Ahmatova Anna Andreevna

Russian Russian poet Anna Andreevna Akhmatova (nee Gorenko) is a Russian and Soviet poet, translator, literary critic, and one of the key figures of 20th—century Russian literature.

Biography

Early years:
Born on June 11 (23), 1889 in the Bolshoy Fontana district of Odessa in the family of a hereditary nobleman Andrei Antonovich Gorenko, a retired naval mechanical engineer.
In 1890, the family moved first to Pavlovsk, then to Tsarskoye Selo, where Akhmatova lived until the age of 16.
She studied at the Mariinsky Girls' Gymnasium in Tsarskoye Selo (1900-1905), then at the Fundukleevskaya Gymnasium in Kiev. She continued her education at the Kiev Higher Women's Courses and at the Higher Women's Historical and Literary Courses of N. P. Raev in St. Petersburg.
She wrote her first poem at the age of 11, and published it in 1907 in the Parisian magazine Sirius, edited by Nikolai Gumilev.

Personal life:
In 1910, she married Nikolai Gumilev (the marriage lasted until 1918).
In 1912, his son Lev Gumilev (a future historian and ethnographer) was born.
Second marriage (1918-1922) with Orientalist and poet Vladimir Shileyko.

Creative path and trials:
1912 — debut collection "Evening".
1914 — collection "Rosary", which was reprinted eight times in ten years.
She belonged to the poetic movement of acmeism, founded by Sergei Gorodetsky and Nikolai Gumilev.
From 1925 to 1939 and from 1946 to 1955, her poems were practically not published.
In the 1930s, she began writing the Requiem cycle (published only in 1987), a poem about victims of repression based on personal experience (the arrests of Lev Gumilev's son and Nikolai Punin's third husband).
During the Great Patriotic War, she was evacuated.
In 1946, she was severely criticized in the resolution of the Central Committee of the CPSU(b) on the magazines Zvezda and Leningrad, and was expelled from the Writers' Union.
In the 1950s‑ it gradually gained some recognition from the authorities.
In recent years, she has been engaged in translations, writing memoirs, essays, and preparing a book about Alexander Pushkin.

Recognition and awards:
1964 — International poetry Prize "Etna Taormina" for services to world culture.
Oxford University awarded the honorary degree of Doctor of Literature.
She was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1965 and 1966.

Death:
She died on March 5, 1966 in a sanatorium in the Moscow region (Domodedovo).
She was buried in the village of Komarovo near Leningrad.

Creative heritage

Key works:
"Evening" (1912) — the debut collection, which brought fame.
The Rosary (1914) cemented Akhmatova's reputation as one of the leading poets of her time.
Requiem (1935-1940, published in 1987) is an autobiographical poem about the victims of Stalin's repressions. It has been distributed in samizdat for a long time.
"A Poem without a Hero" (1940-1962, the full text was published in the USSR in 1976) is a complex work reflecting Akhmatova's view of the era from the Silver Age to the Second World War.
"The Flight of Time" (1965) is the last lifetime collection of poetry and poems.

Features of creativity:
Psychological depth: the subtle revelation of a person's inner world, especially women's experiences.
Laconism and clarity: attraction to the classical style of poetic language.
The connection between personal and historical: understanding the national tragedies of the 20th century through the prism of personal experiences.
Loyalty to moral principles: the preservation of spiritual values in the face of social upheaval.
Musicality: many composers (p. Prokofiev, A. Lurie, A. Vertinsky) created music based on her poems.

Influence and memory

Portraits: it was painted by artists N. Altman, K. Petrov‑Vodkin, Y. Annenkov, M. Saryan.
Paris and Modigliani: In 1910, she visited Paris, where she met the artist Amedeo Modigliani, who created several portraits of her.

Museums and memorials:
The house in Odessa (Fontanskaya road, 76), where she was born.
The grave at Komarovsky Cemetery is a place of pilgrimage for admirers of her poetry.

Cultural heritage: Akhmatova's poems have been translated into many languages, studied in schools and universities, and inspire modern poets and artists.

Interesting facts

She took the pseudonym "Akhmatova" from the maiden name of her great-grandmother Praskovya Fedoseevna Motovilova, nee Akhmatova (from the family of Tatar princes). Her father disapproved of her poetic pursuits and forbade her to sign with Gorenko's last name.
She had a bright appearance and a sharp mind, which attracted the attention of her contemporaries.
Despite censorship and persecution, she retained her creative independence and dignity.
She defended young poets, including Joseph Brodsky, during difficult periods of their lives.