About
Marina Tsvetaeva, born in Moscow in 1892, is a major figure of 20th-century Russian poetry. Daughter of an art history professor and a pianist, she published her first collection at 18. After the revolution, she went into exile in 1922, living in Berlin, Prague, then Paris, in poverty and literary isolation. She returned to the USSR in 1939, where her husband was executed and her daughter imprisoned. She took her own life in 1941. Her work, marked by emotional intensity and linguistic innovation, is now recognized among the greatest of Russian poetry.
* 1892-09-26 — † 1941-08-28
Major works
- Evening Album (1910)poetry collection
- Mileposts (1921-1922)poetry collection
- Poem of the Mountain (1924)long poem
- Poem of the End (1924)long poem
- The Ratcatcher (1925-1926)satirical poem
Key milestones
- 1910Publication of her first collection, Evening Album, at age 18.
- 1922Emigrated from Russia, settling first in Berlin then Prague.
- 1939Returned to the Soviet Union; her husband was arrested and executed in 1941, her daughter imprisoned.
Themes
Love and passionExile and nostalgiaDeath and lossPoetic creationFemale identity
Sources: britannica.com · poetryfoundation.org · nli.org.il