Anna Akhmatova(1889-1966)
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Anna Akhmatova was arguably the greatest Russian woman poet.
She was born Anna Andreevna Gorenko on June 23, 1889, in Bolshoi
Fontan, a suburb of Odessa, Ukraine, Russian Empire. Her father, Andrei
Antonovich Gorenko, was a Navy Engineer. Her mother, Inna Erazmovna
(nee Stogova), belonged to Russian Nobility. From 1890-1905 her father
served in St. Petersburg at the Headquarters of the Imperial Trade
Fleet and Ports under Grand Prince Aleksander Mikhailovich. The family
lived in Tsarskoe Selo, the elite Royal suburb of St. Petersburg. Young
Anna Akhmatova received an excellent private education and attended the
Tsarskoselky Gymnasium for Ladies. After the divorce of her parents in
1905, she lived in Kiev for 4 years. There she graduated from the
Fundukleevsky Gymnazium in 1907, and attended the Law school of Kiev
University for 2 years. Back in St. Petersburg she studied at the St.
Petersburg Classes for women (Zhenskie Kursy) from 1911-1913.
Akhmatova started writing poetry from age 11, and signed her first
publication with her real name, Anna Gorenko. Her father objected that
she used his name, because he also was a writer, and even met
Fyodor Dostoevsky and corresponded
with Anton Chekhov. Then Anna made up a
pseudonym 'Akhmatova' and invented a poetic myth of her connection to
the Tatar Khan Akhmat; her pseudonym was a product of her creative
imagination. In 1910, in Kiev she married Nikolai Gumilev, whom she
knew for five years. Gumilev was an important Russian poet and critic,
the founder of the literary movement of Acmeism. The young couple spent
a honeymoon in Paris. There she met with then little known artist
Amedeo Modigliani. She made a second trip to Paris in 1911 and to Italy
in 1912, and continued her friendship with Modigliani, who made fifteen
portraits of her, some of them nude. Inspired by love, Akhmatova wrote
her first book of poetry "Evening" (Vecher, 1912). At the same time
Akhmatova met Vladimir Mayakovsky at
the St. Petersburg literary club 'Brodyachaya Sobaka' (Stray Dog). Her
son Lev Gumilev was born in October of 1912. Her next books "Rosary"
(Chyotki, 1914) and "The White Flock" (Belaya Staya, 1917) brought her
literary fame. Her poetry was highly praised by
Yuri Tynyanov and
Boris Pasternak.
Terror came in her life with the Russian revolution of 1917. Communists
killed leading intellectuals by thousands. Akhmatova's separated
husband Nikolai Gumilev was executed in 1921 on the charges of
"anti-Soviet plot". After publishing her books "Plantain" (Podorozhnik,
1921) and "Anno Domini MCMXXI (1922) she was ostracized as "bourgeous".
She witnessed the brutal arrest of poet Osip Mandelstam, who criticized
Joseph Stalin and later was killed in a
Siberian prison-camp. Publication of her works has been banned from
1925 to 1953. One modest collection of her poetry was published in
Leningrad in 1940, but was banned the same year and confiscated from
all Soviet libraries and book stores. In spite of her own suffering,
Akhmatova supported a young struggling writer
Olga Berggolts. At the beginning of the
Nazi siege of Leningrad Akhmatova was starving and helpless. She was
evacuated to Tashkent, Uzbekistan, where she lived with the family of
Korney Ivanovich Chukovskiy. In the middle of WWII
her poem 'Courage' was published in Pravda.
Akhmatova's husband Nikolai Punin was a chief curator of the Hermitage
and a prominent art historian and writer. He was arrested in 1935,
after his criticism of ugly life in the Soviet Union under
Joseph Stalin. Punin criticized the loss
of civilized values and tasteless portraits of the Soviet dictator
Vladimir Lenin, thousands of which flooded the
renamed city of Leningrad. Akhmatova had to burn all of her husband's
documents and photographs in order to protect his life. Then she was
assisted by her friends
Mikhail A. Bulgakov and
Boris Pasternak in writing a petition to
Joseph Stalin, and her husband was
released. The second time Akhmatova tried to save Punin from under
arrest was in 1949. At that time, Punin lectured that Cezanne and Van
Gogh were great artists, and he described the portrait of
Vladimir Lenin, as "a bootleg, not a painting";
for such anti-communist statement he was arrested and exiled to the
Gulag prison-camp. He died in a Vorkuta prison-camp in 1953. This time
Akhmatova was powerless, because she was under KGB surveillance.
After the end of the Second World War Akhmatova was interviewed in
Leningrad by Sir Isaiah Berlin, who came
for a visit from London in the fall of 1945. In August of 1946
Akhmatova was attacked by the Central Committee of the Communist Party,
because Joseph Stalin pushed repressions
against intellectuals (writers, musicians, doctors). Akhmatova was
labeled "alien to the Soviet people" for her "eroticism, mysticism, and
political impartiality." She was censored along with
Boris Pasternak,
Mikhail Zoschenko,
Sergei Prokofiev, and other leading
intellectuals. The official ban was imposed on all publications and
public performances of Akhmatova, and she was deprived of livelihood
until the death of Joseph Stalin.
After her expulsion from the Union of Writers in 1946, Akhmatova was
left penniless. At that time she was threatened by the Soviet
authorities and moved from Leningrad to Moscow with the family of
Viktor Ardov. Ardov, Chukovsky, and Fadeev
later helped reinstate her membership in the Union of Writers.
Boris Pasternak gave a special reading
of the unpublished version of his novel 'Doctor Zhivago' for Akhmatova.
In 1955 she received a small dacha-cabin in Komarovo, a suburb of
Leningrad (St. Petersburg). There she was living and writing in the
summertime, working on her major works: 'Poema bez geroya' and
'Requiem'. But her masterpiece 'Requiem' was not published until 1987.
'Requiem' is a monumental poem about survival of the people through the
'Great Terror' and dictatorship of Stalin.
Her only son Lev Gumilev (1912 - 1992) was a historian and philosopher,
who survived several arrests and spent many years in the Soviet Gulag
prison-camps. Akhmatova and her circle in the
50's and 60's Leningrad was an
unofficial incubator for talented youth, such as her apprentice
Joseph Brodsky.
In 1962, Akhmatova was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature, and
in 1964 she was awarded the Etna-Taormina Prize for poetry. Akhmatova
also received an honorary doctorate from Oxford University (1965).
Anna Akhmatova died on March 5, 1966, in Domodedovo, a suburb of
Moscow. Akhmatova's burial service was held at the St. Nicholas Naval
Cathedral in St. Petersburg, she was laid to rest in the Komarovo
cemetery, near St. Petersburg, Russia.
She was born Anna Andreevna Gorenko on June 23, 1889, in Bolshoi
Fontan, a suburb of Odessa, Ukraine, Russian Empire. Her father, Andrei
Antonovich Gorenko, was a Navy Engineer. Her mother, Inna Erazmovna
(nee Stogova), belonged to Russian Nobility. From 1890-1905 her father
served in St. Petersburg at the Headquarters of the Imperial Trade
Fleet and Ports under Grand Prince Aleksander Mikhailovich. The family
lived in Tsarskoe Selo, the elite Royal suburb of St. Petersburg. Young
Anna Akhmatova received an excellent private education and attended the
Tsarskoselky Gymnasium for Ladies. After the divorce of her parents in
1905, she lived in Kiev for 4 years. There she graduated from the
Fundukleevsky Gymnazium in 1907, and attended the Law school of Kiev
University for 2 years. Back in St. Petersburg she studied at the St.
Petersburg Classes for women (Zhenskie Kursy) from 1911-1913.
Akhmatova started writing poetry from age 11, and signed her first
publication with her real name, Anna Gorenko. Her father objected that
she used his name, because he also was a writer, and even met
Fyodor Dostoevsky and corresponded
with Anton Chekhov. Then Anna made up a
pseudonym 'Akhmatova' and invented a poetic myth of her connection to
the Tatar Khan Akhmat; her pseudonym was a product of her creative
imagination. In 1910, in Kiev she married Nikolai Gumilev, whom she
knew for five years. Gumilev was an important Russian poet and critic,
the founder of the literary movement of Acmeism. The young couple spent
a honeymoon in Paris. There she met with then little known artist
Amedeo Modigliani. She made a second trip to Paris in 1911 and to Italy
in 1912, and continued her friendship with Modigliani, who made fifteen
portraits of her, some of them nude. Inspired by love, Akhmatova wrote
her first book of poetry "Evening" (Vecher, 1912). At the same time
Akhmatova met Vladimir Mayakovsky at
the St. Petersburg literary club 'Brodyachaya Sobaka' (Stray Dog). Her
son Lev Gumilev was born in October of 1912. Her next books "Rosary"
(Chyotki, 1914) and "The White Flock" (Belaya Staya, 1917) brought her
literary fame. Her poetry was highly praised by
Yuri Tynyanov and
Boris Pasternak.
Terror came in her life with the Russian revolution of 1917. Communists
killed leading intellectuals by thousands. Akhmatova's separated
husband Nikolai Gumilev was executed in 1921 on the charges of
"anti-Soviet plot". After publishing her books "Plantain" (Podorozhnik,
1921) and "Anno Domini MCMXXI (1922) she was ostracized as "bourgeous".
She witnessed the brutal arrest of poet Osip Mandelstam, who criticized
Joseph Stalin and later was killed in a
Siberian prison-camp. Publication of her works has been banned from
1925 to 1953. One modest collection of her poetry was published in
Leningrad in 1940, but was banned the same year and confiscated from
all Soviet libraries and book stores. In spite of her own suffering,
Akhmatova supported a young struggling writer
Olga Berggolts. At the beginning of the
Nazi siege of Leningrad Akhmatova was starving and helpless. She was
evacuated to Tashkent, Uzbekistan, where she lived with the family of
Korney Ivanovich Chukovskiy. In the middle of WWII
her poem 'Courage' was published in Pravda.
Akhmatova's husband Nikolai Punin was a chief curator of the Hermitage
and a prominent art historian and writer. He was arrested in 1935,
after his criticism of ugly life in the Soviet Union under
Joseph Stalin. Punin criticized the loss
of civilized values and tasteless portraits of the Soviet dictator
Vladimir Lenin, thousands of which flooded the
renamed city of Leningrad. Akhmatova had to burn all of her husband's
documents and photographs in order to protect his life. Then she was
assisted by her friends
Mikhail A. Bulgakov and
Boris Pasternak in writing a petition to
Joseph Stalin, and her husband was
released. The second time Akhmatova tried to save Punin from under
arrest was in 1949. At that time, Punin lectured that Cezanne and Van
Gogh were great artists, and he described the portrait of
Vladimir Lenin, as "a bootleg, not a painting";
for such anti-communist statement he was arrested and exiled to the
Gulag prison-camp. He died in a Vorkuta prison-camp in 1953. This time
Akhmatova was powerless, because she was under KGB surveillance.
After the end of the Second World War Akhmatova was interviewed in
Leningrad by Sir Isaiah Berlin, who came
for a visit from London in the fall of 1945. In August of 1946
Akhmatova was attacked by the Central Committee of the Communist Party,
because Joseph Stalin pushed repressions
against intellectuals (writers, musicians, doctors). Akhmatova was
labeled "alien to the Soviet people" for her "eroticism, mysticism, and
political impartiality." She was censored along with
Boris Pasternak,
Mikhail Zoschenko,
Sergei Prokofiev, and other leading
intellectuals. The official ban was imposed on all publications and
public performances of Akhmatova, and she was deprived of livelihood
until the death of Joseph Stalin.
After her expulsion from the Union of Writers in 1946, Akhmatova was
left penniless. At that time she was threatened by the Soviet
authorities and moved from Leningrad to Moscow with the family of
Viktor Ardov. Ardov, Chukovsky, and Fadeev
later helped reinstate her membership in the Union of Writers.
Boris Pasternak gave a special reading
of the unpublished version of his novel 'Doctor Zhivago' for Akhmatova.
In 1955 she received a small dacha-cabin in Komarovo, a suburb of
Leningrad (St. Petersburg). There she was living and writing in the
summertime, working on her major works: 'Poema bez geroya' and
'Requiem'. But her masterpiece 'Requiem' was not published until 1987.
'Requiem' is a monumental poem about survival of the people through the
'Great Terror' and dictatorship of Stalin.
Her only son Lev Gumilev (1912 - 1992) was a historian and philosopher,
who survived several arrests and spent many years in the Soviet Gulag
prison-camps. Akhmatova and her circle in the
50's and 60's Leningrad was an
unofficial incubator for talented youth, such as her apprentice
Joseph Brodsky.
In 1962, Akhmatova was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature, and
in 1964 she was awarded the Etna-Taormina Prize for poetry. Akhmatova
also received an honorary doctorate from Oxford University (1965).
Anna Akhmatova died on March 5, 1966, in Domodedovo, a suburb of
Moscow. Akhmatova's burial service was held at the St. Nicholas Naval
Cathedral in St. Petersburg, she was laid to rest in the Komarovo
cemetery, near St. Petersburg, Russia.