Anna Barkova is a poetess with a tragic fate. Eight years is like one year old

The Holy Church reads the Gospel of Luke. Chapter 6, Art. 31 - 36.

31. And as you want people to do to you, so do you to them.

32. And if you love those who love you, what thanks do you have for that? for even sinners love those who love them.

33. And if you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? for sinners do the same.

34. And if you lend to those from whom you hope to receive back, what thanks do you have for that? for even sinners lend to sinners in order to get back the same amount.

35 But you love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing; and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High; for He is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked.

36. Therefore, be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.

(Luke 6:31-36)

Today's gospel passage, dear brothers and sisters, conveys to us that part of the Savior's Sermon on the Mount, which we can boldly title as "A word about unselfishness in deeds of love."

The Holy Hierarch of the Crimean Luke, in his sermon on this gospel reading, noted: “All the words of our Savior are simple, and all His teaching is simple, for it was addressed not to proud scholars who think of themselves that they know the truth, but to those humble, to those who know nothing, who are strangers to pride, who are easily imbued with any genuine truth shining with Divine light.

With these simple words, the Lord establishes important standards of conduct for every Christian, the first of which is: And as you want people to do to you, so you do to them.(Luke 6:31). Jesus Christ establishes the "golden rule": to do for others what we ourselves expect from them. Indeed, the essence of the Christian life is to diligently do good deeds.

Teaching that the virtue of loving those who love us does not deserve a high reward, the Savior asks: And if you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? for even sinners love those who love them(Luke 6:32). With these words, the Savior wanted to show the disciples that if they love only those who love them, then they will not become higher even than publicans or pagans, who do this according to the natural law of love embedded in a person.

Bishop Michael (Luzin) writes: “The source of love only for those who themselves love us is more or less our pride; it is not yet completely pure love, perfect; this is also characteristic of the sinful, damaged nature of man, and therefore such love does not deserve such a high reward, since there is still no special feat in it.

Desiring that His disciples be worthy sons of the Heavenly Father, Christ commanded: love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing; and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High; for He is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked(Luke 6:35).

Alexander Pavlovich Lopukhin explains: “Only those who in this temporary life act in the same way as God does in relation to all people can have hope for the Sonship of God in the Kingdom of the Messiah: they are in their deeds and now resemble their Father - God” .

Thus, at first the Lord convinces by the natural law: what you wish for yourself, then do to others. Further, the Savior also speaks of a reward: everyone who has love for enemies, as well as who does good and gives, without expecting anything in return, will be like God.

Climbing the ladder of Christian perfection, the reborn person will be granted the highest love for enemies, the commandment about which the Lord concludes the first part of His Sermon on the Mount. And, wanting to show how the fulfillment of this commandment brings a weak and imperfect person closer to God, Christ confirms that the ideal of a Christian is God: So be merciful, as your Father is merciful(Luke 6:35).

Archbishop Averky (Taushev) points out: “This is in full accordance with the Divine plan, expressed even at the time of the creation of man: “And God said: Let us make man in Our image, and after Our likeness” (Gen. 1, 26). Divine holiness is unattainable for us […], but what is meant is a kind of inner likeness, the gradual approach of the human soul to its Archetype with the help of grace.”

In today's Gospel reading, dear brothers and sisters, the Lord reveals to us the meaning of the life ideals that He Himself embodied on earth. Calling on His followers to be merciful, as the Heavenly Father is merciful, the Lord reopens for us the opportunity to become like God, that is, to love and forgive enemies, doing good to them. It also indicates what every Christian should strive for: love, goodness and mercy, thanks to which we become children of God. Help us in this Lord!

Hieromonk Pimen (Shevchenko)

Released by the publishing house of the Sretensky Monastery. You can buy the edition in the store "Sretenie".

And as you want people to do to you, do to them. And if you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? for even sinners love those who love them. And if you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For sinners do the same. And if you lend to those from whom you hope to receive back, what thanks do you have for that? For even sinners lend to sinners in order to get back the same amount. But you love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing; and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High; for He is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked. So be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.

Luke, 26 credits, VI, 31-36

***

If people every day remembered God's mercy to them, they themselves would be merciful to each other.

Nothing makes a man so unmerciful as the belief that no one is merciful to him. Nobody? Where is God? Does not God reward us every day and every night with His mercy for the unmercifulness of people? And is not the favor of the king himself more important for us at the royal court than his slaves? What is the use if all the king's servants shower us with favors, but the king is angry with us?

People become unmerciful, expecting others to be the first to show them mercy. But look, exactly the same is expected of them by others! And in this mutual expectation of mercy from each other, all people, to a greater or lesser extent, become unmerciful. And mercy is not a waiting virtue, but a virtue striving to manifest itself. For how would people ever know about mercy, if God did not first show His mercy? The mercy of God caused mercy in people; and if God had not shown His mercy first, the world would not have known even the very word mercy.

For the one who realizes mercy as an active virtue, and not a waiting one, and so begins to fulfill it, both heaven and earth will soon be painted in a different color. For this man will quickly come to know both God's and human mercy. Mercy is a blow that inevitably strikes a spark. And the one who strikes this blissful blow, and the one who receives it - both feel the presence of God. At this moment, the merciful hand of God is felt on both hearts. That is why the Lord said: Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy.

Mercy is greater than pity, which the sages of India preached as the greatest virtue. A person may take pity on a beggar and pass him by, but a merciful person will take pity on a beggar and help him. Mercy to the poor is not the most difficult and most important thing in the law of Christ - in comparison with mercy to the enemy.

Mercy is greater than forgiveness. For to forgive an offense is half the way to God, and to do a work of mercy is the other half of this way.

Is it necessary to say that mercy is greater than earthly justice? If there were no mercy, then all people would perish according to this earthly, legal justice. Law without mercy cannot even maintain the existing, while mercy creates in the world something new and great. Mercy created this whole world. That's why It is better for people to practice from childhood in the knowledge of the sweetness of mercy than in the knowledge of the astringency of the law. For the law can always be learned, but if the heart hardens, it is difficult to turn and become merciful. For merciful people will not sin in the law, but those who have fulfilled the whole law may be completely deprived of mercy and lose the crown of glory prepared by God for the merciful.

Today's Gospel reading tells us about the highest level of mercy - about love for enemies. Our Lord Jesus Christ gives a commandment - not advice, but a commandment - to love your enemies too. And this commandment of His is not incidental and sporadic, as it was before Him in some rare places of the law, where on the whole this commandment - more in the form of advice than commandments - flashed; but this commandment about love for enemies is placed in the Gospel in the most prominent place.

Rivers Lord: And as you want people to do to you, so you do to them.. These are the opening words in today's gospel of love for enemies. First of all, if you want people not to be enemies to you, don't be enemies to people either. For if it is true that every person in this world has enemies, it means that you yourself are someone's enemies. How then can you demand that the person to whom you are an enemy become your friend? Therefore, first tear out the root of enmity from your heart, and then just count how many enemies you have in the world. How much better you shoot out this evil root from your heart and pull out shoots constantly sprouting from it, so much less will you be able to count your enemies. So, if you want people to be your friends, you yourself must first stop being their enemies, and then become their friends. If you become friends with people, then the number of your enemies will either decrease significantly, or they will not exist at all. But this is not the main thing. The main thing is that in this case God will become your friend. The main thing for your salvation is not to be an enemy to anyone, and not to not have a single enemy yourself. For if you are an enemy to people, then you yourself and your enemies hinder your salvation; if you are a friend to people, then your enemies unconsciously help to build up your salvation. Oh, if each person thought only about how many people he is an enemy, instead of thinking about how many enemies he himself has! In one day the gloomy face of this world would shine like the sun.

The commandment of Christ to treat people the way we want them to treat us is so natural and so obviously good - it is surprising and shameful that it has not become a daily habit for people for a long time.

Nobody wants people to do him harm - that means, let no one do harm to people. Everyone wants people to do him good - that means, let everyone do good to people.

Everyone wants people to forgive him sins - so let him forgive people's sins.

Everyone wants people to sympathize with his grief and rejoice in his joy - let him also sympathize with the grief of other people and rejoice in their joy.

Everyone wants people to say kind words about him, treat him with respect, feed him if he is hungry, visit him if he is sick, protect him if he is persecuted - let him do the same with people.

This applies not only to individuals, but also to groups of people, neighboring tribes, peoples and states. If all classes, peoples and states would assimilate this rule, malice and class struggle would disappear, the mutual hatred of peoples would disappear, wars between states would cease. This is the cure for all these diseases, and there is no other cure.

The Lord further says: And if you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? for even sinners love those who love them. And if you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? for sinners do the same. And if you lend to those from whom you hope to receive back, what thanks do you have for that? for sinners also lend to sinners in order to get back the same. This means: if you wait for someone to do good to you, so that later you will pay for it with good, then you are not doing anything good. Does God wait for people to deserve the warmth of the sun, and only after that commands the sun to warm? Or is He the first to show His mercy and His love? Mercy is an active virtue, not a waiting one. God has shown this clearly since the creation of the world. From day to day, since the creation of the world, God with his generous hand scatters rich gifts to all His creatures. For if He had waited for His first creatures to give Him something, there would be no world, no creature in the world. If we love those who love us, then we are traders who make an exchange. If we do good only to our benefactors, then we are debtors repaying our debt. And charity is not a virtue that only repays debts, but a virtue that constantly lends. And love is a virtue that constantly lends and does not expect a return. If we lend to those from whom we hope to receive back, what do we do? We move our money from one cash register to another. For what we have lent we consider our property, just as when it was in our hands.

But it would be foolish to think that by the above words the Lord teaches us not to love those who love us and not to do good to those who do good to us. God forbid! By this he only wants to say that this is a lower level of virtue, to which even sinners easily rise. This is the smallest measure of good that makes this world poor, and people - slavishly constrained and callous. The Lord wants to raise people to the highest level of virtue, from which all the riches of God and all the worlds of God are visible, and on which the constrained and frightened heart of a slave becomes the broad and free heart of a son and heir. Love for those who love us is but the first lesson on the infinite object of love; and doing good to those who do good to us is but an elementary school in a long series of exercises in doing good; and lending to someone who gives us is not evil, but good, but this is only the first and tiny step towards the majestic good that gives and does not expect a return.

Whom does the Lord call sinners here? First, the pagans, to whom the mystery of the truth and love of God is not fully revealed. They are sinners because they departed from the original truth and love of God and instead of God made this world their legislator, which taught them to love only those who love them, and to do good only to those who do good to them. The great mystery of God's truth and love is now revealed again through our Lord Jesus Christ - and even more radiantly than at the beginning of creation - it is revealed first through the Jewish people - but not only for the Jewish people, but for all peoples on earth. And since God has been preparing the Jews for thousands of years through the law and the prophets to understand and accept the fullest revelation of the mystery, the Lord calls other peoples, mired in paganism, sinners. But by sinners - and even worse than the pagans - He means all those to whom the secret of truth and love is revealed, but who did not keep it, returning like a dog to his vomit, to the lower step of good. Among these are many and many of us: Christians by name, but by deeds - the most primitive pagans.

For what gratitude can we have if we love those who love us and do good to our benefactors? Are we not thereby returning what we have taken to its place? Indeed, we have received our reward! Only that deed deserves gratitude, which is at least somewhat similar to the deed of God's love.

But you love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing; and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High; for He is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked. So be merciful, as your Father is merciful. This is the highest height to which Christ wants to raise man! Here is a doctrine unheard of before Him! And here is the radiance of human dignity, never dreamed of by the greatest sages in history! And here is the love of God, which melts the whole human heart into one great tear!

Love your enemies. It is not said: do not repay evil for evil, for this is not enough; this is just patience. And it is not said: love those who love you, for this is the expectation of love; but it is said: "Love your enemies"; do not only tolerate them, and do not wait, but love them. Love is a toiling, active virtue; virtue is offensive.

But isn't love for enemies unnatural? This is the objection raised by non-Christians. Do we not see that nowhere in nature are there examples of love for enemies, but only for friends? So they object to us. What can we say? First of all, that our faith knows about two natures: about one, not damaged, not darkened and not embittered by sin, which Adam knew in paradise; and about the other, damaged by sin, darkened and embittered, which we constantly see in this world. In the circle of the first nature, love for enemies is completely natural, for in that nature love is like the air by which all creatures breathe and live. This is the true nature created by God. From that nature, Divine love shines into this nature of ours, like sunlight through clouds. And all true love that is on earth comes from that nature. In the circle of another, earthly nature, love for enemies could, because of its rarity, be called unnatural. But still it is not unnatural, but - in relation to earthly nature - supernatural, or, better, above natural, for love in general comes into this sinful nature from another, original, sinless and immortal nature, which is higher than ours.

“But love for enemies is so rare that it cannot be called natural,” others object. Well, if so, then the pearl is unnatural, and the diamond, and gold too. After all, they are rare, but who would call them unnatural? Really, the Church of Christ alone knows numerous examples of this love. As there are herbs that grow only in one place on the earth, so this unusual plant, this extraordinary love grows and flourishes only in the fence of the Church of Christ. Anyone who wants to be convinced of the existence of numerous specimens of this plant and its beauty should read the lives of the apostles of Christ, the holy fathers and confessors of the faith of Christ, champions and martyrs of the great truth and love of Christ.

“If this love is not impossible, it is at least extraordinarily difficult,” is the third objection. Truly, it is not easy, especially for the student of this love far away, and not near God, Who alone gives her strength and food. How can we not love those whom God loves? God loves us no more than our enemies, especially if we ourselves are enemies to other people. And who among us can say that no one in the world calls him their enemy? If the sun of God shone and the rain fell only for those whom no one considers their enemy, it would really be difficult for a ray of sunshine to fall on the ground and a drop of rain on the earth's dust. What a scarecrow people make out of a hostile attitude towards themselves! Sin has infected people with fear, and from fear they see enemies in all the creatures around them. And God is sinless and fearless, and therefore He does not suspect anyone, but loves everyone. He loves us so much that even when we are surrounded by enemies without much fault of ours, we must trust that He knows about it and allows it for our good. Let's be fair and say that the enemies are our great helpers in spiritual perfection. If it were not for enmity on the part of people, many, many saints of God would not have become God's friends. Even the enmity of Satan himself is useful to those who are zealous for the holiness of God and for the salvation of their souls. Who was a greater zealot for the holiness of God and who loved Christ more than the Apostle Paul? And yet this holy apostle narrates that, having revealed many mysteries to him, God allowed the demon to be near him and annoy him. And so that I would not be exalted by the extravagance of revelations, a thorn in the flesh was given to me, the angel of Satan, to oppress me, so that I would not be exalted(2 Corinthians 12:7). And if even a demon against his will benefits a person, then how can people not benefit him, incomparably less dangerous enemies than demons? One could safely say that often a person's friends do much more harm to his soul than his enemies. And the Lord Himself said: And the enemies of man are his household(Mt. 10:36; Mic. 7:6). Often those who live under the same roof with us, and who are so busy caring for our body and pleasing us, are the most bitter enemies of our salvation. For their love and care is not for our soul, but for the body. How many parents have destroyed the soul of their son, how many brothers - the soul of their brother, how many sisters - the soul of their sister, how many wives - the souls of their husbands! And all this - out of love for them! The understanding of this, which is daily confirmed, is another strong argument in favor of the fact that one should not indulge too much in love for one's relatives and friends, as well as withhold love from enemies. Is it necessary to emphasize once again that often, very often our enemies are our true friends? The trouble they cause is to our advantage; their reproofs contribute to our salvation; and the fact that they oppress us in the external, carnal life helps us to go deep into ourselves, find our soul and cry out to the Living God for its salvation. Indeed, our enemies often save us from the doom that our relatives are preparing for us, involuntarily weakening our character and nourishing our body at the expense of our soul.

Do good and lend without expecting anything, says the Lord. That is: do good to every person, regardless of whether he loves you or not; follow the example of God, who does good to everyone, both openly and secretly. If your good deeds do not cure your enemy of his hostility, your evil deeds will heal him still less. Do good also to those who do not demand or expect good from you, and lend to everyone who asks, but give as if you were giving, as if you were giving back someone else's, and not giving your own. (“Merciful is the one who has mercy on his neighbor with what he himself received from God: either money, or food, or power, or instruction, or prayer - considering himself a debtor, for he received more than he needs. God asks him through his brother mercy and makes Himself a debtor.” Peter of Damascus). If your enemy does not accept any good from you, you can still do him a lot of good. Didn't the Lord say: pray for those who despitefully use you and persecute you(Matthew 5:44)? So, pray for your enemies and thus do good to them. If your enemy does not accept any charity or service from you, God will accept your prayer for him. And God will soften his heart and turn him to a good disposition towards you. It is not at all so difficult to make an enemy a friend, as it seems to people. If this is impossible for people, then it is possible for God. The one who turns the icy earth into a warm meadow on which flowers grow can melt the ice of enmity in the human heart and grow in it the fragrant flower of friendship. But, of course, the most important thing is not that your enemy, through the good done to him, turns and becomes your friend, the most important thing is that he does not destroy his soul because of hatred for you. It is for this latter that one must pray to God, and not for the former. For your salvation, it does not matter at all whether you will have more friends or enemies in this life, but it is very, very important that you are not an enemy to anyone, but a friend to everyone in your heart, in your prayers and in your thoughts.

If you do this, you will have a great reward. From whom? Maybe partly from people, but most importantly - from God. What reward? You be sons of the Most High and you can name God father his. And your Father, who sees in secret, will reward you openly(Matthew 6). If not today, then tomorrow; if not tomorrow, then at the end of time, before all angels and people. But what greater reward could we expect than the right to be called sons of Almighty and call the Most High Father yours? Behold, the Only Begotten Son of the Most High is the One Lord Jesus Christ, and only He has until now called God His Father. And now we, lost and sinners, are promised the same honor! What does this honor mean? This means that we will be in eternity where He is (John 14:3), in the glory in which He will be, in joy that has no end. Means what the love of God the Father unceasingly accompanies us in all the troubles and sufferings of this life and turns everything around and arranges for our ultimate good. This means that when we die, we will not remain in the tomb, but we will be resurrected, just as He was resurrected. Ah, this means that we are only temporarily on this earth, as if on an island of the dead, but honor and glory and immortal beauty await us in the house of the Heavenly Father. However, is it necessary to enumerate all the benefits that an orphan expects when he is adopted by an earthly king? It is enough to simply say: such and such an orphan was adopted by the king, and everyone can immediately guess what treasures await this orphan. And our adoption is not human, but God's, for we will be the sons of the Most High, whose Son is our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, the sons of the Immortal King, the King of kings. God adopts us not for our merits, but for the merits of His Only Begotten Son, as the apostle says: For you are all sons of God by faith in Christ Jesus(Gal. 3:26; John 1:12). Christ accepts us as His brothers, and therefore God the Father accepts us as His children.

In fact, we can do nothing to deserve the right to be called the sons of the Living God. It would be ridiculous to think that by any deeds, even if by the greatest love for enemies, we can earn and pay for what our Lord Jesus Christ promised to His faithful servants. If we distribute all our possessions to the poor; if we fast all the days of our belly and stand day and night like a candle in prayer until the end of time; if we separate our spirit from the body as if from a cold stone and become passionless and insensible to this material world with our soul; if we give ourselves over to the whole world for spitting and trampling, and if we give ourselves up as food for hungry beasts, this is still an absolutely insignificant price for that good, that glory and that unspeakable mercy that the adoption of God brings with it. There is no mercy on earth and no love in a mortal man that could make a mortal man a son of God and an immortal citizen of the Kingdom of Heaven. But the love of Christ makes up for that which is impossible for man: let none of us boast that by his love he can be saved and by his merits open the gates of paradise for himself.

Therefore, the commandment to love enemies, no matter how great and difficult it may seem, is only a mite that God requires from us in order to let us into Himself, into His luxurious royal abodes. He does not require of us that through the fulfillment of this commandment we deserve His kingdom and sonship, but only that we desire this kingdom and sonship more than anything else. He requires from us only faith in His word and obedience to our Lord Jesus Christ. What did Adam do to deserve heaven? nothing; but paradise was given to him through the love of God. What kept Adam in Paradise before his fall? Obedience to God, only obedience. When he and his wife doubted the commandment of God, by this very doubt they violated the commandment of God and fell into the mortal sin of disobedience. With a new creation Our Lord Jesus Christ requires from us the same thing that he demanded from Adam and Eve in Paradise, namely: faith and obedience - faith that every command of His is saving for us, and unconditional obedience to every command of His. He gave all His commandments, including this one, about love for enemies, so that we would have faith and obedience to His word. And if at least one of His commandments were not good and saving for us, would He give it to us? He knew better than anyone whether this commandment was natural or not natural, feasible or not feasible; the main thing for us is that He gave this commandment, and we - if we want good for ourselves - are obliged to fulfill it. As a sick person with faith and obedience takes medicine from the hands of a doctor - whether it is sweet or bitter - so we, weakened and darkened by sin, must with faith and obedience fulfill everything that the philanthropic Physician of our souls and the Lord of our stomach, our Lord Jesus, has commanded us. Christ, the Son of the Living God. Honor and glory befits him, with the Father and the Holy Spirit - the Trinity of Consubstantial and Indivisible, now and forever, at all times and forever and ever. Amen.

Hate is clear and frank
Hatred is directed towards the enemy
That's love - forgives all treason,
And she is a painful disease.

This book is a hot coal.
Do you see my open chest?
We hate each other in the name
We curse the family in the name.
Anna Barkova

She studied at the gymnasium in Ivanovo-Voznesensk (where her father worked as a doorman); since 1918, she collaborated in the Ivanovo newspaper "Working Land" under the leadership of A.K. Voronsky. She appeared in the press with poems that were noticed and highly appreciated primarily by "left" criticism. In 1922 he moved to Moscow at the invitation of A. V. Lunacharsky, whose secretary he worked for a short time; later, due to the conflict, he leaves his secretariat and tries to get a job in various newspapers and publishing houses in Moscow.
In 1922, her only lifetime book of poems “Woman” was published (with an enthusiastic foreword by Lunacharsky), the next year the play “Nastasya Koster” was published in a separate edition.
Early 1920s - pinnacle of Barkova's official recognition; her poems become widely known, they begin to talk about her as the “proletarian Akhmatova”, the exponent of the “female face” of the Russian revolution. Her lyrics of these years are really deeply original, she effectively expresses the rebellious (revolutionary and atheistic) aspirations of the “fighting woman”, masterfully using a rich arsenal of poetic techniques (in particular, dolnik and accent verse, firmly established by that time in Russian poetry).
However, Barkova's rebellious nature quickly brings her into deep conflict with Soviet reality. It cannot find a place for itself in official literary and near-literary structures.

Soaked in blood and bile
Our life and our affairs.
The insatiable heart of a wolf
Fate gave us fate.
Tearing with teeth, claws,
We kill mother and father
We do not throw a stone at the neighbor -
We pierce the heart with a bullet.
BUT! Shouldn't you think about it?
No need - well, if you please:
Give me universal joy
On a platter like bread and salt.
1925

At the end of 1934, she was arrested for the first time and imprisoned for five years in Karlag (1935-1939), in 1940-1947. she lives under administrative supervision in Kaluga, where in 1947 she was arrested again and this time imprisoned in a camp in Inta, where she was until 1956. During this period, the poetess wrote about herself like this

Yes. I became completely different
My friends don't recognize me.
But the frost sometimes burns
Hotter than the sun, more painful than fire.
1954

In 1956-1957 she lived in Ukraine in the village of Shterovka near the city of Lugansk.

On November 13, 1957, despite the "thaw", she was arrested for the third time (as before, on charges of anti-Soviet agitation) and imprisoned in a camp in Mordovia (1958-1965).
Since 1965 he lives in Moscow, in a communal apartment, receiving a small pension.
All these years, Anna Barkova continues to write poetry, many of which reach great artistic power and are among the most important documents of the “camp literature” of the Soviet period.

In the lane Arbat crooked
Very dark and decrepit house
I hastened to passers-by sullenly confess:
"Here is the grandfather of Russian aviation."
Whose grandmother am I?
Proletarian poetry my granddaughter -
Before grandmother's granddaughter died -
What a pity!
1975

The publication of her works began only in the 1990s; several collections of poems were published in Ivanovo and Krasnoyarsk. One of the most complete publications is the book “... Forever not the same” (M .: Sergei Dubov Fund, 2002). Barkova's diaries and prose have also been published (“Eight chapters of madness”: Prose. Diaries. M .: Sergei Dubov Foundation, 2009).
A significant part of the literary heritage of Anna Barkova has not been published.

A program dedicated to the poetess Anna Barkova was broadcast on Radio Liberty on 08/09/2011. Below are some excerpts from it.

"On December 1, 1934, as you know, Sergei Mironovich Kirov was shot dead in Leningrad, and arrests began, widespread and indiscriminate. Anna Barkova fell victim to persecution and search for enemies. She was arrested in December 1934 and in March 1935 she ended up in the Butyrka detention center , from where she wrote a letter to the People's Commissar of Internal Affairs with a request not to exile her, but to subject her to capital punishment, to execution. Why? Because she wrote that she was ill and could not stand the prison and camp conditions. The reason for which she was arrested was quite simple and common at that time - there were conversations among themselves about who killed Sergei Mironovich Kirov, and Barkova threw through her teeth: "They killed the wrong one!". In general, she was incredibly sharp and unrestrained in her language. So, the first Barkov term began , which lasted five years - from 1934 to 1939 - and then even more frightening, metaphysically frightening notes appeared in her poetry.
"...for five years, Anna Barkova ended up in Karlag, where she spent the period from 1935 to 1939. In 1940, she settled in Karlag under administrative supervision, where she lived until 1947. There is an interesting detail here. When the war began, the local The GB, whatever it was called at that time, came to check the politically unreliable for possible betrayal, possible betrayal in case the enemy was very close or already practically in the city.And she was subjected to, let's say in modern terms, an interview.But even KGB officers, even at that time, even despite the fact that she served 5 years as politically unreliable, were forced to admit that the concepts of treason and betrayal were so alien to her character that things did not go beyond this interview-conversation, they fell behind her. In 1947, she was arrested again ... But a few months before that, in the summer of 1947, she was going to Moscow, she was sick of her Kaluga, she hated her, and she had the idea to settle in her homeland e, in Ivanovo. But for this, she went to Moscow to talk with some people, acquaintances, friends whom she trusted and from whom she wanted, as it were, to verify the correctness of her decision. But these plans were not destined to come true, because she was arrested on the denunciation of the Kaluga landlady and her daughter. Scammers wrote that Barkova "writes gloomily about Soviet reality and speaks angrily at Comrade Stalin." Well, communal apartment, so all conversations were heard. She was given ten years in the camp and disenfranchised for five years after serving her sentence. She ended up in the famous Abez camp and, as some of Barkova's few biographers, in particular, Oleg Khlebnikov and Lev Anninsky, write, Barkova's soul came to life in Abezi. She was surrounded by people who could appreciate the originality of her nature. And the poetry began.

Pen for human cattle.
Entered here - do not rush back.
There are no rooms here. Wretched cabins.
On the bunk tags. On the shoulders - a pea jacket.
And the thieves' spasm of the meeting,
A chance meeting, somewhere out there
in the canopy.
Without a word, without love. Why are we talking here?
Only an eunuch or a monk will condemn.

On the watch there is a cabin for dates,
With a cynical joke put there
bed:
Here to the prisoner, the poor creature,
It is allowed to sleep with a legal husband.

The country of holy pathos and construction,
Is it possible to fall more terrible and easier -
Is it possible on this mean bunk
To corrupt forever marital passion!

Under laughter, hooting and whistles,
By permission of the evil scoundrel...
No, better, better frank
shot,
So honestly piercing hearts.

“Anna Barkova was released in 1956. How nice it would be to say: here is the “thaw”, the historical congresses of the CPSU, the debunking of the cult of personality, everything is fine, the country is going a different way. We, however, know that later, in the 60-70s , everything will turn around, but so far, at least for a few years - nothing like that. In 1956, Anna Barkova, having freed herself, settled in the village of Shterovka near Lugansk in Ukraine, and already on November 13, 1957, despite the "thaw", she was arrested in the third time and imprisoned in a camp in Mordovia, as before. on charges of anti-Soviet agitation. By the way, it must be said here that Anna Barkova found herself in the Lugansk region fearing just such a development of events. She was in Moscow in 1956, living with friends, and when she saw the preparations for the World Festival of Youth and Students, obviously with the sharp scent of an old convict, she realized that they would start checking everyone who was in the capital, this would mean additional vigilance of the authorities and, in order not to let anyone down, she left for Ukraine, in Lu Ghanaian But it didn't save her. As I already said, in November 1957 she was arrested for the third time ... This time there was some really terrible story, a monstrous injustice and a real misfortune for Anna Alexandrovna, if you can call the next landing such a misfortune compared to two others she has experienced. They say different things about the reasons for her arrest, someone says that it was another denunciation, in which it was reported that she was listening to Voice of America, someone said that, having received her rehabilitation papers by mail in this Shterovka, Anna Alexandrovna sent a letter to someone, in which she either expressed her dissatisfaction with not publishing it, or with the recall of some edition, or commented on these papers about rehabilitation that had not arrived for too long. In short, she was followed, the letter was intercepted, perused, read and Barkova was arrested again. That is, after the 20th Congress, a year and a half after that, when, it would seem, everyone who could, all innocently convicted, as well as "criminals", those who passed under the political article, under the 58th, were released, And - no - Barkova again received a term - 8 years. And those eight years really finished her off. She did not die in the camp during these years, but her mental and mental state was indeed on the verge of normality. There are a number of memories about Barkova during the camp period, there were already vegetarian years even in the camps themselves, and people who left these camps were able to publish their memoirs, some quickly, some not so quickly. "
"... a few words about 1956-57, when Anna Barkova lived at large near Luhansk. The fact is that Barkova's works have been published relatively recently and continue to be published, which have never been published before, and which have often been preserved by a miracle. I in one of the articles I even read warm words addressed to those investigators of the state security agencies who did not throw away and did not throw away (given that we are talking about three terms) Barkova's works, but filed them into the case as material evidence. cases were opened, declassified, we were given the opportunity to get acquainted with these works.I don’t know if it is really possible to thank the KGB investigators for something, I would rather thank the case or fate that decreed that these works reached us.And , of course, those researchers of Barkova's work, who in different cities, primarily in Ivanovo-Voznesensk, are doing everything to preserve her legacy.
So, in 1957, Anna Barkova began to write a lot of prose. She wrote prose even before that, but here it was as if some kind of gate had opened, some kind of gateway. I have already spoken about her prophetic gift and all those who doubt my words, I refer to her story "How the Moon is Made". When I read this short story, it is less than 100 pages, and in a small book format. This is another book by Anna Barkova, not the one I was talking about, it is called "Eight Chapters of Madness. Prose and Diaries", and was also published by the Sergei Dubov Foundation in Moscow, but relatively recently, in 2009. It includes works that were not included in the previous volume, partially not included.
So, when I was reading this short story, at some point I began to giggle, because I suddenly realized that I was reading the history of the State Emergency Committee, I was reading the history of the coup. Successful, unsuccessful - I will not reveal the plot of the story, but this is what I recently observed. And then, where I was not, that is, the negotiations of the participants, were published in the Soviet press at that time, and, perhaps, already in the Russian press, and the coincidence of some phrases, some paragraphs was almost textual. Then I suddenly realized that I was not reading the history of the GKChP, I was reading the history of what happened after the GKChP, I was reading the history of Russia, which turned upside down when another elite came to power (maybe democratic, maybe not democratic, now is not about that conversation, we are talking about the mechanism of the change of power), and when I happily finished reading this story, it suddenly dawned on me that I was reading a thing written in 1957, and this was not an assessment of the State Emergency Committee, not a change of power in the USSR-Russia, but this a story about how de-Stalinization was carried out. I have never seen a single, let alone a work of art, where it would be so clearly shown that the mechanisms of power change, the mechanisms of behind-the-scenes games, the motivation of the participants, in general, are decomposed as two and two, even if they have different goals, different slogans and different outcomes of their activities. The story is a little scary in that it shows where everything will come to. No less funny, by the way, and then written, in 1957 (funny not in the sense of being funny, but in the sense that somehow the whole story suddenly turns the other way) is the story "Eight Chapters of Madness", which gave the name to the whole book . This is a rather large conversation by the standards of Barkova (more than 120 pages) between the heroine and the devil. I do not think that Anna Barkova in 1957 was aware of the manuscript of The Master and Margarita, but the similarity of some ideas, some twists, some plot moves is simply mesmerizing. In the same book, Barkova's dystopia "The Liberation of Gynguania" was published for the first time.
I believe that the whole history of science fiction literature, the whole history of world dystopia should now be read in a completely different way, because the work of Anna Barkova cannot but stand in the bottom row with those great works that we know - "We" Zamyatin, "The Magnificent New world" by Huxley, "1984" by Orwell and then "novel-warning" by the Strugatskys. Here between them stands the story of Barkova. I repeat, you must read it, it is simply necessary.

Now the name of Barkova, thank God, is not in danger of oblivion - books, articles about her, performances dedicated to her are published, exhibitions are held. And a disc was released on her songs, which was recorded by the Leningrad performer, bard, composer Elena Frolova.

In 1922, her only lifetime book of poems “Woman” was published (with an enthusiastic foreword by Lunacharsky), the next year the play “Nastasya Koster” was published in a separate edition.
Early 1920s - pinnacle of Barkova's official recognition; her poems become widely known, they begin to talk about her as the “proletarian Akhmatova”, the exponent of the “female face” of the Russian revolution. Her lyrics of these years are really deeply original, she effectively expresses the rebellious (revolutionary and atheistic) aspirations of the “fighting woman”, masterfully using a rich arsenal of poetic techniques (in particular, dolnik and accent verse, firmly established by that time in Russian poetry).

However, Barkova's rebellious nature quickly brings her into deep conflict with Soviet reality. It cannot find a place for itself in official literary and near-literary structures.

At the end of 1934, she was arrested for the first time and imprisoned for five years in Karlag (1935-1939), in 1940-1947. she lives under administrative supervision in Kaluga, where in 1947 she was arrested again and this time imprisoned in a camp in Inta, where she was until 1956. During this period, the poetess wrote about herself like this

In 1956-1957 she lived in Ukraine in the village of Shterovka near the city of Lugansk.
On November 13, 1957, despite the "thaw", she was arrested for the third time (as before, on charges of anti-Soviet agitation) and imprisoned in a camp in Mordovia (1958-1965).
Since 1965 he lives in Moscow, in a communal apartment, receiving a small pension.
All these years, Anna Barkova continues to write poetry, many of which reach great artistic power and are among the most important documents of the “camp literature” of the Soviet period.

Songs based on Barkova's verses are performed by Elena Frolova.
A significant part of the literary heritage of Anna Barkova has not been published.

Publications

Woman: Poems. - Pg.: Giz, 1922. - 96 p. Foreword A. Lunacharsky (reproduced in Sat. Return).

Nastasya Koster. - M.-Pg., 1923. A play.
Return: Poems. - Ivanovo, 1990. - 196 p. Comp. A. Ageev, L. Sadyga, L. Taganov. Foreword L. Taganova.

Selected poems - Krasnoyarsk: IPK "PLATINA", 1998. - 75 p. Series "Poets of the Lead Age".

…Always not the same. - M.: Sergei Dubov Fund, 2002. - 624 p.

Bulletin of the RHD, No. 121 (1977), pp. 287-293.

"Spark", No. 35, 1988, p.36.

"Volga", No. 3, 1991, pp. 78-80.

"Literary Review", No. 8, 1991.

"Questions of Literature", 1997, No. 6. Seven letters to Barkova 1922-1975. to her friend K. I. Sokolova (1900-1984) and five letters from 1957-1967. to T. G. Tsyavlovskaya (1897-1978).

Anna Barkova: One Hundred Years of Solitude // Novy Mir, No. 6, 2001. Publication and foreword by L. N. Taganov.

Poetry day. 1989. S.52-53.

Azure. Issue 1. M., 1989.

Among other names, pp. 95-124. (The title of this anthology of Gulag poets is a quote from a poem by Anna Barkova.)

The best poems of the year [according to literary critics L. Baranova, V. Kozhinov, I. Rostovtseva, P. Ulyashov]. - M .: Young Guard, 1991. S. 171-172. 2 poems in the Rostovtseva section.

RPM, p.158.

STR, pp. 362-363.

RPA, pp.277-278.

One hundred and one poetess of the Silver Age. Anthology / Comp. and biogr. articles by M. L. Gasparov, O. B. Kushlin and T. L. Nikolskaya. - St. Petersburg: DEAN, 2000. S.21-24. 4 poems of the 20s.

From Symbolists to Oberiuts. Poetry of Russian modernism. Anthology. Book 2 / Comp. A. S. Karpov, A. A. Kobrinsky, O. A. Lekmanov. - M.: Ellis Luck, 2000; 2002. P.486. I'm a sucker for literature...

Poetry of the second half of the XX century / Comp. I. A. Akhmetiev, M. Ya. Sheinker. - M.: WORD / SLOVO, 696 p. 2002 S.30-35. ISBN 585050379X35

Poetry of prisoners of the Gulag, pp.228-233 publishing house: MFD: Mainland 2005 ISBN 5-85646-111-8

Samizdat anthology. Volume 1, book. 1. S.114-121.

We are the chroniclers of Pimena and we don't need a name. - M .: ("Avanglion", 2007) "RuPub +", 2009. Edition 2, add. (T. I. Isaeva). pp.10-14. 4 poems from the 1920s

Russian poems 1950-2000. T.1. pp.75-79.