Original version

BBC World Service East and Southern Africa Schedule

BBC World Service East and Southern Africa

Witness History

Podcasts

Factual: Life Stories

Factual: History

History as told by the people who were there

History as told by the people who were there.

BBC World Service Australasia

BBC World Service Online

BBC World Service schedule for American satellite radio and the Caribbean

BBC World Service Americas and the Caribbean

BBC World Service

BBC World Service South Asia

BBC World Service News Internet

BBC World Service Europe and the Middle East

BBC World Service West and Central Africa Schedule

BBC World Service West and Central Africa

BBC World Service East Asia

Witness History: Anna Akhmatova: The poet who defied a regime

Documentaries

Anna Akhmatova: the poet who defied a regime

13/12/2023 GMT

Anna Akhmatova: The poet who defied a regime

BBC World Service - Witness History, Anna Akhmatova: The poet who defied a regime

How the great poet kept writing even through the darkest days of Soviet history

Anna Akhmatova fought to keep writing despite repeated attempts from the Soviet regime to silence her.

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)

Accessibility links

Programme Index

Witness History

Anna Akhmatova: The poet who defied a regime

Genres

Formats

Brand

BBC World Service East and Southern Africa

About BBC World Service