Question by : Why did Stalin never have the famous poet Anna Akhmatova executed?
She stayed in the USSR and she frequently criticized Stalinist terror. Why didn’t Stalin ever have her shot?
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Answer by righteousjohnson
He couldn’t think of a word that rhymed with Akhmatova.
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Spellbound says
Good question!
Stalin certainly had no qualms about persecuting other poets, and other critics of the system.
It is probable that she was protected by senior figures in the Politburo. Her flat was bugged by the NKVD, her ex-husband had been shot as a monarchist during the Civil War, and her son was imprisoned essentially for being his father’s son.
I suspect that her protector was a poet themselves, and someone who admired her work, perhaps even her critical works. There is only one person in the Politburo who was a published poet, who had, on several occasions stepped in to prevent the arrest of artists and poets, and who had to power and authority to prevent her arrest – Stalin himself.