I wouldn’t say that I was happy—we were all too hungry to be happy—but I believed that here at last was the Meaning. If Leningrad fell, Russia would fall; if Russia fell, Fascism would conquer the world.
-- Narrator (chapter 1)

Importance: The narrator, a 17-year-old boy, found meaning with his small role in helping to protect Leningrad. He felt that by helping protect Leningrad, he was doing something meaningful for the whole world. He describes a meaning that transcends temporary hunger. Lev's heroic words, such as these from Chapter 1, are especially prominent early in the novel, before they are more severely tested. This quotation also shows the preeminence of Russia in the mind of the young Russian, Lev. He believed that if Russia fell to Fascism, the entire world would also become Fascist.

Two guards—one of them holding an oil lamp, the prettiest light I ever saw, better than any...
-- Narrator (chapter 2)