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Anna Akhmatova: Poems
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[O]f all, in case you've never heard of her, Anna Akhmatova (pronounced ahkh-MAH-tah-vah) was one of the Soviet Union's most famous poets. "Fear and the Muse: The Story of Anna Akhmatova" chronicles her life, and Stalin's censorship of her poems. We get to see her participate in the Revolution, witness the murder of her son by Stalin's secret police, survive the Siege of Leningrad during WWII, and finally get to leave the country briefly to accept an award in the mid '60s. Anna Akhmatova was truly an amazing person. There will never be another like her. The documentary does a really good job showing her life.
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Seen as the voice of her generation for millions who suffered under the reign of Joseph Stalin, Anna Akhmatova was a beacon of light during a bleak era of Russian history, her poem "Requiem" becoming the anthem of an underground movement. Through personal diary entries, rare film footage and revealing interviews, director Semyon Aranovich fashions a compelling portrait of Akhmatova, one of extreme courage and conviction.
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Akhmatova was one of the few unrepentant Acemist poets to survive Russia's Bolshevik revolution and subsequant Stalinist takeover and purges. She was seen by authorities as a dangerous element, related to the pre-revolutionary order. Somehow, even as her fellow poets - including friend Osip Mandlestam and husband Nikolay Gumilov - were executed, exiled, sent to camps, or fled, she managed to survive - outliving Stalin himself. Her poems range from the early tales of love and unrequitation, to the tormented later works such as Requium - a harrowing dedication to the victoms of Stalinism. Her use of words is fantastic - the reader can truly feel her presence. This collection is very comprehensive, and well-translted from the original Russian.
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Requiem, Akhmatova's poem-cycle, was a literary monument to the victims of Stalin's Terror. The earliest poem dates from 1935 and the remainder was apparently written in 1938-40. The prose foreword was added in 1957. The work was first published in 1963 in Munich and in Russia it appeared in 1987. The central core of Requiem consists of ten short, numbered poems. The first originally reflected the arrest of her husband Nikolai Punin in 1935 and other close friends, but primarily the poems deal with the author's experiences and her agony following the arrest of her son Lev Gumilyov in 1938.
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Anna Akhmatova was one of the essential poets of the 20th century, but she remains insufficiently known in the English-speaking world. Nancy K. Anderson's beautifully produced volume provides the best possible introduction to her life and work. It offers a concise and compelling biography, elegant and accessible translations of her three most significant long poems, and a highly informative critical commentary.
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Akhmatova was born near Odesa (Odessa), Ukraine, but spent most of her life in Saint Petersburg, Russia. Her first volumes of romantic lyrics, Vecher (Evening, 1912) and Chyotki (The Rosary, 1914), gained immediate popular and critical success. Later works, such as Anno domini MCMXXI (1922), introduced patriotic themes. Beginning in the early 1920s, publication of Akhmatova's work, with a few exceptions, was banned by the Soviet regime led by Joseph Stalin, who felt that her poetry did not sufficiently promote Communist policy. This ban was gradually lifted following Stalin's death in 1953. Rekviem (1963; Requiem, 1964) and Poema bez geroia (1962; Poem Without a Hero, 1973), considered her masterpieces, chronicle not only her own sufferings but ... those of all Russians during Stalin's reign.
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