Lena Mukhina, also Lena Muchina (Russian: Елена Владимировна Мухина, Yelena Vladimirovna Mukhina; 21 November 1924 in Ufa – 5 August 1991 in Moscow), was a Russian woman who wrote a diary about her experiences as a teenage schoolgirl during the Siege of Leningrad.
Mukhina's diary entries are dated from 21 May 1941 to 25 May 1942. She was evacuated from Leningrad in June 1942, and lived in Moscow until her death in 1991.[1]
An unknown donor handed the diary to a state archive in 1962; it was later discovered there by Sergei Yarov. It has been published in Russia (Сохрани мою печальную историю), Norway (Lena's Dagbok), Spain (El diario de Lena),[2] Germany (Lenas Tagebuch),[3] Poland (Dziennik czasu blokady),[4] Finland (Piirityspäiväkirja),[5] and the Netherlands (Lena's Dagboek), as well as in English as The Diary of Lena Mukhina: A Girl's Life in the Siege of Leningrad.