Bella Akhmadulina is a rare, stunning, remarkable phenomenon in Russian poetry. Her poetry is strong like a man, her poetic talent is exceptional, and her mind is impeccable. She is recognizable in every line, it is impossible to confuse her with anyone... Bella Akhmadulina was born on the tenth of April 1937 in the city of Moscow. Her father was Deputy Minister Akhat Valeevich Akhmadulin, a Tatar by nationality, and her mother was a translator of Russian-Italian origin. It is not surprising that the intelligent atmosphere prevailing in the family contributed to the development of Bella’s creativity.
She began publishing while still in school, and by the age of fifteen, having discovered her own creative style, she studied in a literary circle. Therefore, when the question arose about where to go to study after school, the decision was made unequivocally - only the Literary Institute. True, she was expelled from it for some time when the poetess refused to support the persecution directed against, but the official reason for her expulsion was an unsatisfactory grade in the subject of Marxism-Leninism.
Then, she was reinstated at the institute and graduated in 1960, and in the same year she already gained some fame thanks to her numerous poetic performances at Luzhniki, Moscow University and the Polytechnic Museum. She, together with her comrades in the workshop, with, with Yevgeny Yevtushenko, (she was married to him from 1955 to 1958) with Robert Rozhdestvensky, collected unimaginable audiences.
True, Bella wrote her most famous poem, “On My Street Which Year...” back in 1959, when she was only twenty-two years old. Subsequently, Mikael Tariverdiev (1975) will write wonderful music for these poems, and this romance will be heard in the cult Soviet film by Eldar Ryazanov “The Irony of Fate, or Enjoy Your Bath!”, the penetration of which invariably evokes the most piercing feelings in listeners... to the point of goosebumps.
The first collection of the poetess “String” was published in 1962. In 1964, Bella Akhatovna became a film actress, starring in the film “There Lives Such a Guy” by Vasily Shukshin, where she played the role of a journalist. This film was awarded the Golden Lion Award at the Cannes Film Festival. Then another film work followed - in the film “Sport, Sports, Sports” in 1970. In the same 1970, another collection of poems by Akhmadulina was published - “Music Lessons”. This was followed by: “Poems” (1975), “Blizzard” (1977), “Candle” (1977), “Mystery” (1983), “Garden” (1989). The latter was awarded the USSR State Prize.
Georgia, which Akhmadulina visited in the seventies and fell in love with with all her heart, occupied a huge place in the poetess’s heart. Bella translated poems by Georgian poets: G. Tabidze, N. Baratashvili and I. Abashidze, trying to convey the beauty of their words, their incredible lyricism to Russian-speaking readers. In 1974, she married Boris Messerer, and this was her fourth marriage. In 1979, the poetess took part in the creation of the literary almanac “Metropol”. The almanac was uncensored, which corresponded to Akhmadulina’s freedom-loving spirit.
She more than once supported disgraced Soviet dissident authors: Vladimir Voinovich, Lev Kopelov, Georgy Vladimirov. She published statements in their defense in the New York Times, and her speeches were broadcast on Voice of America and Radio Liberty. The poetess died in 2010, on November twenty-ninth. In recent years, according to her husband, Bella Akhatovna was very ill, almost blind and moved by touch, but the spirit of this extraordinary woman was not broken. She did not like to reproduce in her lyrics the story of spiritual sorrow and suffering, but she often pointed to them, she understood the basis of existence: “Don’t cry for me... I will live!”
Bella Akhmadulina is a famous Soviet poet and translator, a member of the Union of Russian Writers and an honorary member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
Childhood
Isabella Akhatovna Akhmadulina was born on April 10, 1937 into a wealthy family. Akhat Valeevich, the girl’s father, was Deputy Minister of the USSR Customs Committee, and her mother Nadezhda Makarovna worked as a translator for the KGB.
The girl’s grandmother Nadezhda Mitrofanovna gave the girl an unusual name - then Bella’s mother wanted to give her daughter an exotic name, and the grandmother suggested calling the girl Isabella.
The girl’s blood combination was also exotic - her father was a Tatar by nationality, and her mother had Russian-Italian roots.
Her maternal grandmother played a big role in raising the girl. Parents spent a lot of time at work, so Bella often stayed with Nadezhda Mitrofanovna.
At the beginning of World War II, Isabella’s father was taken to the front, and the girl and her grandmother were evacuated. Then they had to go through many moves until they came to Kazan to see Bella’s second grandmother.
In Kazan, the girl became seriously ill, but, fortunately, in 1944 the mother of the future poetess came to Kazan, and the girl was saved.
After the end of the war, the family returned to Moscow, and Bella went to school. The young poetess did not like it there; she often skipped school. According to Bella herself, during the war years she got used to loneliness, so she felt uncomfortable at school among a large number of children.
Creative path
Isabella began writing her first poems at the age of 15. During her school years, Bella went to the literary club of the House of Pioneers. 
After graduating from school, Bella faced a difficult choice. She wanted to connect her life with literature, but her parents were against her daughter’s desire. They wanted Bella to become a journalist.
Yielding to the persuasion of her parents, Bella applied to the Faculty of Journalism of Moscow State University, but failed the entrance exams. After that, after listening to her parents, she went to work for the Metrostroevets publication.
Bella’s poems were first published in the magazine “October” in 1955; 2 years later, “Komsomolskaya Pravda” started talking about the aspiring poetess. However, the publication criticized Akhmadulina’s poems, saying that they were too old-fashioned and did not correspond to the spirit of Soviet times.
A year later, Bella entered the Literary Institute, but was expelled due to an unpleasant incident.
In October 1958, Boris Pasternak was awarded the Nobel Prize. The Soviet government reacted negatively to this event and persecution of the poet began. In 1959, Bella Akhmadulina did not want to sign a letter condemning the “traitor to the motherland,” and in the same year she was expelled.
After expulsion, Isabella managed to get a job as a freelance correspondent for Literaturnaya Gazeta in Irkutsk.
The newspaper's editor-in-chief, amazed by the talent of his subordinate, contributed to Bella's return to the institute, from which the girl graduated with honors in 1960.
Two years after graduation, the first collection of poetry “String” was published. Real success followed after a performance at the Moscow Polytechnic Museum.
Then Bella performed on the same stage with Yevtushenko, Rozhdestvensky and Voznesensky. The girl began to appear with them at literary evenings.
The poetess published the second collection “Chills” in 1968 in Frankfurt; in 1969 another collection entitled “Music Lessons” was published. In a very short time, Akhmadulina released the collections “Poems”, “Blizzard” and “Candle”.
In the seventies, Bella visited Georgia. Impressed by the culture and nature of Georgia, the poetess writes a collection of poems, “Dreams about Georgia.” Akhmadulina also translated poems by famous Georgian poets: Nikolai Baratshvili, Galaktion Tabidze and Simon Chikovani.
In addition to poetry, Bella also wrote essays about famous personalities. Among them are Vladimir Nabokov, Marina Tsvetaeva, Anna Akhmatova, Vladimir Vysotsky and many others.
In 1979, the almanac “Metropol” was published, one of the authors of which was Akhmadulina.
Bella often defended dissidents Lev Kopelov, Andrei Sakharov and Vladimir Voinovich.
Akhmadulina published letters defending them in the New York Times. They were also read out on Radio Liberty and Voice of America.
The poetess participated in world festivals, including the 1988 International Poetry Festival in Kuala Lumpur.
In 1993, Akhmadulina signed the “Letter of Forty-Two”, and in 2001 - a letter in defense of NTV.
Participation in films
Bella starred in the films “Sport, Sports, Sports” and “There Lives a Guy Like This.”
The debut film “There Lives a Guy Like This” was released in 1959, when the poetess was 22 years old. Bella got the role of a journalist from Leningrad. The film was awarded the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival.
Akhmadulina’s next work as an actress was the role of Elema Klimova in the film “Sport, Sports, Sports.”
The poetess acted as a screenwriter in the films “Chistye Prudy” and “The Flight Attendant”.
Although Bella appeared in films only twice, her poems were used quite widely in domestic films.
Bella’s poem was first heard in the film “Ilyich’s Outpost,” released in 1964. In 1973, the film almanac “My Friends” was released, in which Akhmadulina’s works were used.
Two years later, in Eldar Ryazanov’s cult work “The Irony of Fate, or Enjoy Your Bath!” Alla Pugacheva performed the song “It’s been a year on my street” based on Akhmadulina’s poems of the same name.
In 1976, Akhmadulina performed her verse in the film “The Non-Transferable Key.” In 1978, another cult film used the poetess's poems. The verse “Chills” was sung by the heroine of the film “Office Romance”.
The verse “Get on stage” was set to music and performed by Alla Pugacheva in the film “I Came and Say” in 1984. In the same year, the film “Cruel Romance” was released, in which three poems by the poetess were heard at once: “The Romance of Romance”, “And in the end I will say” and “The Snow Maiden”.
Personal life
Bella Akhmadulina got married early - at the age of 18 she legalized her relationship with the famous poet Yevgeny Yevtushenko. However, the marriage did not last long and after 3 years the young people separated.
A year later, Akhmadulina married a writer, with whom she was married for 9 years. According to the biographical novel “Mysterious Passion” by Vasily Aksenov, the reason for the separation was Bella’s betrayal.
In 1968, Bella adopted the orphan Anya, who received her middle name from Yuri Nagibin.
Next, Akhmadulina married Eldar Kuliev, but this marriage was short-lived. From Eldar Bella gave birth to a daughter, Elizabeth.
In 1974, Bella legalized her relationship with theater artist Boris Messerer. Having started living with her husband, Bella left her daughters to be raised by a housekeeper and mother.
Laureate of the State Prize of the Russian Federation, honorary member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, Soviet and Russian poetess Bella Akhmadulina was one of the brightest and most significant masters of poetry of the second half of the twentieth century. In her work, the lyrics and philosophy of her works, and even in her appearance and behavior, the continuity of the traditions of the best poets of the past, especially the poets of the Silver Age, was very clearly felt. She lived a life full of creative achievements and human tossing and died at her dacha in Peredelkino at the age of 74. The cause of Bella Akhmadulina's death was heart disease.
She was born in 1937 in Moscow. Her father, a Tatar by nationality, was a veteran of the Great Patriotic War, and then held an important post in the state customs service. His mother was Russian, with Italian roots, and worked as a translator for the KGB. The girl spent the war in evacuation in Kazan. Bella wrote poetry since childhood and the first person to find a poet in her was Pavel Antokolsky. Parents dreamed of seeing their daughter become a journalist. But she failed her college exams and began working for the Metrostroevets newspaper, where she published her poems. In 1956, she entered the literary institute, but was expelled from it for refusing to sign a letter condemning Boris Pasternak, who received the Nobel Prize.
Bella went to Siberia, where she became an employee of the Literary Newspaper in Irkutsk. Her poems, stories and essays about Siberians were good and the editor-in-chief of the publication contributed to the restoration of the talented girl at the institute. Akhmadulina graduated from it in 1960. Bella’s first collection of poems, “String,” made her famous and she was accepted into the circle of poets: Voznesensky, Rozhdestvensky, Yevtushenko became her friends. Akhmadulina’s collections were published one after another: in 1969 – “Music Lessons”, in 1974 – “Poems”, in 1977 – “Blizzard” and “Candle”. She became the first modern poet to return to the ancient tradition of high style, sublimity and deep imagery.
She was often reproached for her individualism and mannerisms, for the complexity of her style and images, but many loved her. Some were lenient. Very unusual and charming in appearance, Akhmadulina attracted the attention of filmmakers. She starred in 3 films: in Vasily Shukshin’s comedy “There Lives a Guy Like This,” in Elem Klimov’s documentary “Sport, Sports, Sports” and in the drama “Untransferable Key” - a cameo. The camera loved her unusually spiritual face and peculiar manner of behavior.
Akhmadulina was married several times, but she was unlucky in her marriage: her detachment from life, impracticality and “creative egoism,” and a penchant for risky acquaintances and experiments affected her. She was the wife of Yevgeny Yevtushenko for a short time, then divorced Yuri Nagibin and adopted a girl, after which she gave birth to another in a civil marriage with Eldar Kuliev. Only her last marriage with theater artist Boris Messer was successful: they lived together for more than 30 years. In the last years of her life, Bella Akhatovna was ill and almost went blind before her death. She stopped writing and communicated only with her husband and daughters Anna and Lisa. According to rumors, she was greatly crippled by the death of her old friend and short-lived lover in her youth, Andrei Voznesensky, in June 2010.
She fell ill after his funeral and was hospitalized at the Botkin Hospital. The course of treatment did not give the expected results and the doctors decided to perform an operation, which Akhmadulina endured unexpectedly easily. She even felt better and, after spending a short time in the intensive care unit and ward, she was discharged. But 4 days after leaving their hospital, Bella Akhatovna suddenly died in the arms of her family. The news of her death shocked many, but most of the poetess’s fans not only did not have time to say goodbye to her, but did not even know how and why Bella Akhmadulina died, and she was already buried on the same day, at the Novodevichy cemetery in Moscow, modestly and quietly, without pathos and loud speeches. Most likely, this was the last will of this fragile and, at the same time, hard as steel woman, whom Antokolsky once greeted in verse: “Hello, Miracle named Bella, / Akhmadulina, eagle chick!”...
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Name: Bella (Isabella) Akhmadulina (Bella Ahmadulina)
Age: 73 years old
Place of Birth: Moscow
A place of death: Peredelkino, Leninsky district, Moscow region
Activity: poetess, writer, translator
Family status: was married to Boris Messerer
Bella Akhmadulina - biography
There is probably no person who has not heard this combination of first and last name at least once in his life; it is in this interpretation that Bella Akhmadulina will forever be remembered by her readers. The poetess had an inimitable manner of reading her poems and a subtle, sensitive soul. How did her creative biography begin?
Childhood, family of poetess Bella Akhmadulina
Akhmadulina's full name is Isabella. She is a native Muscovite, born before the war into a family that never needed money. The family was considered intelligent, since the father was a deputy minister, the mother was a KGB major and translator. They chose a Spanish name for their daughter at the insistence of her grandmother, who was in love with this country; later the poetess herself shortened her name.
The war did not spare the Akhmadulin family: the father went to fight on the front line. For safety, the girl was sent to Kazan to live with another grandmother; as soon as the war ended, Bella returned with her mother back to Moscow and went to school, but classes did not give the girl much pleasure.
She loved literature, read a lot and wrote absolutely competently. During her school years, Bella already began to write her poems. The debut of her literary biography can be considered the publication of her works in the magazine “October”, then she turned 18 years old. Two years later, some critics found Akhmadulina’s poems to be a little patriotic and not in the spirit of the times.
Bella Akhmadulina - her own style and taste
Her school years defined her dream; she decided that literature would become the main thing in her life. The parents insisted on journalism, the daughter listened to their advice and tried to enter Moscow State University, but did not pass the entrance tests. I had to go to work for the Metrostroyevets newspaper, and the first published articles and poems appeared. A year later, the future poetess entered the Literary Institute, but she was expelled for refusing to recognize Boris Pasternak as a traitor.
There was a vacancy for a freelance correspondent in the Irkutsk editorial office of Literaturnaya Gazeta. There, Akhmadulina’s talent was noticed and the editor-in-chief put in a word in favor of reinstatement to a literary university, which she managed to graduate with honors. The sixties began with graduation from the institute, two years later the first collection “String” was published, which was reviewed with admiration by both. In Soviet times, these poets already had enormous weight in the literary community.
Confession
Creative evenings and recitations of their works began in an endless stream. Bella Akhmadulina's poems were characterized by airiness and lightness. For these qualities, fans fell in love with Akhmadulina’s poetry. It was the critics who saw the pomposity of the style and the old-fashioned theme of the poetic lines. Collections began to be published one after another, literally once a year.
In the seventies, the poetess discovered Georgia for the first time and dedicates her next collection of poetry to it. She translated many Georgian poets into Russian, thereby bringing the work of this wonderful nation closer to the Soviet reader. The Georgian periodical press remained faithful to Bella Akhmadulina and continued to publish her poems even during the period of ideological ban.
Akhmadulina wrote about the greats
The biography of the poetess will forever include many essays about those whose work has admired and continues to amaze generations. I wrote about Marina Tsvetaeva. Bella did this with pleasure, because she knew some of them personally. At the age of 22, Akhmadulina starred in the film “There Lives Such a Guy”; the second film was a film about athletes. Her poems were heard in the songs “Irony of Fate...” and “Cruel Romance”, in the film “Office Romance”.
The great Russian poetess and translator Bella Akhatovna Akhmadulina was born in Moscow on April 10, 1937. While still a schoolgirl, she began writing poetry and worked as a freelance correspondent for the Metrostroyevets newspaper.
In 1955, her poems were first published in the magazine “October” and in the newspaper “Komsomolskaya Pravda”.
After graduating from school, Bella enters the Literary Institute. During her studies she was published in literary publications. In 1959, she was expelled from the institute for failing an exam (unofficially, for refusing to participate in the persecution of B. Pasternak), but was soon reinstated. Two years after graduating from the institute, her first collection “String” (1962) was published, which brought her fame in poetic circles.
The next publication was the collection “Chills” (1968). The poetess's poems are published in the USSR, however, each book was subject to strict censorship. In 1977, Akhmadulina was elected an honorary member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. In the 80s, the poetess published a number of poetry collections and in the 90s more than a dozen of her books were published. Akhmadulina’s personal life was less successful than her literary activity.
From 1955 to 1958 Akhmadulina was the wife of Yevgeny Yevtushenko. In 1959 she married Yuri Nagibin, but after 9 years the marriage collapsed. Divorcing, Akhmadulina takes in her adopted daughter Anna. In her third marriage with Eldar Kuliev, the writer gave birth to a daughter, Elizaveta (b. 1973), and already in 1974 she married again for the last time - to Boris Messerer and left the children in the care of her mother.
Bella Akhatovna had serious health problems in her life. The poetess died on November 29, 2010 in an ambulance after a heart attack.
