Anna Akhmatova: The poet who defied a regime
How the great poet kept writing even through the darkest days of Soviet history
Witness History · BBC World Service
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Show Notes
The great Russian poet Anna Akhmatova lived through some of the darkest chapters of Soviet history, but never stopped writing even though the communist regime repeatedly tried to silence her. One of Anna's most famous poems, Requiem, is about her son's arrest and the Stalinist terror.
In 2022, art historian Era Korobova told Tatyana Movshevich about the poet's tumultuous relationship with her son.
(Photo: Anna Akhmatova (second from right, at a Soviet writers' conference in 1965. Credit: Getty Images)