whose daily broadcasts on Leningrad radio during the Nazi
blockade of the city (1941-44) became a symbol
of the city's refusal to surrender. One and a half million people starved
to death during the siege, including Berggolts’ husband. In 1943 she was awarded the Defence of Leningrad medal. After
the War, the publication of Berggolts’ writings about the suffering of ordinary
Leningraders were an important part of the Khrushchev
Thaw. The Leningrad
memorial to those who died during the Blockade quotes her famous line, ‘No one
is forgotten, nothing is forgotten’.
The Blockade Swallow is a representative selection of
Berggolts’ work from 1925-60 – the NEP years, the Terror (when she was
imprisoned for two years), War and Blockade, to the Zhdanovchina and the Thaw, bearing
eloquent witness to some of the most tragic events of the twentieth century. Veniamin
Gushchin’s translations beautifully capture the defiance, anguish and
vulnerability of her poetry for English readers.