Many Leningraders who had not previously recorded the events of their lives began to keep diaries during the blockade. Probably, this question is from the field of psychology: why a person during emergency, stressful situations, being practically on the verge of life and death, tries not only to fix what he sees around, but also to express his feelings, emotions, experiences? Perhaps it is at such times that people understand their involvement in historical events and begin to feel their own significance much more than at ordinary times. Or maybe they are simply not sure that they will stay alive, and therefore try to at least leave a memory of themselves in the diary?