Olga Gromova is a sugar child. Olga Gromova Sugar child. The story of a girl from the last century, told by Stella Nudolskaya “They were saved not by erudition, not by the amount of knowledge in their heads. And the cultural layer that teaches the child to think about everything "

a book about the fact that no matter what conditions you find yourself in, you must remain a Human. If a person has a core, it is difficult to break it, the personality structure does not change. Since childhood, love, kindness, decency are laid in the family. Family relationships. the love of parents shapes personality. The truth is old, you need to talk with children, explain to them, as they grow older, the features of life situations. The strength of the character of the mother, daughter, their unity is admirable. The only pity is that their Life could have turned out quite differently if they were all together, and such People could bring so much with knowledge, abilities and such a Soul. It is a pity that our state never understood this, for which, at all times, a person means nothing

Grade 5 out of 5 stars from Natalya Ivanovna 11/22/2018 13:57

I read a lot about repressions and never tire of being amazed - how people who went through all this managed not to harden, save their souls and were able to restore their lives from the wreckage again and again. Against this background, their own problems seem small and insignificant. Thanks to the author.

Grade 5 out of 5 stars from Guest 21.11.2018 13:21

a wonderful book, especially for ardent Stalinists

Grade 5 out of 5 stars from lyman579 13.07.2018 10:53

This book is a cure for meanness, cowardice, indifference.

Grade 5 out of 5 stars from Olga 11.03.2018 18:05

I am 13 years old. After reading this book... I realized a lot of things that were present, are present... You know, our world is not at all calm right now. And only people who read books realize the whole misfortune of incidents. When we read, we let thoughts consume us. Thought develops and draws conclusions.
Of course, there are not many such books, although each of them carries a certain meaning. Behind every book there is a person, and only one who has lived a life can write a book. And such an attitude towards Ela (Stella) during her exile in Kyrgyzstan and how others treated her. Also, the world is not without good people, which is what this story told us.
Man must always remain man. Humanity should live by this slogan, not WAR - THIS IS PEACE, SLAVERY IS FREEDOM, IGNORANCE IS POWER ...

Grade 5 out of 5 stars from Milan 07.02.2018 18:30

I read the book for the second time. The first time I did not really understand. A very interesting book.
I advise you to read the book "You walk on the carpet", there are two stories.
The first is about the friendship of two girls (one girl narrates one chapter, then another, and so it alternates).
The second is about a girl who is engaged in rock climbing.
* * *
The friendliest book is Pafnuty and Gingerbread. In it, a bear named Gingerbread and a raccoon named Pafnuty are friends. The book describes their adventures through the forest in the taiga.
Thank you for your attention)
P.S.: You can find me on VK as "Tereshina Elizaveta"

Grade 5 out of 5 stars from Elizabeth 06.12.2017 15:25

I liked the book. Makes me remember my past.

Grade 5 out of 5 stars from Dasha 24.11.2017 17:51

book class

Grade 5 out of 5 stars from Dasha 24.11.2017 17:46

Despite my personally ambiguous attitude towards that period of our history - in my family there were both dispossessed and NKVD officers, as well as both red and white))) I liked the book very much.
A person should always remain a person. This is difficult, but it is very important.

Grade 4 out of 5 stars from uapalett 23.11.2017 16:18

It is wonderfully written, takes everything experienced by the heroines of the book for the soul, bright memory to them. Thanks to the author and low bow.

Grade 5 out of 5 stars from Irina 11/21/2017 23:41

A wonderful book for any age! After reading, there was a feeling of light and slight sadness. The syllable, the presentation of the material ... is read in one breath! In order for the book to capture the reader's attention and make you think, the author does not have to come up with an intricate plot and introduce a super-hero. Life is the best storyteller...

Valentine 25.10.2017 02:07

A very interesting story. At the end, I was very worried, even cried.

Grade 5 out of 5 stars from Sofia 06.08.2017 00:28

Grade 5 out of 5 stars from Elena 07/31/2017 00:27

Thanks a lot for the story! She cried bitterly almost all the time. I read it in one breath. I understood how we, modern people, are weak and devious. I do not exclude myself from this number. Will definitely recommend to my students. This is an amazing book!

Grade 5 out of 5 stars from Oksana 06/24/2017 23:59

Thank you so much for keeping your promise! Although this book is read very easily and naturally, it contains a huge number of problems, touching moments that make you think and rethink your life.

Grade 5 out of 5 stars from Anastasia 06/08/2017 15:11

The book is wonderful. Reading with my daughter.

Grade 5 out of 5 stars from Sofia-778 10.05.2017 22:00

Grade 4 out of 5 stars from Tatiana 04/27/2017 19:58

Wonderful book!!

Grade 5 out of 5 stars from Olga 04/27/2017 11:46

Wonderful book!!! Read in one breath!

Grade 5 out of 5 stars from Olga 04/27/2017 11:45

The book is wonderful! Read in one breath.

Grade 5 out of 5 stars from Elena 04/08/2017 15:32

Thank you for keeping your promise and writing this story. I'm not a teenager, but the book touched a nerve. So many issues have been raised. You think about so much. I read it to my students. They also did not remain indifferent.

Grade 5 out of 5 stars from Elena 04/04/2017 18:09

liked

Grade 5 out of 5 stars from Guest 20.02.2017 16:15

Olga Gromova Sugar Child The story of a girl from the last century, told by Stella Nudolskaya to Stella and Eric. I kept my promise. OG Prologue I did not want to think about the lessons in general, or specifically about the German language - the early autumn near Moscow was so beautiful outside the window with a bright autumn sun, it beckoned me into the forest. I half listened as the teacher announced the results of yesterday's test. “Nudolskaya - three ...” Did I misheard, or what? The class buzzed in bewilderment, but under the strict gaze of our new "German" quickly calmed down. From the first desks, classmates looked at me in amazement: the second three in German in a week. Everyone knew that I spoke German almost as fluently as I did Russian, and I couldn’t write a C in school dictation. And suddenly I understood everything.

Summary sugar baby olga thundery chapter by chapter

Picture for the story Now they are reading

Summary sugar baby olga thundery

Important

And when Elya went to the tenth grade, mother and daughter were allowed to settle near Moscow. The girl went to school. She studied brilliantly, but given her past, her grades were always reduced by half. Elya graduated from school and entered an agricultural college.

Olga Gromova, "sugar child": summary, main characters, theme

If I put my hand in there (almost to the shoulder), there was always something delicious. I remember the big warm hand that I held on to when we went for a walk on weekends. And the voice was very low, velvety.

And so dad tells me a fairy tale. About how a little but brave girl without a name saves her mother from evil robbers and earns a name for herself - Asterisk. Summary sugar baby olga thunder Perestroika began, and Gromova and Nudolskaya began to process these memories and publish them in the form of essays in newspapers and magazines.

Soon her son returned from the North. He was terminally ill and could not work the way he used to. The main goal of Nudolskaya's life was to take care of him, visit hospitals and clinics, it was necessary to obtain the necessary medicines.

She did not break even at that moment, she became a model of resilience and vitality. Both for Gromova herself and for her readers.

Summary of Gromov Sugar Child for the reader's diary

It is based on the memoirs of Stella Nudolskaya. It is she who is the prototype of the main character - the girl Eli.

Info

Both Stella's mom and dad had a higher education, spoke several foreign languages ​​​​at once, in their free time they painted, played musical instruments. They had an enviable pedigree. Eli's grandfather is a pillar nobleman who worked at the Tula Arms Plant.

sugar baby

The novel "Sugar Child", a summary of which is given in this article, is a work of the writer Gromova. In fact, this is a non-fiction book written from the words of a real character, a little girl, Stella.

Her childhood fell on hard times in the Soviet Union - 30-40s. The book, written in early 2010, immediately became a bestseller, winning the love of readers and the respect of literary critics.

The novel about the girl "Sugar Child", the summary of which allows you to understand what the essence of the work is, is a very sincere novel. Readers admit that he takes the soul and fascinates from the very first pages.
In the center of the story is little Elya. She grows up in a strong family where love and respect for each other reign. The happy idyll collapses at one point, when it turns out that her father was recognized as an "enemy of the people." What it is, she still does not fully understand.

Olga Gromova - sugar child

And the recent three in Russian for an essay (the teacher said that I began to make stylistic mistakes and did not reveal the topic), and today's one did not seem so surprising anymore. Offensive - yes, unfair - of course ... But at that moment it became clear to me that now, in the last grade, these triples will inevitably appear, no matter how hard I try. And then at the end of the year I will have fours in Russian and German. And I won’t see a gold medal, or even a silver one, despite all my “five-star” report cards of past years.

I completely stopped listening to the lesson. I thought. It is clear that the four in Russian cannot be avoided - then they will definitely not give me a medal. You can get a medal, even having two fours in the last year, but not if one of them is in Russian.

This is the law. And it looks like it will. It's a shame and it's not clear why my favorite German became the second subject.

Read Sugar Baby Online

From the age of three, the parents taught the girl different languages, and now living in these places, the girl and her mother tried to learn the language of the local population. In the Kyrgyz village, the girl began to be called Elya. Mom often told her daughter different fairy tales and sang songs.

The baby quickly made friends with other children. They played in the street, learned to ride horses. The horse was very much appreciated in those parts. One day a rider galloped near their yurt.

He shouted out some words, and tenderly looked at the girl. As it turned out later, he shouted: "Ak bala, kant bala", which in translation meant "white child, sugar girl."

With his light hand, Elya was called that. It was in the thirties. Then there was the war of 1941, the echoes of which were heard in those parts.

The war brought with it famine. People tried to survive as best they could, collecting wheat grain by grain. War is over.

one more step

Game Today, at dinner, we ended up in a magical land of elves and dwarves, where, as everyone knows, milky rivers flow in the jelly banks. In deep plates with a cool bright berry jelly and milk poured around the edges, you need to “spring”, laying channels for milk rivers in the jelly banks. If you take your time and act carefully, the plate will turn out to be a map of the country with lakes, rivers, streams and the ocean around. We mess around for a long time, and then we compare who did better: me, mom or dad.
Dad even managed to build some kind of mountain of jelly and assures that it is from it that this milky river flows. While we are looking at the paintings in the plates, the mountain is spreading and a muddy sea is obtained. Mom and I are laughing, and the nanny grumbles: “Well, the babies have gathered - one pampering.” - Okay, Mosyavka, - says dad, - quickly eat up jelly and sleep. - Will there be a fairy tale? - There will be a fairy tale for you.
Until there was a crib, I slept in a suitcase, standing on a large chair, and its cover was tied to the back. Then they called me Mosyavka, Buba, or something else.

And this creature should have received a name. Dad liked some names, mom liked others, and they argued endlessly. One of the friends of the family suggested: - Name the girl Myccop - it's Turkish for "star".

But the mother decided not to call her daughter trash. They would have argued for a long time if, two months later, the parents had not been brought a strict summons for a fine and an official reminder that there are registry offices in the country, where they should come to register the child. The three of us went: dad, mom and their friend Alexander. While the parents in the corridor at the window were arguing violently about what this miracle would be called, they handed the child over to a friend to hold until they decide something.

And the brother is Uncle Lapa? - Well, for example, he, although in life no one calls him that, only one little girl. But the girl was called for a very long time by all sorts of different words, but not by name ... Because she did not have a name.

Olga Gromova - Sugar Baby Game Today at dinner we ended up in a magical land of elves and dwarves, where, as everyone knows, milky rivers flow in the jelly banks. In deep plates with a cool bright berry jelly and milk poured around the edges, you need to “spring”, laying channels for milk rivers in the jelly banks.

If you take your time and act carefully, the plate will turn out to be a map of the country with lakes, rivers, streams and the ocean around. We mess around for a long time, and then we compare who did better: me, mom or dad.

Dad even managed to build some kind of mountain of jelly and assures that it is from it that this milky river flows.

Throughout her work, she was in close contact with the author. Therefore, she managed to portray everything as close as possible to how the writer imagined it when she created her work. Writer Gromova The author of the novel "Sugar Child", the theme of which can be defined as love for loved ones and the preservation of human dignity, in ordinary life works as the editor-in-chief of the magazine "Library at School". Therefore, she knows perfectly well what works of children's literature are faced today by students, what modern children's literature appears on store shelves and bookshelves in libraries. However, to create such a work, she needed a certain courage. After all, the topic of Stalin's prohibitions had practically never been raised on the pages of works of children's literature, it was secretly tabooed on it.

Summary of Gromov Sugar Child for the reader's diary

This is a story about me, right? Will there be adventures? - Will be. Go wash up and lie down. Mom usually reads or tells me amazing stories from the life of different gods, heroes, wizards, and even in different languages. And dad rarely tells “correct” fairy tales, that is, folk or literary ones - he composes more often on the go.

I run to wash, anticipating a fairy tale about myself, because I already know the true story of how I did not have a name and where it came from. According to all the signs, a boy was to be born, whom they wanted to name Heinrich. And suddenly something tiny was born prematurely, weighing less than an eighth five pounds (as the nanny thought in the old fashioned way) and a little more than forty centimeters in length, and it turned out to be a girl.

Summary sugar baby olga thundery

Info

I tried to make such a small man out of him and I hope I succeeded. - What was the most difficult thing for you when writing this documentary story? - I think historical accuracy. After all, I didn’t live then. According to my ideas, there should have been a fairly accurate historical picture in detail, in detail. I had to raise a lot of materials, look for other people's memories, look for illustrations, essays of those times, some newspaper articles.

Olga Gromova, "sugar child": summary, main characters, theme

Attention

These endless games are a colossal development, this is an example for today's parents. Children have no idea what they are being taught at this time. - Tell us, what are your nearest creative plans? Will you continue to write books or focus on the work of the editor-in-chief? - I'm not going yet. I can’t say anything about the future, but still I’m not a writer.

one more step

Mom drew very well and often sketched a drawing during the story. Gifts were often brought to me: they were always wrapped in paper and tied with a rope, which I had to untie myself. One day, dad brought home a huge package. He put it on the floor and said seriously: - I wonder what's inside? Untie it carefully and take a look. First I checked my father's pocket - there was a small red-sided apple. Well, then she walked around the bundle. Long, taller than me, he stood on the floor and swayed slightly. It was necessary to untie all the knots and see ... - Well, little man, be bolder! These were very important words.
If they were satisfied with me, they said to me “good man”, and the highest praise sounded like “good man”. The concept of a "good person" included many things. A good person does everything himself. A person knows how and can do everything, first with someone's help, and then - himself.

Summary sugar baby olga thundery chapter by chapter

But even here they do not despair, trying in every possible way to cheer each other up, most of all they are afraid not for themselves, but for the fact that they can hurt a loved one. The inner world they created resists the outer horror. Only he helps them survive. At times, the author Olga Gromova describes simply terrible episodes. Little Ela is smashed in the nose with the butt of a rifle because she wanted to pick a tulip in a flower bed. But even this does not allow the heroes to harden and give up. Life after the camp Further, Gromova in "Sugar Baby" describes the life of the heroes after the camp. True, they are not allowed to return to their hometown, but are sent to distant Kyrgyz villages. Here they meet good and kind people who are sympathetic to the situation in which the mother and daughter find themselves. Settled Kyrgyz, dispossessed Ukrainian families live here.

Reader's diary / Sizova Natalia

The novel "Sugar Child", a summary of which is given in this article, is a work of the writer Gromova. In fact, this is a non-fiction book written from the words of a real character, a little girl, Stella. Her childhood fell on hard times in the Soviet Union - 30-40s.

The book, written in early 2010, immediately became a bestseller, winning the love of readers and the respect of literary critics. The novel about the girl "Sugar Child", the summary of which allows you to understand what the essence of the work is, is a very sincere novel. Readers admit that he takes the soul and fascinates from the very first pages.

In the center of the story is little Elya. She grows up in a strong family where love and respect for each other reign. The happy idyll collapses at one point, when it turns out that her father was recognized as an "enemy of the people." What it is, she still does not fully understand.

Read Sugar Baby Online

Until there was a crib, I slept in a suitcase, standing on a large chair, and its cover was tied to the back. Then they called me Mosyavka, Buba, or something else. And this creature should have received a name. Dad liked some names, mom liked others, and they argued endlessly. One of the friends of the family suggested: - Name the girl Myccop - it's Turkish for "star". But the mother decided not to call her daughter trash. They would have argued for a long time if, two months later, the parents had not been brought a strict summons for a fine and an official reminder that there are registry offices in the country, where they should come to register the child. The three of us went: dad, mom and their friend Alexander. While the parents in the corridor at the window were arguing violently about what this miracle would be called, they handed the child over to a friend to hold until they decide something.

The house was searched while the girl Stella slept comfortably in her crib. But only a year later it turned out that the daughter's father was not to blame for anything, and envious people simply slandered him. But it didn't change anything. Mother and daughter were sent into exile at that time, and then a real, cruel life began.

After all, it was then that the girl learned to do everything that she had never thought of doing before, because she had parents. But now she grew up quickly, as she had to help her mother, and it was difficult without a man. Then the girl in that environment was called the sugar baby, as she was very white surrounded by very tanned people.

And the life of the girl was not sugar at all, because on the back one could rarely see scars from healing scars. In general, the girl used to study different languages ​​from the age of three, and now she and her mother tried to learn the language of the local population.

Sugar baby summary for the reader's diary

Today is my turn. - Can you start right now to know what about ... and then I'll go brush my teeth and wash my face? - A long time ago... - When was the sun brighter and the water wetter? “God, where did you get this from?” “It’s Polyushka telling her stories like that,” Mom says, smiling. Polyushka is my nanny. And by the way, she never calls me Mosyavka. Thinks it's a dog name and grumbles when I'm called that. But dad is not afraid of her grumbling. - Don't distract me. So ... a long time ago there lived a family in Moscow: dad, mom, nanny and a very little girl. Papa's name was... papa. Mom ... Dad called her Yulenka, my mother's older sisters - Lyuska, her brother - Punechka. - And the brother is Uncle Lapa? - Well, for example, he, although in life no one calls him that, only one little girl. But the girl was called for a very long time by all sorts of different words, but not by name ... Because she did not have a name.
Sugar Baby" is in many ways a "novel of upbringing", a story about love, but also about what dignity is and what freedom is. Eli’s mother says the most precisely about freedom: “Slavery is a state of mind. A free man cannot be made a slave." For middle and high school age. text opinion February 7, 160 pp.

Book cover illustration About the author of the book Olga Konstantinovna Gromova is the editor-in-chief of the professional newspaper "Library at School" of the First September Publishing House, professionally trained as a librarian-bibliographer. Work experience in libraries of different types is 25 years, including 5 years in scientific, 13 years in school. About the book The history of the book's creation The history of the book began in 1988.

It was then that Olga Gromova met Stella Natanovna Dubrova (Nudolskaya), whose true life story is described in the story.

Sugar child summary for the reader's diary Grade 5

Stella wrote it separately, and almost all of it was written by Stella, and it was only a huge job for me to check the facts, compare dates, because it is clear that Stella wrote all this from memory. She really wanted to tell this story. This inserted novella did not immediately find its place, but I had no doubts that it would be there. - Which of the secondary characters of the story, the images of which you thought out yourself, do you like the most, the closest and why? - Hard to say. Probably, there are no more or less likeable heroes, because all of them are somehow needed for some reason. Here, for example, is the story of the girl Frida. It's not like I came up with it myself. Once, many years ago, when I was little and we were taken to rest in Ukraine in a village near Zhytomyr, a local woman there told me that her name was Olga Egorovna Belyaeva, and once her name was different.

The novel "Sugar Child", a summary of which is given in this article, is a work of the writer Gromova. In fact, this is written from the words of a real character, a little girl Stella. Her childhood fell on hard times in the Soviet Union - 30-40s. The book, written in early 2010, immediately became a bestseller, winning the love of readers and the respect of literary critics.

A novel about a girl

"Sugar Child", a summary of which allows you to understand what the essence of the work is, this is a very sincere novel. Readers admit that he takes the soul and fascinates from the very first pages. In the center of the story is little Elya. She grows up in a strong family where love and respect for each other reign. The happy idyll collapses at one point, when it turns out that her father was recognized as an "enemy of the people." What it is, she still does not fully understand. But her life is changing dramatically. Quiet family evenings are replaced by experiences, daily stress.

Elya finds herself in a terrible, unpleasant world for her, where everyone is not happy with her. The father is arrested. He is taken away from home, nothing is known about his further fate. All attempts by the girl's mother to break through the bureaucratic wall end in almost nothing. "Enemy of the people" is in the dungeons of the NKVD.

Elya and her mother are also mistreated. They are sent to a camp for family members of traitors to the Motherland. There is even a special unpleasant abbreviation for them - CHSIR. Socially dangerous elements (ESR) are also brought here.

The camp is located far from their home - in Kyrgyzstan. An unfamiliar and difficult climate, the severity of the move, difficult conditions of detention. All this negatively affects the condition of the girl.

Teen romance

Despite all the trials that fall to their lot, Elya and her mother do not despair, Olga Gromova writes a classic teenage novel in which she shows how a parent, even in critical circumstances, must and can help a child endure the most terrible moments in life.

Eli's mother constantly jokes, sings songs, reads poems to her daughter. They try their best to take care of each other. They will face illness and hunger, but nothing will make them part. "Sugar Child", the main characters of which literally have to survive in the circumstances, is also a novel of education. A very fascinating book about true love, as well as what inner freedom and human dignity are. Freedom, which can be in every person even during the years of repression, is most accurately defined by Eli's mother. In her opinion, slavery is only a state of mind. If a person is internally free, then it is impossible to make him a slave.

The novel "Sugar Child", a summary of which is in this article, was awarded prizes and awards. In particular, the book was included in the long list of the prestigious literary award "Kniguru", received a diploma of the award named after the famous science fiction writer Krapivin.

Next, we will try to dwell on the plot of the work in more detail in order to better understand the ideas that the author laid down. Almost everyone will find something of their own in "Sugar Baby". The summary is a great proof of this.

In the center of the story is a mother who suffered from bone tuberculosis and became disabled because of this, and her 6-year-old daughter. Because of the arrest of the head of the family, they simply find themselves in inhuman conditions in a camp for elements undesirable in Soviet society. But even here they do not despair, trying in every possible way to cheer each other up, most of all they are afraid not for themselves, but for the fact that they can hurt a loved one.

The inner world they created resists the outer horror. Only he helps them survive. At times, the author Olga Gromova describes simply terrible episodes. Little Ela is smashed in the nose with the butt of a rifle because she wanted to pick a tulip in a flower bed. But even this does not allow the heroes to harden and give up.

Life after camp

Further, Gromova in "Sugar Baby" describes the life of the heroes after the camp. True, they are not allowed to return to their hometown, but are sent to distant Kyrgyz villages. Here they meet good and kind people who are sympathetic to the situation in which the mother and daughter find themselves.

Settled Kyrgyz, dispossessed Ukrainian families live here. Everyone respects the Kyrgyz culture and language, which even more disposes the locals to them.

Meaning of the novel's title

In this part of the novel, we learn the meaning of its title. The Kirghiz begin to call Elya "kant bala", which means "sugar child" in their language. The analysis of this work is best based on its brightest chapter - "The Great Reading".

It tells how almost every evening all the exiles, including Russians, Ukrainians, as well as local residents, gather together in one of the barracks. They tell each other stories about their lives, retell famous works related to their culture, read poems, stories and novels. For example, Gogol and Pushkin. And often translated into Kyrgyz.

These evenings, readings at the same table unite everyone living in this village, in difficult, sometimes simply unbearable conditions.

The novel describes 10 years, and all subsequent events in the life of the main characters are summarized in the epilogue.

Who is this book for?

"Sugar Baby" is a book for families to read on quiet evenings. An excellent opportunity to establish an internal dialogue in the family, to tell children about the unpleasant and terrible pages of the country's history, which nevertheless must not be forgotten.

In addition, this is a wonderful novel that can demonstrate to all modern people how it is necessary to remain human and not lose their dignity, even when they find themselves in the most difficult conditions. Those who were not lucky enough to fall into the millstones of history manage to maintain faith in good people, as well as love for their land and their homeland.

In fact, this is an eternal plot based on a new material for Russian children's literature. This is the story of a girl from the last century, which is also brilliantly illustrated by the artist Maria Pasternak. Throughout her work, she was in close contact with the author. Therefore, she managed to portray everything as close as possible to how the writer imagined it when she created her work.

Writer Gromova

The author of the novel "Sugar Child", the theme of which can be defined as love for loved ones and the preservation of human dignity, in ordinary life works as the editor-in-chief of the magazine "Library at School". Therefore, she knows perfectly well what works of children's literature are faced today by students, what modern children's literature appears on store shelves and bookshelves in libraries.

However, to create such a work, she needed a certain courage. After all, the topic of Stalin's prohibitions had practically never been raised on the pages of works of children's literature, it was secretly tabooed on it.

Novel parenting

At the same time, Gromova's book continues the Russian and Soviet tradition of upbringing novels. They must be present in the home library of every teenager. After all, such books allow you to understand internal problems, learn the details of the history of your country, even if not the most pleasant ones, and realize the basic moral rules that you should adhere to all your life.

Previously, such must-read works were Dostoevsky's Netochka Nezvanova, Leo Tolstoy's trilogy about growing up, novels by Kataev and Oseeva. Today they are being replaced by books by contemporary authors. "Sugar Baby" is one of the most successful examples of reading for the new modern generation.

Prototypes of the main characters

Another advantage of this novel is that everything that is said in the pages of "Sugar Baby" is not fiction. The book is biographical. It is based on the memoirs of Stella Nudolskaya. It is she who is the prototype of the main character - the girl Eli.

As the author ironically notes on the pages of the novel, her parents were indeed socially dangerous elements. At least, this is how the facts from the biography that Eli's parents had were often evaluated at that time. Both Stella's mom and dad had a higher education, spoke several foreign languages ​​​​at once, in their free time they painted, played musical instruments. They had an enviable pedigree. Eli's grandfather is a pillar nobleman who worked at the Tula Arms Factory.

Thus, it turns out that this book is the only one that tells about Stalin's repressions and is addressed to children.

Nudolskaya, who became the prototype for this novel, also wrote her own documentary biography. It was called "Don't let yourself be afraid." However, for a children's work, such a name, of course, was not suitable. Therefore, the novel was decided to be called "Sugar Child".

For Gromova, the publication of this book was a matter of principle. She promised to do this to her friend Nudolskaya, who died long before this work was published.

Gromova's acquaintance with Nudolskaya

Gromova met Nudolskaya when they were neighbors in a communal apartment back in the Soviet Union. The writer describes the woman who became the prototype for her future work as a lonely but strong person. When they met, Nudolskaya lived alone. Her husband died, and her son worked far from Moscow. Despite all the everyday and life difficulties, she found the strength to lead an active lifestyle. She read a lot, specially went to the club of veterans, where she introduced the old people to literary novelties. She created a group for young mothers, in which she taught everyone how to sew and embroider.

Gromova in her memoirs describes a talkative woman with a sharp mind and a delicate sense of humor. She constantly told her about her life in Central Asia, work on the Chukotka Peninsula, about the schools near Moscow where she studied after the war, when she and her mother were finally allowed to return from Kyrgyzstan. In her stories, Nudolskaya very accurately and in detail described the characters, the situations she encountered in life, and the world around her.

Day of Political Prisoners

It was from Nudolskaya that Gromova learned that every year on October 30, the Soviet Union celebrates the Day of Political Prisoners. At that time, this topic itself was banned. The new friend of the writer was just one of those who suffered from political repression.

However, freer times soon came. Perestroika began, and Gromova and Nudolskaya began to process these memories and publish them in the form of essays in newspapers and magazines.

Soon her son returned from the North. He was terminally ill and could not work the way he used to. The main goal of Nudolskaya's life was to take care of him, visit hospitals and clinics, it was necessary to obtain the necessary medicines.

She did not break even at that moment, she became a model of resilience and vitality. Both for Gromova herself and for her readers. Because the image of the heroine is recreated in the novel in a very realistic way.

Olga Gromova's book SUGAR BABY was written down by her from the words of Stella Nudolskaya, whose childhood was in the late 30s - early 40s in the Soviet Union. This is a very personal and soul-stirring story about how five-year-old Elya, happily growing up in a loving family, suddenly turns out to be the daughter of an "enemy of the people" and finds herself in a terrible, incomprehensible world: after the arrest of her father, they are sent with their mother to a camp in Kyrgyzstan as CHSIR (family members of a traitor to the Motherland) and SOE (socially dangerous elements). But despite all the trials, hunger and illnesses that they have to endure, Elya and her mother do not lose heart: they read poetry, sing songs, joke, really care about each other. SUGAR BABY is in many ways a "parenting novel", a story about love, and its about what dignity is and what freedom is. Eli's mother says most precisely about freedom: "Slavery is a state of mind. A free person cannot be made a slave."

Published with the financial support of the Federal Agency for Press and Mass Communications within the framework of the Federal Target Program "Culture of Russia (2012–2018)".

Prologue 1

I. Game 1

II. Mouse King War 3

III. No longer a game 4

IV. Trials 5

V. Ataman 7

VI. No stake or yard 8

VII. Grandfather Saveliy has 9

VIII. Yuzhaki 10

IX. Kant bala - sugar baby 11

X. Great reading 13

XI. Thin ice 14

XII. There are always more than 15 good people

XIII. Kant bala no sugar 16

XIV. War 17

XV. Manaschi 19

XVI. Pioneer 20

XVII. Difficult winter of forty-third 22

Epilogue 24

Don't let yourself be afraid - How it really was 25

Notes 26

Olga Gromova
sugar baby
The story of a girl from the last century, told by Stella Nudolskaya

Stella and Eric. I kept my promise.

Prologue

I didn’t want to think about lessons in general, or specifically about the German language - the early autumn near Moscow was so good outside the window with a bright autumn sun, it beckoned me into the forest. I half listened as the teacher announced the results of yesterday's test. "Nudolskaya - three ..." Did I misheard, or what? The class buzzed in bewilderment, but under the strict gaze of our new "German" quickly calmed down. From the first desks, classmates looked at me in amazement: the second three in German in a week. Everyone knew that I spoke German almost as fluently as I did Russian, and I couldn’t write a C in school dictation.

And suddenly I understood everything. And the recent three in Russian for an essay (the teacher said that I began to make stylistic mistakes and did not reveal the topic), and today's one did not seem so surprising anymore. Offensive - yes, unfair - of course ... But at that moment it became clear to me that now, in the last grade, these triples will inevitably appear, no matter how hard I try. And then at the end of the year I will have fours in Russian and German. And I won’t see a gold medal, or even a silver one, despite all my “five-star” report cards of past years.

I completely stopped listening to the lesson. I thought. It is clear that the four in Russian cannot be avoided - then they will definitely not give me a medal. You can get a medal, even having two fours in the last year, but not if one of them is in Russian. This is the law. And it looks like it will. It's a shame and it's not clear why my favorite German became the second subject. Not math, not physics... Maybe because our new class teacher teaches German and doesn't seem to know it very well... so she doesn't like those who know better than her? Or is she just recently in our village, not yet her own, and therefore it was she who was instructed to carry out someone's "installation"?

My mother also teaches German. At the same school. But she is not given senior classes, only from the fifth to the seventh. We live at the school - in a small service apartment. Mom, of course, will also be offended by my German, but I know for sure that neither she nor I myself will argue. And we will not explain anything to anyone. And classmates ... well, they will be surprised and get used to it. In the tenth grade, everyone has enough of their worries.

Then, someday... when it becomes possible... I will tell my story to at least my closest friends. But it will not be soon. If at all. In the meantime, I can only remember silently.

I. Game

Today, at dinner, we ended up in a magical land of elves and dwarves, where, as everyone knows, rivers of milk flow in the jelly banks. In deep plates with a cool bright berry jelly and milk poured around the edges, you need to "spring", laying channels for milk rivers in the jelly banks. If you take your time and act carefully, the plate will turn out to be a map of the country with lakes, rivers, streams and the ocean around. We mess around for a long time, and then we compare who did better: me, mom or dad. Dad even managed to build some kind of mountain of jelly and assures that it is from it that this milky river flows. While we are looking at the paintings in the plates, the mountain is spreading and a muddy sea is obtained. Mom and I are laughing, and the nanny grumbles: "Well, the babies have gathered - one pampering."

Okay, Mosyavka, - says dad, - quickly eat up jelly and sleep.

Will there be a fairy tale?

You will have a fairy tale. Today is my turn.

And can you start right now to know what about ... and then I'll go brush my teeth and wash my face?

A long time ago…

When was the sun brighter and the water wetter?

Lord, where did you get this from?

This is Polyushka telling her fairy tales like that, ”my mother says, smiling.

Polyushka is my nanny. And by the way, she never calls me Mosyavka. Thinks it's a dog name and grumbles when I'm called that. But dad is not afraid of her grumbling.

Don't distract me. So ... a long time ago there lived a family in Moscow: dad, mom, nanny and a very little girl. Papa's name was... papa. Mom ... Dad called her Yulenka, my mother's older sisters - Lyuska, her brother - Punechka.

And the brother is Uncle Lapa?

Well, for example, he, although in life no one calls him that, only one little girl. But the girl was called for a very long time by all sorts of different words, but not by name ... Because she did not have a name.

This is a story about me, right? Will there be adventures?

Will be. Go wash up and lie down.

Mom usually reads or tells me amazing stories from the life of different gods, heroes, wizards, and even in different languages. And dad rarely tells "correct" tales, that is, folk or literary ones - more often he composes on the go. I run to wash, anticipating a fairy tale about myself, because I already know the true story of how I did not have a name and where it came from.

According to all the signs, a boy was to be born, whom they wanted to name Heinrich. And suddenly something tiny was born prematurely, weighing less than an eighth five pounds (as the nanny thought in the old fashioned way) and a little more than forty centimeters in length, and it turned out to be a girl. Parents for a long time could not decide what to call this unexpected phenomenon.

Until there was a crib, I slept in a suitcase, standing on a large chair, and its cover was tied to the back. Then they called me Mosyavka, Buba, or something else. And this creature should have received a name. Dad liked some names, mom liked others, and they argued endlessly. One family friend suggested:

Name the girl Myccop - it's Turkish for "star".

But the mother decided not to call her daughter trash. They would have argued for a long time if, two months later, the parents had not been brought a strict summons for a fine and an official reminder that there are registry offices in the country, where they should come to register the child.

The three of us went: dad, mom and their friend Alexander. While the parents in the corridor at the window were arguing violently about what this miracle would be called, they handed the child over to a friend to hold until they decide something. He quietly entered the room (from which the parents were expelled half an hour ago to argue in the corridor) and registered the child, fortunately both the child and the documents were in the hands of Uncle Sasha. With a sense of accomplishment, he suggested that his parents argue some other time, since this girl's name is Stella, which means "Star" in Latin.