How We Survived

Writer’s reflections on chilling events and on the life of Leningrad residents during the city’s blockade.

Dmitry Sergeyevich Likhachev is a person whose name is known throughout the world. An outstanding connoisseur of Russian and world culture, an elected honorary member of many foreign academies, a profound thinker and public figure.

The book “How We Survived” includes Dmitry Sergeyevich’s memoirs from different years, including poignant, sometimes ruthless, and painful observations about life in Leningrad during the city’s blockade. Against the backdrop of all the horrors of war, Likhachev reflects on the moral and ethical state of people in these hardest conditions.
The second part of the book consists of “Letters About Kindness,” known worldwide and translated into different languages. Dmitry Sergeyevich himself wrote: “In my book, I try to explain with the simplest arguments that following the path of goodness is the most acceptable and the only path for a person.”