Poem about a Heroine. Anna Akhmatova at Kolomenskoe

The exhibition will unite the poet’s personal belongings, archive photos as well as the Russian art and culture objects that used to be on display in the 1950s – 60s, when Anna Akhmatova would visit Kolomenskoe. It has been created in partnership with the Vladimir Dahl State Russian Literature History Museum (Moscow) and the Anna Akhmatova Museum in the Fountain House (Saint Petersburg).

The display has two thematic sections. The first one describes the great poet’s life and work in Moscow. Having no permanent Moscow flat, Anna Akhmatova would call herself ‘homeless’ here and would stay at her friends’. Please note the poet’s ‘memorials’ (personal things) from the Fountain House in Saint Petersburg: a dress, a raincoat, glasses, a cane, a rosary bead (a present from another famous poet, Marina Tsvetaeva, given when they met in June 1941), books with personal notes and a number of the poet’s photos made in the 1950s-60s.

The second section focuses on Akhmatova’s personal, subjective view of Kolomenskoe and its museum-reserve.

Anna Akhmatova visited Kolomenskoe for the first time in 1952, getting round after her first heart attack. In the memoirs of Lidya Chukovskaya there is an entry dated by 13 June 1952 describing Akhmatova’s brightest impression of this visit:

For Akhmatova, Kolomenskoe first of all meant the Church of the Ascension. Each of the memorialists who left recollections about the poet speaks about her admiration of this outstanding architectural site. To all her friends who came to Moscow, Akhmatova advised to come to see Kolomenskoe. And in 10 years, she would write a poem starting ‘As the Kolomenskoe ancient gate…’. Its original manuscript will be presented on display.

For Akhmatova, every place stood for an epoch and people associated with that epoch. Thus, she saw Novgorod as the place where ‘Marfa ruled and Arakcheev ruled’ while the hills of Voronezh ‘smell the Battle of Kulikovo’. As for Kolomenskoe, she saw it as home to the spirit of the Russian history – it lives in the architectural sites and the museum exhibits. When Anatoly Naiman, poet and translator, asked Akhmatova where he should begin studying Moscow, she answered:’ That depends on your interests. For stones, go to Kolomenskoe, and for junk – to Ostankino’. That is why the section shows art objects from Kolomenskoe museum collection that Akhmatova could have seen at the exhibition halls in the 1950s-60s.