Anna Barkova
Encyclopedia
Anna Alexandrovna Barkova , July 16, 1901 – April 29, 1976, was a Soviet poet, journalist, playwright, essayist, memoirist, and writer of fiction. She was imprisoned for more than 20 years in the Gulag
.
In 1918 she enrolled as a member of the Circle of Genuine Proletarian Poets, a writers group based in Ivanovo. Soon after joining she began to write short pieces for the group's paper The Land of the Workers. She also published poetry in the paper under the pseudonym Kalika perekhozhaia ("the wandering cripple"), a name given to blind or maimed singers who went from village to village singing devotional ballads to obtain alms.
literary establishment, including the leading critic Aleksandr Voronsky
and the Commisar of Enlightenment Anatoly Lunacharsky. Lunacharsky became her patron, and in 1922 she moved to Moscow to act as his secretary. Also in 1922 her first poetry collection Woman was published with a forward by Lunacharsky. In 1923 her play Nastasya Bonfire was published.
She also attended the writer's school in Moscow directed by Valery Bryusov
, and wrote for his paper Print and Revolution. Later, Maria Ulyanova, the sister of Vladimir Lenin
, found Anna a position at the paper Pravda
, and helped her to put together a second collection of poems that was never published.
. She lived out the remainder of her life in relative poverty in a communal flat in the Garden Ring
, where she preserved her enthusiasm for books, friends, and conversation.
Gulag
The Gulag was the government agency that administered the main Soviet forced labor camp systems. While the camps housed a wide range of convicts, from petty criminals to political prisoners, large numbers were convicted by simplified procedures, such as NKVD troikas and other instruments of...
.
Early life
Anna was born into the family of a private school janitor in the textile town of Ivanovo in 1901. She was allowed to attend the school because of her father's position, a rare opportunity for a young working class girl in pre-revolutionary Russia.In 1918 she enrolled as a member of the Circle of Genuine Proletarian Poets, a writers group based in Ivanovo. Soon after joining she began to write short pieces for the group's paper The Land of the Workers. She also published poetry in the paper under the pseudonym Kalika perekhozhaia ("the wandering cripple"), a name given to blind or maimed singers who went from village to village singing devotional ballads to obtain alms.
Literary work
Anna's early poetry attracted the attention of the BolshevikBolshevik
The Bolsheviks, originally also Bolshevists , derived from bol'shinstvo, "majority") were a faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party which split apart from the Menshevik faction at the Second Party Congress in 1903....
literary establishment, including the leading critic Aleksandr Voronsky
Aleksandr Voronsky
Aleksandr Konstantinovich Voronsky was a prominent humanist Marxist critic and editor of the 1920s, disfavored and purged in the 1930s.-Early life:...
and the Commisar of Enlightenment Anatoly Lunacharsky. Lunacharsky became her patron, and in 1922 she moved to Moscow to act as his secretary. Also in 1922 her first poetry collection Woman was published with a forward by Lunacharsky. In 1923 her play Nastasya Bonfire was published.
She also attended the writer's school in Moscow directed by Valery Bryusov
Valery Bryusov
Valery Yakovlevich Bryusov was a Russian poet, prose writer, dramatist, translator, critic and historian. He was one of the principal members of the Russian Symbolist movement.-Biography:...
, and wrote for his paper Print and Revolution. Later, Maria Ulyanova, the sister of Vladimir Lenin
Vladimir Lenin
Vladimir Ilyich Lenin was a Russian Marxist revolutionary and communist politician who led the October Revolution of 1917. As leader of the Bolsheviks, he headed the Soviet state during its initial years , as it fought to establish control of Russia in the Russian Civil War and worked to create a...
, found Anna a position at the paper Pravda
Pravda
Pravda was a leading newspaper of the Soviet Union and an official organ of the Central Committee of the Communist Party between 1912 and 1991....
, and helped her to put together a second collection of poems that was never published.
Imprisonment and exile
She became increasingly disillusioned with Soviet life in the late 1920s. Her poems of the early 1930s were highly critical of Soviet life and institutions. In 1934 Anna was denounced and arrested, and some of her poetry was used against her as evidence. She was sentenced to five years imprisonment. She endured repeat arrests in 1947 and 1956, and served 9 years in the Gulag for each arrest. She also suffered 2 long periods of exile from 1939 to 1947 and from 1965 to 1967. In 1967 she was allowed to return to Moscow after the intervention of a group of writers led by Alexander Tvardovsky and Konstantin FedinKonstantin Fedin
-Biography:Born in Saratov of humble origins, Fedin studied in Moscow and Germany and was interned there during World War I. After his release he worked as an interpreter in the first Soviet embassy in Berlin...
. She lived out the remainder of her life in relative poverty in a communal flat in the Garden Ring
Garden Ring
The Garden Ring, also known as the "B" Ring , is a circular avenue around the central Moscow, its course corresponding to what used to be the city ramparts surrounding Zemlyanoy Gorod in the 17th century....
, where she preserved her enthusiasm for books, friends, and conversation.
English translations
- A Few Autobiographical Facts and Tatar Anguish, (poems), from An Anthology of Russian Women's Writing, 1777-1992, Oxford, 1994.