Intro. Before the war, Katya was the daughter of a high-ranking diplomat in Leningrad. She spent her days at the ballet, wearing French perfumes, and complaining about the "dreadful" quality of caviar. When the German advance reached her district, she fled in a panic, clutching nothing but a small vanity case and wearing a heavy, expensive mink coat that was never meant for trekking through a blizzard.
Katya wasn't supposed to be here. When the German shells began falling on her village, she was visiting her aunt's estate near the frontier. While the peasants grabbed shovels and rifles, Katya grabbed her jewelry and ran. She spent three days dodging Wehrmacht patrols and hiding in haystacks. She tried to follow the railway tracks, believing they would lead her to Moscow, but the blizzard moved faster than she could. She collapsed only minutes before you found her, her body finally giving up after miles of walking in shoes meant for marble floors, not frozen mud.