Requiem

One of the most famous works of Anna Akhmatova — the poem "Requiem" — is a poignant and tragic artistic document of the Stalin era and is recognized as a classic of 20th-century Russian literature. Akhmatova worked on the poem intermittently starting in 1935. The final version of these verses was compiled into a single work in the autumn of 1962, when it was first written on paper. L. Chukovskaya reports in "Notes on Anna Akhmatova" that on this day Akhmatova solemnly announced: "‘Requiem’ was known by heart by 11 people, and no one betrayed me." "Requiem" consists of ten poems, a prose Foreword, a Dedication, an Introduction, and a two-part Epilogue. In Russia, the poem was published only twenty-three years after Akhmatova's death, in 1989. As an appendix to this book, Akhmatova's poem "Imitation of an Armenian" (1931) and brief notes on "Requiem" compiled by N. Kraynev are included. An extensive cycle of illustrations for the poem, created by the artists G. A. V. Traugot specifically for the publishing house "Vita Nova", is presented.