Anna Akhmatova

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Writing through the turmoils of the twentieth century, AA (Anna of all the Russias as she was solemnly called by her fellow poet Marina Tsvetaeva ) was one of the greatest poets of Russian literature.
Feinstein, Elaine. Anna of all the Russias: The Life of Anna Akhmatova. Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 2005.
xi
She is also an icon of the intelligentsia that was repressed by the Soviet regime. She was courageous enough to carry her literary talent (which produced translation and a lost play as well as poetry) through illness, poverty, and suffering with immense dignity and complete dedication. She has become a metaphor for rebellion and resistance to every attempt to suppress her muse.
Haight, Amanda. Anna Akhmatova : A Poetic Pilgrimage. Oxford University Press, 1976.
1-2
  • BirthName: Anna Andreevna Gorenko (Rus. Анна Ахматова)
    Andreevna (alt. spelling Andreyevna) is an example of a patronymic formed on the basis of one's father's first name. It is used in Slavic countries in formal settings to address adults.

  • Self-constructed: Anna Akhmatova
    When AA was in her teens and her father disapproved of her poetry she took this name, the birth name of her maternal great-grandmother, who was also a poet. This pseudonym became a metaphor for rebellion and resistance to every attempt to suppress her muse.
  • Indexed: Andreyevna
Photograph of a painted portrait of Anna Akhmatova, 1922. She is shown from the shoulders up, at a three-quarter turn, against a blue background which incorporates another, sketched figure behind her in similar shades of blue.

Milestones

23 June 1889 (11 June, Old Style, Julian Calendar)

Anna Akhmatova (née Anna Andreevna Gorenko) was born at Bol'shoy Fontan, a village near Odessa, on the Black Sea coast (now in Ukraine).
Akhmatova, Anna. The Word That Causes Death’s Defeat: Poems of Memory. Editor Anderson, Nancy K., 1st edition, Yale University Press, 2004.
3
Haight, Amanda. Anna Akhmatova : A Poetic Pilgrimage. Oxford University Press, 1976.
6

1965

The most extensive collection of AA 's poems, the 400-page The Flight of Time (Beg Vremeni in Russian), was published the year before her death.
Akhmatova, Anna. The Complete Poems of Anna Akhmatova. Editor Reeder, Roberta, Translator Hemschemeyer Judith, Zephyr Press, 1990, 2 vols.
2: 57
Feinstein, Elaine. Anna of all the Russias: The Life of Anna Akhmatova. Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 2005.
269

5 March 1966

AA died at the age of seventy-eight, four months after her latest heart attack, at a sanatorium in Domodedovo, near Moscow. With a life full of hardships and loss, she had proved that a fragile, lonely person . . . can achieve heroic stature.
Akhmatova, Anna. The Complete Poems of Anna Akhmatova. Editor Reeder, Roberta, Translator Hemschemeyer Judith, Zephyr Press, 1990, 2 vols.
2: 23
Akhmatova, Anna. The Word That Causes Death’s Defeat: Poems of Memory. Editor Anderson, Nancy K., 1st edition, Yale University Press, 2004.
130

Biography

Birth and Family

23 June 1889 (11 June, Old Style, Julian Calendar)

Anna Akhmatova (née Anna Andreevna Gorenko) was born at Bol'shoy Fontan, a village near Odessa, on the Black Sea coast (now in Ukraine).
Akhmatova, Anna. The Word That Causes Death’s Defeat: Poems of Memory. Editor Anderson, Nancy K., 1st edition, Yale University Press, 2004.
3
Haight, Amanda. Anna Akhmatova : A Poetic Pilgrimage. Oxford University Press, 1976.
6

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