One of the brightest, most original and talented poetesses of the Silver Age, Anna Gorenko, better known to her admirers as Akhmatova, lived a long and tragic life. This proud and at the same time fragile woman witnessed two revolutions and two world wars. Her soul was scorched by the repressions and deaths of the closest people. The biography of Anna Akhmatova is worthy of a novel or a film adaptation, which was repeatedly undertaken by both her contemporaries and a later generation of playwrights, directors and writers.

Anna Gorenko was born in the summer of 1889 in the family of a hereditary nobleman and retired naval engineer Andrei Andreevich Gorenko and Inna Erazmovna Stogova, who belonged to the creative elite of Odessa. The girl was born in the southern part of the city, in a house located in the Bolshoi Fountain area. She was the third oldest of six children.

As soon as the baby was a year old, her parents moved to St. Petersburg, where the head of the family received the rank of collegiate assessor and became an official of the State Control for special assignments. The family settled in Tsarskoye Selo, with which all childhood memories of Akhmatova are connected. The nanny took the girl for a walk in Tsarskoye Selo Park and other places that she still remembered. Children were taught secular etiquette. Anya learned to read from the alphabet, and she learned French at an early age, listening to how the teacher teaches it to older children.

The future poetess received her education at the Mariinsky Women's Gymnasium. Anna Akhmatova began writing poetry, according to her, at the age of 11. It is noteworthy that poetry for her was opened not by the works of Alexander Pushkin and, whom she fell in love with a little later, but by the majestic odes of Gabriel Derzhavin and the poem "Frost, Red Nose", which her mother recited.

Young Gorenko fell in love with Petersburg forever and considered it the main city of her life. She was very homesick for his streets, parks and the Neva when she had to leave with her mother to Evpatoria, and then to Kyiv. Parents divorced when the girl was 16 years old.

She finished her penultimate class at home, in Evpatoria, and finished the last class at the Kyiv Fundukleevskaya gymnasium. After completing her studies, Gorenko becomes a student of the Higher Women's Courses, choosing the Faculty of Law for herself. But if Latin and the history of law aroused a keen interest in her, then jurisprudence seemed boring to the point of yawning, so the girl continued her education in her beloved St. Petersburg, at N. P. Raev’s historical and literary courses for women.

Poetry

In the Gorenko family, no one was engaged in poetry, "as far as the eye sees around." Only on the line of Inna Stogova's mother was a distant relative Anna Bunina, a translator and poetess, found. The father did not approve of his daughter's passion for poetry and asked not to shame his last name. Therefore, Anna Akhmatova never signed her poems with her real name. In her family tree, she found a Tatar great-grandmother, who allegedly descended from the Horde Khan Akhmat, and thus turned into Akhmatova.

In her early youth, when the girl studied at the Mariinsky Gymnasium, she met a talented young man, later the famous poet Nikolai Gumilyov. Both in Evpatoria and in Kyiv, the girl corresponded with him. In the spring of 1910, they got married in the St. Nicholas Church, which still stands today in the village of Nikolskaya Slobodka near Kiev. At that time, Gumilyov was already an accomplished poet, known in literary circles.

The newlyweds went to celebrate their honeymoon in Paris. This was Akhmatova's first meeting with Europe. Upon his return, the husband introduced his talented wife to the literary and artistic circles of St. Petersburg, and she was immediately noticed. At first, everyone was struck by her unusual, majestic beauty and regal posture. Swarthy, with a distinct hump on her nose, the "Horde" appearance of Anna Akhmatova conquered the literary bohemia.

Soon, St. Petersburg writers find themselves captivated by the creativity of this original beauty. Anna Akhmatova writes poetry about love, namely this great feeling she sang all her life, during the crisis of symbolism. Young poets try themselves in other trends that have come into fashion - futurism and acmeism. Gumilyova-Akhmatova becomes famous as an acmeist.

1912 becomes the year of a breakthrough in her biography. In this memorable year, not only the only son of the poetess, Lev Gumilyov, was born, but also her first collection entitled “Evening” was published in a small edition. In her declining years, a woman who has gone through all the hardships of the time in which she had to be born and create, will call these first creations "the poor verses of the most empty girl." But then Akhmatova's poems found their first admirers and brought her fame.

After 2 years, the second collection, called "Rosary", is released. And it was already a real triumph. Admirers and critics enthusiastically speak of her work, elevating her to the rank of the most fashionable poetess of her time. Akhmatova no longer needs her husband's protection. Her name sounds even louder than the name of Gumilyov. In the revolutionary 1917, Anna published her third book, The White Flock. It comes out in an impressive circulation of 2,000 copies. The couple parted ways in the turbulent 1918.

And in the summer of 1921, Nikolai Gumilyov was shot. Akhmatova was very upset by the death of her son's father and the man who introduced her to the world of poetry.

Since the mid-1920s, hard times have come for the poetess. She is under the close attention of the NKVD. It is not printed. Akhmatova's poems are written "on the table." Many of them have been lost in transit. The last collection was published in 1924. "Provocative", "decadent", "anti-communist" poems - such a stigma on creativity cost Anna Andreevna dearly.

The new stage of her work is closely connected with soul-exhausting experiences for her loved ones. First of all, for my son Lyovushka. In the late autumn of 1935, the first wake-up call sounded for a woman: her second husband, Nikolai Punin, and son were arrested at the same time. They are released in a few days, but there will be no more peace in the life of the poetess. From that moment on, she will feel the ring of persecution tightening around her.

After 3 years, the son was arrested. He was sentenced to 5 years in labor camps. In the same terrible year, the marriage of Anna Andreevna and Nikolai Punin ended. The emaciated mother carries the transfers to her son in the Crosses. In the same years, the famous "Requiem" by Anna Akhmatova was published.

In order to make life easier for her son and pull him out of the camps, the poetess, just before the war, in 1940 publishes the collection “From Six Books”. Here are collected old censored poems and new ones, "correct" from the point of view of the ruling ideology.

Anna Andreevna spent the outbreak of the Great Patriotic War in evacuation, in Tashkent. Immediately after the victory, she returned to the liberated and destroyed Leningrad. From there he soon moved to Moscow.

But the clouds that barely parted overhead - the son was released from the camps - are gathering again. In 1946, her work was destroyed at the next meeting of the Writers' Union, and in 1949, Lev Gumilyov was arrested again. This time he was sentenced to 10 years. The unfortunate woman is broken. She writes requests and letters of repentance to the Politburo, but no one hears her.

After leaving another imprisonment, the relationship between mother and son remained tense for many years: Leo believed that his mother put creativity in the first place, which she loved more than him. He moves away from her.

Black clouds over the head of this famous, but deeply unhappy woman disperse only at the end of her life. In 1951, she was reinstated in the Writers' Union. Akhmatova's poems are being published. In the mid-1960s, Anna Andreevna received a prestigious Italian award and released a new collection, The Run of Time. And the well-known poetess Oxford University awards a doctoral degree.

At the end of years, the world-famous poet and writer finally got his own home. The Leningrad Literary Fund allocated her a modest wooden dacha in Komarovo. It was a tiny house, which consisted of a veranda, a corridor and one room.

All the “furnishings” are a hard bed, where bricks were stacked as legs, a table built from a door, a drawing by Modigliani on the wall and an old icon that once belonged to the first husband.

Personal life

This regal woman had amazing power over men. In her youth, Anna was fantastically flexible. They say that she could easily bend back, reaching the floor with her head. Even the ballerinas of the Mariinsky Theater were amazed by this incredible natural plasticity. She also had amazing eyes that changed color. Some said that Akhmatova's eyes were gray, others claimed that they were green, and still others claimed that they were sky blue.

Nikolai Gumilyov fell in love with Anna Gorenko at first sight. But the girl was crazy about Vladimir Golenishchev-Kutuzov, a student who did not pay any attention to her. The young schoolgirl suffered and even tried to hang herself on a nail. Luckily, he slipped out of the clay wall.

It seems that the daughter inherited her mother's failures. Marriage with none of the three official husbands did not bring happiness to the poetess. The personal life of Anna Akhmatova was chaotic and somewhat disheveled. They cheated on her, she cheated. The first husband carried his love for Anna through his entire short life, but at the same time he had an illegitimate child, whom everyone knew about. In addition, Nikolai Gumilyov did not understand why his beloved wife, in his opinion, was not at all a brilliant poetess, causes such delight and even exaltation among young people. Anna Akhmatova's poems about love seemed to him too long and pompous.

In the end, they parted.

After parting, Anna Andreevna had no end to her fans. Count Valentin Zubov gave her armfuls of expensive roses and trembled at her mere presence, but the beauty gave preference to Nikolai Nedobrovo. However, Boris Anrepa soon replaced him.

The second marriage with Vladimir Shileiko tormented Anna so much that she dropped: “Divorce ... What a pleasant feeling it is!”

A year after the death of her first husband, she parted ways with her second. Six months later, she marries for the third time. Nikolai Punin is an art critic. But the personal life of Anna Akhmatova did not work out with him either.

Punin, Deputy People's Commissar for Education Lunacharsky, who sheltered the homeless Akhmatova after a divorce, did not make her happy either. The new wife lived in an apartment with Punin's ex-wife and his daughter, donating money to a common cauldron for food. The son Leo, who came from his grandmother, was placed at night in a cold corridor and felt like an orphan, forever deprived of attention.

Anna Akhmatova's personal life was supposed to change after meeting with the pathologist Garshin, but just before the wedding, he allegedly dreamed of the late mother, who begged not to take the sorceress into the house. The marriage was cancelled.

Death

The death of Anna Akhmatova on March 5, 1966 seems to have shocked everyone. Although she was already 76 years old at that time. Yes, and she was sick for a long time and hard. The poetess died in a sanatorium near Moscow in Domodedovo. On the eve of her death, she asked to bring her a New Testament, the texts of which she wanted to compare with the texts of the Qumran manuscripts.

The body of Akhmatova from Moscow hastened to be transported to Leningrad: the authorities did not want dissident unrest. She was buried at the Komarovsky cemetery. Before his death, the son and mother could not reconcile: they did not communicate for several years.

On the grave of his mother, Lev Gumilyov laid out a stone wall with a window, which was supposed to symbolize the wall in the Crosses, where she carried messages to him. At first, a wooden cross stood on the grave, as Anna Andreevna asked for. But in 1969 the cross appeared.

The Anna Akhmatova Museum is located in St. Petersburg on Avtovskaya Street. Another one was opened in the Fountain House, where she lived for 30 years. Later, museums, memorial plaques and bas-reliefs appeared in Moscow, Tashkent, Kyiv, Odessa and many other cities where the muse lived.

Poetry

• 1912 - "Evening"
• 1914 - "Rosary"
• 1922 - The White Pack
• 1921 - "Plantain"
• 1923 - "Anno Domini MCMXXI"
• 1940 - "From six books"
• 1943 - “Anna Akhmatova. Favorites»
• 1958 - Anna Akhmatova. Poems»
• 1963 - "Requiem"
• 1965 - The Run of Time

The presentation of the book "The Golden Cuneiform of Lanterns in the Fontanka" took place on April 3 at the Anna Akhmatova Museum especially for journalists.

The results of ten years of work: the history of the relationship between Anna Akhmatova and her second husband, the outstanding orientalist Vladimir Shileiko, three years of living together in the Fountain House and the study of the mysterious work of Akhmatova - the drama “Enuma Elish. The Prologue, or Dream in a Dream” fit on a hundred pages, and there was even room for photographs and documents from the museum's collection. The authors of the book answered the journalists' questions: director of the Anna Akhmatova Museum Nina Ivanovna Popova and senior researcher of the Museum Tatyana Sergeevna Pozdnyakova.

The meeting with the authors began in the garden of the Fountain House, near the Northern Wing of the Sheremetev Palace, where Akhmatova and Shileiko lived during the years of the Revolution. " I slept in a king bed, / Starved, carried firewood ...”, Akhmatova wrote about this time.

« We tried to understand where they lived and compared different memories. We found Shileiko’s profile in the archives, where he writes: Fontanka 37, apartment 5, but we still can’t say for sure, because everything has been rebuilt and there are no plans left anywhere. However, we believe that at first Shileiko lived in the northern part of the palace: this room was always intended for teachers, and he was the teacher of Sheremetyev's children. When the palace came under the jurisdiction of the Archaeological Institute and became a museum, they were relocated. Comparing the memories, we believe that through all sorts of labyrinths, passages, stairs, corridors, they went from the Fontanka to the former stable wing. Probably on the second floor"- said Tatyana Pozdnyakova.

All the events of the drama take place in the space of the Fountain House. Akhmatova herself claimed that she began writing Enuma Elish in the Fountain House and burned her work there. However, the authors of the book believe that this is a hoax: “ For Akhmatova, this is the place of Elysium of shadows! And ancient Syria is here too!»

The discussion of the book took place in the main exposition of the museum. The journalists were shown items from museum collections related to the life and work of Vladimir Shileiko.

« Creativity Akhmatova amazingly contains paganism: she prophesies, tells fortunes in earnest. It exists in some kind of pagan worldview, without denying the Christian principle. To some extent, paganism opposes Christianity, although Christianity grew on it. A Christian stands before God, he prays to God, and the pagans, in particular, primarily the pagan culture of Babylon, are people who, gathered together, performed a ritual that helped to interfere with divine deeds. It was possible, by performing a ritual, to bring back the dead. Moreover, it was possible to maintain harmony, because people live in a world that is on the verge of death: river floods, hurricanes, epidemics. But it seemed that by creating a ritual, interfering with the divine will, one could help the gods restore harmony. And, in general, the poet is also a priest. And Akhmatova, if we say that she took from there, as Toporov wrote about it, creates her own ritual.

In Assyro-Babylonian antiquity, every New Year's holiday was accompanied by a ritual: this is a holiday of meeting with the dead, the judgment of the past year and building a table of fate for the future. And in fact, this is how the poet does Akhmatova. In our book, there are excerpts from the Assyrian-Babylonian epic in the margins, which in some amazing way are connected with what is being discussed. The first part of the book is called “The Sumerian coffee house”, and the second “A mighty rumble in the quiet rustle of the pages” is a line by Shileiko. For example, Akhmatova:

« You alone will figure it all out...
When sleepless darkness bubbles around,
That sunny, that lily-of-the-valley wedge
Breaks into the darkness of the December night.
And along the path I go to you.
And you laugh a carefree laugh.
But coniferous forest and reeds in the pond
They respond with some strange echo ...»

In memory of Boris Pilnyak

It seems to go there, into the depths, where the man who was killed is lost, and his grave is unknown. Tries to call him from there. And here, please, the lines of the Assyrian epic:

« He speaks to his friend

Gilgamesh speaking to Eabani:

<…>

And did you see the one who was killed in battle? —

"Saw! Mother and father his head

They are holding him, his wife bent over him. -

And the one whose body is thrown

In the field, did you see? - "Saw!

His shadow does not find rest in the earth«

From the Epic of Gilgamesh. Translation by Nikolai Gumilyov

And in fact, a poem in Pilnyak's memory, this is how the shadow does not find rest in the earth, and I am obliged to call this shadow. And if some kind of mournful, serious, “high” ritual is going on there, then the play “Enuma Elish” is, to some extent, a parody of the ritual. Because it turns out that today the ritual is helpless.

In general, Akhmatova is a person of catastrophic consciousness. If in the Assyro-Babylonian epic the gods created the world out of chaos, then in the play "Enuma Elish" the world is heading towards chaos. And Akhmatova's "Last Trouble" is the destruction of the world, and she speaks about it with some bitter, tragic irony.

When we talk about the play "Enuma Elish", we, of course, do not exhaust it only with an appeal to the Assyro-Babylonian epic. This play has a million different comments: here you can talk about everyday life, namely the life of Akhmatova, and about the boyar Morozova, from whose life she also takes material, and about Joan of Arc ... We do not know the sequence of the Enuma Elish text, we do not we know the compositions, or maybe Akhmatova didn’t need this composition, maybe like scattered tablets, lost tablets with gaps, and she deliberately creates another hoax, especially since she talks about a bottle with a blurry letter - this is also one of her tricks. This play in many ways anticipates Beckett, Ionesco, and Kafka. said Tatyana Sergeevna.

Nina Ivanovna Popova pointed out that, while working on the book, the authors wanted to draw the attention of readers to the Assyro-Babylonian culture, which is much less known than, for example, Greek, and also to tell about the undeservedly forgotten Vladimir Shileiko: “ We want to return to history the scale of the personality of Vladimir Kazemirovich Shileiko. What do we know about him? We don't know anything. A collection of poems by Vladimir Kazemirovich was published, in my opinion, by the publishing house of Ivan Limbakh at the end of the 90s. Two thin collections of his poems - that's all we know about him. We have a few sheets of letters in the museum: we had a really amazingly gifted person in front of us! What is this Hecuba called XXVI century to him (*BC e. - the approximate period of the creation of the Epic of Gilgamesh )? What is he to live with? After all, he died when he was a little over thirty, knowing this darkness of languages ​​\u200b\u200b- and this is the greatest phenomenon!»

Text and photo: Alexander Shek

Anna Andreevna Akhmatova (real name - Gorenko) was born in the family of a marine engineer, retired captain of the 2nd rank, at the Bolshoi Fontan station near Odessa.

Mother, Irina Erazmovna, devoted herself entirely to her children, of whom there were six.

A year after Anya's birth, the family moved to Tsarskoye Selo.

“My first impressions are those of Tsarskoye Selo,” she later wrote. - The green, damp splendor of the parks, the pasture where my nanny took me, the hippodrome, where small colorful horses galloped, the old railway station and something else that later became part of the Tsarskoye Selo Ode. There were almost no books in the house, but my mother knew many poems and recited them by heart. Communicating with older children, Anna began to speak French quite early.

WITH Nikolai Gumilyov, who became her husband, Anna met when she was only 14. 17-year-old Nikolai was struck by her mysterious, bewitching beauty: radiant gray eyes, thick long black hair, an antique profile made this girl unlike anyone else.

For ten whole years, Anna became a source of inspiration for the young poet. He showered her with flowers and poems. One day, on her birthday, he gave Anna flowers, plucked under the windows of the imperial palace. In despair from unrequited love on Easter 1905, Gumilyov tried to commit suicide, which only frightened and disappointed the girl completely. She stopped seeing him.

Soon Anna's parents divorced, and she moved with her mother to Evpatoria. At this time, she was already writing poetry, but did not attach much importance to this. Gumilyov, having heard something written by her, said: “Maybe you will dance better? You are flexible ... ”Nevertheless, he published one poem in a small literary almanac“ Sirius ”. Anna chose the surname of her great-grandmother, whose family descended from the Tatar Khan Akhmat.

Gumilyov continued to propose to her again and again and attempted his own life three times. In November 1909, Akhmatova unexpectedly agreed to marriage, accepting the chosen one not as love, but as fate.

“Gumilyov is my destiny, and I dutifully surrender to her. Don't judge me if you can. I swear to you everything that is holy to me, that this unfortunate person will be happy with me, ”she writes to student Golenishchev-Kutuzov, who she liked much more than Nikolai.

None of the bride's relatives came to the wedding, considering the marriage obviously doomed. Nevertheless, the wedding took place at the end of June 1910. Soon after the wedding, having achieved what he had been striving for for so long, Gumilyov lost interest in his young wife. He began to travel a lot and was rarely at home.

In the spring of 1912, Akhmatova's first collection of 300 copies was published. In the same year, Anna and Nikolai have a son, Leo. But the husband was completely unprepared to limit his own freedom: “He loved three things in the world: for evening singing, white peacocks and erased maps of America. He didn't like it when children cried. He did not like tea with raspberries and female hysteria ... And I was his wife. The mother-in-law took the son.

Anna continued to write and from an eccentric girl turned into a majestically regal woman. They began to imitate her, they painted her, admired her, she was surrounded by crowds of admirers. Gumilyov half-seriously, half-jokingly hinted: “Anya, more than five is indecent!”

When the First World War began, Gumilyov went to the front. In the spring of 1915, he was wounded, and Akhmatova constantly visited him in the hospital. For valor, Nikolai Gumilyov was awarded the St. George Cross. At the same time, he continued to engage in literature, lived in London, Paris, and returned to Russia in April 1918.

Akhmatova, feeling like a widow with her husband alive, asked him for a divorce, saying that she was marrying Vladimir Shileiko. She later called the second marriage "interim".

Vladimir Shileiko was a famous scientist and poet.

Ugly, insanely jealous, unadapted to life, he, of course, could not give her happiness. She was attracted by the opportunity to be useful to a great man. She believed that rivalry between them was excluded, which prevented marriage with Gumilyov. She spent hours writing translations of his texts from dictation, cooking and even chopping firewood. And he did not allow her to leave the house, burning all the letters unopened, did not allow her to write poetry.

Anna was rescued by a friend, composer Arthur Lurie. Shileiko was taken to the hospital for treatment of sciatica. And Akhmatova during this time got a job in the library of the Agronomic Institute. There she was given a state-owned apartment and firewood. After the hospital, Shileiko was forced to move in with her. But in the apartment where Anna herself was the hostess, the domestic despot subsided. However, in the summer of 1921 they parted completely.

In August 1921, Anna's friend, the poet Alexander Blok, died. At his funeral, Akhmatova learned that Nikolai Gumilyov had been arrested. He was accused of not informing, knowing about the alleged plot being prepared.

In Greece, almost at the same time, Anna Andreevna's brother, Andrei Gorenko, committed suicide. Two weeks later, Gumilyov was shot, and Akhmatova was not honored by the new government: both noble roots and poetry outside of politics. Even the fact that People's Commissar Alexandra Kollontai once noted the attractiveness of Akhmatova's poems for young workers ("the author truthfully portrays how badly a man treats a woman") did not help to avoid the persecution of critics. She was left alone and for a long 15 years she was not published.

At this time, she was engaged in the study of Pushkin's work, and her poverty began to border on poverty. She wore an old felt hat and a light coat in any weather. One of the contemporaries was somehow amazed at her magnificent, luxurious outfit, which, upon closer examination, turned out to be a worn dressing gown. Money, things, even gifts from friends did not stay with her. Without her own home, she did not part with only two books: a volume of Shakespeare and the Bible. But even in poverty, according to the reviews of all who knew her, Akhmatova remained royally majestic and beautiful.

With historian and critic Nikolai Punin Anna Akhmatova was in a civil marriage.

To the uninitiated, they looked like a happy couple. But in fact, their relationship has developed into a painful triangle.

Akhmatova's civil husband continued to live in the same house with his daughter Irina and his first wife Anna Arens, who also suffered from this, remaining in the house as a close friend.

Akhmatova helped Punin a lot in his literary studies, translating for him from Italian, French, and English. Her son Leo moved to her, who by that time was 16 years old. Later, Akhmatova said that Punin could suddenly announce sharply at the table: “Only Irochka needs butter.” But her son Lyovushka was sitting next to him ...

In this house, she only had a sofa and a small table at her disposal. If she wrote, it was only in bed, surrounded by notebooks. He was jealous of her poetry, fearing that he looked insufficiently significant against her background. Once, into the room where she was reading her new poems to friends, Punin flew in with a cry: “Anna Andreevna! Do not forget! You are a poet of local Tsarskoye Selo significance.

When a new wave of repressions began, on the denunciation of one of the fellow students, the son of Leo was arrested, and then Punin. Akhmatova rushed to Moscow, wrote a letter to Stalin. They were released, but only temporarily. In March 1938, the son was again arrested. Anna again "was lying at the feet of the executioner." The death sentence was replaced with exile.

During the Great Patriotic War, during the heaviest bombings, Akhmatova spoke on the radio with an appeal to the women of Leningrad. She was on duty on the roofs, digging trenches. She was evacuated to Tashkent, and after the war she was awarded the medal "For the Defense of Leningrad". In 1945, the son returned - from exile he managed to get to the front.

But after a short respite, a black streak begins again - at first she was expelled from the Writers' Union, deprived of ration cards, and the book that was in print was destroyed. Then they again arrested Nikolai Punin and Lev Gumilyov, whose only fault was that he was the son of his parents. The first died, the second spent seven years in camps.

The disgrace was removed from Akhmatova only in 1962. But until the last days, she retained her royal grandeur. She wrote about love and jokingly warned the young poets Yevgeny Rein, Anatoly Neiman, Joseph Brodsky, with whom she was friends: “Just don’t fall in love with me! I don't need it anymore!"

Source of this post: http://www.liveinternet.ru/users/tomik46/post322509717/

And here is information about other men of the great poetess, also collected on the Internet:

Boris Anrep - Russian muralist, writer of the Silver Age, lived most of his life in Great Britain.

They met in 1915. Akhmatova was introduced to Boris Anrep by his closest friend, the poet and theorist of verse N.V. Undobrovo. Here is how Akhmatova herself recalls her first meeting with Anrep: “1915. Palm Sat. A friend (Nedobrovo in Ts.S.) has officer B.V.A. Improvisation of poetry, evening, then two more days, on the third he left. Escorted me to the station."

Later, he came from the front on business trips and on vacation, met, acquaintance grew into a strong feeling on her part and a keen interest on his part. How ordinary and prosaic I "saw off to the station" and how many poems about love were born after that!

Muse Akhmatova, after meeting with Antrep, spoke immediately. About forty poems are dedicated to him, including the happiest and brightest poems about love by Akhmatova from The White Pack. They met on the eve of B. Anrep's departure to the army. At the time of their meeting, he was 31 years old, she was 25.

Anrep recalls: " When I met her, I was fascinated: an exciting personality, subtle sharp remarks, and most importantly - beautiful, painfully touching poems ... We rode in a sleigh; dined in restaurants; and all this time I asked her to read poetry to me; she smiled and sang in a low voice".

According to B. Anrep, Anna Andreevna always wore a black ring (gold, wide, covered with black enamel, with a tiny diamond) and attributed to him a mysterious power. The cherished "black ring" was presented to Anrep in 1916. " I closed my eyes. He rested his hand on the sofa seat. Suddenly something fell into my hand: it was a black ring. "Take it," she whispered, "to you." I wanted to say something. The heart was beating. I looked inquiringly at her face. She silently looked into the distance".

Like an angel disturbing the water

You looked into my face then

Returned both strength and freedom,

And in memory of a miracle, he took a ring.

The last time they saw each other was in 1917 on the eve of B. Anrep's final departure to London.

Arthur Lurie - Russian-American composer and music writer, theorist, critic, one of the greatest figures in musical futurism and Russian musical avant-garde of the 20th century.

Arthur was a charming man, a dandy, in whom women unmistakably identified an attractive and strong sexuality. The acquaintance of Arthur and Anna happened during one of the many disputes in 1913, where they sat at the same table. She was 25, he was 21, and he was married.

The rest is known from the words of Irina Graham, a close acquaintance of Akhmatova at that time and later a friend of Lurie in America. “After the meeting, everyone went to Stray Dog. Lurie again found himself at the same table with Akhmatova. They started talking and the conversation went on all night; Gumilyov came up several times and reminded: “Anna, it's time to go home,” but Akhmatova did not pay attention to this and continued the conversation. Gumilyov left alone.

In the morning, Akhmatova and Lurie left the Stray Dog for the islands. It was like Blok: "And the crunch of sand, and the snoring of a horse." The stormy romance lasted one year. In the verses of this period, the image of King David, the Hebrew king-musician, is associated with Lurie.

Relations resumed in 1919. Her husband Shileiko kept Akhmatova locked up, the entrance to the house through the gateway was locked. Anna, as Graham writes, being the thinnest woman in St. Petersburg, lay down on the ground and crawled out of the gateway, and on the street, Arthur and her beautiful friend, actress Olga Glebova-Sudeikina, were waiting for her, laughing.

Amadeo Modigliani - Italian artist and sculptor, one of the most famous artists of the late XIX - early XX century, a representative of expressionism.

Amadeo Modigliani moved to Paris in 1906 in order to establish himself as a young, talented artist. Modigliani at that time was unknown to anyone and very poor, but his face radiated such amazing carelessness and calmness that he seemed to the young Akhmatova a man from a strange, unknown world. The girl recalled that at their first meeting, Modigliani was dressed very brightly and gaudily, in yellow corduroy trousers and a bright jacket of the same color. He looked rather absurd, but the artist was able to teach himself so gracefully that he seemed to her an elegant handsome man, dressed in the latest Parisian fashion.

That year, too, the then young Modigliani was barely twenty-six. Twenty-year-old Anna, a month before this meeting, became engaged to the poet Nikolai Gumilyov, and the lovers went on their honeymoon to Paris. The poetess at that young time was so beautiful that everyone on the streets of Paris looked at her, and strangers admired her feminine charm aloud.

The aspiring artist timidly asked Akhmatova for permission to paint her portrait, and she agreed. Thus began the story of a very passionate, but such a short love. Anna and her husband returned to St. Petersburg, where she continued to write poetry and enrolled in historical and literary courses, while her husband, Nikolai Gumilyov, left for Africa for more than six months. The young wife, who was now increasingly called the "straw widow", was very lonely in the big city. And at this time, as if reading her thoughts, the handsome Parisian artist sends Anna a very passionate letter in which he confesses to her that he could not forget the girl and dreams of meeting her again.
Modigliani continued to write letters to Akhmatova one after another, and in each of them he passionately confessed his love to her. From friends who visited Paris at that time, Anna knew that Amadeo had become addicted to ... wine and drugs during this time. The artist could not bear poverty and hopelessness, besides, the Russian girl he adored still remained far away in a foreign, incomprehensible country to him.

Six months later, Gumilyov returned from Africa and immediately the couple had a major quarrel. Because of this quarrel, the offended Akhmatova, remembering the tearful pleas of her Parisian admirer to come to Paris, suddenly left for France. This time she saw her lover completely different - thin, pale, haggard from drunkenness and sleepless nights. It seemed that Amadeo had aged many years at once. However, the passionate Italian, still in love with Akhmatova, seemed to be the most beautiful man in the world, burning her, as before, with a mysterious and piercing look.

They spent an unforgettable three months together. Many years later, she told those closest to her that the young man was so poor that he could not invite her anywhere and simply took her for a walk around the city. In the artist's tiny room, Akhmatova posed for him. That season, Amadeo painted more than ten portraits of her, which after, allegedly, burned down during a fire. However, until now, many art historians claim that Akhmatova simply hid them, not wanting to show the world, since the portraits could tell the whole truth about their passionate relationship ... Only many years later, among the drawings of an Italian artist, two portraits of a naked woman were found, in which the similarity of the model with the famous Russian poetess was clearly guessed.

Isaiah Berlin- English philosopher, historian and diplomat.

The first meeting between Isaiah Berlin and Akhmatova took place in the Fountain House on November 16, 1945. The second meeting the next day lasted until dawn and was full of stories about mutual emigrant friends, about life in general, about literary life. Akhmatova read "Requiem" and excerpts from "Poem without a Hero" to Isaiah Berlin.

He also visited Akhmatova on January 4 and 5, 1946, to say goodbye. Then she gave him her poetry collection. Andronnikova notes the special talent of Berlin as a "charm" of women. In him, Akhmatova found not just a listener, but a person who occupied her soul.

During the second visit to Berlin in 1956, they did not meet with Akhmatova. From a telephone conversation, Isaiah Berlin concluded that Akhmatova was banned.

Another meeting was in 1965 in Oxford. The topic of the conversation was the company raised against her by the authorities and personally by Stalin, but also the state of modern Russian literature, Akhmatova's predilections in it.

If their first meeting took place when Akhmatova was 56 years old, and he was 36, then the last meeting took place when Berlin was already 56 years old, and Akhmatova was 76. She died a year later.

Berlin survived Akhmatova by 31 years.

Isaiah Berlin, this is the mysterious person to whom Anna Akhmatova dedicated a cycle of poems - the famous "Cinque" (Five). In the poetic perception of Akhmatova, there are five meetings with Isaiah Berlin. Five is not only five poems in the Cingue cycle, but perhaps this is the number of meetings with the hero. This is a cycle of love poems.

Many are surprised at such a sudden, and judging by the poems, tragic love for Berlin. “Guest from the Future” Akhmatov called Berlin in “A Poem without a Hero” and perhaps poems from the cycle “Rosehip Blooms” (from a burnt notebook) and “Midnight Poems” (seven poems) are dedicated to him. Isaiah Berlin translated Russian literature into English. Thanks to the efforts of Berlin, Akhmatova received an honorary doctorate from Oxford University.

In my monumental essay Anti-Akhmatova (I have already had occasion to write about him:

about the most mysterious Kataeva, see
http://community.livejournal.com/antiakhmatova/3224.html ;
for some reason, she did not develop her success in 2007 - spring 2008 in late 2008 - early 2009. Maybe she thought she had accomplished her mission?

So, in this essay, Tamara Kataeva, among other true and false statements, repeatedly declares that Shileiko cohabited with Akhmatova, but he did not marry her, she, Akhmatova, blatantly counted him in her husbands. Kataeva writes on this subject with expression, believing that she has made a considerable discovery:

“Deleting Shileiko and Punin from the number of husbands - those who are considered legitimate husbands by the most conscientious researchers of Akhmatova’s life - I do not at all rest on the fact that they were not “painted” - they were not in a registered marriage. For all times and cultures their customs. However, Akhmatova was not married to these men in the form of marriage that was recognized by society at that time.

As you can see, the generous Kataeva would even be ready to count Shileiko as Akhmatova’s husband, although, according to Kataeva, they were not in a registered marriage, but the trouble is that they were not married in any other form, but got married under a bush. Quoting Kataeva:

“A strange form of cohabitation with Vladimir Shileiko - ... his false assurance that he registered their relationship, “converted to Orthodoxy for the sake of Anya - an offering to her” (which, of course, was not, and only she talks about this), a real divorce with screams Akhmatova: “What surname will they write in my passport now ?!” ... “... The book“ Last Love ”- Shileiko’s correspondence with Akhmatova and Vera Andreeva - puts everything in its place. I open ... the marriage of Vladimir Kazimirovich Shileiko with Vera Andreeva .... Correspondence of the newlyweds themselves, poems. Living together, child. All this happens in those years when Anna Akhmatova attributed to herself a second, with him [Shileiko], marriage.
This is the story of Shileiko.” (p. 417 ff.).

In the photograph of Tamara Kataeva we see a pretty, somewhat squirrel-like and somewhat bared face. She is a pathologist by profession. It would be nice if she, using her special knowledge, would improve her reading skills, because books cannot be read the way she does. So even Trauberg does not translate how Kataeva reads.

For in this very book “Vladimir Shileiko. Last Love ”(M., 2003, further VSHPL), to which Kataeva refers, means in black and white (and is reflected in detail in the correspondence between Shileiko and his last wife Vera Andreeva) the following:

1) that he met Andreeva in 1924, their regular correspondence began at the beginning of 1926, the wedding was on June 18, 1926.

Akhmatova was married to Shileiko in the PREVIOUS years, from 1918. At the end of 1922, she left Shileiko for N.N. Punin, a Bolshevik esthete, and in the fall of 1924 she moved to him. However, she went to Shileiko's to feed his dog and look after his apartment during his departures to Moscow. She did not receive a divorce from Shileiko due to its complete uselessness - for Punin also did not want to divorce his wife for the sake of Akhmatova, and they all lived with the Punins with the whole regiment - Punin, his wife, his daughter and Akhmatova.
Thus, there can be no question of any chronological coincidence of Shileiko's marriage with Andreeva and his cohabitation with Akhmatova, about which Kataeva writes for some reason. And, of course, in no terrible dream after 1926 did it occur to Akhmatova to describe herself as Shileiko’s wife and “attribute marriage to herself with him in these years,” as Kataeva writes (in particular, on May 20, 1926, she told Lukntsky in detail the history of her marriage with Shileiko as completely completed and left in the past, VSHPL. P. 67), especially since -

2) in the letters of Shileiko, Vera Andreeva and her mother E. Andreeva, in the conversations of Akhmatova, it is described in detail how, in order to marry Andreeva, Shileiko had to obtain a formal divorce from the previous, equally clearly formalized marriage with Akhmatova.
- 05/31/1926 Shileiko writes to Akhmatova: “Good elephant ... If you enclose your consent to divorce and take your marriage certificate from Ilminsky, this will facilitate and speed up the matter ...” (VShPL: 69);
- Luknitsky 06/1/1926 Akhmatova says that she "received ... a people's court summons for divorce" (Luknitsky's diary, VSHPL: 70)
- the court itself, which formally terminated the state of marriage between Shil. and Akhm., took place in Moscow on June 8, 1926 (Luknitsky's diary, VSHPL: 71)
- in the same VSHPL, the decision of this very court was published (with the given archival number), and in that decision it is said that “the marriage of the spouses Shileiko and Akhmatova-Shileiko was committed in December 1918 in the mountains. Leningrad in the notary of the Foundry part, which [the marriage] they asked to terminate ”(VShPL: 71). What the court did, formally separating the spouses and deciding “to leave their last names premarital - Shileiko to him, and Akhmatova to her” (ibid.). In fact, the court made an inaccuracy - which is not surprising, because the Moscow district court did not particularly follow the Leningrad cases; in fact, she married Shileiko Akhmatova as "Gorenko", and not in the Foundry part, but in Vasileostrovskaya (VShPL: 73).

But that's not all. Georgy Ivanov in his memoirs also commemorates the wedding of Shileiko with Akhmatova in 1918 in the Vladimir Cathedral (Georgy Ivanov. Collected Works. M .. 1994. Vol. 3 P. 377); Ivanov himself, for the sake of greater interest, said that he wrote a lot in his memoirs, and the gullible Lit-Vedas believed him, so that Ivanov's report in decent society would not pass for an argument. However, Vera Andreeva herself, in correspondence with Shileiko, discusses the need for him to obtain not only a civil, but also a church divorce in order to marry her (VSHPL: 61); thus, he really married Akhmatova.

So, Shileiko and Akhmatova, rank by rank, registered their marriage in 1918 in front of the state, and at the same time they also entered into a church marriage, and all this is covered in detail in the GSPL. And here Kataeva, with reference to THIS SAME GSPL, declares that Shileiko's marriage with Akhm. It was NOT registered or formalized in any other "recognized in the society" way.

As a child, she was nicknamed “wild girl”, because she went barefoot, wandered without a hat, etc., threw herself from a boat into the open sea, swam during a storm, and sunbathed until her skin came off, and with all this she shocked the provincial Sevastopol young ladies.

The beauty, talent and intelligence of Anna Akhmatova have been admired in the past and present centuries. She was credited with an affair with Alexander Blok, Osip Mandelstam tried to look after her, but to no avail, and Boris Pasternak offered her his hand and heart seven times.

Do not trust beautiful courtship

Anna Andreevna Akhmatova (real name - Gorenko) was born in the family of a marine engineer, retired captain of the 2nd rank, at the Bolshoi Fontan station near Odessa. Mother, Irina Erazmovna, devoted herself entirely to her children, of whom there were six. A year after Anya's birth, the family moved to Tsarskoye Selo. “My first impressions are those of Tsarskoye Selo,” she later wrote. - The green, damp splendor of the parks, the pasture where my nanny took me, the hippodrome, where small colorful horses galloped, the old railway station and something else that later became part of the Tsarskoye Selo Ode.

There were almost no books in the house, but my mother knew many poems and recited them by heart. Communicating with older children, Anna began to speak French quite early.

Anna met Nikolai Gumilyov, who became her husband, when she was only 14. 17-year-old Nikolai was struck by her mysterious, bewitching beauty: radiant gray eyes, thick long black hair, an antique profile made this girl unlike anyone else. For ten whole years, Anna became a source of inspiration for the young poet. He showered her with flowers and poems. One day, on her birthday, he gave Anna flowers, plucked under the windows of the imperial palace. In despair from unrequited love on Easter 1905, Gumilyov tried to commit suicide, which only frightened and disappointed the girl completely. She stopped seeing him. Soon Anna's parents divorced, and she moved with her mother to Evpatoria. At this time, she was already writing poetry, but did not attach much importance to this. Gumilyov, having heard something written by her, said: “Maybe you will dance better? You are flexible ... ”Nevertheless, he published one poem in a small literary almanac“ Sirius ”. Anna chose the surname of her great-grandmother, whose family descended from the Tatar Khan Akhmat.

Gumilyov continued to propose to her again and again and attempted his own life three times. In November 1909, Akhmatova unexpectedly agreed to marriage, accepting the chosen one not as love, but as fate. “Gumilyov is my destiny, and I dutifully surrender to her. Don't judge me if you can. I swear to you everything that is holy to me, that this unfortunate person will be happy with me, ”she writes to student Golenishchev-Kutuzov, who she liked much more than Nikolai. None of the bride's relatives came to the wedding, considering the marriage obviously doomed. Nevertheless, the wedding took place at the end of June 1910. Soon after the wedding, having achieved what he had been striving for for so long, Gumilyov lost interest in his young wife. He began to travel a lot and was rarely at home.

Therefore: when choosing a life partner, you should not focus on the quality of his courtship before marriage, the amount of money spent on flowers and gifts. Even the most beautiful words spoken before the wedding cannot be a guarantee of future happiness. Quite often, having reached the desired goal, such men begin to look at other women, continuing to assert themselves in their own eyes.

Don't sacrifice yourself

In the spring of 1912, Akhmatova's first collection of 300 copies was published. In the same year, Anna and Nikolai have a son, Leo. But the husband was completely unprepared to limit his own freedom: “He loved three things in the world: for evening singing, white peacocks and erased maps of America. He didn't like it when children cried. He did not like tea with raspberries and female hysteria ... And I was his wife. The mother-in-law took the son.

Anna continued to write and from an eccentric girl turned into a majestically regal woman. They began to imitate her, they painted her, admired her, she was surrounded by crowds of admirers. Gumilyov half-seriously, half-jokingly hinted: “Anya, more than five is indecent!”

When the First World War began, Gumilyov went to the front. In the spring of 1915, he was wounded, and Akhmatova constantly visited him in the hospital. For valor, Nikolai Gumilyov was awarded the St. George Cross. At the same time, he continued to engage in literature, lived in London, Paris, and returned to Russia in April 1918. Akhmatova, feeling like a widow with her husband alive, asked him for a divorce, saying that she was marrying Vladimir Shileiko.

She later called the second marriage "interim". Vladimir Shileiko was a famous scientist and poet. Ugly, insanely jealous, unadapted to life, he, of course, could not give her happiness. She was attracted by the opportunity to be useful to a great man. She believed that rivalry between them was excluded, which prevented marriage with Gumilyov. She spent hours writing translations of his texts from dictation, cooking and even chopping firewood. And he did not allow her to leave the house, burning all the letters unopened, did not allow her to write poetry. Anna was rescued by a friend, composer Arthur Lurie. Shileiko was taken to the hospital for treatment of sciatica. And Akhmatova during this time got a job in the library of the Agronomic Institute. There she was given a state-owned apartment and firewood. After the hospital, Shileiko was forced to move in with her. But in the apartment where Anna herself was the hostess, the domestic despot subsided. However, in the summer of 1921 they parted completely.

Therefore: never choose your life partner, guided by the desire to make him happy. After all, for this, first of all, you need to become happy yourself.

Don't forget the beauty of the soul

In August 1921, Anna's friend, the poet Alexander Blok, died. At his funeral, Akhmatova learned that Nikolai Gumilyov had been arrested. He was accused of not informing, knowing about the alleged plot being prepared. In Greece, almost at the same time, Anna Andreevna's brother, Andrei Gorenko, committed suicide.

Two weeks later, Gumilyov was shot, and Akhmatova was not honored by the new government: both noble roots and poetry outside of politics. Even the fact that People's Commissar Alexandra Kollontai once noted the attractiveness of Akhmatova's poems for young workers ("the author truthfully portrays how badly a man treats a woman") did not help to avoid the persecution of critics. She was left alone, and for a long 15 years she was not published. At this time, she was engaged in the study of Pushkin's work, and her poverty began to border on poverty. She wore an old felt hat and a light coat in any weather. One of the contemporaries was somehow amazed at her magnificent, luxurious outfit, which, upon closer examination, turned out to be a worn dressing gown. Money, things, even gifts from friends did not stay with her. Without her own home, she did not part with only two books: a volume of Shakespeare and the Bible. But even in poverty, according to the reviews of all who knew her, Akhmatova remained royally majestic and beautiful.

Therefore: in an effort to be beautiful, one should not forget that even the most expensive outfit will look like a cheap fake if our inner self does not match the created image. True greatness is not at all the number of diamonds available and not even fashionable branded items. It is something that is not measured in money.

Avoid love triangles

With the historian and critic Nikolai Punin, Anna Akhmatova was in a civil marriage. To the uninitiated, they looked like a happy couple. But in fact, their relationship has developed into a painful triangle. Akhmatova's civil husband continued to live in the same house with his daughter Irina and his first wife Anna Arens, who also suffered from this, remaining in the house as a close friend.

Akhmatova helped Punin a lot in his literary studies, translating for him from Italian, French, and English. Her son Leo moved to her, who by that time was 16 years old. Later, Akhmatova said that Punin could suddenly announce sharply at the table: “Only Irochka needs butter.” But her son Lyovushka was sitting nearby ... In this house, she had only a sofa and a small table at her disposal. If she wrote, it was only in bed, surrounded by notebooks. He was jealous of her poetry, fearing that he looked insufficiently significant against her background. Once, into the room where she was reading her new poems to friends, Punin flew in with a cry: “Anna Andreevna! Do not forget! You are a poet of local Tsarskoye Selo significance.

Therefore: even if your chosen one swears eternal love and says that he cannot live without you, but at the same time leaves for himself an “alternate airfield” without breaking off the previous relationship - run away from such a person as far as possible, because he creates the most comfortable conditions only for yourself, beloved.

There are no tests beyond strength

When a new wave of repressions began, on the denunciation of one of the fellow students, the son of Leo was arrested, and then Punin. Akhmatova rushed to Moscow, wrote a letter to Stalin. They were released, but only temporarily. In March 1938, the son was again arrested. Anna again "was lying at the feet of the executioner." The death sentence was replaced with exile.

During the Great Patriotic War, during the heaviest bombings, Akhmatova spoke on the radio with an appeal to the women of Leningrad. She was on duty on the roofs, digging trenches. She was evacuated to Tashkent, and after the war she was awarded the medal "For the Defense of Leningrad". In 1945, the son returned - from exile he managed to get to the front.

But after a short respite, a black streak begins again - at first she was expelled from the Writers' Union, deprived of ration cards, and the book that was in print was destroyed. Then they again arrested Nikolai Punin and Lev Gumilyov, whose only fault was that he was the son of his parents. The first died, the second spent seven years in camps.

The disgrace was removed from Akhmatova only in 1962. But until the last days, she retained her royal grandeur. She wrote about love and jokingly warned the young poets Yevgeny Rein, Anatoly Neiman, Joseph Brodsky, with whom she was friends: “Just don’t fall in love with me! I don't need it anymore!"

Therefore: no matter what trials you meet in life, remember that fate does not give them to us beyond our strength. The main thing at the same time is to withstand them with dignity. The way the great poet Anna Akhmatova could do it.