Georgij Efron. Vol. 2 (1940-41)

The Diaries, Volume II, continue after the death of Marina Cvetaeva. Marina Cvetaev had left a suicide note for the poet Nikolaj Aseev, a high-ranking member of the Union of Soviet Writers, asking him to take care of her beloved son. Aseev will fulfill her wish and hitherto the Union of Soviet Writers and its executive agency Litfond will take care of his matters. Initially they send him to a childrens home at Cistopol, but soon he will return to Moscow, where he could stay with aunt Lilja, a sister of his father, living off from selling items that he inherited from his mother. At that time Moscow was undergoing air raids; the situation was devastating and became more and more chaotic. He feared to get drafted for work at the defense wall. So, he decided to join a transport of the Union of Soviet Writers to Uzbekistan. He hoped to meet there his only friend Mitja (Dmitrij V. Sezeman, 19222010) who had been evacuated to Ašchabad as part of the family of a member of the Soviet Academy of Sciences. This perspective helped him to overcome his traumatic experience of the first evacuation to Elabuga. The transport to Taškent starting Oct. 30, 1941, lasted for 18 days. The entries start again on January 3, 1943. Having reached the age of 18, Georgij Efron has to face a call-up. He is confronted with being drafted into the labor army (NKVD labor columns). The local representatives of the Union of Soviet Writers object to this decision of the recruitment office. As a result, the military authorities postpone his draft, but he cannot be sure about it. The main objective in this part of the Diaries is his struggle for food. He is constantly hungry and sick. Some families treat him to meals, but the basic subsistence derives from canteens where he has the permission to get daily meals. His sister, still in a Siberian labor camp, as well as her boyfriend from Moscow and aunt Lilja send money for a return ticket to Moscow; but alas, all the money is used for food. Eventually, the prominent writer Aleksej Tolstoj managed to get Georgij Efron back to Moscow. The Diaries of Georgij Efron may be considered a singular historical document. Nobody dared to put down in writing freely and uncensured unorthodox thoughts and commentaries about the deplorable and miserable condition of the Soviet society and the hardship of a life as an evacuee in the hinterlands. His notes are of an astonishing high literary quality as well. In Russia, the publication of the Diaries by E. V. Korkina and V. K. Losskaja in 2004 made a sensation. The Diaries were published in two parts. The entries, written in Russian and French, were translated into German and scholarly edited.