Anna Akhmatova

Anna Akhmatova (b. June 23, 1889 (June 11, Old Style, and also St John's Eve[?]) Bolshoy Fontan[?] near Odessa d. 1966 Leningrad) was the nom-de-plume of Anna Adreevna Gorenko, one of the most significant Russian Acmeist poets.

Akhmatova's childhood does not appear to have been happy; her parents separated in 1905.

She married the poet Nikolai Gumilyev[?] in 1910. Their son, born in 1912, was the writer Lev Gumilyev[?].

Gumilyev[?] was executed in 1921 for activities considered anti-Soviet; Akhmatova was effectively silenced, unable to publish poetry, between 1925 and 1952.

There is a museum devoted to Akhmatova at the Fountain House (more properly known as the Sheremetev Palace[?] in St Petersburg[?]), where Akhmatova lived from the mid 1920s until 1952.

Akhmatova's poetry in mp3: http://www.imwerden.de/akhmatova.html