Why Anna Akhmatova cut off the correspondence with Faina Ranevskaya

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

They were completely different, Anna Akhmatova and Faina Ranevskaya. Refined, outwardly cold poetess has earned the reputation of the Snow Queen. The actress was very temperamental, sharp-tongued and ironic to the point of bitterness. And yet Anna Akhmatova and Faina Ranevskaya were tied by a strong and very touching friendship. They could talk for hours, and at a distance from each other they actively corresponded. But in 1946, this correspondence was cut off at the initiative of Anna Akhmatova.

Legend and reality

As you know, Faina Georgievna had a phenomenal ability to embellish events so masterfully, as if everything she was talking about was the real truth. Although the real event was always taken as a basis. So the story of the actress about the history of her acquaintance with Anna Akhmatova was repeatedly questioned. The poetess herself never talked about how she met the actress, so let's turn to exactly the version that Faina Ranevskaya proposed.

She got acquainted with the work of Anna Akhmatova in her early youth, when she lived in Taganrog. The poems impressed Faina Ranevskaya so much that she went to St. Petersburg to find Anna Akhmatova and personally thank her for the emotions she experienced. She found the address of the poetess and almost without a shadow of a doubt rang her doorbell.

When Anna Andreevna opened the door, Faina Georgievna immediately stunned her with the confession: "You are my poet!" And only after that she apologized for her treachery. Anna Akhmatova invited an ardent fan to the house, and from that time, according to Faina Ranevskaya, their friendship began, which lasted for many years.

True, they really became close during the war, when both were evacuated to Tashkent. Akhmatova arrived here after her friend Lydia Chukovskaya, and Ranevskaya came with the family of Pavla Wolf, who was the closest friend of the actress.

Faina Georgievna first came to visit Anna Andreevna in Tashkent and was horrified at how cold and damp it was in the poet's room. The actress immediately introduced herself as Princess de Lambal, who served Marie Antoinette of Lorraine and was executed for her loyalty to her queen. The queen in this case was, of course, Anna Akhmatova.

Ranevskaya was able to get firewood, then boiled potatoes and promised to always take care of her friend. She kept her promise, and when Anna Andreevna fell ill in 1942, Ranevskaya looked after her very touchingly: she cooked food, spoon-fed, followed the procedures and did not let her lose heart.

Lydia Chukovskaya was unhappy with Anna Akhmatova's friendship with the actress, and in general, surrounded by the poetess, her relationship with Ranevskaya was almost condemned, and the actress herself was considered completely unsuitable company for the sublime and sensitive Akhmatova. Lydia Chukovskaya did not hide her relationship to Ranevskaya, and then the poetess asked her friend not to come while Faina Georgievna was with her.

Long friendship

Faina Ranevskaya left the evacuation in the spring of 1943, Anna Akhmatova returned a year later. Friends corresponded all this year and continued it after. Faina Ranevskaya always waited for answers to her letters sent to Anna Akhmatova in Leningrad. And she received them until 1946.

Despite a very warm relationship, they called each other exclusively "you". When we met, we walked a lot, discussed the work of our favorite authors. Faina Ranevskaya, as soon as the speech came about her adored Pushkin, all at once turned to the ear, not wanting to miss a single word from what Akhmatova said about the poet. Later, the actress will regret more than once that she did not write down literally everything that Akhmatova told about. She carefully kept letters from her friend, but once all sorts of messages from Leningrad stopped coming.

1946 was a very difficult year, one might say, a turning point in the life of Anna Akhmatova. In the press every now and then there were articles about her, condemning, condemning, accusing. Anna Andreevna was expelled from the Writers' Union, and the poetess herself stopped trusting letters and telegrams, knowing how ephemeral the secret of correspondence was at that time. Since 1947, the archives of the poetess contained only business records, nothing that would concern Akhmatova personally, her friends and acquaintances. She also did not trust telephone conversations, preferring to communicate exclusively on business, briefly expressing her consent or disagreement with the interlocutor.

Faina Georgievna treated this with all possible understanding and respect. The interrupted correspondence did not in any way affect the relationship between the actress and the poetess, it simply forced them to postpone all conversations until the moment they met in person.

The actress admired not only the poetic gift of Anna Akhmatova, but also her human qualities. In her memoirs, Faina Georgievna will write that she never saw Akhmatova in tears or in despair. She stoically endured any trials and tribulations. Only twice did the actress find Anna Andreevna sobbing uncontrollably. For the first time, she received news that her husband's first wife had died. And in the second - a postcard came from the poetess's son from distant places. Akhmatova longed for her son until her last days, regretting endlessly that he did not want to know and see her …

In 1961, Faina Ranevskaya lost her closest friend Pavel Wolf. Leaving her actress was extremely difficult and even asked herself how she was not dying of grief. And five years later, Anna Akhmatova was gone. Faina Georgievna did not find the strength to go to the funeral. She was simply unable to see her dead.

When Faina Ranevskaya was asked why she didn’t write about Akhmatova, because they were friends, the actress answered: “I don’t write because I love her very much.”

Faina Ranevskaya became famous not only for her undoubted acting talent, but also for her extraordinary sense of humor, which is why her name is often remembered in the context of anecdotal situations in which she often found herself, and often provoked them herself. But in reality, her life gave little cause for laughter: She spent 87 years allotted to her almost completely alone, and she saw the reason for this in herself.