Anna Akhmatova (1889-1966)

Death: 5th March 1966
Location: Komarovo Cemetery, St. Petersburg, Russia
Cause of death: Heart failure
Photo taken by: julia and keld
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Russian poet, who is considered to be the greatest female poet in Russian literature.   In 1910 she married the poet Nikolay Gumilyov, with whom she had a son.  In 1912 she published Evening, her first collection of poetry. Along with her husband she was one of the leading members of the school of poets known as the Acmeist poets (from the Greek ‘acme’ – ‘the best age of man’). 
In 1921 her husband was executed for anti-Soviet activity and Akhmatova subsequently remarried twice more. After the death of her third husband she turned down a proposal by writer and poet Boris Pasternak. Between 1925 and 1952 she was silenced by the Stalinist regime and had to earn her living by translating. After the death of Stalin she was able to encourage young poets, including Joseph Brodsky, and she was also able to travel to meet friends that had fled Russia during Stalin’s era.

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