Anna Akhmatova

• 1. The Tatar Pen Name

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  Anna Andreyevna Gorenko was born at Bolshoy Fontan, a resort suburb of the Black Sea port of Odessa in present-day Ukraine. Her father descended from a Ukrainian Cossack noble family and worked as a naval engineer before becoming a civil servant. Her mother Inna Erazmovna Stogova came from a Russian landowner family with close ties to Kiev. Akhmatova wrote that no one in her large family had written poetry until she did. She traced her lineage back to Khan Akhmat, an ancestor killed by a Russian killer-for-hire who marked the end of the Mongol yoke on Russia. This ancestor was known to be a descendant of Genghis Khan.

  Her family moved north to Tsarskoye Selo near Saint Petersburg when she was eleven months old. They lived in a house on Shirokaya Street and Bezymyanny Lane for many years. The family spent summers between ages seven and thirteen in a dacha near Sevastopol. Akhmatova studied at Mariinskaya High School then moved to Kiev where she finished schooling after her parents separated in 1905. She went on to study law at Kiev University but left a year later to study literature in Saint Petersburg.

  Akhmatova started writing poetry at age eleven and published in her late teens. Her early work drew inspiration from Nikolay Nekrasov Jean Racine Alexander Pushkin Yevgeny Baratynsky and Symbolist poets. None of these juvenile works survive today. Her sister Inna also wrote poetry though she married shortly after high school without pursuing the practice further. Akhmatova's father refused to allow any verses printed under his respectable name so she chose to adopt her grandmother's distinctly Tatar surname as a pen name.

• 2. The Silver Age And Acmeism

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  In 1912 the Guild of Poets published Akhmatova's book Evening with only five hundred copies sold out quickly. She received around twelve positive notices in literary press despite exercising strong selectivity by including just thirty-five poems from two hundred written by end of 1911. The small collection secured her reputation as new striking young writer through pieces like Grey-eyed king In the Forest Over the Water and I don't need my legs anymore. These naive poems reprinted thirteen times came out in several translations yet the girl herself did not foresee such fate for them.

  Her second collection Rosary appeared March 1914 establishing her among most popular sought-after poets of day. Thousands women composed poems honoring Akhmatova mimicking style prompting exclamation that she taught Russian women how speak but knew nothing about making silent. Her aristocratic manners artistic integrity won titles Queen Neva Soul Silver Age period known history Russian poetry. Later decades later long poem Poem Without Hero would recall this blessed time life though war approached soon fresh graves cover land according to lines written July 1914.

  Akhmatova became close friends Boris Pasternak who proposed marriage many times while married himself rumors circulated affair influential lyrical poet Alexander Blok. By August Germany declared Russia marking start dark storm world civil revolution totalitarian repression ending era. She had relationship mosaic artist Boris Anrep whose mosaics featured her image religiously titled Compassion depicting Saint Anne spelled Anna resembling mid-twenties portrait.

• 3. The Vegetarian Years

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  In 1921 former husband Nikolay Gumilev prosecuted alleged role monarchist anti-Bolshevik conspiracy executed via shooting Cheka along sixty-one others. Historian Donald Rayfield noted murder part state response Kronstadt rebellion blaming Petrograd intellectuals prompting senior officer Yakov Agranov forcibly extract names conspirators imprisoned professor guaranteeing amnesty from execution proving meaningless sentencing dozens named persons death including Gumilev Maxim Gorky appealed leniency Lenin agreed several pardons condemned shot days after his death writing powerful effect on Russian intelligentsia destroying Acmeist group placing stigma Akhmatova son Lev.

  From new Marxist perspective poetry deemed represent introspective bourgeois aesthetic reflecting trivial female preoccupations not keeping revolutionary politics time round attacked state former supporters seen anachronism termed Vegetarian Years unofficially banned party resolution 1925 hard publish though stopped writing made acclaimed translations Victor Hugo Rabindranath Tagore Giacomo Leopardi pursued academic work Pushkin Dostoyevsky worked critic essayist many Soviet foreign critics readers concluded died little food almost money denied access study institutions parents' alleged activities nationwide repression decimated circle friends artists intellectuals close friend Mandelstam deported sentenced Gulag labour camp dying there narrowly escaped arrest though son Lev imprisoned numerous occasions Stalinist regime accused counterrevolutionary activity often queue hours deliver packages plead behalf standing outside stone prison described woman lips blue cold asking whisper Can you describe this replied I can then smile passed fleetingly once face.

• 4. Requiem As Witness

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  Between years 1935 and 1940 composed worked reworked long poem Requiem secret lyrical cycle lamentation witness depicting suffering common people under Soviet terror carried working lived towns cities across Union conspicuously absent collected works given explicit condemnation purges. Work Russian finally appeared book form Munich year whole published within USSR until 1987 consists ten numbered poems examine series emotional states exploring suffering despair devotion rather clear narrative Biblical themes Christ crucifixion devastation Mary Mother Jesus Magdalene reflect ravaging Russia particularly witnessing harrowing women thirties represented rejection own earlier romantic taking public role chronicler Terror holds today.

  Akhmatova wrote one hundred million voices shout tortured mouth documenting personal experience time home Fountain House Fontanka river St Petersburg now museum tragic cycle documents her life during period. Close friend Lydia Chukovskaya described writers keeping poetic messages alive used strategies small trusted circle memorize circulate oral means telling Akhmatova write visitor scrap paper read moment burnt stove carefully disseminated manner likely compiled lost ritual beautiful bitter hands matches ashtray. During World War II witnessed nine-hundred-day siege Leningrad known Saint Petersburg started Poem Without Hero finished draft Tashkent worked twenty considered major work dedicating memory first audience friends fellow citizens perished siege.

• 5. The Siege And Survival

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  Evacuated Chistopol spring 1942 greener safer Tashkent Uzbekistan artists Shostakovich seriously ill typhus suffered severe bronchitis tuberculosis young woman returning May 1944 disturbed find terrible ghost pretended city regularly read soldiers military hospitals front line later pieces voice struggled many outlived moved away romantic diverse complex philosophical body patriotic poems found pages Pravda Central Committee Communist Party acting orders Stalin started official campaign bourgeois individualistic works Mikhail Zoshchenko condemned visit Russian-born British liberal philosopher Isaiah Berlin year Andrei Zhdanov publicly labelled half harlot nun poetry overwrought upper-class lady product eroticism mysticism political indifference banned journals Zvezda Leningrad accusing poisoning minds Soviet youth surveillance increased expelled Union Writers.

  Berlin described flat barely furnished virtually everything taken looted sold during stately grey-haired white shawl draped shoulders rose greet immensely dignified unhurried gestures noble head beautiful somewhat severe features expression immense sadness son Lev arrested end 1949 sentenced ten years Siberian prison camp spent next securing release published overtly propagandist In Praise Peace magazine Ogoniok openly supporting regime remained camps until well after death final release potentially aided concerted efforts Bayley suggests period pro-Stalinist work saved life notably never acknowledged pieces official corpus stature among poets slowly conceded party officials name cited scathing contexts readmitted Union Writers fully recognised following death press heavily controlled Nikita Khrushchev translation praised public review own re-appear same year released embittered believing mother cared more about than worked hard for.

• 6. The Oxford Visit And Death

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  During last continued live Punin family translating researching Pushkin writing own still censored concerned reconstruct destroyed suppressed posed threat life son camps lost semi-autobiographical play Enûma Elish accounts differ written Tashkent suffering typhus burnt fear reported concern Kafkaesque imprisonment trial woman poet why interned roundly condemning arbitrary nature purges friend could not remember shortest poems much less long text. Worked memoirs planned novels epic Poem Without Hero twenty years writing widely honoured USSR West visited Robert Frost Isaiah Berlin tried visit again refused worried might re-arrest due family association ideologically suspect western philosopher inspired advised large circle key young Soviet writers dacha Komarovo frequented Yevgeny Rein Joseph Brodsky mentored arrested social parasitism win Nobel Prize become Poet Laureate exile US.

  As one remaining major Silver Age newly acclaimed fine loyal representative permitted travel simultaneously hailed home abroad unofficial leader dissident movement reinforced image becoming representative both Tsarist Russia popular 1960s ever before revolution continuing growing after death seventy-fifth birthday new collections verse published able meet pre-revolutionary acquaintances allowed travel Sicily England receive Taormina prize honorary doctoral degree Oxford lifelong secretary Lydia Chukovskaya Requiem Russian finally appeared book form Munich whole work published within until year November suffered heart attack hospitalised moved sanatorium Moscow spring died March failure age seven-six thousand attended two memorial ceremonies held Moscow Leningrad displayed open coffin interred Komarovo Cemetery Saint Petersburg widespread worship memory today parallel known legend life unyielding passive resistance regarded unworthy country transformed figure Russian literature history twentieth century.