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

Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 26 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, an acronym for , , "chief administration of the camps". The original name given to the system of camps controlled by the State Political Directorate, GPU was the Main Administration of Corrective Labor Camps (, )., name=, group= ...

in 1949. She was rehabilitated on 20 December 1957

Life

Radlova was born in

Saint Petersburg Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...

in 1891. Her younger sister

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

would become a sculptor. Anna studied at the

Bestuzhev Courses The Bestuzhev Courses (russian: Бестужевские курсы) 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 Konst ...

. 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 (russian: Михаи́л Алексе́евич Кузми́н) ( – March 1, 1936) was a Russian poet, musician and novelist, a prominent contributor to the Silver Age of Russian Poetry. Biography Born into a noble fam ...

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; uk, А́нна Андрі́ївна Горе́нко, Ánna Andríyivn ...

. 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; uk, link= no, Лев Давидович Троцький; also transliterated ''Lyev'', ''Trotski'', ''Trotskij'', ''Trockij'' and ''Trotzky''. (), was a Russian M ...

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 she died in a gulag in

Rybinsk Rybinsk ( rus, Рыбинск, p=ˈrɨbʲɪnsk), the second largest city of Yaroslavl Oblast in Russia, lies at the confluence of the Volga and Sheksna Rivers, 267 kilometers north-north-east of Moscow. Population: It was previously known as ...

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