Petersburg of Anna Akhmatova

The apartment on the embankment of the Fontanka River in building number two, where Anna Akhmatova lived in 1924, did not belong to her, but to her constant friend Olga Sudeikina. Olga was not only an actress, but also a great sculptor and puppeteer, and she received an apartment as an artist of a porcelain factory. Here, a friend will give Anna a small narrow room with a window on the Neva River - now you can see the Aurora cruiser from it. By the way, the officer on this cruiser was Akhmatova's brother, who miraculously escaped and emigrated to America. From there he wrote ten letters to his sister - Akhmatova answered only the last one before her death.

The entrance to the apartment was from the courtyard - a woman with a royal posture climbed thirteen ruined steps, wearing an old-fashioned black silk dress, white stockings, black shoes and a white shawl through the shoulder was her entire wardrobe at the time. Sologub, Zamyatin, Petrov-Vodkin came to her friends in those days, sent huge bouquets of the then incredibly popular prose writer Boris Pilnyak, who had been in love with Akhmatova for many years. While living in this house, she wrote the last - up to the fortieth year - published poems “New Year's Ballad” and “Lotova Wife”.

Once drunk Yesenin and Klyuev came to this house. And when Klyuev fell asleep across Akhmatova's bed, Yesenin suddenly soberly began to criticize the authorities and everything that was happening around him. And the next day, after meeting Akhmatova on the street, he only put two fingers on the top hat, greeting the one whose opinion he had recently treasured so much.

Near this house she will face Mayakovsky, who admired her poems, and in two years will declare her and Mandelstam “internal emigrants”. It was a time of farewell: someone emigrated, someone was executed, and someone openly denied yesterday's friends and idols. This is how the Silver Age died...