Survival Where No One Expected It
The Siege of Leningrad remains one of the darkest chapters of the Second World War. From 1941 to 1944, the city was cut off, bombarded, and slowly starved. More than a million people died from hunger, cold, and disease. In that landscape of destruction, survival itself became an act of resistance.
Among the countless stories of endurance, one stands out not because it involved soldiers or strategy, but because it involved care. And a hippopotamus.
Her name was Bela, and she lived in the Leningrad Zoo.
A Zoo Under Siege
When the siege began, the zoo was suddenly trapped inside a starving city. Food supplies disappeared almost overnight. Many animals did not survive the first brutal months. Predators were euthanized because feeding them was impossible. Herbivores weakened. Caretakers collapsed from exhaustion and hunger.
Yet some stayed.
One of them was Jevdokija Daschina, a zookeeper assigned to Bela, a Nile hippopotamus. Bela was large, heavy, and completely dependent on human care. Unlike smaller animals, she could not simply be moved or hidden. And unlike most animals in the zoo, she had a very specific and dangerous problem.
When Water Disappears
Hippos spend most of their lives submerged. Their skin depends on constant moisture. Without water, it cracks, peels, and becomes painfully vulnerable to infection.
During the siege, Bela’s pool dried out.
The pipes no longer worked. Electricity failed. Heating stopped. The water supply was unreliable or gone entirely. As the days passed, Bela’s skin began to split and flake. Open wounds formed. Infection was only a matter of time.
For Bela, this was a death sentence.
Unless someone intervened.
Forty Liters a Day
Jevdokija Daschina refused to accept that Bela was simply another inevitable loss.
Every day, she walked to the Neva River. In winter, it was frozen solid. She broke the ice, filled a barrel with water, and hauled approximately forty liters back to the zoo. She did this while bombs fell nearby, while the city starved, while even bread rations were almost nonexistent.
She did not do it once.
She did it every day.
Back at the zoo, she poured the water over Bela’s body and carefully rubbed her skin with camphor oil to prevent cracking and infection. It was exhausting, dangerous work performed by someone who herself was malnourished and weak.
This was not part of any official order. There were no cameras. No recognition. Just a woman choosing, again and again, not to give up.
Learning to Survive the Bombs
When air raids began, Bela learned quickly.
Hippos can stay underwater for extended periods, and Bela used this instinct to survive. During bombardments, she submerged herself as deeply as possible, staying still until the danger passed. The water, scarce as it was, became both her medicine and her shelter.
Against all odds, Bela’s condition stabilized.
Her skin healed. She regained strength. She survived the siege.
A Bond Beyond Circumstances
In a city where people were forced to make impossible choices, the bond between Jevdokija and Bela became something rare. Not heroic in the traditional sense. Not dramatic. Just quietly human.
This story matters not because it saved an animal, but because it shows what care looks like when there is no reward, no audience, and no guarantee of success. Jevdokija could have stopped. No one would have blamed her. Survival alone was already too much to ask.
But she did not stop.
In a city breaking under starvation, she chose to protect another life that could not protect itself.
After the Siege
Bela lived on after the war. She became a symbol, though quietly, of endurance and care. Many years later, her story resurfaced not as propaganda, but as a reminder of what persists even in extreme cruelty.
The siege did not only test bodies. It tested values.
And in the middle of hunger and fear, a zookeeper carrying water for a hippopotamus answered that test with compassion.
Why This Story Still Matters
It is easy to think of humanity as something fragile that disappears in times of crisis. The Siege of Leningrad seems to confirm that belief. Yet stories like this complicate it.
They show that even when systems collapse, individuals still choose who they want to be.
Jevdokija Daschina did not save the city. She did not stop the war. But she preserved something just as important. The idea that care does not become meaningless just because circumstances are brutal.
In the end, Bela’s survival was not only about water or oil. It was about a decision repeated daily. A refusal to abandon responsibility.
In a time when cruelty felt unavoidable, that refusal became a quiet act of resistance.
And that is why this story endures.
