Translated material
Frida Vigdorova and her diary
In 2010-2011, the magazine “Family and School” published in each issue Frida Abramovna Vigdorova’s entries “Girls (mother’s diary)”, prepared for publication by her daughter A.A. Raskina.
At the beginning of the summer of 1965, Sasha Raskina graduated from “our” department of the Faculty of Philology of Moscow State University, i.e. the famous OSIPL, and I was a reviewer of her thesis. Frida Abramovna was already seriously ill at that time - one should say “hopelessly”, but this word is not applicable to Vigdorova even in such a cruel context.
"Children's" diary of F.A. began broadcasting in 1937, after the birth of her eldest daughter, Galya Kulakovskaya. The publication opens with an entry from 1941: at the beginning of the war, Gala is 4 years and 5 months old.
Galya's father is Alexander Kulakovsky, with whom F.A. broke up before the start of the war, went to the front and died in March 1942. In 1942, the youngest daughter, Sasha, was born in Tashkent to the family of Frida Vigdorova and Alexander Raskin. To the diary of F.A. I wrote down everything that I considered important: what my daughters looked like, what they ate, what they were sick with, what they played, what the girls said on this or that occasion, as well as dad Shura (Sasha’s father - A.A. Raskin), grandmother (mother Sonya) , grandfather (Aba’s dad), and also familiar children and adults - friends at home, nanny, teacher.
I was not familiar with Frida Abramovna, but in Moscow and Leningrad her name was known even before her famous recordings from the trial of Joseph Brodsky. Many people read her books, and her articles in central newspapers were especially popular: after all, there was no television at that time, and in any city an ordinary family subscribed to at least one newspaper.
Now it is difficult to imagine a working young woman with two children who would be so absorbed in the lives and problems of others, and even in such desperate times - in hungry Tashkent, then in Moscow, in a communal apartment. She doesn’t write about this in her diary, but my generation remembers that Frida was constantly fussing over someone and taking care of someone. The main thing is that she knew how to do it. And she did it skillfully.
With such spiritual generosity and determination from F.A. there was - completely incomprehensible to me - a reserve of mental strength. Otherwise, neither such insightful maternal love nor special humor would be possible, and without this humor the diary itself would be unthinkable.
Motherly love did not prevent Vigdorova from being not only keen-sighted, but also critical - childish selfishness, childish greed, childish “quarrelsomeness”, childish cruelty were noted... What is in F.A.’s diary? Not at all - this is sentimentality.
F. She had the rare gift of remembering verbatim what she once heard. In particular, this is where the close to stenographic accuracy of her notes from Brodsky’s trial comes from – despite the fact that, as you know, the judge forbade her to write it down. From the “children’s” diary it is clear that F.A. She was a remarkably subtle psychologist: I dare to think that this quality played a significant role in the success of her immense efforts on matters far and near. She also worked for famous people when, for various reasons, they could not or did not know how to defend their rights themselves - for example, without the efforts of F.A. we would not soon see “The Little Prince” translated by Nora Gal; and Lydia Korneevna Chukovskaya could not ask for herself at all...
“Girls” is a text marked by quiet, but no less remarkable literary skill. Mastery is manifested primarily in the selection of the non-fictional and the accuracy of details.
Even if you are not inclined to read F. Vigdorova’s diary in a row, read Alexandra Raskina’s sad and poignant afterword to Frida Abramovna’s diary in issue No. 12 of the magazine “Family and School” for 2011.
Rebekah Frumkina
2. Family and school 2010, No. 8-12; 2011, No. 1-12.