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Born in Moscow. Her first
published works appeared in 1955 in the Soviet magazine
Octyabr. In 1960
she graduated from the Gorky Literary Institute, and pursued
poetry and journalism as a career.
It was at the Gorky Literary Institute that she met
her first husband, poet Yevgeny Yevtushenko.
Her first book of poems appeared in 1962,
String, and was highly praised and successful.
Throughout the 1960s and 1970s Akhmadulina’s
popularity as a new voice of Russian poetry soared and she
was closely associated with many young poets of her
generation. In 1977 Akhmadulina
became an honorary member of the American Academy of Arts
and Letters. Since the late 1980
she has been awarded many national and international prizes.
She lives in Peredelkino and Moscow, with her husband artist
Boris Messerer.
In Relation to the Bard Genre:
Poet, writer. Bella (Isabella) Ahmadulina, also spelled
Akhmadulina, was born in
Moscow on
October 4, 1937. Ahmadulina has
a fascinating history, as fellow poet Evgeny
Evtushenko (who was also her first husband) wrote in his
Anthology of Russian Poetry in 1995, "Concerning her
relatives - from her mother's side they are Italians who
settled in
Russia, among them the
revolutionary Stopani, a
Moscow
alley was named after him. On her father's side, they
are Tatars."
Her first poetry appeared in 1955 in the journal October.
Her first collection of poems appeared in 1962, called
String. It was followed by Music Lessons
(1970), Secret (1983), Garden (1987). In
1977 appeared a book of translations and poems called
Dreams of Georgia.
She became a famous poet by the late 1960s, being among the
few Russian women poets to become loved throughout the
Soviet Union. She was close with fellow
poets of her generation like Evtushenko (who was her first
husband in 1954), Rozhdestvensky, and
Vozesensky. She was also a friend of
the bards, especially of Okduzhava. In
1985 Okudzhava wrote a popular song, "The Offices of My
Friends" in which he included Ahmadulina. The story
about the song is also very representative of the Soviet
bureaucracy, and how much the writers and poets had to deal
with. Basically the song is about Okudzhava hoping
that one day all his best friends will fill the top ranks of
the Soviet state, so that he can just walk into their
offices and ask them anything and they'll grant it (as was
done for high officials and their friends, who were also
high officials):
. . . I'll walk into Bella's office and say
"How are you Bella!"
I'll say: "I have a problem. Help me figure it out."
And she'll say to me: "This is nothing. How is this a
problem?"
And, of course, right away it'll be easier to live.
She was also Vysotsky's favorite poet,
according to a 1970s questionnaire which Vysotsky filled
out.
Ahmadulina remains an international poet-superstar. In
1977 she was honored as a member of the
American
Academy of Arts and
Literature. She has also won the Soviet State Prize in
1989, in 1992 won the "Nosside" prize in
Italy, in
Germany in 1994 she won the
Pushkin Prize. Her latest book of collected poems
appeared in 1996, Sometime in December. Many of
her poems where turned into songs, and sung by bards or in
the bard style. Vadim Kozin, an opera singer, composed
a song to her poem "Who knows?".
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