Before the revolution, Anna Akhmatova joins the Acmeists, who demand a clear view of life. From 1912 to 1922, she publishes five volumes of poetry. Modigliani paints her. Alexander Blok, Ossip Mandelstam, and Marina Tsvetaeva dedicate poems to her. One critic calls her "the best Russian poet." However, during the Soviet era, she is persecuted: in 1921, her ex-husband is executed by the Cheka. In 1925, a party resolution sidelines her until 1939, subjecting her to secret police surveillance. She is said to write out of time, to have been born too late, or not to understand how to die in time. In 1935, the regime strikes: her third husband and her son are arrested simultaneously. She manages to persuade Stalin with a letter for their release. She visits Ossip Mandelstam at his place of exile in Voronezh. Out of revenge, her son is arrested again. For months, she stands in line outside the prison to deliver food and clothing for him. Evacuated from besieged Leningrad during the war, Akhmatova lives in Tashkent until 1944. In 1945, she is suspected of espionage. To particularly hurt her, Stalin has her son sentenced to ten years in a labor camp. In despair, she burns her Leningrad archive. The fear never leaves the poet until the end of her life. Only after Stalin's death does she regain recognition in literary and social life. The Requiem is published in 1963 in Munich, and her great historical poem Poem Without a Hero is printed in New York. She is nominated for the Nobel Prize. Anna Akhmatova behaved modestly towards her fellow humans. She had no sense of possession. Her poetry thrives on the feeling of not having, of separation, of loss, and of hopeless love.