© Crown copyright 2011, Department for Education These materials have been designed to be reproduced for internal circulation, research and teaching or training purposes. They can be reproduced for free provided that this material is acknowledged as Crown copyright, reproduced accurately and not used in a misleading context. Adaptation of these materials for other languages is permissible, providing the original source is acknowledged. Anna Akhmatova student presentation LinkedUp Project: On-Stream

© Crown copyright 2011, Department for Education. This resource has been created through the LinkedUp Award Scheme. АННА АХМАТОВА Anna Akhmatova 23. июня 1889 – 5. марта 1966 June – March

© Crown copyright 2011, Department for Education. This resource has been created through the LinkedUp Award Scheme. Происхождение семьи Ахматовых Family Background Born to an upper-class family near Bolshoy Fontan (Большой Фонтан) in the region of Odessa, Ukraine in Father, Andrei Antonovich Gorenko (Андрей Антотович Горенко) was a Naval Engineer, her mother, Inna Erazmovna, neé Stogova (Инна Эразмовна Стогова) was of noble ancestry. Gorenko was Stogova’s second husband, having at 16 been forced to marry a 50-year old minor nobleman. She escaped her former husband and married Gorenko for love. Anna originally ‘Anna Andreyevna Gorenko’ but adopted the pen name ‘Akmatova’ to pacify her father’s fears that her writing could dishonour the family. Family moved to Tsarksoe Selo (Царское Село) near Saint Petersburg when she was 11 months old. Spent most of her summers with her mother, sisters and brothers by the sea from age Memories of this time inspired the poem ‘By the Seashore’ (From ‘Rosary’, 1914). 3

© Crown copyright 2011, Department for Education. This resource has been created through the LinkedUp Award Scheme. 4 Образование и творчество Education and Works Began writing at the age of 11, her first poem being ‘The Voice’ (Голос), which, however, has not survived to the present day. In 1907 entered the Law Faculty at the Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv (Киевский национальный университет имени Тараса Шевченко) and in 1908 went on to study literature in Saint Petersburg. In 1912 her first work ‘Evening’ (Вечер) was published by the Guild of Poets (Цех поэтов), a group established the previous year by her first husband, Nikolay Stepanovitch Gumilev, (Николай Степанович Гумилёв) and Sergey Gorodetsky (Сергей Городецкий). Her works are the best example of the changes, emotions and experiences she faced throughout her life. She wrote ‘Evening’ throughout the six-month absence of her first husband just after they were married. The reason for the themes of the book being desertion and lack of love is, therefore, evident. Publication of her works was banned from 1925 to Most famous for her last two works, ‘Requiem’ (Реквием) and ‘Poem Without a Hero’ (Поэма без героя). Examples of her poems can be found here in Russian;- and in English;-

© Crown copyright 2011, Department for Education. This resource has been created through the LinkedUp Award Scheme. 5 Личная жизнь Personal Life In 1907 was made a proposal of marriage by Nikolay Stepanovitch Gumilev, (Николай Степанович Гумилёв). Having been refused, Gumilev made two attempts on his life. However, the pair were eventually married in 1910, a marriage which produced Ahkmatova’s one and only child, Lev Nikolaevitch Gumilyov (Лев Николаевич Гумилёв) in Further information about Lev can be found here in Russian;- and in English;- Her son Lev was brought up by his paternal Grandmother, something which Akhmatova did not like since her relationship with Gumilev’s family was poor. She later questioned her ability as a mother. Following her divorce from Gumilev in 1918, Akhmatova married Vladimir Kazimirovitch Shileyko (Владимир Казимирович Шилейко). This marriage lasted only until 1921, in which year Gumilev was executed for alleged anti-Bolshevik conspiracies. Akhmatova then lived with Nikolay Nikolaevitch Punin (Николай Николаевич Пунин) at the House on the Fontanka. He later died in 1953 in a Labour Camp. Further information on Punin can be found here in Russian;- and in English;-

© Crown copyright 2011, Department for Education. This resource has been created through the LinkedUp Award Scheme. 6 Последние годы жизни Last Years of Life In 1963 ‘Requiem’, a poem to those who died under Stalin, was published in Munich without her consent. A year later Akhmatova received the Etna-Taormina prize in Sicily. In 1965 she received an honorary doctoral degree from the University of Oxford. In November of 1965 she suffered a heart attack and was moved to a Sanitorium in Moscow in the spring of Died from a second heart attack on March Her funeral was held at the St. Nicholas Naval Cathedral in St. Petersburg, and her body lies in the Komarovo cemetery, near St. Petersburg.

© Crown copyright 2011, Department for Education. This resource has been created through the LinkedUp Award Scheme. Eloise Penman University College London BA Russian & Italian 7