Mother's Diary

Frida Vigdorova is a talented writer, journalist, and social activist. She is the author of the trilogy "The Road to Life", "This Is My Favorite House", "Chernigovka", the dilogy "Family Happiness", "Beloved Street", and the novella "My Class". A special chapter in Frida Vigdorova's biography was her involvement in defending the young poet Joseph Brodsky. In 1964, when he was detained on absurd charges of parasitism, she attended the trial and recorded the mockery of the poet and the very idea of justice in notes that later spread widely in samizdat and abroad under the title "The Trial". But she defended not only Brodsky. The village elders whom the chairman did not allow to fix the leaky roof. Helpless residents of a nursing home. A teenager with a difficult fate who strayed from the path and ended up in a colony... It's impossible to list all those she helped, whom she defended and supported, about whom she wrote in newspapers, for whom she went through the instances and fought, reclaiming from the soulless bureaucratic machine what a person was entitled to by right. But apart from her work as a journalist and later as a deputy of the district council, Frida Vigdorova carried out the most important work on earth — raising children. A mother of two daughters, she kept a diary for many years. "Girls. Mother's Diary" is both a historical and deeply personal document in which behind the description of everyday life, the spirit of the time and eternal questions emerge. These entries are full of warmth and light, humor, tenderness, and insightful respect for the individual. "Despite its intimacy," wrote Lydia Chukovskaya, "this 'Diary' has objective interest and will someday be read by thousands of people, like a beloved book: the heroes of the 'Diary', both small and large, will be loved by readers no less than the heroes of 'Tom Sawyer' or 'Alice in Wonderland'." In addition to the 'Diary' and the famous 'Trial', this edition includes 'Journalist's Notebooks', 'Deputy's Notebooks', and 'Writer's Notebooks', the unfinished novella 'The Teacher', as well as selected articles, essays, and letters by Frida Vigdorova.