23 pages • 46 minutes read
Anna AkhmatovaRequiem
Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1963A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Themes
The Cruelty and Tyranny of Dictatorship
Throughout Requiem, Akhmatova paints a bleak portrait of life under a totalitarian regime. The defining feature of Stalin and his henchmen is their wanton cruelty: They do not hesitate to destroy the lives of millions of innocent Russians in their quest for total power.
Akhmatova provides both general and specific details throughout the cycle to illustrate this. She describes a society that is falling apart under the weight of fear and violence, identifying the cycle as having been written in response to “the frightening years of the Yezhov terror” (“Instead of a Preface” Line 1). It is a world where the living envy the dead, as “only the dead / Were smiling, glad of their release” (“Introduction” Lines 1-2). Dying appears “so simple and so wonderful” (“To Death” Line 4) in contrast to continuing to live under the dictatorship. Her fellow Russians bear the signs of suffering in their physical appearance, as “suffering can etch cruel pages / Of cuneiform-like marks upon the cheeks” (“Epilogue” Part I Lines 3-4). Akhmatova details her own personal suffering, describing deep despair that leaves her “screaming” (“Poem V” Line 1), apathy: “I don’t care anymore” (“To Death” Line 14), and even “[m]adness” (“Poem IX” Line 1).
Stalin’s dictatorship transforms the country into a prison, reducing the elegant city of Leningrad to a “worthless emblem” (“Introduction” Line 4), a superfluous backdrop to its prison system. The overriding impression is that of a country under siege from within. Akhmatova emphasizes how tyranny has infiltrated every level of society, creating suffering that is both national and intensely personal for millions.
The Transformative Experience of Suffering
Just as Stalin’s tyranny has infiltrated every aspect of Russian society, so too has suffering left no one unscathed. In Requiem, the transformative experience of suffering is twofold: It makes each personal crisis mirror the general national crisis, and it provides a potential source of empathy and solidarity in the midst of oppression.
Throughout Requiem, Akhmatova stresses that she is just one of many affected by the Terror. The frequently invoked setting of the line outside the prison is an important element, reminding readers that Akhmatova’s suffering is by no means unique. Akhmatova mentions “the torpor / characteristic of all of us” (Line 6-7, italics mine) when describing waiting with many other worried women. She remarks in “Dedication” that “We are everywhere the same, listening /To the scrape and turn of hateful keys” (Lines 8-9, italics mine). It is not just Akhmatova herself, but “innocent Russia” as a whole that has “squirmed / Under the blood-spattered boots and tyres / Of the black marias” (Lines 10-12)—Akhmatova’s suffering is Russia’s suffering, and vice versa.
This suffering can be a source of solidarity and defiance in the face of the regime’s cruelty. In “Poem II,” Akhmatova describes a nameless woman who has lost both her son and her husband; she urges the reader to “[s]ay a prayer for her instead” (Line 8). In the first part of the “Epilogue,” Akhmatova once again draws upon empathy and prayer as a source of strength: “That's why I pray not for myself / But all of you who stood there with me [in the lines outside the prison]” (Line 9-10). Akhmatova is a vessel “[t]hrough which one hundred million people scream” (“Epilogue” Part II Lines 16-17). She remembers herself as being “three hundredth in / line” (“Poem IV” Lines 5-7), thereby commemorating the experience of everyone else who also suffered. In identifying herself as one amongst many, Akhmatova offers Russians solidarity that they can share. The empathy she shows her fellow victims is an act of defiance against the dehumanization the regime has imposed upon the population.
The Power of Memory VS Forgetting
Akhmatova does not shy away from depicting her darkest moments during the Terror. She candidly describes her sorrow, her apathy, and her emotional frenzies. She admits to having preferred oblivion to memory and consciousness at her lowest points, as when she tells herself: “I need to slaughter memory / Turn my living soul to stone” (Lines 6-7 in Poem VII) or claims “I don’t care anymore” (Line 14, Poem VIII.)
And yet, it is ultimately memory that offers Akhmatova triumph and redemption. Requiem is, first and foremost, an act of memory. In the second part of the “Epilogue,” Akhmatova embraces memory as a means of defying the regime and of keeping alive the pain and humanity of Stalin’s lost victims. She embraces her role as witness by declaring: “The hour has come to remember the dead / I see you, I hear you, I feel you” (Lines 1-2). She tells the dead that although “the list [of victims] / Has been removed and there is nowhere else to look” (Lines 8-9), she can offer her own poetry as a way of memorializing them forever. The Stalinist regime did its best to suppress all traces of its victims and tried to silence Akhmatova herself by banning publication of her work. Yet by Requiem’s close, Akhmatova has realized that the best way to overcome suffering is not to forget it, but to actively bear witness and keep memory alive.
