Anna Barkova
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Anna Alexandrovna Barkova (russian: link=no, А́нна Алекса́ндровна Барко́ва), July 16, 1901 – April 29, 1976, was a Soviet poet, journalist, playwright, essayist,
memoirist A memoir (; , ) is any nonfiction narrative writing based in the author's personal memories. The assertions made in the work are thus understood to be factual. While memoir has historically been defined as a subcategory of biography or autobiog ...
, and writer of fiction. She was imprisoned for more than 20 years in the
Gulag The Gulag, an acronym for , , "chief administration of the camps". The original name given to the system of camps controlled by the GPU was the Main Administration of Corrective Labor Camps (, )., name=, group= was the government agency in ...
. In 2017 a film about her life was released by Ceská , titled ''8 hlav sílenství'' (also known as ''8 Heads of Madness''), starring the popular singer
Aneta Langerová Aneta Langerová (born 26 November 1986) is a Czech pop singer. Born in Benešov, Czech Republic and grew up in Říčany, she first rose to fame at age 17 as the first winner of '' Česko hledá SuperStar'', the Czech version of ''Pop Idol'', ...
; it's mainly about her life in the camps and the women she loved.


Early life

Anna Alexandrovna Barkova 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

Barkova's early poetry attracted the attention of the
Bolshevik The Bolsheviks (russian: Большевики́, from большинство́ ''bol'shinstvó'', 'majority'),; derived from ''bol'shinstvó'' (большинство́), "majority", literally meaning "one of the majority". also known in English ...
literary establishment, including the leading critic
Aleksandr Voronsky Aleksandr Konstantinovich Voronsky (russian: Алекса́ндр Константи́нович Воро́нский) ( – 13 August 1937) was a prominent humanist Marxist literary critic, theorist and editor of the 1920s, disfavored and pu ...
and the Commisar of Enlightenment
Anatoly Lunacharsky Anatoly Vasilyevich Lunacharsky (russian: Анато́лий Васи́льевич Лунача́рский) (born Anatoly Aleksandrovich Antonov, – 26 December 1933) was a Russian Marxist revolutionary and the first Bolshevik Soviet People ...
. 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 foreword by Lunacharsky. In 1923 her play ''Nastasya Bonfire'' was published. She also attended the writer's school in Moscow directed by
Valery Bryusov Valery Yakovlevich Bryusov ( rus, Вале́рий Я́ковлевич Брю́сов, p=vɐˈlʲerʲɪj ˈjakəvlʲɪvʲɪdʑ ˈbrʲusəf, a=Valyeriy Yakovlyevich Bryusov.ru.vorb.oga; – 9 October 1924) was a Russian poet, prose writer, drama ...
, and wrote for his paper ''Print and Revolution''. Later, Maria Ulyanova, the sister of
Vladimir Lenin Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov. ( 1870 – 21 January 1924), better known as Vladimir Lenin,. was a Russian revolutionary, politician, and political theorist. He served as the first and founding head of government of Soviet Russia from 1917 to 1 ...
, found Anna a position at the paper ''
Pravda ''Pravda'' ( rus, Правда, p=ˈpravdə, a=Ru-правда.ogg, "Truth") is a Russian broadsheet newspaper, and was the official newspaper of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, when it was one of the most influential papers in the ...
'', and helped her to put together a second collection of poems that was never published.


Imprisonment and exile

Barkova became increasingly disillusioned with Soviet life in the late 1920s. Her poems of the early 1930s were highly critical of Soviet life and institutions. She wrote in 1925: In 1934, Barkova was denounced and arrested, and some of her poetry was used against her as evidence. She was sentenced to five years imprisonment. She endured a repeat arrest in November 1947, when she was sentenced to 10 years imprisonment and five years of restricted rights. Her second conviction was overturned in December 1955 and she was freed. She was rehabilitated in October 1957, then arrested for a third time in November, and sentenced again to 10 years in prison and five years of restricted rights. She was finally freed when this third conviction was overturned in May 1965. She also suffered two periods of exile from 1940 to 1947 (spent in Kaluga) 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 Aleksandr Trifonovich Tvardovsky ( rus, links=no, Александр Трифонович Твардовский, p=ɐlʲɪkˈsandr ˈtrʲifənəvʲɪtɕ tvɐrˈdofskʲɪj; – 18 December 1971) was a Soviet poet and writer and chief editor of ' ...
and
Konstantin Fedin Konstantin Aleksandrovich Fedin ( rus, Константи́н Алекса́ндрович Фе́дин, p=kənstɐnʲˈtʲin ɐlʲɪkˈsandrəvʲɪtɕ ˈfʲedʲɪn, a=Konstantin Alyeksandrovich Fyedin.ru.vorb.oga; – 15 July 1977) was a So ...
. She lived out the remainder of her life in relative poverty in a communal flat in the
Garden Ring The Garden Ring, also known as the "B" Ring (russian: Садо́вое кольцо́, кольцо́ "Б"; transliteration: ''Sadovoye Koltso''), is a circular ring road avenue around central Moscow, its course corresponding to what used to b ...
, 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.


References


External links


Site dedicated to her (Russian)
at bard.ru {{DEFAULTSORT:Barkova, Anna 1901 births 1976 deaths People from Ivanovo People from Shuysky Uyezd Russian prisoners and detainees Soviet dramatists and playwrights Soviet short story writers 20th-century Russian short story writers Soviet poets Soviet women writers Soviet dissidents Gulag detainees Soviet prisoners and detainees Soviet non-fiction writers Pseudonymous women writers Russian women short story writers Russian women poets Russian women journalists Women dramatists and playwrights 20th-century Russian women writers 20th-century non-fiction writers 20th-century pseudonymous writers Soviet women poets