The Tale of Zoya and Shura

The name of Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya has become a symbol of the heroism of the Soviet people during the Great Patriotic War. Her younger brother Shura, who, following his sister's example, volunteered for the front, heroically perished less than a month before Victory. This tale is about their short lives (the brother and sister died just after reaching adulthood). It is mainly about family, childhood, and growing up: how little responsible Zoya took care of Shura, how she studied in school, how she matured early after their father's death, what books she read, what she wrote in her diary-notebook, what she argued about with friends… The image of Shura, mischievous, talented, and not always predictable, is very charming. On the pages of the tale, the image of Lyubov Timofeevna emerges as well — the mother who lost both of her children, in whose soul the pain of loss and pride in their feat tragically intertwined. The story of L.T. Kosmodemyanskaya has been literarily processed by the writer, journalist, and educator Frida Vigdorova, who invested her talent and understanding of the child and adolescent soul into this book.