Banned Russian Poet Gets Belated Honor
Pravda said Wednesday that a distant asteroid has been named after Anna Akhmatova, one of Russia’s favorite 20th Century poets. Her work was barred from publication during most of her life.
The Communist Party newspaper said Soviet scientists requested that the International Planetary Center in the United States grant the name in honor of the poet’s 100th birthday.
Akhmatova was born in 1889 and gained fame for her works, inspired by the style of Alexander Pushkin, before the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution.
Her husband, poet Nicholas Gumilev, was executed by the Bolsheviks in 1921.
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