1st edition 2018
104 pages
more than 40 photographs
Softcover (flaps), 13 x 21 cm
ISBN 978-3-943324-77-8
published 3/2018
EUR 14,95 inkl. Mwst.



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Luise Davies

Just Another War

How I Survived the Siege of Leningrad

A Diary and a Historical Document

The Siege of Leningrad (St Petersburg) took place during World War II. It lasted for almost two and a half years, and must rank as one of the worst sieges in the history of war.

During that time, according to different estimates, between 500,000 and one million residents of that historic city died from starvation and hypothermia. But some think that the true figure was even higher.

Told in her own words, ‘Just another War’ is the gripping account of one person’s experiences during that terrible period in the history of that city, and how she survived, narrowly avoiding death from the effects of prolonged starvation, and the intense cold of the Russian winter.

This book also reminds the reader of the awful suffering inflicted on huge numbers of people by leaders who appear to be unconcerned about the consequences of their misguided ambitions – a scenario which, regrettably, we see repeated time and again, in the annals of human history.

But, despite the tragedy of this dark episode, it is a story of survival and determination to continue living, in the face of the loss of loved ones, and how the kindness and concern of others shine through, providing hope for the future.

Historical Background

On January 27, 2019, the German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas and his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov announced the project "Humanitarian Gesture" on behalf of the surviving victims of the 75th anniversary of the complete lifting of the blockade of Leningrad. The book – published in May 2018 in English – has now been translated into Russian and German as part of this project.

The project "Humanitarian Gesture" is supported by the Foundation for the Promotion and Development of German-Russian Relations "German-Russian Meeting Centre St. Petersburg" with the kind support of the City Council of St. Petersburg, the Consulate General of Germany in St. Petersburg, the Art-Nouveau Haus Nordhausen EF, Jugendsozialwerk Nordhausen eV and the German Society for International Cooperation.

The translation of the book from English into Russian was carried out by the Social Center for Translation of St. Petersburg State University, Director I. Baskakova.
The translation from English into German was done by Katrin Pollinger and Monika Stulberg, revision Christl Kiener.

Autor(en)



Luise Davies

"I was born Luise Posvistak, in Leningrad, Russia, on 27 May 1928. The city was originally known as St Petersburg. It had been planned and built by the Russian tsar, Peter the Great. History records that he founded it on 27 May 1703, exactly 225 years to the day before I was born. He named it after his patron saint, St Peter.

At the outbreak of World War 1, in 1914, it was renamed Petrograd, to avoid sounding German, as Russia was then at war with Germany. Then, in 1924, it was renamed Leningrad, in honour of the famous communist leader, Vladimir Ilyich Lenin.

St Petersburg, as it is now known once again, is a world-famous, picturesque city, situated at the head of the Gulf of Finland, on the River Neva, which flows out into the Baltic Sea.

My mother, Helene Boegenhold, was German, and my father, Anton Posvistak, was Ukrainian. He was born in Kiev, the capital of the Ukraine."


Luise Davies sadly passed away on Christmas Eve 2019, in the year of the 75th anniversary of the end of the siege of Leningrad.

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Rezensionen, Lesermeinungen

F. Dostojevsky about eywitnesses

It's such a simple-hearted story; the story of an old soldier, an eyewitness to the French occupation of Moscow; there are charming things in it. Besides, any memoirs by eyewitnesses are precious, whoever the eyewitness may be.

Dostoyevsky, F., The Idiot, translated by R.Pervear and L.Volokhonsky, London: Granta Books, 2001, p.494.



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Paul Crichton about "Just Another War – How I Survived the Siege of Leningrad" (Davies)

Just Another War by Luise Davies, London: Kiener Press, 2018

In this short and moving memoir Luise Davies has set down her childhood recollections of the siege of Leningrad and her escape from the city to Krasnodar, in the Caucusus, and then, via Frankfurt, Hamburg and Muenster, to Ilford in East London.

She has an eye for vivid details, and notes, for instance, that her mother put a tin bath on the windowsill to wash her, so that both of them could enjoy the view of the River Neva; or that when people were starving during the siege, all the cats and dogs soon disappeared and some people boiled leather belts to make soup.

The book is filled with tragedy: her mother ate little so that Luise could have a little more to eat, giving her life to save her daughter’s. One day Luise came back from school and found her mother sitting, leaning against the fireplace, dead. The last glimpse she got of her mother was when her father was dragging her corpse away on a sledge, her legs and feet dangling in the snow. She was buried in a mass grave.

Her father was the one who organized her escape from the city, first on an overloaded carriage pulled by a malnourished horse over the frozen Lake Lagoda, and then on cattle trucks going south. He did so knowing that he would probably never see her again. He died of starvation some time later.

But there is resilience as well as tragedy. She describes how she managed to survive the flight from Leningrad despite being severely malnourished herself, was able to make contact with her mother’s family in Hamburg, met her husband-to-be, an English soldier, there, and eventually arrived in East London.

This book is accompanied by photos of Luise’s family and of Leningrad then and St Petersburg now, and a map showing the route she took across Europe. It not only contains an engaging and compelling account of her childhood memories of living through the siege of Leningrad, and how she was able to escape, but constitutes an important historical document of these terrible times.

Paul Crichton, London 2018

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