"Recently unearthed in the archives of the NKVD, Nina Lugovskaya's diary provides a rare window into the life of a Moscow family during the 1930s when fear of arrest was a fact of life. Like Anne Frank, 13-year-old Nina Lugovskaya is conscious of the extraordinary dangers all around her yet preoccupied by adolescent concerns. The diary ends two days before the NKVD conducted a thorough search of her family's apartment. Nina's diary was seized and carefully studied, the "incriminating" passages were underlined (these markings have been preserved in the book) and used to convict her as a "counterrevolutionary" who was "preparing to kill Stalin." She was sentenced to five years of hard labor and subsequent internal exile. This plainspoken diary is an unprecedented document of Soviet totalitarian rule."--BOOK JACKET.

Recently unearthed in the archives of Stalin's secret police, the NKVD, Nina Lugovskaya's diary offers rare insight into the life of a teenage girl in Stalin's Russia-when fear of arrest was a fact of daily life. Like Anne Frank, thirteen-year-old Nina is conscious of the extraordinary dangers around her and her family, yet she is preoccupied by ordinary teenage concerns: boys, parties, her appearance, who she wants to be when she grows up. As Nina records her most personal emotions and observations, herreflections shape a diary that is as much a portrait of her intense inner world as it is the Soviet outer one. Preserved here, these markings-the evidence used to convict Nina as a "counterrevolutionary"- offer today's reader a fascinating perspective on the era in which she lived.

"Recently unearthed in the archives of the NKVD, Nina Lugovskaya's diary provides a rare window into the life of a Moscow family during the 1930s when fear of arrest was a fact of life. Like Anne Frank, 13-year-old Nina Lugovskaya is conscious of the extraordinary dangers all around her yet preoccupied by adolescent concerns. The diary ends two days before the NKVD conducted a thorough search of her family's apartment. Nina's diary was seized and carefully studied, the "incriminating" passages were underlined (these markings have been preserved in the book) and used to convict her as a "counterrevolutionary" who was "preparing to kill Stalin." She was sentenced to five years of hard labor and subsequent internal exile. This plainspoken diary is an unprecedented document of Soviet totalitarian rule."--BOOK JACKET.

Does that boy like me? Why are my sisters so mean? Does anyone think I'm pretty? Will my father be arrested? These were the everyday concerns of thirteen-year-old Moscow schoolgirl Nina Lugovskaya, who began to write a diary in 1932. Her indignant outbursts against the brutal raids and purges of Stalin's terror appear alongside the more typical adolescent worries about girlfriends, boys, parties and homework. For five years Nina scribbled down her most intimate thoughts and dreams, including her ambition one day to become a writer. Then in 1937 the NKVD, Stalin's secret police, ransacked Nina's home and discovered her diary. Nina's criticism of the regime provided sufficient evidence for the charge of treason, and she, her mother and two sisters were sentenced to five years' hard labour in the Gulag, followed by seven years' exile in Siberia. Recently Nina's diary was discovered in the KGB archives, complete with the original passages underlined by the secret police. Like Anne Frank's diary, this journal poignantly reveals life at a time of political upheaval, betrayal and repression through the eyes of an innocent.

In May 1941 Lena Mukhina was an ordinary teenage girl, living in Leningrad, worrying about her homework and whether Vova - the boy she liked - liked her. Like a good Soviet schoolgirl, she was also diligently learning German, the language of Russia's Nazi ally. And she was keeping a diary, in which she recorded her hopes and dreams. Then, on 22 June 1941, Hitler broke his pact with Stalin and declared war on the Soviet Union. All too soon, Leningrad was besieged and life became a living hell. Lena and her family fought to stay alive; their city was starving and its citizens were dying in their hundreds of thousands. From day to dreadful day, Lena records her experiences: the desperate hunt for food, the bitter cold of the Russian winter and the cruel deaths of those she loved. A truly remarkable account of this most terrible era in modern history, The Diary of Lena Mukhina is the vivid first-hand testimony of a courageous young woman struggling simply to survive.