A. Akhmatova’s Lyrics in the Late 1910s and Early 1920s: Tragedy and Heroics

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Shevchuk, Yu. V. “A. Akhmatova’s Lyrics in the Late 1910s and Early 1920s: Tragedy and Heroics.” Dva veka russkoi klassiki, vol. 7, no. 4, 2025, pp. 304–325. (In Russ.) https://doi.org/10.22455/2686-7494-2025-7-4-304-325
Abstract:
The article analyzes A. Akhmatova’s lyrics of the late 1910s and early 1920s, when the poet deliberately focuses his thought and poetic word on reflections on the history and fate of Russia. A new sense of life is embodied in tragic and heroic forms of the author’s emotionality. The cathartic effect of the lyrics of the transition period is largely due to Akhmatova’s Christian attitudes — her appeal to prayer, biblical imagery, and collegiality as a state of collective experience of disaster. In her works, the motifs of the native home, memory, moral guilt, loneliness, fear, and faith in a miracle are strengthened. The article provides a comprehensive analysis of the cycle Three Poems. 1919, poems “Petrograd, 1919,” “Everything is Plundered, Betrayed, Sold...,” “The Moon Stopped behind the Lake...,” “Lament,” “Lot’s Wife,” “To Many,” as well as thematic cycles of works related to the fate of B. Anrep, who emigrated from Russia, and executed N. Gumilyov. Akhmatova’s poetics of reticence is replaced by a poetics of a hint of tragic autobiographical circumstances. Immersing in the suffering of people, supporting their faith, reminding them of the inviolability of personal values, and justifying life — all this becomes, according to Akhmatova, the mission of the poet of modern times.
Keywords: A. Akhmatova, civic lyrics, tragedy, Christian heroism, poetics of a hint, autobiographical circumstances.
Author: Yuliya V. Shevchuk
Information about the author:
Yuliya V. Shevchuk, DSc in Philology, Director of Research, Deputy Director for Scientific Work, A. M. Gorky Institute of World Literature of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Povarskaya St., 25A, bld. 1, 121069 Moscow, Russia.

ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3784-2100

E-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Received: August 12, 2025
Approved after reviewing: October 23, 2025
Published: December 25, 2025
Issue: 2025 Volume 7 No. 4
Department: Russian Literature of the 18th–19th Centuries
Pages: 304-325
DOI: Visit Website
EDN:
https://elibrary.ru/OXVBJT
UDK: 821.161.1.09"20"
Publication Type: Research Article

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