Russian professor Lynne Ikach presents sabbatical research on diaries as a genre and examined the diaries two teenage girls kept during Stalinist purges of the 1930s. The study was later expanded to include several diaries written by women during the 900-day blockade of Leningrad during World War II. These translate horrific and nearly incomprehensible events into personal terms. Ikach describes how the research intersects with her teaching, and stylistic elements of the works.