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Anna Barkova | |
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| Native name | А́нна Алекса́ндровна Барко́ва |
| Born | Anna Alexandrovna Barkova (1901-07-16)16 July 1901 Ivanovo,Vladimir Governorate,Russian Empire |
| Died | 29 April 1976(1976-04-29) (aged 74) Moscow,Soviet Union |
| Pen name | Kalika perekhozhaia ("the wandering cripple") |
Anna Alexandrovna Barkova (Russian:А́нна Алекса́ндровна Барко́ва), 16 July 1901 – 29 April 1976, was a Soviet Russian poet, journalist, playwright, essayist,memoirist, and writer of fiction. She was imprisoned for more than 20 years in theGulag.
Anna Alexandrovna Barkova was born into the family of a private school janitor in the textile town ofIvanovo in 1901. She was allowed to attend the school because of her father's position, a rare opportunity for a young working class girl in pre-revolutionary Russia.[1][2]
In 1918, she enrolled as a member of theCircle of Genuine Proletarian Poets, a writers group based in Ivanovo.[2] Soon after joining she began to write short pieces for the group's paperThe Land of the Workers. She also published poetry in the paper under the pseudonymKalika perekhozhaia ("the wandering cripple"), a name given to blind or maimed singers who went from village to village singing devotional ballads to obtain alms.[1]
Barkova's early poetry attracted the attention of theBolshevik literary establishment, including the leading criticAleksandr Voronsky and theCommissar of EnlightenmentAnatoly Lunacharsky. Lunacharsky became her patron,[2][3] and in 1922 she moved toMoscow to act as his secretary. Also in 1922, her first poetry collectionWoman was published with a foreword by Lunacharsky. In 1923 her playNastasya Bonfire was published.[1]
She also attended the writer's school in Moscow directed byValery Bryusov, and wrote for his paperPrint and Revolution. Later,Maria Ulyanova, the sister ofVladimir Lenin, found Anna a position at the paperPravda, and helped her to put together a second collection of poems that was never published.[1]
Barkova became increasingly disillusioned with Soviet life in the late 1920s. Her poems of the early 1930s were highly critical of Soviet life and institutions.[3] She wrote in 1925:
Пропитаны кровью и желчью | Scarlet blood and yellow bile |
In 1934, Barkova was denounced and arrested, and some of her poetry was used against her as evidence. She was sentenced to five years imprisonment. She endured a repeat arrest in November 1947, when she was sentenced to 10 years imprisonment and five years of restricted rights. Her second conviction was overturned in December 1955 and she was freed. She was rehabilitated in October 1957, then arrested for a third time in November, and sentenced again to 10 years in prison and five years of restricted rights. She was finally freed when this third conviction was overturned in May 1965. She also suffered two periods of exile from 1940 to 1947 (spent inKaluga) and from 1965 to 1967.[2]
In 1967, she was allowed to return to Moscow after the intervention of a group of writers led byAlexander Tvardovsky andKonstantin Fedin. She lived out the remainder of her life in relative poverty in a communal flat in theGarden Ring, where she preserved her enthusiasm for books, friends, and conversation.[1][3]
In 2017, a film about her life was released byCzech Television titled8 hlav sílenství (8 Heads of Madness), starring the popular singerAneta Langerová. The film is mainly about her life in the camps and the women she loved.[5]
