Anna Andreevna Akhmatova, the great Russian poetess, was born on June 11, 1889. The birthplace was the city of Odessa, where her father, the hereditary nobleman A. Gorenko, worked as a mechanical engineer. Her mother, I.E. Stogovaya, was related to the first Russian poetess Anna Bunina. On the maternal side, Akhmatova had an ancestor of the Horde khan Akhmat, on his behalf she formed her pseudonym.
Childhood
A brief biography of 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 the very first memories, she always noted magnificent green parks, a hippodrome with small motley horses, and an old train station. Akhmatova spent the summer months on the banks of Streletskaya Bay, near Sevastopol. She was very inquisitive. Early learned to read the alphabet of Leo Tolstoy. She listened attentively when the teacher studied French with older children, and already at the age of five she could express herself. Akhmatova’s biography and work were first intertwined when she was only eleven years old. At this age, she wrote her first poem. She studied at the Tsarskoye Selo Gymnasium. At first, she was given this with difficulty. Soon, however, things went much better.
Youth
A brief 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 Kiev. It was here that Anna entered the Fundukleev Gymnasium, and after her graduation from the Higher Women's Courses, to the Faculty of Law. All this time she is keenly interested in literature and history.
Nikolay Gumilev
Anna met Nikolai Gumilyov while still very young, namely at fourteen. The ardent young man immediately fell in love with the beautiful Akhmatova. His love can be called unfortunate, since he did not immediately get his lover's hand. Several times he proposed to her and always refused. And only in 1909 Akhmatova gave her consent. They married on April 25, 1910. A brief biography of Akhmatova cannot fully reflect the tragedy and hopelessness of this marriage. Nikolai carried his wife in his arms, idolized and surrounded him with attention. However, at the same time, he often started novels on the side. In 1912, he truly fell in love with his young niece, Masha Kuzmin-Karavaev. For the first time, Akhmatova was overthrown from a pedestal. She could not endure such a turn of events, and therefore decided on a desperate step. In the 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. Akhmatova Museum will subsequently be opened in this city. Here she met with Blok and first published under her pseudonym. Fame and recognition came to her in 1912 after the release of the collection of poems "Evening". In 1914, she released the collection Rosary, and then in 1917, The White Pack. A significant place in them is occupied by a kind of love lyrics and Akhmatova’s poems about the homeland.
Personal life
In 1914, Akhmatova’s husband Gumilyov went to the front. She spends most of her time at the Gumilyov Slepnevo estate in the Tver province. A short biography of Akhmatova further tells that after four years she divorces her husband and remarries the poet Shileyko V.K. In 1921, a case was fabricated against Gumilyov, and he was accused of involvement in a conspiracy against the revolution, in this 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 complicated and sad. Her beloved son, Leo, has been imprisoned for more than 10 years.
Ups and downs
In 1921, in October and April, Anna released two collections, which became the last in front of a long strip of censorship of her poetry. In the twenties, Akhmatova was subjected to harsh criticism; she was no longer published. Her name disappears from the pages of magazines and books. The poetess is forced to live in poverty. From 1935 to 1940, Anna Andreyevna worked on her famous work Requiem. These verses by Akhmatova about the homeland, about the suffering of people, won the hearts of millions of people. In this work, she reflects the tragic fate of thousands of Russian women forced to wait for their husbands from prisons and raise children in poverty. Her poetry was incredibly close to many. Despite the prohibitions, she was loved and read. In 1939, Stalin spoke positively about the work of Akhmatova, and she was again printed. But as before, poetry was heavily censored.
The Great Patriotic War
At the beginning of the war, Anna Akhmatova (a brief biography must certainly reflect this) is located 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 her best to maintain the fighting spirit of the soldiers. Akhmatova helped in hospitals and performed poetry reading before the wounded. During this period, she wrote the poems "Oath", "Courage", "The cracks in the garden are dug." In 1944, she returned to the ruined Leningrad. She describes her terrible impression of what she saw in the essay Three Lilacs.
Post-war period
The year 1946 did not bring Akhmatova’s happiness, or at least relief. She, along with other authors, was again subjected to the most severe criticism. She was expelled from the Writers' Union, which meant the end of any publication. The reason for this was the meeting of the writer 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. Lev Gumilyov was released only in 1956. Toward the end of her life, Akhmatova managed to overcome the resistance of the bureaucrats and bring her work to a new generation. Her collection, Time Running, was published in 1965. She was allowed to accept the Ethno-Taormin Literary Prize, as well as the title of Doctor of Oxford University. March 5, 1966, having suffered four heart attacks, Anna Akhmatova died. The Russian poetess was buried near Leningrad, at the Komarovsky cemetery. The memory of this great woman is kept by the Akhmatova Museum. It is located in St. Petersburg, in the Sheremetyevo Palace.