Akhmatova's Requiem Flashcards
Suffering of Mother Mary and Jesus Quotes
“Her son is in Jail, her husband is dead, say a prayer for her instead” II
Stanza I is a scene near identical to Jesus on his day of crucifixion, with the condemned being led at dawn and a funeral procession behind him. The cold feel of an ikon (religious symbol) is pressed to the lips of an onlooker and a candle is lit to “light the face of the Mother Mary”.
“to wail with the wives of the murdered streltsy… beneath Kremlin towers.” I
Suffering of Mother Mary and Jesus Interpretations
Like Mother Mary, this woman that Akhmatova describes is suffering through the fact her family has been torn apart. She is like a saint for withstanding this, but as Akhmatova goes on to write in VII (The Verdict), its only possible by “turning your heart to stone”.
The Streltsy were a guard of insurgents who rebelled against Petey the Great and were executed for it. This compares the USSR to the Monarchist Empire; the purges have reduced the Soviet vision to be as bad as the empire it tried to destroy.
The wives wail like they did at the bottom of Golgotha, the streltsy are the crucified and the Kremlin Towers act as the crucifixes.
Crucifixion as Judgement (Crucifixion=state) quotations
“to wail with the wives of the murdered streltsy… beneath Kremlin towers.” I
“Beneath the Crosses (St. Petersburg Prison) three hundredth in line” IV
Chapter X is a literal cross, and titled Crucifixion. It describes the scene of an execution.
Crucifixion as Judgement (Crucifixion=state) interpretations
The Kremlin is the representation of state power, and equally acts as the crucifix. Transitively, the State acts as crucifix or judgement upon man.
Again, another state organ (literally called the Crosses) acts as the representation of the crucifix, and therefore the judgement of man.
The sideways X is what Crucifixes would have looked like. The actual scene describes the scene of an execution.
Suffering of the collective quotations
“The rank of convicted, demented by suffering” – prelude
“I pray not for myself, but all of you who stood with me.” Epilogue
Empire vs. Deviation in thought quotations
“Stars of death stood over us” Prelude
“Threatening me with swift annihilation, an enormous star” V
Empire vs. Deviation in thought interpretations
The stars represent the USSR and Communism. However, the Roman Empire also used star imagery on the back of coins and other state issued items. The Roman Empire executed Jesus for claiming to be King of the Jews when to the Romans, that was Caesar. In response to this deviation he is executed. In a similar fashion, the condemned of the purge are executed for deviation of thought (AA’s husband and son were killed and imprisoned for roles in “counter revolutionary activities”.
Remembrance of the dead quotations
Title of poem is “Requiem”, literally remembrance of the dead.
“I have woven you this wide shroud out of the humble words” Turin Shroud and ‘Verbal Monument’ Epilogue
Repentance quotations
Describes herself as the “carefree sinner of Tsarshoye Selo” IV
“No use to fall down on my knees” IX
Repentance interpretations
She looks back on her days of “sin” (bourgeois existence) and doesn’t realise that she will be at the bottom of the Crosses begging for forgiveness.
She is so distraught that she comes to the conclusion that she is too much a sinner that repentance is no longer admissible.
Intro
We learn from the preface of the text (highly laced with biographical details), Akhmatova’s Requiem is a poem that is designed to describe the Stalinist Purges from the perspective of the mothers of imprisoned men; a category that includes herself. In the text, she is asked “could anyone describe this?” by another mother in line, to which she replies, “I can”. This already harrowing subject matter is emotionally elevated using Biblical allusions and themes.
