Anna Barkova is a poetess with a tragic fate. Pen for human cattle

"And as you want people to do to you, so do you 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 kind thanks for this? for sinners also do the same. And if you lend to those from whom you hope to receive back, what gratitude have you for that? for sinners also lend to sinners 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. Be merciful therefore, even as your Father is merciful." (Gospel of Luke, chapter 6:31-36)

If we want to be sons, daughters of the Living God, the One Whom we call Father, if we want to be truly His children, we must learn from Him for ourselves, perhaps difficult, what is for a person: to give ... to give without waiting nothing in return, to give only from the fullness of the heart and from the fullness of love.

A characteristic feature of all saints and all genuine Christians is that they are able to tear their attention away from themselves, to say to themselves: Get out of my way, you close the world of God to me, you close God Himself and my neighbor ... We must learn to not only for moments to forget ourselves, but to be such people who are completely turned away from themselves and turned to God, to the world, to people and who are able to give as God gives: to give only because love rules and rejoices in our hearts, to give not remembering yourself either the minute you give, or later, after we have done good, without turning to the one to whom we gave, in anticipation of a return smile or a return gift ... If we have not learned at least some To the extent that we relate to life, to God, to people in this way, then we have not yet begun to be Christians.

And indeed: who among us can boast that he turns to God only with love, and not only when he needs something or when he needs to beg after he has become ashamed of his life?

Who among us can say that he constantly, with an open heart, rejoices, gives, in the hope that the one who receives will not be humiliated by our gift, will not be wounded by our gift, will not feel that he is a poor man who, sooner or later, he must give back what he was given.

We must learn to give in such a way that the one who receives rejoices that through the gift received - whether a kind word, whether material assistance - a new depth of relationships and a new depth of love between people are opened ...

Let's think about it; I thought with pain both yesterday and today that I had not even begun to become a Christian... Maybe one of us will come to his senses? Me or any of you listening? Let us remember: God gives without measure, God gives without envy, God gives freely. He gives without expecting anything in return; but can we not find gratitude in order to respond to Him with the love from which His gifts are born, and to extend this love to all who are loved by God?

Metropolitan Anthony of Surozh

And how merciful is the Heavenly Father to us? He so loved the world that He gave His Only Begotten Son, so that whoever believes in Him would not perish but have eternal life (John 3:16). He is so good and so many-merciful that He commands His sun to rise over the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous (Matt. 5:45), gives us everything even before our petition (cf.: Matt. 6:8), and even those who do not lead or honor Him, does not cease to bear witness to Himself with good deeds, giving us rains from heaven and fruitful times, and filling our hearts with food and gladness (cf. Acts 14:17). He is so long-suffering and merciful to us that he not only does not strike, but spares and has mercy on us even when we sin against Him, boldly transgress His holy will, senselessly offend His highest holiness and His righteousness, not fearing His impregnable glory and majesty, not dreading the terrible rebuke of His wrath. He is so merciful and unmemorable to us that he forgives all our sins, does not remember our iniquities for only repentance and confession of our sins before Him.

How merciful is the only begotten Son of God to us? He, our Lord and Creator, having glory and blessedness from His Father before the foundation of the world, for the sake of us sinners, left this glory, humbled and humbled Himself to a servant of the eye, to a den and a manger, to the poor life of a wanderer who has no where to bow head (Matthew 8:20). But this is not enough.
He, the most merciful, took upon Himself all the sins and types of human calamities, patiently and meekly endured all reproaches, sufferings and torments from those very His servants whom He came to bless and save from eternal death.

Having all the power and authority to exterminate and destroy His enemies with a single word, He did not cease to do good to them, to spare and have mercy on them, to grieve over the petrification of their hearts, weep over the death that threatens them, and, nailed to the cross, prayed for His crucifiers. He is so merciful and merciful to us that, having offered Himself as a sacrifice for our sins, He gave us all the treasures of His grace, sent down to us His All-Holy Spirit, nourishes us with His Flesh and Blood, shares with His followers, whom He calls friends and brothers, all His glory that He had with His Father before the foundation of the world, and then even when we oppose His holy word, do not obey His commandments, we are rejected by Him by our criminal deeds. He, who is most merciful and gentle, does not deprive us of His grace, does not take away His Cross and the Gospel, does not tear us away from His life-giving Sacraments, longsufferingly awaits and graciously accepts our repentance.

Read also: Christmas and Mercy #The word of the abbot

You see, beloved, what mercy and what love our Lord requires and expects from us, who laid down His life for us! As a reflection of the highest love of the Son of God for us, it should be just as selfless, humble and gentle: not to seek its own benefit and advantage, not to neglect any kind of poverty and human humiliation, not to be embarrassed by any ingratitude, nor human malice or hatred, not to seek and expect neither praise nor reward in this world, but, on the contrary, love both the evil-wishers themselves and your enemies and be ready to lay down your life for your brethren.

If you love those who love you, says the Lord, what thanks do you have? 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 (Luke 6:32-35).

As a reflection of the long-suffering and merciful love of God, our love should also be indulgent towards the shortcomings of our neighbor, patient with his weaknesses, merciful to his infirmities, cover his very sins, forgive from the bottom of our hearts any insult and offense.

Love, says the Apostle, is long-suffering, merciful, love does not envy, love does not exalt itself, is not proud, does not behave violently, does not seek its own, is not irritated, does not think evil, does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; covers all, believes all, hopes all, endures all (1 Cor. 13:4-7). Each of us must please our neighbor for good, for edification (Rom. 15:2), not repay evil for evil to anyone; but always seek the good both for each other and for everyone (cf. 1 Thess. 5:15). Bless your persecutors; bless, not curse. Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good (Rom. 12:14, 21).

Read also: Love Tatiana Grimblit

Like a reflection of the inevitable light of the all-embracing, merciful and beneficial love of God, and our love for our neighbor must be merciful, compassionate, long-suffering, all-generous, ready to share with those in need everything to the last garment and to the last bread, to render him every possible and useful for us a service for him, to do for him everything that his need requires and that is available to our forces.
We do not need to know why our neighbor is unhappy and whether he himself was the cause of his own unhappiness. It is enough that he is unhappy, that he needs our help - material or spiritual; and we are obliged to give him a helping hand, to console his mournful soul with a word of love and compassion and a deed of mercy and good deeds, to alleviate the sorrow of his soul with warm sympathy for him, to strengthen his faith and hope with brotherly advice and prayer, to save and protect his soul from the temptations of the world and from the overpowering force of his own passions.

With such an all-merciful, most merciful, generous, long-suffering love, the Lord loved us!

And so He tells us: “This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you (John 15:12); be merciful, just as your Father is merciful (Luke 6:36). This is for Me the best gratitude for all My good deeds, the best recompense for all the labors and sufferings that I endured for your salvation. This is the best good that I wish for yourselves; this is your true happiness both in the present and in the future life. Love one another with the same purity, sincerity, and willingness to do good to all with which I have loved you. Then only you will be worthy of Me and will truly be My disciples, by this everyone will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another (John 13:35). Only then will you be worthy to be called sons and daughters of the Heavenly Father, who is merciful and kind to the ungrateful and evil (Luke 6:35). Only then will you be legitimate heirs to the eternal Kingdom of God, in which only love, and peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit dwell. Then only your happiness and bliss is true and unshakable forever - in eternal life in God and with God. Whoever loves me will keep my word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with him (John 14:23).

With this instruction, our Lord Jesus Christ addresses us today. Mercy is a feeling that is not very characteristic of a fallen person from God. "Man is a wolf to man" was a Latin proverb. This thought is also expressed in the words of King David: “It is very hard for me,” David said, “let me fall into the hands of the Lord, for His mercy is great; .

In the Old Testament, it was believed that God's mercy is intended only for the chosen people. But gradually, through the prophets, God brings up in this people a feeling of mercy towards their neighbor. The prophets Isaiah and Jeremiah pointed out that God's mercy knows no other limit than the bitterness of the sinner (Is. 9:16; Jer. 16:5-13). "The mercy of man is to his neighbor, but the mercy of the Lord is to all flesh," we read in the book of Wisdom. "As a father has mercy on his sons, so the Lord has mercy on those who fear Him. For He knows our composition, remembers that we are dust," says the Psalmist David. "The Lord is a God of righteousness... Blessed are all who trust in Him" (Isaiah 30:18). "The Lord is good and merciful, long-suffering and merciful." If God is good and merciful, then naturally He requires goodness and mercy in the relations of people among themselves.

Under the influence of rabbinic interpretations (Talmud), despite the clearly expressed thoughts and calls of the prophets, calls that abolish the isolation of the Jewish people, the Jews began to neglect the call of God to mercy, believing that by their external, formal observance of the Law, they acquire righteousness. But the heart of God is gladdened not by those who consider themselves righteous, but by repentant sinners. This is the basic thought of all the prophets.

"I want mercy, not sacrifice," the Lord proclaimed through the mouth of the prophet Hosea. And in order to have access to God's mercy, everyone - both Jews and Gentiles - must still recognize themselves as sinners, for "God has locked up everyone in disobedience, that he might have mercy on everyone" (cf. Rom. ch. 2). "Truly I know that God shows no partiality; but in every nation he who fears Him and does what is right is acceptable to Him" (Acts 11 ch.). "God has no partiality," say Ann. Peter and Paul.

The New Testament proclaims to us the Good News of the infinite mercy of God. Christ sympathizes with everyone: before Him, the learned members of the Sanhedrin, before Him repentant sinners - publicans and harlots, before Him, a Samaritan woman, a Canaanite woman and a Roman centurion alien to the Jews. Jesus Christ points out that the feeling of mercy should bring me closer to every person in trouble whom I meet on my way, and fill with pity for those who offend me. A Christian cannot close his heart to a brother in need, for the love of God dwells only in those who show mercy (1 Jo 3:17).

"Be perfect as your Heavenly Father is perfect," the Lord tells us. The perfection that Christ requires of us, according to today's Gospel reading, must consist, first of all, in the duty "to be merciful." Mercy is compassion and forgiveness. The word mercy indicates a feeling of devotion, a spiritual connection between people, which implies fidelity to God. Mercy is not just a manifestation of instinctive kindness, it is life in God, who has mercy on us, it is, as it were, a response to our inner debt to God. Amen.

Anna Alexandrovna Barkova (July 16, 1901, Ivanovo-Voznesensk - April 29, 1976, Moscow) - Russian poetess; She also wrote prose and journalism.

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 - the pinnacle of the official recognition of Barkova; 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 god-fighting) 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.

Anna Aleksandrovna Barkova died on April 29, 1976. The urn with her ashes was buried at the Moscow Nikolo-Arkhangelsk cemetery (section 1-9, columbarium 3, section 3-b).

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 ("Eight chapters of madness": Prose. Diaries. M .: Sergei Dubov Foundation, 2009) have also been published.

Anna Aleksandrovna Barkova- Russian poetess, prose writer, playwright.

She was the fifth (and only surviving) child in the family of a caretaker/porter at the Ivanovo-Voznesensk Gymnasium. Mother worked in a textile factory and died early. Anna studied well at the gymnasium where her father worked, from the age of five she read a lot and began to write early, from the age of 13 she earned money with lessons.

She published poems from the age of 16, in 1918-1921 she worked as a "chronicler" in the Ivanovo newspaper "Working Territory" under the direction of A.K. Voronsky. She appeared in print with poems that were noticed and highly appreciated primarily by “leftist” criticism; sympathetic attention was paid to her poems by such aesthete intellectuals as A. Blok, V. Bryusov. Lunacharsky wrote to her: “I fully admit the idea that you will become the best Russian poetess in all the elapsed time of Russian literature”. In 1922 he moved to Moscow, entered the school led by V.Ya. Bryusov Literary and Art Institute, but soon leaves it. At the invitation of A.V. Lunacharsky, worked for him for two years as an assistant secretary, but due to a conflict (caused by her caustic comments on the secrets of the Kremlin court) she left his secretariat. In 1924, with the help of M.I. Ulyanova gets a job at Pravda, where her notes and poems sometimes appear. Then, until 1929, he worked at Selkolkhozgiz.

In 1922, her only lifetime book of poems “Woman” was published (with an enthusiastic foreword by Lunacharsky), critics write about her as the antipode of Akhmatova: “Russia split into Akhmatovs and Barkovs”. The following year, the play "Nastasya Koster" is published in a separate edition, which also receives the full approval of the Soviet authorities. The beginning of the 1920s is the pinnacle of official recognition of Barkova: 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 god-fighting) 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).

But then everything was no longer so: naturally, they did not publish works that criticized the authorities ... Barkova's rebellious nature quickly leads her into a deep conflict with Soviet reality. It cannot find a place for itself in official literary and near-literary structures, because possesses "excessive intemperance". Long before the appearance of the “Kremlin highlander”, she wrote, for example, the following: “Sad”, “ideal”, “bedrooms”, / Everyone procrastinated to nausea. / Now we will use the sonorous rhyme "Stalin" / We will clamp our critical mouths ". Barkova was arrested on December 25, 1934 - at the beginning of the mass repressions associated with the "Kirov case" because of an accidentally thrown phrase: they killed, they say, the wrong person, and she spends four years in Karlag (1935-1939). Then she lived under supervision in different cities of Russia, survived the Great Patriotic War in Kaluga, and worked as a watchman.

But in 1947 she was arrested again, she was again charged under Article 58-10. On February 16, 1948, the Judicial Collegium for Criminal Cases announced the verdict: 10 years in prison with serving in a correctional labor camp, loss of rights for five years after serving the sentence. And this time they are imprisoned in a camp in Inta, where she is until January 1956, when Anna Alexandrovna was released under an amnesty decree.

After her release, she wrote a lot, but in 1957, despite the "thaw", she was arrested for the third time. On November 13, 1957, the KGB again opened a criminal case against her “on the grounds of Article 54-10” (reason: a denunciation and a satirical story about Molotov intercepted in the mail). Anna Aleksandrovna was charged with the fact that she, having been brought to criminal responsibility twice, did not renounce her anti-Soviet beliefs. For "slanderous fabrications" in his work, Barkova no longer receives Stalin's, but Khrushchev's ten and ends up in Mordovian camps. Another eight years passed in Ozerlag.

At the end of his "last term" Barkova in 1965 was sent to the village. Potma of the Mordovian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic to an invalid home, from where she only in 1967 received (with the assistance of A. Tvardovsky and K. Fedin) the opportunity to return to Moscow, received a room in a communal apartment on Suvorovsky Boulevard, was admitted to the Literary Fund, she was assigned a pension of 75 rubles . Every morning (“like going to work,” she said) she went to the House of Books on Kalininsky Prospekt and spent her entire pension on books. They filled the whole room. An old refrigerator donated by someone never turned on: it also served as a bookcase.

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. Several times she tries to offer them for publication, each time receiving an invariable refusal with the wording: "No optimism, no life-affirming start".

An excerpt from a letter from 70-year-old Barkova: “... I indulge in the devil of irony, the demon of contradiction, the spirit of unbelief. But do not think that the sky is completely alien to me. Forgive me for the quote, but I can repeat after Heine: "I don't know where irony ends and heaven begins." And this dubious, insidiously mocking side of any phenomenon, any faith, any belief and principle is the first thing I see and feel, and against which I am wary. Rise above hate? To rise above 30 years of your slavery, exile, persecution, infamy of all kinds? I can not! I am not a holy man. I am just a man. And only for this, the chariot of history for 30 years crushed me under the wheels. But it didn't completely crush. Left severely crippled, but alive ".

Therefore, Anna Barkova could rightfully write about her generation and herself with such amazing shrillness:

“Heroes of our time / Not twenty, not thirty years old.

Those cannot bear our burden, / No!

We are heroes, the same age, / Our steps coincide.

We are both victims and heralds, / Both allies and enemies.

Blok and I conjured, / We were engaged in high labor.

They kept a golden curl / And went to a brothel.

They broke ties with the people / And went to the people as debtors.

They put on Tolstoy blouses, / Following Gorky, they wandered into tramps.

We tried whips / Old Believer Cossack regiments

And the prison nibbled on rations / From prudent Bolsheviks.

They trembled, seeing rhombuses / And crimson buttonholes,

Bombs were hidden from the Germans, / During interrogations they said "no".

We saw everything, so we survived, / Bits, shot, hardened,

Our Motherland, evil and humiliated, / Evil daughters and sons.

Anna Alexandrovna died of throat cancer on April 29, 1976 - shortly before her death, she slipped out of the hospital ward, went down from the third floor, hobbled to the exit and lost consciousness. Recovering herself, she explained to the sisters who ran up that she had lagged behind the column: she was trying to catch up. This woman, who denied God all her life, asked to be buried according to the Orthodox rite. She was buried in the church of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker in Khamovniki, the urn with her ashes was buried at the Nikolo-Arkhangelsk cemetery. And only fourteen years after her death, her books began to appear: 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). “The linguistic clarity of her poems reflects the dignity with which this woman went through a thorny path prepared for hundreds of thousands of people”. (V. Kazak).

Barkova was prone to fantastic themes all her life. Starting from the fantasy story "The Man of Steel" (1926), to the dystopia "The Liberation of Gynguania" (1957) and the story "Eight Chapters of Madness" (1957), in which the modern Mephistopheles in the guise of a retired Soviet employee fishing in a local pond, tells how he talked with the Minister of State Security of Stalin and Adolf Hitler himself, invites the author to travel through time and space, and the interlocutors went to the future, to its alternative options - the liberal-democratic and militaristic-communist worlds.

Literature:

A.I.Mikhailov // in the dictionary of Russian literature of the twentieth century. M.: OLMA-PRESS Invest, 2005 - pp. 170-173

V.D.Panov. Review of archival investigative files by A.A. Barkova // Selected. From the Gulag archive. pp.271-280.