Anna Alexandrovna Barkova (), 16 July 1901 – 29 April 1976, was a Soviet Russian poet, journalist, playwright, essayist,

memoirist A memoir (; , ) is any nonfiction narrative A narrative, story, or tale is any account of a series of related events or experiences, whether non-fictional (memoir, biography, news report, documentary, travel literature, travelogue, etc.) ...

, and writer of fiction. She was imprisoned for more than 20 years in the

Gulag The Gulag was a system of Labor camp, forced labor camps in the Soviet Union. The word ''Gulag'' originally referred only to the division of the Chronology of Soviet secret police agencies, Soviet secret police that was in charge of runnin ...

Early life

Anna Alexandrovna Barkova was born into the family of a private school janitor in the textile town of

Ivanovo Ivanovo (, ) is a types of inhabited localities in Russia, city in Russia and the administrative center and largest city of Ivanovo Oblast, located northeast of Moscow and approximately from Yaroslavl, Vladimir, Russia, Vladimir and Kostroma. ...

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, led by Vladimir Lenin, were a radical Faction (political), faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP) which split with the Mensheviks at the 2nd Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party, ...

literary establishment, including the leading critic Aleksandr Voronsky and the

Commissar Commissar (or sometimes ''Kommissar'') is an English transliteration of the Russian (''komissar''), which means ' commissary'. In English, the transliteration ''commissar'' often refers specifically to the political commissars of Soviet and ...

of Enlightenment

Anatoly Lunacharsky Anatoly Vasilyevich Lunacharsky (, born ''Anatoly Aleksandrovich Antonov''; – 26 December 1933) was a Russian Marxist revolutionary and the first Soviet People's Commissariat for Education, People's Commissar (minister) of Education, as well ...

. Lunacharsky became her patron, and in 1922 she moved to

Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...

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, and wrote for his paper ''Print and Revolution''. Later, Maria Ulyanova, the sister of

Vladimir Lenin Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov ( 187021 January 1924), better known as Vladimir Lenin, was a Russian revolutionary, politician and political theorist. He was the first head of government of Soviet Russia from 1917 until Death and state funeral of ...

, 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 Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, when it was one of the most in ...

'', 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 Kaluga (, ) is a types of inhabited localities in Russia, city and the administrative center of Kaluga Oblast, Russia. It stands on the Oka River southwest of Moscow. Its population was 337,058 at the 2021 census. Kaluga's most famous residen ...

) 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 Fedin Konstantin Aleksandrovich Fedin ( rus, Константи́н Алекса́ндрович Фе́дин, p=kənstɐnʲˈtʲin ɐlʲɪkˈsandrəvʲɪtɕ ˈfʲedʲɪn, a=Konstantin Alyeksandrovich Fyedin.ru.vorb.oga; – 15 July 1977) was a Sovie ...

. 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.

Film

In 2017, a film about her life was released by

Czech Television Czech Television ( ; abbreviation: ČT) is a public television broadcaster in the Czech Republic, broadcasting six channels. Established after breakup of Czechoslovakia in 1992, it is the successor to Czechoslovak Television founded in 1953. H ...

titled ''8 hlav sílenství'' (''8 Heads of Madness''), starring the popular singer Aneta Langerová. The film is mainly about her life in the camps and the women she loved.

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 dramatists and playwrights 20th-century Russian women writers 20th-century pseudonymous writers Soviet women poets 20th-century Russian poets 20th-century Russian non-fiction writers 20th-century Russian dramatists and playwrights 20th-century Russian journalists 20th-century Russian women journalists