THROUGH THE BURNING STEPPE

Elena Kozhina was just eight years old when the Germans laid siege to Leningrad in 1941.

She, her mother, her grandmother, and her siblings, were loaded onto transit trains and evacuated to the heart of the Russian steppe.

Her brother did not survive the brutal journey, and her sister and grandmother perished soon after.

Elena and her mother were deposited in a completely unfamiliar rural landscape.

That they survived is a testament to the strength of the bond between mother and daughter.