Anna Akhmatova

Author profile

born

in Odessa, Russian Federation

December 13, 1901

died

March 05, 1966

gender

female

genre

Poetry

About this author

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Also known as: Анна Ахматова, Anna Ahmatova

Pen name of Anna Andreevna Gorenko, a Russian poet credited with a large influence on Russian poetry.

Akhmatova's work ranges from short lyric poems to universalized, ingeniously structured cycles, such as Requiem (1935-40), her tragic masterpiece about the Stalinist terror. Her work addresses a variety of themes including time and memory, the fate of creative women, and the difficulties of living and writing in the shadow of Stalinism. She has been widely translated into many languages and is one of the best-known Russian poets of 20th century.

In 1910, she married the poet, Nikolay Gumilyov, who very soon left her for lion hunting in Africa, the battlefields of World War I, and the society of Paris...more Also known as: Анна Ахматова, Anna Ahmatova

Pen name of Anna Andreevna Gorenko, a Russian poet credited with a large influence on Russian poetry.

Akhmatova's work ranges from short lyric poems to universalized, ingeniously structured cycles, such as Requiem (1935-40), her tragic masterpiece about the Stalinist terror. Her work addresses a variety of themes including time and memory, the fate of creative women, and the difficulties of living and writing in the shadow of Stalinism. She has been widely translated into many languages and is one of the best-known Russian poets of 20th century.

In 1910, she married the poet, Nikolay Gumilyov, who very soon left her for lion hunting in Africa, the battlefields of World War I, and the society of Parisian grisettes. Her husband did not take her poems seriously, and was shocked when Alexander Blok declared to him that he preferred her poems to his. Their son, Lev, born in 1912, was to become a famous Neo-Eurasianist historian.

Nikolay Gumilyov was executed in 1921 for activities considered anti-Soviet; Akhmatova then married a prominent Assyriologist Vladimir Shilejko, and then an art scholar, Nikolay Punin, who died in the Stalinist Gulag camps.
After that, she spurned several proposals from the married poet, Boris Pasternak.

After 1922, Akhmatova was condemned as a bourgeois element, and from 1925 to 1940, her poetry was banned from publication. She earned her living by translating Leopardi and publishing essays, including some brilliant essays on Pushkin, in scholarly periodicals. All of her friends either emigrated or were repressed.

Her son spent his youth in Stalinist gulags, and she even resorted to publishing several poems in praise of Stalin to secure his release. Their relations remained strained, however.
Akhmatova died at the age of 76 in St. Peterburg. She was interred at Komarovo Cemetery.

There is a museum devoted to Akhmatova at the apartment where she lived with Nikolai Punin at the garden wing of the Fountain House (more properly known as the Sheremetev Palace) on the Fontanka Embankment, where Akhmatova lived from the mid 1920s until 1952.(less)

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Anna Akhmatova's Books

Average rating: 4.35 · 4,589 ratings · 166 reviews · 70 distinct works · Similar authors

	The Complete Poems by Anna Akhmatova, Judith Hemschemeyer (Translator), Roberta Reeder (Editor) 4.42 of 5 stars 4.42 avg rating — 2,327 ratings — published 1973 — 5 editions	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Selected Poems by Anna Akhmatova, D.M. Thomas (Translator) 4.31 of 5 stars 4.31 avg rating — 1,544 ratings — published 1969 — 27 editions	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Избранное by Anna Akhmatova, Анна Ахматова 4.72 of 5 stars 4.72 avg rating — 78 ratings — published 2004 — 3 editions	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Requiem Edition Bilingue 4.4 of 5 stars 4.40 avg rating — 73 ratings — published 1940 — 2 editions	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Poem Without a Hero: And Selected Poems by Anna Akhmatova, Lenore Mayhew 4.38 of 5 stars 4.38 avg rating — 79 ratings — published 1960 — 9 editions	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	You Will Hear Thunder by Anna Akhmatova, D.M. Thomas 4.38 of 5 stars 4.38 avg rating — 45 ratings — published 1985 — 3 editions	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	خاطره ای در درونم است 3.35 of 5 stars 3.35 avg rating — 133 ratings — published 1377 — 6 editions	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Twenty Poems by Anna Akhmatova, Jane Kenyon 4.43 of 5 stars 4.43 avg rating — 35 ratings — published 1985	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Стихотворения и поэмы by Anna Akhmatova, Анна Ахматова 4.71 of 5 stars 4.71 avg rating — 42 ratings — published 1989 — 4 editions	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Стихотворения и поэмы by Anna Akhmatova, Анна Ахматова 4.67 of 5 stars 4.67 avg rating — 27 ratings — published 2008	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

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Quotes by Anna Akhmatova

“You will hear thunder and remember me,
and think: she wanted storms...”
― Anna Akhmatova

126 people liked it

“You will hear thunder and remember me,
And think: she wanted storms. The rim
Of the sky will be the colour of hard crimson,
And your heart, as it was then, will be on fire.”
― Anna Akhmatova

33 people liked it

“I seem to myself, as in a dream,
Am accidental guest in this dreadful body.”
― Anna Akhmatova, The Complete Poems

tags: embodiment, illness

31 people liked it

See all Anna Akhmatova's quotes »

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Anna Akhmatova

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combine editionsAnna Akhmatova's Books

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Topics Mentioning This Author

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combine editions
Anna Akhmatova's Books