During Joseph Stalin’s rule in Russia, many voices were silenced. If there was a piece of literature, news, or other such document that Stalin did not view appropriate to publish, it was not published. Stalin ran a totalitarian government in which he oversaw all public affairs. Since he had final say as to what the public was exposed to, nothing negative regarding him was published. Stalin also imprisoned many people for speaking out against him. He also sentenced several millions to death. One of those who Stalin attempted to silence during his reign was Anna Akhmatova.
Anna Akhmatova was born Anna Andreevna Gorenko. She married and had a son, Lev Gumilyov. He was one of the men that Stalin imprisoned in an attempt to silence Akhmatova. He was imprisoned for seventeen months as an attempt to force Akhmatova to write only pro-Stalin poetry (Magill 1810).
While Anna Akhmatova was waiting to visit her son in prison, she would wait in line for hours with other mothers, wives, and sisters outside the prison walls. She also started to write poems that symbolized the struggle of the Russian people and the injustices they faced. She refused to give into Stalin’s demands, and these poems were a symbol of her determination. The poems are put together in Requiem which is associated with a Catholic funeral service.
There are several basic themes and meanings found within Requiem. The first is the idea that Akhmatova was protesting official injustices (Magill 1812).
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She wanted to be a voice for all the women she waited with who could not speak without her. She never made her contempt for Stalin a secret. “Requiem recounts the suffering of the Russian people under Stalinism- more specifically the women with whom Akhmatova stood in line outside the walls of the prison where her son was” (dybka.home.mindspring.com).
Religion is another theme found in the poems, although not as discussed by the critics. Akhmatova related her stories to those of Mary and Jesus. Like Mary, Akhmatova was forced to watch her son suffer for the people. She “uses religious language for different purpose seeing it through Mary’s eyes” (Stine 27).
Mary watched her son suffer as he carried the cross. Similarly, Akhmatova suffered by waiting for her son to be brought out of the prison.
The poem Requiem is broken down into several parts. Each part represents something different. The “Dedication” section is Akhmatova’s dedication the poems to the women who waited outside the prison walls with her. She made it known that she wanted the memory of the women and the prison to live on. The “Prologue” is used to depict what it was like for all people during Stalin’s reign of terror, when anyone could be arrested without cause. Part One is used by Akhmatova to recall the arrest of her son. She witnessed the horror of his arrest. She wanted people to related directly with the horror of Stalin. Part Two is the section in which Akhmatova is able to express her feeling of being alone. Her son is in prison and her husband was killed in a further attempt to silence her. She was left with no one. Part Three discusses how Akhmatova feels, especially in regard to the feeling that her spirit is disintegrating even further. Part Four is a recollection of Akhmatova’s childhood, a time in which she was much happier. And was not forced to live in constant fear. Part Five is a foreshadowing of the horrible death soon to come as well as the deaths of so many. Part Six is a stage of delirium. Akhmatova is in a state of confusion. She expresses her hurt and emotions to a greater extent in this part than other parts. In Part Seven “The Sentence,” Akhmatova’s son is sentenced. In Parts Eight and Nine, Akhmatova feels as though the intense pain she feels can be resolved through religion. This is seen in the references above to Mary and Jesus. Religion is continued be used in Part Ten “The Crucifixion” Akhmatova recalls Christ’s agony as he walked the cross to his crucifixion (Magill 1810-1811).
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“Epilogue One” speaks out “about fear and suffering and how it affects the people” (Stine 28).
“Epilogue Two is not a consolation but the memory that must be killed so that one can go on living” (Stine 28), which is the main idea that Akhmatova was trying to accomplish.
Requiem was not published in Russia until after Stalin’s death. Instead, Anna Akhmatova instead published the works in Germany and the United States. After Stalin’s death Akhmatova’s poetry was published in Russia. The complete works of Akhmatova were not published until the 1980s after the fall of the Soviet Union. Many critics consider her to be the best Russian poet since Pushkin.
Although her voice was silenced for many years, Anna Akhmatova did not allow Joseph Stalin to silence the voices of her or the many women who waited with her outside the prison walls. Akhmatova used her poetry to help show the world of pain and suffering that was Russia during Stalin’s reign. Even though Anna Akhmatova was one voice, she represented all the silenced voices of Russian women during Stalin’s totalitarian reign.
