Anna Akhmatova and her 'Requiem'

Akhmatova is one of Russia's most famous female poets.

Nov 15, 2006 Kerry Kubilius

Anna Akhmatova, a 20th century Russian poet, may be most famous for 'Requiem," which details mothers' grief for their sons' imprisonment during the 1930's and '40's.

Anna Akmatova, born Anna Gorenko in 1889, was one of Russia’s most important female poets. Her life, marked deeply by the Revolution, was full of loss. Loss, grief, and suffering are expressed in her poem Requiem, which is one of her most famous works.

At 23, she had her first collection of poems published. By this time, she had already been married, been abandoned by her husband, Nikolai Gumilyov, and had a son. She had also spent time in Paris, where she was painted by Amedeo Mogdigliani; some of the most famous images of her are from this period.

Nikolai Gumilyov was executed in 1921 as a traitor to the Revolution. Akhmatova was, at this point, in a relationship witho Vladimir Shileiko, who she married after divorcing Gumilyov in 1918. She separated from Shileiko and got married again to Nikolai Punin.

Punin and her son, Lev Gumilev, were arrested in 1935. This began a seemingly endless cycle of appeal, release, and re-arrest; Akhmatova personally begged Stalin for their release the first time they were taken by the secret police, but her son was arrested again in 1938. He was released and re-arrested, then freed in 1956. Punin died in a prison camp in 1953 after his re-arrest four years prior.

Akhmatova’s most famous poem, Requiem, evolved out of her grief for her son’s imprisonment, as well as the effect that the imprisonment of sons across Russia had on their mothers. As Akhmatova tells it, she was asked to describe the experience of waiting in lines, in the cold, for the opportunity to speak with her son who was imprisoned in Leningrad (St. Petersburg) by a fellow mother who was also waiting in line at the prison.

Requiem may allude to the Catholic text, Stabat Mater, which dates from the 1200’s and details the Virgin Mary’s grief-stricken post by the Cross when Christ was crucified. Similar themes and imagery are explored. However, Akhmatova intended for her poem to represent all mothers’ suffering during that period of political turmoil.

Akmatova died in 1966, but her work saw more readers after her death than during her lifetime, especially in Russia. It was not until 1986 that her collected works were published in her home country. Requiem has been translated by poets, scholars, and translators with different focuses, all in order to squeeze the most of Akhmatova’s essence out of the original Russian and into other languages.

Katz, Boris. "To What Extent is Requiem a Requeim? Unheard Female Voices in Anna Akhmatova's Requiem." The Russian Review 57(1998): 253-263.

Kemball, Robin. "Anna Akhmatova's "Requiem, 1935-1940"." Russian Review 33(1974): 303-312.

The copyright of the article Anna Akhmatova and her 'Requiem' in E European History is owned by Kerry Kubilius. Permission to republish Anna Akhmatova and her 'Requiem' in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.

Barbed Wire