Anna Akhmatova is known as one of the greatest poet in Russia who has written a various amount of literature during her lifetime. Her interest in poetry began as she was a young child, yet her father did not agree with her decision of becoming a poet (Poets). Eventually, Akhmatova attended school, married Nikolai Gumilev, and gave birth to her first son.
She always believed that she was not worthy of motherhood. As a result, her son lived with his grandmother and she would visit him occasionally (Poets). After her book of poetry, Evening, was published, she became very active in the literary scene of St. Petersburg, Russia and was known as the greatest woman poet in the West (Lowe). Soon after, Akhmatova and Gumilev divorced in 1918 and she remarried to two other men. However, one husband died in a gulag and the other one she divorced. Her first husband, Gumilev was executed by the Bolsheviks in 1921 which affected her significantly, even though they were divorced (Poets). Additionally, her son was imprisoned during the Yezhov terror, a time period where Stalin was in power and led a mass terror in Russia. During her son’s imprisonment she wrote, "Requiem", which she dedicated to those who waited alongside her outside the prison to see their loved ones yet didn’t understand what was going on. Akhmatova expresses numerous personal experiences and historical events through "Requiem" which affects the point of view of the poem. Akhmatova wrote her poem, "Requiem", in regard to the “17 months she stood outside [her son’s prison], vainly seeking news of him” (Brooks). Requiem is defined as a song of mourning which honors the life or past of one who has died. As she wrote the poem, she mourns those who have either been imprisoned or ...
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...". The poem was dedicated to all Stalin’s victims, either those who were jailed, executed or waited outside the jails hoping to see their loved ones. Through her personal experiences and past, her first person point of view was exhibited in the poem. Towards the end of Akhmatova’s life, she was known as a woman who was “still beautiful and powerful, but wounded by the tyranny and the war” (Brooks).
Works Cited
"Anna Akhmatova." Poets.org. Academy of American Poets, n.d. Web. 29 Apr. 2014.
Akhmatova, Anna. “"Requiem".” Trans. Stanley Kunitz & Max Hayward. Whole Wide World. Web. 15 Apr 2014.
Brooks, David. “Love Story.” New York Times. 1 May 2104. Web 5 My 2014.
Lowe, B and Dino Mahoney. “The Muse of Keening.” Youtube. 27 Nov 2011. Web 7 Apr 2014.
"Of Russian origin: Stalin's Purges." Stalin's Purges Russiapedia Of Russian origin. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 May 2014.
Leo Tolstoy as one of Russia’s great writers, wrote marvelous pieces looking at societal questions and playing with the minds of his readers. The Death of Ivan Ilych is one of Tolstoy’s best written short stories and a popular story for the world on the topic of death and the process of dying. This story is about a man confronting death and in a way bringing life to him during the process of his death. Ivan Ilych fell onto the inevitable trail of death and had realized the true meaning of living along the way. The concept of writing about death is not in any way a new concept nor was it obscure to read in Tolstoy’s era; what makes this short story special is the way that Tolstoy illustrates his character. Ivan Ilych goes through a journey of discovery while he is dying. This story attempts to tackle the questions that cannot be answered; what makes a man happy in life, what makes life worth living?
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Grant Voth provides details about Anna Akhmatova’s Requiem, which was created during 1935 to 1961. The collection could not be written because for a period of time Akhmatova was prohibited to write or publish poetry. Therefore, Requiem were memorized and remembered by Akhmatova and her novelist friend Lydia Chukovskaya. Eventually, the collection was published after Stalin’s death. Requiem is composed of ten poems, dedicated to the women who waited outside of a prison, hoping to see their fathers, brothers, husbands, or sons (who had been taken away by the secret police in Russia for being suspected of revolting against Stalin). The first poem describes Akhmatova’s husband being arrested and her suffering. The second and third poems illustrate
Chekhov reminds the readers that Anna is young compared to Gurov. Chekhov’s novel states, “As he went to bed he reminded himself that only a short time ago she had been a schoolgirl, like his own daughter” (3). The images of Anna being a schoolgirl not too long ago, when Gurov has a daughter of similar age, brings the sense of abnormality between the relationship of Gurov and Anna. It’s hard to imagine such a huge difference in lovers especially in the strict culture of Russia in the late 19th century where these occasions were unthought-of. The uncomforting thought of the difference in age goes back to differ the meanings of love and romance in the novel because against all odds and differences, Anna and Gurov hide away from these obvious facts. The thought of love in this culture is between a man and woman of similar age. According to Chekhov’s novel, “He was sick of his children, sick of the bank, felt not the slightest desire to go anywhere or talk about anything” (9). Chekhov’s description of sickness reveals that Gurov has a huge moment of denial, denial of family and denial of age. This denial of age, helps Gurov cope with the oddities of their relationship, the oddities of the love they had with the characteristics of a romance. Gurov was trying to change the definition of their relationship on his own mental terms. While Gurov was trying to bring out a spontaneous, younger
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Fitzpatrick, Sheila, and Yuri Slezkine. "N.I. Slavnikova Et Al. "Speeches by Stakhanovites"" In the Shadow of Revolution: Life Stories of Russian Women from 1917 to the Second World War. Princeton, NJ: Princeton UP, 2000. 331-41. Print.
Akhmatova then alludes to an actual verse in the gospels by depicting Jesus as saying “Why hast thou forsaken me!” to describe how many people were feeling during Stalinist Russia (Requiem 171). The Russian people felt abandoned in life since religion was banned. This suppression of religion made it more difficult to cope with the misery that they were encountering since they had no hope for the future. Moreover, repetition of the phrase “weep not for me” is used to emphasize that Akhmatova had hope that her son would’ve been able to survive working in the gulag. Crucifixion later alludes to Mary Magdalene with the quote “Magdalena smote herself and wept” (Requiem 174). Magdalene was one Jesus’ most zealous followers and stayed with him until his crucifixion (Carroll 2). Her reaction to the death of Jesus is a metaphor as to how the Russian people often felt after the death of their loved ones in that they felt hopeless and suicidal. Jesus’ mother, who was deeply impacted by her son’s death, is introduced by saying “but there, where the mother stood silent, not one person dared to look” (Requiem 176-177).
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How did Russia often express itself during times of censorship and control? Literature. Despite being written during the times of Tsars and Imperialists, works like Nik...
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