The same colleague told her that a group of children evacuated from the city had been shepherded directly into German lines. “Yet another example of the wonderful efficiency of Soviet bureaucracy,” she added with a droll expression.

Maria was glad she had decided to keep her brood around her. And yet she trembled when the first snub-nosed gray German bombers flew overhead at the end of August. She fitted blackout curtains and hurried down to the block’s air-raid shelter when there was a raid on September 8. They were forced to sit opposite Raisa and Galina, but Maria kept her eyes on her children and her thoughts to herself. Where was Stepan? Was he safe? She prayed to God he wouldn’t come to any harm.

At work next day, all the talk was that the city was surrounded. It was no longer possible to leave, and overnight German bombs had hit the Badayev warehouses, where the food stores were kept.

“I suppose the Red Army will have to air-drop food for us,” said Maria’s friend at the factory. “Knowing their prowess, it will land in the middle of Lake Ladoga.”

After work, Maria and Irina toured every food store within reach and stood for hours in lines buying whatever was left on the shelves: dried fruits, blanched almonds, even a tin of caviar. Maria also bought a large box of vitamin powder. She had read an article in a magazine claiming that vitamins could prevent diseases like rickets that were caused by a poor diet, so it seemed a good idea.

Rations were reduced in mid-September, but everyone assumed the shortages would only be temporary, until the Red Army started to drop food. Siege was a medieval strategy of war, something the Greeks and Romans had done; Maria couldn’t believe it would be maintained for long in the modern age.

Chapter 42

Leningrad, September 1941

ALMOST OVERNIGHT, MARIA FOUND HER EVERY WAKING thought was about food. What could she serve for a meal that evening? Where could she find supplies to top up their bread ration?

She lay awake in bed remembering what Peter had taught her about edible plants. There were dandelions and borage, nettles and cow parsley in the cemetery where he lay. When she found a crop of white mushrooms there one Sunday it felt like a gift he had sent from beyond the grave. She decided she would cook them with wild thyme leaves and serve them on bread, so their juices were soaked up.

Stepan helped by going fishing whenever he had time off, so at least once a week they had fish to share. Maria eked out the last of the potatoes and served the fish baked, with boiled greens on the side.

There was one more mouth to feed because Stepan had returned from digging trenches and was now being trained to operate the big guns on an antiaircraft battery.