Born
near Odessa in the family of the naval engineer. the poetess' real name
was Gorenko. Akhmatova spent her childhood in Tsarskoye Selo. In 1907 she
graduated from the kiev Gymnasium and went to St. Petersburg to study history
and literature at the Higher School for Women. It was in that city where
she spent practically the whole of her life. In 1910-1912 she travelled
to Germany, France and Italy. Akhmatova's writings were first printed in
1907. This very first books made her famous allover the Russia. They was
about love mostly. But later the range of her topics became wider and more
complex. The books of Akhmatova published dureing her lifetime were "Evening"
(1912), "Rosary" (1914), "The White Flock" (1917), "The Plantain" (1921),
"Anno Domini MCMXXI" (1922), "From Six Books" (1940), "Poems" (1960) and
"The Flow of Time" (1965). Her masterpiece, "The Requiem", was published
only after the fall of the USSR. This large poem was showing the terrible
situation in the USSR in Joseph Stalin's time and the truth behind the
cult of his person.
Poems:
Unsuited to my purpose in the rhyming...
I heard the voice. It promised solace...
Dark my veil. Hands clenched painfully, tightly...