Anna Akhmatova's poetry gave voice to the deepest yearnings and struggles of the Russian people through much of the twentieth century. Born in 1889, she survived these upheavals, refusing to abandon either Russia or her craft despite vicious attacks on her name and censorship of her work. When committing poems to paper threatened to cause her arrest, a few close friends faithfully memorised her lines. By the time she died in 1966, Anna Akhmatova was recognized as one of the world's great poets.
