Tanya's Asteroid, the story behind the name.

I know the title looks like maybe I posted this in the wrong forum, if you read it, you may find out why it's on "social issues", but mods opinion can be different of course.

The moments we are living now make this story relevant, considering our children might be facing similar conditions soon (actually that's happening in many places of the world right now). I hope not.

Tania Savicheva (also called Tatiana Nikolayevna Savic), commonly known as Tania Savic (Таня Савичева) (01/25/1930-07/01/1944), was a russian child who wrote a brief diary during the siege of Leningrad in WW2. The journal is short and touching. When the Germans besieged the city, Tanya, was only 11 years, had to work digging trenches on defense.



The newspaper was part of the documents presented as evidence at the Nuremberg Trials, a small notebook that belonged to the school Savicheva Tania, Leningrad. There are dates in six pages, with one death associated with each. Six pages - six deaths. Nothing else, only short and concise notes and a final observation:

Zhenya died on December 28, 1941, at 12:30.
Grandma died on January 25, 1942 at 3:00 pm
Leka died on March 17, 1942, at 5:00 am
Uncle Vasya died on April 13, 1942, two hours after midnight.
Uncle Lesha on May 10, 1942 at 4:00 pm.
Mom on May 13, 1942 at 7:30 am
The Savicheva died.
They all died.
Tania was alone.

Savicheva Tania was the youngest child of Nikolai Rodiónovich Savicheva Baker), and Mariya Savicheva Ignátievna (seamstress). Nikolai died when Tanya was only six, leaving Mariya with five children - three girls, Tanya, Zhenya and Nina, and two boys, Mikhail and Leka.

The family planned to spend the summer of 1941 in the field, but the invasion of the Soviet Union by Germany on June 22 ruined their plans. All except Michael, who had already left, decided to stay in Leningrad. They all worked to support the army. Mariya Ignátievna sewed uniforms, Leka worked as a planer at the Admiralty Plant, Zhenya in the munitions factory, Nina in the construction of the defenses of the city. Uncle Vasya and uncle Lesha served in the defenses. Tania, who was then only eleven years, digging trenches and putting out incendiary bombs.

One day Nina went to work and never returned. She was sent to Lake Ladoga and then was evacuated urgently. The family was not aware of this and thought she was dead. After a few days, in memory of Nina, Mariya Ignátievna Tania gave a small notebook that belonged to her sister and later became the Journal of Tania. Tania had a real diary once, a thick book in which all important scoring was happening. It burned when there was nothing more to feed the stove in winter, but kept the book her sister.

In August 1942, the city still under siege, Tanya and other 139 children were evacuated from Leningrad through a transport route that ran on the frozen surface of Lake Ladogathe called "The Way of Life".

All were taken to an orphanage in the village of Bor Krasni. By then, Tanya already had muscular dystrophy. In May 1944 Shatkovski sent to hospital, where she died on July 1 of that year by an intestinal tuberculosis.



Nina Savicheva and Mikhail returned to Leningrad Savicheva after the war. The Diary of Tanya Savicheva is displayed now in the Museum of Leningrad History and a copy is displayed at the Memorial Cemetery Piskarevski.



On May 29, 1971, astronomer Lyudmila Ivanovna found between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter, an asteroid and decided to call it "Tanya" in memory of the girl and Tatiana Savicheva an the people died in the siege of Leningrad in the 2nd World War.

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