Anna Akhmatova (1889 – 1966) was a critically acclaimed Russian modernist poet. Although her work was condemned by forces loyal to Stalin, she refused to leave the Soviet Union during Stalin’s violent rule. Her first husband was executed by the Soviet secret police, and her son, as well as her common-law husband, spent years imprisoned in the Gulag. She is known for her short lyric poems, as well as her intricately structured long masterpieces “Requiem” and “Poem Without a Hero.”