Akhmatova, Raisa

Born Dec. 13, 1928, in Groznyi. Soviet Chechen poet. She also writes in Russian.

Akhmatova was born into a worker’s family and began publishing in 1957. She is the author of the several collections of poems: in Chechen, Native Republic (1958); in Russian, Strike Me in the Face, Wind (1959), I’m Coming to You (1960), Difficult Love (1963), and Revelation (1964). Akhmatova has created a lyrical image of the modern mountain woman; she has shown the reorientation of her spiritual makeup, once chained by the Sharia and adat. The poet sings of love, family, and friendship (“With Pensive, Kind Eyes,” “At the Station,” “I Thought: A Chechen Woman Cannot . . . ,” “Experience,” and others). In the cycle The Dearest Thing (from the collection Revelation) Akhmatova writes about the motherland, peace, and friendship (“To My Native Party,” “I Curse War,” “Immortality,” “To the Caspian,” “Come to Visit Us, Muscovites,” and others).