Anna Akhmatova

Anna Akhmatova was one of the major Russian poets of the twentieth century and a leading voice of the Acmeist movement. Her work addressed love, memory, war, repression and the suffering imposed by the Soviet state.

Akhmatova endured censorship, surveillance and attacks on her family, including the imprisonment of her son. Her long poem Requiem became an enduring literary memorial to the victims and families of Stalinist terror.

William T. Vollmann’s Europe Central uses Anna Akhmatova as one of the artists through whom Soviet cultural life is measured against war, censorship and state coercion. Her presence broadens the book beyond generals and dictators: the poet’s survival, losses and public voice provide a counterpoint to the political systems trying to control memory and expression during the Soviet twentieth century.