Anna Andreevna Akhmatova (nee Gorenko, after her first husband Gorenko-Gumilyov, after the divorce she took the surname Akhmatova, after her second husband Akhmatova-Shileiko, after Akhmatova’s divorce). Born on June 11 (23), 1889 in the Odessa suburb of Bolshoy Fontan - died on March 5, 1966 in Domodedovo, Moscow region. Russian poetess, translator and literary critic, one of the most significant figures of Russian literature of the 20th century.
Recognized as a classic of Russian poetry back in the 1920s, Akhmatova was subjected to silence, censorship and persecution (including the 1946 resolution of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, which was not repealed during her lifetime); many works were not published in her homeland not only during the author’s lifetime, but and for more than two decades after her death. At the same time, Akhmatova’s name, even during her lifetime, was surrounded by fame among poetry admirers both in the USSR and in exile.
Three people close to her were subjected to repression: her first husband, Nikolai Gumilyov, was shot in 1921; the third husband, Nikolai Punin, was arrested three times and died in a camp in 1953; the only son, Lev Gumilyov, spent more than 10 years in prison in the 1930-1940s and 1940-1950s.
Akhmatova’s ancestors on her mother’s side, according to family legend, went back to the Tatar Khan Akhmat (hence the pseudonym).
His father was a mechanical engineer in the navy and occasionally dabbled in journalism.
As a one-year-old child Anna was transported to Tsarskoe Selo, where she lived until she was sixteen years old. Her first memories are those of Tsarskoye Selo: “The green, damp splendor of the parks, the pasture where my nanny took me, the hippodrome where little colorful horses galloped, the old train station.”
She spent every summer near Sevastopol, on the shore of Streletskaya Bay. I learned to read using the alphabet of Leo Tolstoy. At the age of five, listening to the teacher teach the older children, she also began to speak French. Akhmatova wrote her first poem when she was eleven years old. Anna studied at the Tsarskoye Selo girls' gymnasium, at first poorly, then much better, but always reluctantly. In Tsarskoe Selo in 1903 she met N.S. Gumilev and became a regular recipient of his poems.
In 1905, after her parents’ divorce, she moved to Evpatoria. The last class took place at the Fundukleevskaya gymnasium in Kyiv, from which she graduated in 1907.
In 1908-10 she studied at the law department of the Kyiv Higher Women's Courses. Then she attended N.P. Raev’s women’s historical and literary courses in St. Petersburg (early 1910s).
In the spring of 1910, after several refusals, Akhmatova agreed to become his wife.
From 1910 to 1916 she lived with him in Tsarskoye Selo, and went to the Gumilevs’ Slepnevo estate in the Tver province for the summer. On her honeymoon she made her first trip abroad, to Paris. I visited there a second time in the spring of 1911.
In the spring of 1912, the Gumilevs traveled around Italy; in September their son Lev () was born.
Anna Akhmatova, Nikolai Gumilyov and son Lev
In 1918, having divorced Gumilev (the marriage actually broke up in 1914), Akhmatova married the Assyriologist and poet V.K. Shileiko.
Vladimir Shileiko - Akhmatova’s second husband
Writing poetry from the age of 11, and publishing from the age of 18 (first publication in the Sirius magazine published by Gumilyov in Paris, 1907), Akhmatova first announced her experiments to an authoritative audience (Ivanov, M.A. Kuzmin) in the summer of 1910. Defending from the very started family life spiritual independence, she makes an attempt to get published without the help of Gumilyov, in the fall of 1910 she sends poems to “Russian Thought” to V. Ya. Bryusov, asking whether she should study poetry, then submits poems to the magazines “Gaudeamus”, “General Journal”, “Apollo” ", who, unlike Bryusov, publish them.
Upon Gumilyov’s return from an African trip (March 1911), Akhmatova read to him everything he had written over the winter and for the first time received full approval for her literary experiments. From that time on, she became a professional writer. Her collection “Evening,” released a year later, gained very early success. Also in 1912, participants in the newly formed “Workshop of Poets,” of which Akhmatova was elected secretary, announced the emergence of the poetic school of Acmeism.
Under the sign of growing metropolitan fame, Akhmatova’s life proceeds in 1913: she speaks to a crowded audience at the Higher Women’s (Bestuzhev) Courses, her portraits are painted by artists, poets (including Alexander Blok) address her with poetic messages, which gave rise to the legend of their secret romance ). New, more or less long-term intimate attachments of Akhmatova to the poet and critic N.V. Nedobrovo, to the composer A.S. Lurie and others arise.
The second collection was published in 1914 "Beads"(reprinted about 10 times), which brought her all-Russian fame, gave rise to numerous imitations, and established the concept of “Akhmatov’s line” in the literary consciousness. In the summer of 1914, Akhmatova wrote a poem "By the sea", going back to childhood experiences during summer trips to Chersonesos near Sevastopol.
With the outbreak of World War I, Akhmatova sharply limited her public life. At this time she suffered from tuberculosis, a disease that did not let her go for a long time. In-depth reading of the classics (A.S. Pushkin, E.A. Baratynsky, Racine, etc.) affects her poetic manner; the acutely paradoxical style of quick psychological sketches gives way to neoclassical solemn intonations. Insightful criticism guesses in her collection "White Flock"(1917) a growing “sense of personal life as a national, historical life” (B. M. Eikhenbaum).
Inspiring an atmosphere of “mystery” and an aura of autobiographical context in her early poems, Akhmatova introduces free “self-expression” as a stylistic principle into high poetry. The apparent fragmentation, disorganization, and spontaneity of lyrical experience are more and more clearly subordinated to a strong integrating principle, which gave Vladimir Mayakovsky a reason to note: “Akhmatova’s poems are monolithic and will withstand the pressure of any voice without cracking.”
The first post-revolutionary years in Akhmatova’s life were marked by deprivation and complete separation from the literary environment, but in the fall of 1921, after the death of Blok and the execution of Gumilyov, she, having parted with Shileiko, returned to active work, participated in literary evenings, in the work of writers’ organizations, and published in periodicals. In the same year, two of her collections were published "Plantain" And "Anno Domini. MCMXXI".
In 1922, for a decade and a half, Akhmatova united her fate with art critic N. N. Punin.
Anna Akhmatova and third husband Nikolai Punin
In 1924, Akhmatova’s new poems were published in last time before a multi-year break, after which an unspoken ban was placed on her name. Only translations appear in print (letters from Rubens, Armenian poetry), as well as an article about “The Tale of the Golden Cockerel” by Pushkin. In 1935, her son L. Gumilyov and Punin were arrested, but after Akhmatova’s written appeal to Stalin they were released.
In 1937, the NKVD prepared materials to accuse her of counter-revolutionary activities.
In 1938, Akhmatova’s son was arrested again. The experiences of these painful years, expressed in poetry, formed a cycle "Requiem", which she did not dare to commit to paper for two decades.
In 1939, after a half-interested remark from Stalin, publishing authorities offered Akhmatova a number of publications. Her collection “From Six Books” (1940) was published, which included, along with old poems that had passed strict censorship selection, new works that arose after many years of silence. Soon, however, the collection was subjected to ideological criticism and removed from libraries.
In the first months of the Great Patriotic War, Akhmatova wrote poster poems (later “Oath”, 1941, and “Courage”, 1942 became popularly known). By order of the authorities, she is evacuated from Leningrad before the first winter of the siege; she spends two and a half years in Tashkent. He writes a lot of poetry, working on “Poem without a Hero” (1940-65), a baroque-complicated epic about the St. Petersburg 1910s.
In 1945-46, Akhmatova incurred the wrath of Stalin, who learned about the visit of the English historian I. Berlin to her. The Kremlin authorities make Akhmatova, along with M. M. Zoshchenko, the main object of party criticism. The decree of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) “On the magazines “Zvezda” and “Leningrad” (1946) directed against them tightened the ideological dictate and control over the Soviet intelligentsia, misled by the liberating spirit of national unity during the war. There was a publication ban again; an exception was made in 1950, when Akhmatova imitated loyal feelings in her poems written for Stalin's anniversary in a desperate attempt to soften the fate of her son, who was once again imprisoned.
In the last decade of Akhmatova’s life, her poems gradually, overcoming the resistance of party bureaucrats and the timidity of editors, came to a new generation of readers.
The final collection was published in 1965 "Running of Time". In her dying days, Akhmatova was allowed to accept the Italian Etna-Taormina literary prize (1964) and an honorary doctorate from Oxford University (1965).
On March 5, 1966, Anna Andreevna Akhmatova died in Domodedovo (near Moscow). The very fact of Akhmatova’s existence was a defining moment in the spiritual life of many people, and her death meant the severance of the last living connection with a bygone era.
Anna Andreevna Akhmatova, the great Russian poetess, was born on June 11, 1889. Her place of birth was the city of Odessa, where her father, a hereditary nobleman, worked as a mechanical engineer. Her mother, I. E. Stogovaya, was related to the first Russian poetess Anna Bunina. On her maternal side, Akhmatova had a Horde ancestor, and on his behalf she formed her pseudonym.
Childhood
short biography Akhmatova mentions the time when she was transported to Tsarskoye Selo at the age of one year. She lived there until she was sixteen years old. Among her earliest memories, she always noted magnificent green parks, a hippodrome with small colorful horses, and an old train station. Akhmatova spent the summer months on the shore of Streletskaya Bay, near Sevastopol. She was very inquisitive. Early I learned to read Leo Tolstoy's alphabet. She listened attentively when the teacher taught French to older children, and at the age of five she could express herself. Biography and were first closely intertwined when she was only eleven years old. At this age she wrote her first poem. The girl studied at the Tsarskoye Selo gymnasium. At first it was difficult for her. However, things soon got much better.
Youth
A short biography of Akhmatova must certainly reflect the fact that her mother divorced her husband in 1905 and moved with her daughter to Yevpatoria, and from there to Kyiv. It was here that Anna entered the Fundukleevskaya gymnasium, and after graduation she entered the Higher Women's Courses and the Faculty of Law. All this time she has been keenly interested in literature and history.
Nikolay Gumilyov
Anna met Nikolai Gumilyov when she was still very young, namely at the age of fourteen. The ardent young man immediately fell in love with the beautiful Akhmatova. His love can be called unhappy, since he did not win his beloved’s hand right away. He proposed to her several times and was invariably refused. And only in 1909 Akhmatova gave her consent. They got married on April 25, 1910. A short biography of Akhmatova cannot fully reflect the tragedy of marriage. Nikolai carried his wife in his arms, idolized her and surrounded her with attention. However, at the same time, he often started affairs on the side. In 1912, he truly fell in love with his young niece Masha Kuzmina-Karavaeva. For the first time, Akhmatova was toppled from her pedestal. She could not bear such a turn of events, and therefore decided to take a desperate step. That same year she gave birth to a son. Contrary to her expectations, her husband took this event rather coldly and continued to cheat on her.
Creation
In 1911, Akhmatova moved to St. Petersburg. The Akhmatova Museum will subsequently be opened in this city. Here she met Blok and published for the first time under her pseudonym. Fame and recognition came to her in 1912 after the release of the collection of poems “Evening”. In 1914, she published the collection “Rosary Beads,” and then in 1917, “The White Flock.” A significant place in them is occupied by Akhmatova’s unique love lyrics and poems about her homeland.
Personal life
In 1914, Akhmatova’s husband Gumilyov went to the front. She spends most of her time on the Gumilevs' estate Slepnevo in the Tver province. A short biography of Akhmatova further tells that four years later she divorces her husband and marries again the poet V.K. Shileiko. In 1921, a case was fabricated against Gumilyov, and he was accused of involvement in a conspiracy against the revolution, in the same year he was shot. Soon, in 1922, Akhmatova broke up with her second husband and began an affair with Punin, who was also arrested three times. The life of the poetess was difficult and sad. Her beloved son Lev was imprisoned for more than 10 years.
Ups and downs
In 1921, in October and April, Anna published two collections, which were the last before a long streak of censorship supervision of her poetry. In the twenties, Akhmatova was subjected to harsh criticism, and they stopped publishing her. Her name disappears from the pages of magazines and books. The poetess is forced to live in poverty. From 1935 to 1940, Anna Andreevna worked on her famous work “Requiem”. These poems by Akhmatova about the homeland, about the suffering of people, won the hearts of millions of people. In this work she reflects tragic fate thousands of Russian women forced to wait for their husbands from prison and raise their children in poverty. Her poetry was incredibly close to many. Despite the prohibitions, she was loved and read. In 1939, Stalin spoke positively about Akhmatova’s work, and she began to be published again. But as before, the poems were subject to strict censorship.
Great Patriotic War
At the beginning of the war, Anna Akhmatova (a short biography should certainly reflect this) is in Leningrad. Soon she leaves for Moscow, and then is evacuated to Tashkent, where she lives until 1944. She does not remain indifferent and tries with all her might to maintain the morale of the soldiers. Akhmatova helped in hospitals and performed poetry readings to the wounded. During this period, she wrote the poems “Oath”, “Courage”, “Cracks are dug in the garden”. In 1944 she returns to the destroyed Leningrad. She describes her eerie impression of what she saw in her essay “Three Lilacs.”
Post-war period
The year 1946 did not bring happiness or even relief to Akhmatova. She, along with other authors, was again subjected to the harshest criticism. She was expelled from the Writers' Union, which meant the end of any publications. The reason for everything was the writer’s meeting with the English historian Berlin. For a long time Akhmatova was engaged in translations. In an attempt to save her son from captivity, Anna writes poems praising Stalin. However, such a sacrifice was not accepted. was released only in 1956. By the end of her life, Akhmatova managed to overcome the resistance of bureaucrats and convey her creativity to a new generation. Her collection The Running of Time was published in 1965. She was allowed to accept the Ethno-Taormina literary prize, as well as a doctorate from the University of Oxford. On March 5, 1966, after suffering four heart attacks, Anna Akhmatova died. The Russian poetess was buried near Leningrad, in memory of this great woman kept by the Akhmatova Museum. It is located in St. Petersburg, in
Anna Akhmatova, whose life and work we will present to you, is the literary pseudonym with which she signed her poems. This poetess was born in 1889, June 11 (23), near Odessa. Her family soon moved to Tsarskoe Selo, where Akhmatova lived until she was 16 years old. The work (briefly) of this poetess will be presented after her biography. Let's first get acquainted with the life of Anna Gorenko.
Early years
Young years were not cloudless for Anna Andreevna. Her parents separated in 1905. The mother took her daughters, sick with tuberculosis, to Evpatoria. Here, for the first time, the “wild girl” encountered the life of rough strangers and dirty cities. She also experienced a love drama and attempted to commit suicide.
Education at Kyiv and Tsarskoye Selo gymnasiums
The early youth of this poetess was marked by her studies at the Kyiv and Tsarskoye Selo gymnasiums. She took her last class in Kyiv. After this, the future poetess studied jurisprudence in Kyiv, as well as philology in St. Petersburg, at the Higher Women's Courses. In Kyiv, she learned Latin, which later allowed her to become fluent in Italian and read Dante in the original. However, Akhmatova soon lost interest in legal disciplines, so she went to St. Petersburg, continuing her studies in historical and literary courses.
First poems and publications
The first poems, in which Derzhavin’s influence is still noticeable, were written by the young schoolgirl Gorenko, when she was only 11 years old. The first publications appeared in 1907.
In the 1910s, from the very beginning, Akhmatova regularly began to publish in Moscow and St. Petersburg publications. After the “Workshop of Poets” was created (in 1911), a literary association, she served as its secretary.
Marriage, trip to Europe
Anna Andreevna was married to N.S. from 1910 to 1918. Gumilev, also a famous Russian poet. She met him while studying at the Tsarskoye Selo gymnasium. After which Akhmatova committed in 1910-1912, where she became friends with the Italian artist who created her portrait. Also at the same time she visited Italy.
Appearance of Akhmatova
Nikolai Gumilyov introduced his wife to the literary and artistic environment, where her name acquired early significance. Not only Anna Andreevna’s poetic style became popular, but also her appearance. Akhmatova amazed her contemporaries with her majesty and royalty. She was shown attention like a queen. The appearance of this poetess inspired not only A. Modigliani, but also such artists as K. Petrov-Vodkin, A. Altman, Z. Serebryakova, A. Tyshler, N. Tyrsa, A. Danko (the work of Petrov-Vodkin is presented below) .
The first collection of poems and the birth of a son
In 1912, a significant year for the poetess, two important events occurred in her life. The first collection of Anna Andreevna’s poems, entitled “Evening,” was published, which marked her work. Akhmatova also gave birth to a son, the future historian, Nikolaevich - an important event in personal life.
The poems included in the first collection are flexible in the images used in them and clear in composition. They forced Russian criticism to say that a new talent had arisen in poetry. Although Akhmatova’s “teachers” are such symbolist masters as A. A. Blok and I. F. Annensky, her poetry was perceived from the very beginning as Acmeistic. In fact, together with O. E. Mandelstam and N. S. Gumilev, the poetess at the beginning of 1910 formed the core of this new movement in poetry that had emerged at that time.
The next two collections, the decision to stay in Russia
The first collection was followed by a second book entitled “The Rosary” (in 1914), and three years later, in September 1917, the collection “The White Flock” was published, the third in her work. The October Revolution did not force the poetess to emigrate, although mass emigration began at that time. One after another, people close to Akhmatova left Russia: A. Lurie, B. Antrep, as well as O. Glebova-Studeikina, her friend from her youth. However, the poetess decided to stay in “sinful” and “deaf” Russia. A sense of responsibility to her country, connection with the Russian land and language prompted Anna Andreevna to enter into dialogue with those who decided to leave her. Long years those who left Russia continued to justify their emigration to Akhmatova. In particular, R. Gul argues with her, V. Frank and G. Adamovich turn to Anna Andreevna.
Difficult time for Anna Andreevna Akhmatova
At this time, her life changed dramatically, which reflected her work. Akhmatova worked in the library at the Agronomic Institute, and in the early 1920s she managed to publish two more collections of poetry. These were "Plantain", released in 1921, as well as "Anno Domini" (translated - "In the Year of the Lord", released in 1922). For 18 years after this, her works did not appear in print. There were various reasons for this: on the one hand, this was the execution of N.S. Gumileva, ex-husband, who was accused of participating in a conspiracy against the revolution; on the other hand, the rejection of the poetess’s work by Soviet criticism. During the years of this forced silence, Anna Andreevna spent a lot of time studying the work of Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin.
Visit to Optina Pustyn
Akhmatova associated the change in her “voice” and “handwriting” with the mid-1920s, with a visit to Optina Pustyn in May 1922 and a conversation with Elder Nektariy. Probably this conversation greatly influenced the poetess. Akhmatova was related on her mother’s side to A. Motovilov, who was a lay novice of Seraphim of Sarov. She accepted through generations the idea of redemption and sacrifice.
Second marriage
The turning point in Akhmatova’s fate was also associated with the personality of V. Shileiko, who became her second husband. He was an orientalist who studied the culture of such ancient countries as Babylon, Assyria, and Egypt. Her personal life with this helpless and despotic man did not work out, but the poetess attributed to his influence the increase in philosophical, restrained notes in her work.
Life and work in the 1940s
A collection entitled "From Six Books" appeared in 1940. He returned for a short time such a poetess as Anna Akhmatova to the modern literature of that time. Her life and work at this time were quite dramatic. Akhmatova was found in Leningrad by the Great Patriotic War. She was evacuated from there to Tashkent. However, in 1944 the poetess returned to Leningrad. In 1946, subjected to unfair and cruel criticism, she was expelled from the Writers' Union.
Return to Russian literature
After this event, the next decade in the poetess’s work was marked only by the fact that at that time Anna Akhmatova was engaged in literary translation. The Soviet authorities were not interested in her creativity. L.N. Gumilyov, her son, was serving his sentence in forced labor camps at that time as a political criminal. The return of Akhmatova’s poems to Russian literature took place only in the second half of the 1950s. Since 1958, collections of this poetess's poetry begin to be published again. “Poem Without a Hero” was completed in 1962, having been created over the course of 22 years. Anna Akhmatova died in 1966, on March 5th. The poetess was buried near St. Petersburg, in Komarov. Her grave is shown below.
Acmeism in the works of Akhmatova
Akhmatova, whose work today is one of the pinnacles of Russian poetry, later treated her first book of poetry rather coolly, highlighting only a single line in it: “... drunk with the sound of a voice similar to yours.” Mikhail Kuzmin, however, ended his preface to this collection with the words that a young, new poet is coming to us, having all the data to become real. The poetics of "Evening" largely predetermined theoretical program Acmeism - a new movement in literature, to which such a poet as Anna Akhmatova is often attributed. Her creativity reflects many characteristics this direction.
The photo below was taken in 1925.
Acmeism arose as a reaction to the extremes of the Symbolist style. For example, an article by V. M. Zhirmunsky, a famous literary scholar and critic, about the work of representatives of this movement was called as follows: “Overcoming Symbolism.” They contrasted the mystical distances and “purple worlds” with life in this world, “here and now.” Moral relativism and various shapes new Christianity were replaced by "values of an unshakable rock."
The theme of love in the poetess’s work
Akhmatova came to the literature of the 20th century, its first quarter, with the most traditional theme for world poetry - the theme of love. However, its solution in the work of this poetess is fundamentally new. Akhmatova’s poems are far from the sentimental female lyrics represented in the 19th century by such names as Karolina Pavlova, Yulia Zhadovskaya, Mirra Lokhvitskaya. They are also far from the “ideal”, abstract lyricism characteristic of the love poetry of the Symbolists. In this sense, she relied mainly not on Russian lyrics, but on the prose of the 19th century by Akhmatov. Her work was innovative. O. E. Mandelstam, for example, wrote that Akhmatova brought the complexity of the 19th century Russian novel to the lyrics. An essay on her work could begin with this thesis.
In “Evening,” love feelings appeared in different guises, but the heroine invariably appeared rejected, deceived, and suffering. K. Chukovsky wrote about her that the first to discover that being unloved is poetic was Akhmatova (an essay on her work, “Akhmatova and Mayakovsky,” created by the same author, largely contributed to her persecution when the poems of this poetess not published). Unhappy love was seen as a source of creativity, not a curse. The three parts of the collection are named respectively “Love”, “Deception” and “Muse”. Fragile femininity and grace were combined in Akhmatova’s lyrics with a courageous acceptance of her suffering. Of the 46 poems included in this collection, almost half were dedicated to separation and death. This is no coincidence. In the period from 1910 to 1912, the poetess was possessed by a feeling of short life, she had a presentiment of death. By 1912, two of her sisters had died of tuberculosis, so Anna Gorenko (Akhmatova, whose life and work we are considering) believed that the same fate would befall her. However, unlike the Symbolists, she did not connect separation and death with feelings of hopelessness and melancholy. These moods gave rise to the experience of the beauty of the world.
They took shape in the collection “Evening” and were finally formed, first in “Rosary”, then in “White Flock” distinctive features style of this poetess.
Motives of conscience and memory
Anna Andreevna’s intimate lyrics are deeply historical. Already in “The Rosary” and “Evening”, along with the theme of love, two other main motives arise - conscience and memory.
“Fatal minutes” that marked our national history (the first one, which began in 1914) World War), coincided with a difficult period in the life of the poetess. She developed tuberculosis in 1915, a hereditary disease in her family.
"Pushkinism" by Akhmatova
The motives of conscience and memory in “The White Flock” become even stronger, after which they become dominant in her work. The poetess's poetic style evolved in 1915-1917. Akhmatova’s peculiar “Pushkinism” is increasingly mentioned in criticism. Its essence is artistic completeness, precision of expression. The presence of a “quotation layer” with numerous echoes and allusions to both contemporaries and predecessors: O. E. Mandelstam, B. L. Pasternak, A. A. Blok is also noted. All the spiritual wealth of the culture of our country stood behind Akhmatova, and she rightly felt like its heir.
The theme of the homeland in Akhmatova’s work, attitude to the revolution
The dramatic events of the poetess’s life could not help but be reflected in her work. Akhmatova, whose life and work took place during a difficult period for our country, perceived the years as a disaster. The old country, in her opinion, no longer exists. The theme of the homeland in Akhmatova’s work is presented, for example, in the collection “Anno Domini”. The section that opens this collection, published in 1922, is called “After Everything.” The epigraph to the entire book was the line “in those fabulous years...” by F. I. Tyutchev. There is no longer a homeland for the poetess...
However, for Akhmatova, the revolution is also retribution for the sinful life of the past, retribution. Let lyrical heroine and did not do evil herself, she feels that she is involved in the common guilt, therefore Anna Andreevna is ready to share the difficult share of her people. The homeland in Akhmatova’s work is obliged to atone for its guilt.
Even the title of the book, translated as “In the Year of the Lord,” speaks of what the poetess perceives as God's will your era. The use of historical parallels and biblical motifs is becoming one of the ways to comprehend artistically what is happening in Russia. Akhmatova increasingly resorts to them (for example, the poems “Cleopatra”, “Dante”, “Bible Verses”).
In the lyrics of this great poetess, “I” at this time turns into “we”. Anna Andreevna speaks on behalf of “many”. Every hour not only of this poetess, but also of her contemporaries, will be justified precisely by the word of the poet.
These are the main themes of Akhmatova’s work, both eternal and characteristic of the era of this poetess’ life. She is often compared to another - Marina Tsvetaeva. Both of them are today the canons of women's lyrics. However, the work of Akhmatova and Tsvetaeva not only has much in common, but also differs in many ways. Schoolchildren are often asked to write essays on this topic. In fact, it is interesting to speculate about why it is almost impossible to confuse a poem written by Akhmatova with a work created by Tsvetaeva. However, this is another topic...
Born near Odessa (Bolshoi Fontan). Daughter of mechanical engineer Andrei Antonovich Gorenko and Inna Erasmovna, nee Stogova. As a poetic pseudonym, Anna Andreevna took the surname of her great-grandmother Tatar Akhmatova.
In 1890, the Gorenko family moved to Tsarskoye Selo near St. Petersburg, where Anna lived until she was 16 years old. She studied at the Tsarskoye Selo gymnasium, in one of the classes of which she studied future husband Nikolay Gumilyov. In 1905, the family moved to Evpatoria, and then to Kyiv, where Anna graduated from the gymnasium course at the Fundukleevskaya gymnasium.
Akhmatova's first poem was published in Paris in 1907 in the magazine Sirius, published in Russian. In 1912, her first book of poems, “Evening,” was published. By this time she was already signing with the pseudonym Akhmatova.
In the 1910s Akhmatova’s work was closely connected with the poetic group of Acmeists, which took shape in the fall of 1912. The founders of Acmeism were Sergei Gorodetsky and Nikolai Gumilev, who became Akhmatova’s husband in 1910.
Thanks to her bright appearance, talent, and sharp mind, Anna Andreevna attracted the attention of poets who dedicated poems to her, artists who painted her portraits (N. Altman, K. Petrov-Vodkin, Yu. Annenkov, M. Saryan, etc.) . Composers created music based on her works (S. Prokofiev, A. Lurie, A. Vertinsky, etc.).
In 1910 she visited Paris, where she met the artist A. Modigliani, who painted several of her portraits.
Along with great fame, she had to experience many personal tragedies: in 1921, her husband Gumilev was shot, in the spring of 1924, a decree of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks was issued, which actually prohibited Akhmatova from publishing. In the 1930s repression fell on almost all of her friends and like-minded people. They also affected the people closest to her: first, her son Lev Gumilev was arrested and exiled, then her second husband, art critic Nikolai Nikolaevich Punin.
IN last years During her life, living in Leningrad, Akhmatova worked a lot and intensively: in addition to poetic works, she was engaged in translations, wrote memoirs, essays, and prepared a book about A.S. Pushkin. Recognition of the poet’s great merits to world culture was the awarding of the international poetry prize “Etna Taormina” to her in 1964, and her scientific works were awarded an honorary Doctor of Letters degree by Oxford University.
Akhmatova died in a sanatorium in the Moscow region. She was buried in the village of Komarovo near Leningrad.
Perhaps Anna Akhmatova is considered one of the most talented and popular poets of the Silver Age. Truly a brilliant woman who left behind several collections of first-class works. Her life was full of bright and at the same time tragic events. Let's take a closer look at the intelligent and unconventional poetess of the century.
Her real name is Anna Andreevna Gorenko. Born near Odessa, June 11 (or June 23, if counted according to the old calendar) in 1889. Father, Andrei Gorenko, is a captain of the 2nd rank (retired), and mother, Inna Stogova, is one of the representatives of the Odessa intelligentsia of that time. . But the famous poetess cannot be considered an Odessa resident - at the age of one year, the village of Tsarskoe Selo (which is near St. Petersburg) became their permanent place residence. Anna is a girl from an intelligent family, and this left a certain imprint on her fate. Since childhood I have studied French and social etiquette, popular at that time, was mandatory for such families. The first stage of education took place at the Tsarskoye Selo gymnasium for girls. Here, at the age of eleven, she wrote her first poems. It was in this gymnasium that she met her first husband, Nikolai Gumilyov. They met at a party, of which the gymnasium held many. After this case, this couple became each other's muse.
After her first poem, she began to hone her craft. But her father believed that this was an inappropriate task for his daughter and gave a ban on signing her works with his last name (Gorenko). Therefore, Anna used her great-grandmother’s surname - Akhmatova. Her parents, for unknown reasons, decided to divorce, and the young poetess and her mother went to live in the resort town of Evpatoria, and then to the city of Kyiv. There, in the period 1908-1910. She received her second education at a special gymnasium for women. And already in 1910 she married her long-time friend Gumilyov. In those years, he was a very prominent person in certain poetic circles and contributed to the promotion of her publications.
It began publishing in 1911, and a full-fledged collection was presented to the public already in 1912 and was called “Evening”. In the same year, her first-born son was born, who was named Leo. Next, in 1914, the collection “Rosary Beads” was published, which brought her fame - she began to be considered a fashionable poetess. Since she no longer needed his protection, discord arose in the family, and they decided to divorce (this was in 1918). The next husband was a scientist (part-time poet) - Vladimir Shileiko. But this marriage, by coincidence, did not last long - in 1922 they divorced, and Anna married an art critic whose name was Nikolai Punin. What is interesting: subsequently, he and her son Lev were arrested by the Soviet authorities at the same time. However, the husband was released, but the son remained to serve his sentence.
In 1924, her final collection was presented to the public, and after its release, Anna came under the gun of the NKVD. Her creations were called such that they cause confusion and anti-communist sentiment in society. From that time on, she went into a kind of creative depression - she put a lot of works on the table, and the genre of her poems shifted from romantic to social. After her husband and son were arrested, she experiences a creative surge - past events put pressure on her, and she works on the poem “Requiem”. In 1940, her special collection of “sterile” (according to the Soviet authorities) poems was published, called “From Six Books” - all of them were carefully checked for anti-communist views and appeals. During World War II, she experienced a creative decline. At the same time, she tried to get her son out of exile, who was sentenced to 10 years in concentration camps for the second time. No one listened to her, and the son, after his release, moved away from his mother - he believed that she had not made any effort to free him.
In 1958, the collection “Poems” was published, and in 1964, “The Running of Time”. And in 1965 she received her doctorate from Oxford University. March 5, 1966 was the day of her death.
