“Please, Help Me in My Great Sorrow”. Concerning Akhmatova’s Efforts to Free Her Son (New Details) Article one

This paper is about Anna Akhmatova’s attempts to free her son after his arrest in 1949. There has been a lot of literature on the subject, especially by the literary scholar, Emma Gerstein, who took a dedicated part in Akhmatova’s efforts. This paper makes a number of unpublished material from 1954–1956 from Gerstein’s archive at the Russian State Library (fond 641). First of all, these are letters of petition from Akhmatova to writers, prominent literary and party functionaries Mikhail Sholokhov (two: an authorized typewritten draft and Akhmatova’s autograph) and Aleksandr Fadeev (one: a typewritten draft with amendments by Gerstein). There is also a handwritten letter of acknowledgement from Akhmatova to Gerstein and a text called by Emma Grigorievna “Explanations by E.G. Gerstein to A.A. Akhmatova’s letters addressed to M.A. Sholokhov and A.A. Fadeev and to some other documents on the case of her son”. “Some other documents” are the petitions for Gumilev mentioned by Gerstein in the press but not published by her, written by major scholars: two by the orientalist, Vasily Struve, one each by archaeologists Aleksei Okladnikov and Mikhail Artamonov. Three petitions have been published, one has not yet been published and will be published here for the first time, together with other unknown materials. Among the new materials there is also a letter from Akhmatova to the poet and venerable literary functionary figure Aleksei Surkov, not from the Gerstein archive, although thematically related to the rest of them. The paper consists of two parts (articles). The first part includes Akhmatova’s letters to Sholokhov and petitions from scholars, typewritten copies of which are appended to the second letter. The petitions are descriptions of Lev Gumilev, “a very valuable specialist” and “an honest Soviet man” (Struve), and contain requests for an expedited review of his case and to return “the outstanding researcher of Central and Middle Asian peoples’ history” “to a real life in science” (Okladnikov). The second article, which will appear in the next issue, includes Akhmatova’s letters to Fadeev and Surkov. The publication of the letters is accompanied by Gerstein’s “Explanations” and an extensive commentary.