Why was Anna Akhmatova known to be dissident?

Answer 1

Anna Akhmatova had already established her reputation in pre-Revolutionary Russia as a lyric poet. When the Bolsheviks, the minority revolutionary group, came to power they used terror as a means to prevent the organization of any opposition. They declared lyric poetry to be "petit bourgeois" and, hence, anti-Communist. "Socialist realism" was adopted as the required form for all arts. This meant that the only legitimate artists were those whose works furthered the ideals of a Socialist state. The works of avant garde artists in all media, including poetry, were banned.

In 1921, Akhamatov's young ex-husband and friend, the father of her only child, was arrested and executed for "anti-government" actions. From 1925 until 1940, her works were under an official ban. In 1933, under the repressive regime of Joseph Stalin, her 21-year-old son was arrested for the first time. Many of her friends in the artistic and intellectual community were arrested and executed. A long poem of hers, Requiem, was written in memory of many of Stalin's victims.

Once again, in the World War II era, she regained popularity, but once again in 1946 publication of her work was banned and she was expelled from the Writer's Union, meaning that her ration card was taken away from her and she had no means of attaining food to live on. When her son was once again arrested in 1949, she was forced to write poetry in praise of Stalin in an unsuccessful effort to achieve his release. Later in life, she refused permission to publish those poems in her complete works.

In a sense she was a dissident simply because she was a poet and because her poetry was popular with readers and not openly supportive of the dictatorial state. Like opponents of the party in power today in the USA, she was considered "anti-patriotic." The Russian people were held in check by fear, and opposition was crushed by secret surveillance, unfair trials, and torture leading to false "confessions."

By the time of her death in 1966, Anna Akmatova was being recognized for the excellence of her writing and the importance of her influence. Joseph Brodsky, one of her proteges called her "the muse of keening" (mourning). Through her writing, she had kept alive memories of pre-Revolutionary Russia and the victims of Stalinist terror.

Answer 2

because she wrote dissident poetry . .