Everyone knows who is Anna Andreevna Akhmatova. She is an outstanding and genius poet. What do you know about her? Let’s check.
 Anna Andreevna was born in 1889 in Odessa. She was a relative of Anna Bunina- first Russian poet. The real surname of Anna Akhmatova is Gorenko. She created her pseudonym from name of hordian khan. She thought that she had such a relative from her mother's line. She spent her childhood in Petersburg, Tsarskoye Selo and Sevastopol, those years were really happy. Her life changed when her parents divorced and in 1905 mother took children to Evpatoria.
Akhmatova got an excellent education. She finished Fundukleevskaya gymnasium and enrolled law faculty. She studied with pleasure and mostly enjoyed history and literature , also she was quite good at French. She made new friends at university and began to write her first poems.
She met her future husband Nikolay Gumilev when she was 14. They were writing romantic letters to each other and in 1910 they got married and left for Paris for 3-month honeymoon. All people who saw her at that time were saying the same - she was really happy, more than just happy.
 When she came back to Russia she began to write a lot. Soon she met Alexander Block , Balmont and Mayakovsky. Her first poem was published when she was just 20 years old. In 1912 she finished her first collection of poems "Evening". After it she became a cult figure among Petersburg intelligentsia. Her second book was published in 1914: "Rosary" was critically acclaimed and established her reputation. With her husband she became a leader of Acmeism. Unfortunately, Akhmatova and Gumilev divorced in 1918 and for her it was a quite complicated period of life. She really loved him but they were arguing a lot and it was difficult to cope for both. Akhmatova was married twice more , to Vladimir Shileiko in 1918 and Nikolay Punin. Akhmatova was a beautiful and attractive woman and she attracted people, especially men. Even Boris Pasternak, who was already married, proposed her numerous times.
The Russian Revolution had a dramatic impact on people's life. Nikolay Gumilev was executed in 1921 and it had an enormous influence on her. She had a son from Gumilev called Lev. She always was worried about him but their relationships were getting worse and worse. Lev didn’t like that his mother that she was a poet, he didn't approve of what she was doing.
December of 1929 year a was new period in Anna Andreevna’s life. She created another collection of poems - "Anno Domini" and "Plantain"("Подорожник"). During 1920-1930 she was interested in biography of Pushkin. She wanted to know everything about him and dedicated her work to him. It resulted in such poems like "Pushkin in 1828", "About gold rooster" , " Aleksandria". However , in the middle of 1930 she had some problems with publishers and her poems weren't printed and nobody heard from her until 1940. For Akhmatova that time was complicated because of repression of her son, Lev Gumilev. He spent 14 years in different camps. Akhmatova tried to help him and did all she could to set him free. Finally, Lev Gumilev got free in 1938 but her best friend Mandelshtam. Later Akhmatova dedicated a huge sad poem called "Requiem" because of all people who died in prison during Russian Revolution.
When the Second World War began she was in Leningrad. She felt solitary and sad , is was the reason why she decided to move to Tashkent , where she lived until 1944. There she was in company of Faina Ranevskaya and Elena Bulgakova. There she knew that her son joined the army to fight against fascists. In spring of 1945 after victory Akhmatova and other poets were reading their poems in Moscow. However , her activity was closed in Moscow by government later. She issued her own journal with her companion Zoschenko. The thing is that government thought their views had negative influence on people. It was a hard time for Akhmatova because she had no opportunity to earn money. In fact, Akhmatova knew 5 languages and she was an amazingly nice translator. She had to translate foreign poems to make a living. The most important translations were- "Marion Delorm"of Gugo, a lot of Italian, French poems.
In 1960 Akhmatova became famous all over the world.  Her poems became known in Italy, England , France. The most interesting thing is that in 1962 in Italy Akhmatova got the International Poetic Award "Etna-Taormina" for her collection of poems. In addition , the same year (1962) the Oxford university gave Anna Akhmatova a degree of "Doctor of literature".
Anna Akhmatova never complained about her health and took easy any problems she faced. When she died of a heart attack in 1965, people were surprised... they just couldn't understand how that could happen... She was buried in Leningrad. Anna Andreevna Akhmatova lived an extraordinary and interesting life. Despite her travelling and love for other countries , she was a real patriot of Russia. She was very kind and responsive, strong-willed and honest. She is a nice example of a person who can fight up to the end. She never gave up nor complained. I really respect her as a person not only a poet - there will be always a place for her and her poems in my heart.
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