Anna Barkova was imprisoned for more than 20 years in the Gulag.
12 Facts About Anna Barkova
1.
2.
Anna Alexandrovna Barkova was born into the family of a private school janitor in the textile town of Ivanovo in 1901.
3.
Anna Barkova was allowed to attend the school because of her father's position, a rare opportunity for a young working class girl in pre-revolutionary Russia.
4.
Anna Barkova published poetry in the paper under the pseudonym Kalika perekhozhaia, a name given to blind or maimed singers who went from village to village singing devotional ballads to obtain alms.
5.
Anna Barkova attended the writer's school in Moscow directed by Valery Bryusov, and wrote for his paper Print and Revolution.
6.
Anna Barkova became increasingly disillusioned with Soviet life in the late 1920s.
7.
In 1934, Anna Barkova was denounced and arrested, and some of her poetry was used against her as evidence.
8.
Anna Barkova endured a repeat arrest in November 1947, when she was sentenced to 10 years imprisonment and five years of restricted rights.
9.
Anna Barkova was rehabilitated in October 1957, then arrested for a third time in November, and sentenced again to 10 years in prison and five years of restricted rights.
10.
Anna Barkova was finally freed when this third conviction was overturned in May 1965.
11.
Anna Barkova suffered two periods of exile from 1940 to 1947 and from 1965 to 1967.
12.
Anna Barkova lived out the remainder of her life in relative poverty in a communal flat in the Garden Ring, where she preserved her enthusiasm for books, friends, and conversation.