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[WOMEN DURING THE SIEGE OF LENINGRAD] Na torfianykh poliakh [i.e. In the Peat Fields]

Druzhinin, V.

Item #2773

Leningrad: Leninizdat, 1943. 20 pp. 14,5x11 cm. In original illustrated wrappers. Near fine.

The book was approved for print on June 14, 1943. One of 10.000 copies.

It is a siege-time work by Vladimir Druzhinin (1908–1995), a Soviet author whose name is associated with the anti-religious literature of the early Soviet period.

Druzhinin graduated from the Faculty of Geography at Leningrad University and was an ethnographer by training. He worked as a journalist for the newspapers “Leningradskaia Pravda” [Leningrad Truth], “Krasnoyarsky Rabochy” [Krasnoyarsk Worker], and “Polyarnaya Pravda” [Polar Truth], and published in the literary journals “Oktyabr” [October] and “Neva”. In 1930, he published books “Doukhobors”, “Molokans”, “The Continuous Work Week and Anti-Religious Work of the Komsomol Cell”.

During the siege of Leningrad, he worked at the Radio Committee alongside Olga Berggolts forming the spirit of resistance. In July 1943, Druzhinin joined the Red Army. Writing for the newspaper “Boevaya Krasnoarmeyskaya” [Combat Red Army], he co-authored humorous and satirical pieces.

The small book tells about extraction of a vital strategic resource for the blockaded city by Leningrad women: former weavers, seamstresses, tanners, et al. The peat works were staffed by young girls who had never even held a shovel before, and by elderly women, many of whom had lost their families.

All the hydroelectric power plants supplying Leningrad with electricity were in the occupied territories. Coal reserves in Leningrad were running out, and the city’s power plants were switched to burning peat and firewood. During the Great Patriotic War and the siege of Leningrad (September 1941 – January 1944), the Irinovka Peat Enterprise was one of the few peat operations near the city that remained outside occupied territory.

Not found in Worldcat.

Price: $500.00