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Anna Akhmatova

Born

in Odesa, Russian empire (now Ukraine)

June 23, 1889

Died

March 05, 1966

Genre

Poetry

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also known as: Анна Ахматова

Personal themes characterize lyrical beauty of noted work of Russian poet Anna Akhmatova, pseudonym of Anna Andreevna Gorenko; the Soviet government banned her books between 1946 and 1958.

People credit this modernist of the most acclaimed writers in the canon.

Her writing ranges from short lyrics 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 also known as: Анна Ахматова

Personal themes characterize lyrical beauty of noted work of Russian poet Anna Akhmatova, pseudonym of Anna Andreevna Gorenko; the Soviet government banned her books between 1946 and 1958.

People credit this modernist of the most acclaimed writers in the canon.

Her writing ranges from short lyrics 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. ...more

Combine Editions
Anna Akhmatova’s books

Average rating: 4.28 · 18,371 ratings · 1,108 reviews · 279 distinct works • Similar authors

	The Complete Poems of Anna Akhmatova by Anna Akhmatova, Judith Hemschemeyer (Translator), Roberta Reeder (Editor) 4.43 avg rating — 7,397 ratings — published 1965 — 15 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. 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) 4.30 avg rating — 3,844 ratings — published 1969 — 34 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. 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
	Poems of Akhmatova 4.29 avg rating — 1,288 ratings — published 1962 — 45 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. 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 & Selected Poems by Anna Akhmatova, Lenore Mayhew 4.17 avg rating — 710 ratings — published 1960 — 27 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. 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
	Anna Akhmatova by Anna Akhmatova, D.M. Thomas (Translator) 4.34 avg rating — 403 ratings — published 1989 — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. 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
	Evening by Anna Akhmatova, Andrey Kneller (Goodreads Author) (Translation) 3.89 avg rating — 295 ratings — published 1912 — 11 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. 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 and Poem Without a Hero 4.15 avg rating — 271 ratings — published 1982 — 12 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. 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
	خاطره‌ای در درونم است by Anna Akhmatova, احمد پوری (Translator) 3.45 avg rating — 309 ratings — published 1998 — 6 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. 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
	He leído que no mueren las almas by Anna Akhmatova, Anna Ajmátova 3.77 avg rating — 270 ratings — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. 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 (Translator) 4.25 avg rating — 199 ratings — published 1985 — 9 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. 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

More books by Anna Akhmatova…

Series by Anna Akhmatova

Сочинения в двух томах (1 book)
by

Anna Akhmatova,

Анна Ахматова,

Н.Н. Скатова (editor)

4.25 avg rating — 28 ratings

Quotes by Anna Akhmatova (?)

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

2319 likes

“If you were music, I would listen to you ceaselessly, and my low spirits would brighten up.”
― Anna Akhmatova, The Complete Poems of Anna Akhmatova

tags: love, music

2145 likes

“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, The Complete Poems of Anna Akhmatova

tags: poetry

484 likes

See all Anna Akhmatova's quotes »

Polls

What would you like to read in February? (Please vote only if you seriously mean to partake in the discussion of your choice)

Poems of Akhmatova. Избранные стихи by Anna Akhmatova

6 votes, 24.0%

Children of the Sun by Maxim Gorky

4 votes, 16.0%

Иван Васильевич/Ivan Vasiljevič by Mikhail Bulgakov

4 votes, 16.0%

The Gypsies & Other Narrative Poems by Alexander Pushkin

4 votes, 16.0%

The Song of Igor's Campaign by Vladimir Nabokov

4 votes, 16.0%

Maria in The Complete Works of Isaac Babel by Isaac Babel

3 votes, 12.0%

25 total votes

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Anna Akhmatova’s Followers (832)

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Anna Akhmatova

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