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 (nee 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 I am also indebted to the Bogdanov-Berezovsky, Hockenjos and Starodubtsev families for allowing quotation from unpublished family diaries.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.
