Anna Dmitriyevna Radlova (Анна Дмитриевна Радлова) (3 February 1891 – 23 February 1949) was a Soviet salon-holder, translator of

Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 23 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's natio ...

, and a writer. She was arrested in 1945 and died in a

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 ...

in 1949. She was rehabilitated on 20 December 1957

Life

Radlova was born in

Saint Petersburg Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the List of cities and towns in Russia by population, second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the Neva, River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland ...

in 1891. Her younger sister

Sarra Lebedeva Sarra Dmitrievna Lebedeva (December 11 (23), 1892 – March 7, 1967) was a Soviet Union, Soviet sculptor, mainly of portraits, but also of statuettes, figures for porcelain and delft ware. Life Born Sara Darmolatova into a wealthy Saint Peter ...

would become a sculptor. Anna studied at the

Bestuzhev Courses The Bestuzhev Courses () in Saint Petersburg were the largest and most prominent women's higher education institution in Imperial Russia. The institute opened its doors in 1878. It was named after Konstantin Bestuzhev-Ryumin, the first director ...

. She married in 1914. Her husband graduated from St Petersburg university in 1916. She had three volumes of poetry published in 1918, 1920 and 1922 and a play in 1923. Her work was well received and it was championed by fellow poet

Mikhail Kuzmin Mikhail Alekseevich Kuzmin () ( – March 1, 1936) was a Russian poet, musician and novelist, as well as a prominent contributor to the Silver Age of Russian Poetry. Biography Born into a noble family in Yaroslavl, Kuzmin grew up in St. Petersb ...

who compared the quality of Radlova's work to the more acclaimed poet

Anna Akhmatova Anna Andreyevna Gorenko rus, А́нна Андре́евна Горе́нко, p=ˈanːə ɐnˈdrʲe(j)ɪvnə ɡɐˈrʲɛnkə, a=Anna Andreyevna Gorenko.ru.oga, links=yes; , . ( – 5 March 1966), better known by the pen name Anna Akhmatova,. ...

. She worked with her husband too. He was producing and directing Shakespearean plays and Anna was providing the translations into Russian. Radlova was a poet in the "Petersburg School of Poetry". She was not a fan of the October Revolution and her poetry reflected this.

Leon Trotsky Lev Davidovich Bronstein ( – 21 August 1940), better known as Leon Trotsky,; ; also transliterated ''Lyev'', ''Trotski'', ''Trockij'' and ''Trotzky'' was a Russian revolutionary, Soviet politician, and political theorist. He was a key figure ...

publishes criticism of women poets and Radlova concentrated more on her translations which were the basis of her husband's repertoire. At the end of the 1930s she wrote about the "Castratos" who were an unusual Russian sect who removed their genitals to gain godliness. During the war they ended up in Germany from North Caucasus. They were accused of treason. She and her husband were arrested in 1945 and sent to a gulag in

Rybinsk Rybinsk (, ) is the second-largest types of inhabited localities in Russia, city of Yaroslavl Oblast in Russia. It lies at the confluence of the Volga and Sheksna rivers, north-north-east of Moscow. Population: It was previously known as '' ...

. Radlova died of a stroke in the camp on 23 February 1949. She was rehabilitated on 20 December 1957. Her original work did not appear in Russian until 1997, except for a short collection of poems published in 1991 by the editorial of the international foundation of history of science, Leningrad. Out of her translations of Shakespeare only "Richard III" has been re-published on numerous occasions.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Radlova, Anna 1891 births 1949 deaths Soviet writers Translators of William Shakespeare Soviet translators Soviet salon-holders