Did Anna Akhmatova say that under Stalin “half the country was sitting, half the country planted”?

According to a number of sources, the authorship of the winged phrase about the times of mass repressions belongs to the pen of the great Russian poetess. We checked if it was true.

The words that in the era of camps Soviet citizens in an equal proportion belonged to one of the two categories have long become winged. In particular, they were used by the chairman of the Krasnoyarsk historical, educational and human rights society "Memorial" Alexey Babi, expert of the Foundation "In Protecting the Rights of Prisoners" Peter Kuryanov, writer Alexander GenisThe founder of the project The Bell Elizabeth Ossetian, producer Mark Rudinstein and others. And rock musician Yuri Shevchuk projected They are in our time and the political elite.

Anna Andreevna Akhmatova, this quote in various variations is attributed to a literary critic Oleg Demidov, writer-Frontovik Talgat Ibatullin, Associate Professor of the Kursk Institute of Management, Economics and Business Nikolai Klimunov And the magazine "Echo of the planet". However, the most famous mention is in the book "Chernobyl prayer" (1997) The future of the Nobel laureate in literature Svetlana Aleksievich: "As Akhmatova wrote," half the country planted, half the country was sitting. " Often the quote is mentioned in format "Half the country was sitting, half the country guarded"sometimes also with attribution Akhmatova.

A lot has been written and said about how difficult fate has fallen into a lot of one of the most significant Russian poets. At the end of her life, many writers chose to stay away from their colleague, who turned out to be incompatible with the Soviet regime, but firmly decided not to leave Russia. However, there were exceptions.

On March 4, 1956, Anna Akhmatova was visited by Lidia Korneevna Chukovskaya, the daughter of the famous writer, with whom the poetess made friends in 1938 in long lines at the gates of the Crosses (Akhmatova was occupied by the fate of her son, Chukovskaya - her husband). This time the poetess's mood was festive: a few days before at the XX Congress of the CPSU, Nikita Khrushchev made an exposure report About the cult of the personality of Stalin, then the writer Alexander Fadeev sent to the main military prosecutor's office petition About the revision of the case of Leo Gumilyov. And when it came to the figure of the leader, Akhmatov, according to Chukovskaya, said: “What we experienced, yes, yes, we are all, because the dawn threatened everyone! - Not a single literature captured. Shakespearean dramas - all these spectacular villains, passions, duels - trifle, children's games compared to the life of each of us. I don’t dare to talk about what the executed or campers have experienced. This is not a word. But each of our prosperous lives is a Shakespearean drama in a thousand -line size. Dumb separation, dumb black bloody news in every family. Invisible mourning on mothers and wives. Now the prisoners will return, and two Russia will look into each other's eyes: the one that planted, and the one that was planted. A new era began. We survived to her. "

This episode entered the memoirs of Lydia Chukovskaya “Notes of Anna Akhmatova”, based on many years of writer's many years. In 1974, a significant part of the notes was Published In Paris, YMCA-Press Publishing House, and in 1976-1980 it also released Full version of Chukovskaya memoirs In two volumes. Finally, after the start of the restructuring, the “Notes” began print in the USSR, so Svetlana Aleksievich by 1997 (When the Chernobyl prayer came out) had every chance to get acquainted with the exact quote of the famous poetess. Nevertheless, as we see, Akhmatova’s thoughts were not a serious distortion of the thought - perhaps she did not mean that people in the USSR were divided into only two opposite categories.

As for the variation with the “security”, it is difficult to single out one author here. In the far of 1973, the Pesennik poet Robert Rozhdestvensky wrote A poem, in which there were words: “Mamenkin’s shoes, grandmother's gingerbread. Half tounts are criminals. Half a page - guards ... The lieutenant looks out the window - drinks, will not stop. Half a page is already sitting. Half tounts - preparing. ” The work was too bold for its time, and only in 1991 Joseph Kobzon decided Fulfill The song for these words in the column hall of the House of Unions at the creative evening of Oscar Feltzman. The author of another of the options for the phrase about the guards (“half is sitting, half guard, then change”), you can call the satirist of Mikhail Zhvanetsky. She entered his monologue "There is good where we are not". And although the quote of interest to us could go to the people even before Robert Rozhdestvensky, it can be assumed that in the appearance of Svetlana Aleksievich the words “half the country” has some “guilt” of his poems.

Half truth

What do our verdicts mean?

Read on the topic:
1. Lidia Chukovskaya. Notes about Anna Akhmatova