Born: 23 June 1889 · Died: 5 March 1966 · Age at death: 76
How old was Anna Akhmatova when she died?
Anna Akhmatova died aged 76. She was born on 23 June 1889 and died on 5 March 1966.
Russian poet whose Requiem bore witness to Stalin's terror, one of the greatest voices of 20th-century Russian poetry
Did you know?To avoid state censorship, her friends memorised her poems so that she could safely burn the original manuscripts.
Quick facts
Date of birth23 June 1889
Date of death5 March 1966
Age at death76
Cause of deathInfarction
NationalityRussian
BirthplaceOdesa, Ukraine
Occupationwriter, translator, literary critic
Editor's Take:
Anna Akhmatova was the conscience of Russian poetry. Her early love poems made her famous before the revolution. Under Stalin, her first husband was shot and her son was jailed for years. She stood in prison queues in Leningrad with other mothers. Her poem cycle Requiem bears witness to the Great Terror. It was too dangerous to write down, so friends memorised it. She was banned and denounced, but never left Russia.
Key Milestones
1912: Publishes her first collection, Evening
1921: Her former husband Nikolai Gumilev is executed
1946: Expelled from the Soviet Writers' Union
1965: Receives an honorary doctorate from Oxford University
Anna Andreyevna Gorenko (23 June 1889 – 5 March 1966), known by her pen name Anna Akhmatova, was a Russian and Soviet poet. She was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1965 and 1966.
