Anna Akhmatova’s excerpt “Introduction” is a touching poem about the hardships the people in anti-Soviet Russia had to go through under Stalin’s rule. She speaks of death, loneliness, and constant fear. A loss of a loved one messes with a person emotionally, to the point that recovery from traumatic grief seems impossible. In the time frame of anti-Soviet Russia, Stalin is in power. There is a constant fear of each other, the government, the secret police, and a fear of sharing their thoughts and feelings. It was a brutal time. The communists, known as the Bolsheviks, start turmoil, but a regime against them, most known as the Whites, try to fight for truth and freedom. Akhmatova’s husband is executed by the Bolsheviks for siding and cooperating with the anti-Soviets. “To wail with the wives of the murdered streltsy” (21). The wives ached together for their murdered husbands. …show more content…
At a time this strictly controlled by the government, Akhmatova knew she was in for life or death if anyone found her poems. “As innocent Russia squirmed/ Under the blood-spattered boots and tires/ Of the black maria/s” (10-12). She talks about how the citizens suffer under the corrupt government. The government sent the secret police, that being the black maria’s, to transfer prisoners. Some of the prisoners were innocent, like Akhmatova’s son Lev. “Her son is in jail, her husband is dead/ Say a prayer for her instead” (29-30). She wanders alone with no company in her life. She’s lonely and feels isolated. She can’t grasp what events had happened. She needs invocations to ensure her that everything will be
Imagery: The author uses imagery to describe the Russian prisoners’ lives in the camps. This imagery makes them look pathetic and frail, causing the reader to feel empathetic and sorry for them. Also we see the same idea of imagery within the hospitals and what happens in them. The description of gore and fear emphasizes the theme of death
The Great Terror was one of the single greatest loss of lives in the history of the world. It was a crusade of political tyranny in the Soviet Union that transpired during the late 1930’s. The Terrors implicated a wide spread cleansing of the Communist Party and government officials, control of peasants and the Red Army headship, extensive police over watch, suspicion of saboteurs, counter-revolutionaries, and illogical slayings. Opportunely, some good did come from the terrors nonetheless. Two of those goods being Sofia Petrovna and Requiem. Both works allow history to peer back into the Stalin Era and bear witness to the travesties that came with it. Through the use of fictional story telling and thematic devises Sofia Petrovna and Requiem, respectively, paint a grim yet descriptive picture in a very efficient manner.
example of how life was in Russia by talking through the story and reflecting her experience
J.Arch Getty says that “The Great Terror of the 1930s in the Soviet Union was one of the most horrible cases of political violence in modern history”[i] but was this political terror a result of Stalin’s own paranoia or a necessity to maintain control in Soviet Russia? Robert Service argues that “Nowadays, virtually all writers accept that he [Stalin] initiated the Great Terror”[ii] however historians are careful to acknowledge that Stalin’s paranoia is not the only factor in the creation and continuation of the Purges and the Great Terror. Nevertheless, it can be argued that Stalin’s paranoia did play a
Were it a testimony to the rigors and cruelness of human nature, it would be crushing. As it is, it shatters our perception of man and ourselves as no other book, besides perhaps Anne Franke`s diary and the testimony of Elie Wiesl, could ever have done. The prisoners of the labor camp, as in Shukhov?s predicament, were required to behave as Soviets or face severe punishment. In an almost satirical tone Buinovsky exclaims to the squadron that ?You?re not behaving like Soviet People,? and went on saying, ?You?re not behaving like communist.? (28) This type of internal monologue clearly persuades a tone of aggravation and sarcasm directly associated to the oppression?s of communism.
Akhmatova’s first collection of poetry was entitled, Evening. She published this work when Russia was already in the revolutionary era. Akhmatova was one of the few who never fled Russia during World War 1 and stayed and watched as those who left, lost their creative urges, and were misunderstood or ignored (Antigone 740). One of Akhmatova’s poems, I am not one of those who left the land, was inspired by this very thing.
Under the rule of Tsars peasants and workers had fewer reasons to live in fear than under the Bolsheviks. The proletariat had more liberty and opportunity to express their views, and protest against iniquitous decisions made by the Tsar, as was outlined in the October Manifesto in 1905 which granted the peasants and workers freedom of conscience, speech, meeting and association. The Tsar’s Okhrana (state police) did successfully stop considerable worker/peasant protests such as Bloody Sunday and the October Revolution, but their terror is unparalleled to the fear the callous Bolshevik secret police force, the Cheka, brought to Russian peasants and workers, especially during the period of ‘Red Terror’. The Cheka were known to not only capture rebels, but often their families and friends as well.
She is also looking for that from the healers to take out the bad in her life and bring in the good to rediscover herself.
“A Transcultural Monument: Anna Akhmatova in Postsocialist Russia.” South Atlantic Review. 74.2 (2009): 62–81. JSTOR. Web. 28 Feb. 2016. Written by Sarah A. Krive, from the Department of Languages at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, the article, “A Transcultural Monument: Anna Akhmatova in Postsocialist Russia” (2009), argues that Akhmatova was a postsocialist poet, because she began producing her work at the end of Imperial Russia and throughout Soviet Russia, until her death in 1966. She believes that Akhmatova was a symbol of strength in her stand against Stalin, and subsequent persecution from his regime. Next she posits that Akhmatova achieved what many Russians could not; she was able to make a permanent record of Stalin’s reign through her poetry. She emphasizes that instead of Russians internalizing the trauma, they turned to Akhmatova and regarded her as the voice of Russia. In the second half of the piece, she details the creation and collection of Akhmatova’s poetry cycle Wreath for the Dead, an elegiac work. Krive discusses elements of Akhmatova’s work of poetry in order to express the importance of the poet as a mouthpiece for Russia. Her audience appears to be any researcher who wishes to further understand the relationship between Akhmatova and Russia. This article focuses on delivering a large measure of information on Akhmatova’s work of poetry, and this will aid the
“The Communist threat inside the country has been magnified and exalted far beyond its realities”(273). Accusations have been made, irresponsible citizens are spreading fears. Multiples of suspicions had been made. Innocents are being considered as disloyalty. “Suspicion grows until only the person who loudly proclaims the orthodox view, or who, once having been a Communist, has been converted, is trustworthy” (273). Suspects are those who are unorthodox, who does not followed military policymakers. The fear has driven citizens to the folds of the orthodox. The fear was to be investigated, to lose one’s job, etc. These fears have driven many people to sorrow. These fears have effected younger generations. “This pattern of orthodoxy that is shaping our thinking has dangerous implications” (274). Douglas believes the great danger if we become victims of the orthodox school. They can limit our ability to change or alter. Douglas believes a man’s mind must be free.
The Russo-Chechen conflict, which lasted from 1991 to 2009, is one of the most traumatising events across the post-Soviet space. The conflict “had already begun before the collapse of the Soviet Union” (Rezvani 871) and “led to large-scale violent warfare in 1994 and, after a truce, again in 1999” (Rezvani 871). Unlike political or social aspects of the conflict (Politkovskaya, Gall and de Waal), fictional literature about it remains widely understudied. Meanwhile, due to authoritarian regimes both in Russia and Chechnya (International Crisis Group), which exercise censorship and violate human rights, studies of literature can give insights not only into the literary landscape of the post-conflict Russia and Chechnya, but also into the socio-political
Stalin consciously and purposefully conducted a series of purges of the Bolshevik party in the 1930s. These purges, and the Show Trials that accompanied them, solidified his cult of personality and control of the country. Old Bolsheviks who opposed him in the past or could do so in the future were arrested, made an example of, and typically executed. Stalin and his Politburo truly believed that many people were out to get them, and anyone who was not on Stalin’s side was against him. Often the accused were convicted due to inaccurate or fraudulent evidence. Although Stalin was the main perpetrator of these Purges, this essay examines the role of the accused in Darkness at Noon by Arthur Koestler, and “Last Letter to Stalin” by Nikolai Bukharin,
Popular descriptions of Alexei Karenin label him as a cold and passionless government official who doesn’t care about his wife or family. Indeed, he is viewed as the awful husband who is holding Anna hostage in a loveless marriage. However, this is a highly exaggerated description, if not completely false, analysis of Karenin. Upon careful analysis of Karenin’s character and his actions, it is clear that he is not the person Anna makes him out to be. In fact, with thorough examination of the passage on pages 384 and 385 of Anna Karenina, it is clear that Alexei Karenin can be considered the hidden tragic hero of the novel.
The novel Sofia Petrovnia, shows how most of the Soviet people respond to their government and the terror that their government had put upon them during the 1930s. Most of the Soviet people during the Stalinist era viewed their government with admiration and ethnocentrism. On one hand, the Soviet people had admired their government’s ability to provide for their people’s basic needs. On the other hand, the Soviet people were told that they were better off than most capitalist nations. For example, they were told by the government that Soviet citizens were healthier and live in better conditions than the majority of citizens in capitalist countries and their country had protected them from these harsh conditions. This novel shows Stalinism
From the cold war to Vietnam and North Korea, Communism has always been at the center of controversy. It is the driving force for all of the previously mentioned conflicts. Socioeconomics can be used to analyze current events and how they pertain to socialism. At the time Crime and Punishment were published, socialism had just started to take hold across parts of Russia. Some of its roots can be seen in the novel. Communism is an enormous part of our history and the worlds. Looking to the classic literature of the world it is plain to see that there has always been a form of their teachings within their pages. It is highly important to use the lens for this novel because this is where communism was first put into widespread use, secondly because