Marina Tsvetaeva

Marina Ivanovna Tsvetaeva ({{lang-ru|??????? ????????? ?????????}}) (October 9, 1892 – August 31, 1941) was a Russian poet and writer.

Return to the Soviet Union

In 1939 she and her son returned to the Soviet Union. She could not have foreseen the horrors which were in store for her. In Stalin's Russia, anyone who had lived abroad was suspect, as was anyone who had been among the intelligentsia before the Revolution. Tsvetaeva's sister had been arrested before Tsvetaeva's return; although Anastasia survived the Stalin years, the sisters never saw each other again. Tsvetaeva found that all doors had closed to her. Boris Pasternak found her bits of work translating poetry, but otherwise the established Soviet writers refused to help her, and chose to ignore her plight; Asayev, whom she had hoped would assist shyed away, fearful for his life and position.

Related Topics:
1939 - Stalin - Intelligentsia

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Efron and Alya were arrested for espionage. Alya's fiancé, it turned out, was actually an NKVD agent who had been assigned to spy on the family. Efron was shot in 1941; Alya served over eight years in prison. Both were exonerated after Stalin's death. In 1941, Tsvetaeva and her son were either evacuated or exiled to Yelabuga, in the Tatar Soviet Socialist Autonomous Republic. They had no means of support. Georgy blamed his mother for their plight, and constantly nagged her for more money and better clothes, and begged her to leave; she had no way of complying with his demands, but she applied to move to Chistopol. On 31 August, 1941 while living in Yelabuga Tsvetaeva hanged herself. The exact location of her grave remains unknown.

Related Topics:
NKVD - 1941 - Yelabuga - Tatar Soviet Socialist Autonomous Republic - Chistopol - 31 August

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