Anna Akhmatova

Anna Andreevna Akhmatova;Anna Andreyevna Akhmatova

1889 (Odessa, Ukraine) – 1966 (Domodedovo, Russia)

Annensky taught and influenced her. She’d known Gumilyov since she was 14: honeymooning together in Paris, he went off to Abyssynia, while she became Modigliani’s lover. Mandelstam, a close friend for many years, joined Gumilyov and her in forming the so-called Acmeist movement. Gumilev was her son, Blok a good friend, Altman painted her, and Pasternak (already married) proposed to her. Tsvetaeva became a long-term friend: several poems were written as correspondence between them. She told Frost he’d never understand the hardships she’d lived through; his visit, and Berlin’s, had troubling repercussions.

Anna Akhmatova knew…