Earthly Signs: Moscow Diaries, 1917-1922 (New York Review

Earthly Signs: Moscow Diaries, 1917-1922 (New York Review Books Classics)

A moving collection of autobiographical essays from a Russian poet and refugee of the Bolshevik Revolution.

Marina Tsvetaeva ranks with Anna Akhmatova, Osip Mandelstam, and Boris Pasternak as one of Russiaâ€™s greatest twentieth-century poets. Her suicide at the age of forty-eight was the tragic culmination of a life buffeted by political upheaval. The essays collected in this volume are based on diaries she kept during the turbulent years of the Revolution and Civil War. In them she records conversations of women in the markets, soldiers and peasants on the train traveling from the Crimea to Moscow in October 1917, fighting in the streets of Moscow, a frantic scramble with co-workers to dig frozen potatoes out of a cellar, and poetry readings organized by a newly minted Soviet bohemia. Alone in Moscow with two small children, no income, and a missing husband, Tsvetaeva struggled to feed her daughters (one of whom died of malnutrition in an orphanage), find employment in the Soviet bureaucracy, and keep writing poetry. Her keen and ruthless eye observes with compassion and humorâ€”bringing the social, economic, and cultural chaos of the period to life. These autobiographical writings not only give a vivid eyewitness account of Russian history but provide vital insights into the workings of Tsvetaevaâ€™s unique poetics.

Includes black and white photographs.
Country USA
Brand New York Review Books
Manufacturer NYRB Classics
Binding Paperback
ItemPartNumber 9781681371627
Color Grey
ReleaseDate 2017-12-05
UnitCount 1
EANs 9781681371627

Country	USA
Brand	New York Review Books
Manufacturer	NYRB Classics
Binding	Paperback
ItemPartNumber	9781681371627
Color	Grey
ReleaseDate	2017-12-05
UnitCount	1
EANs	9781681371627

Earthly Signs: Moscow Diaries, 1917-1922 (New York Review Books Classics)