Akhmatova’s memorial plaque disappeared from the facade of the former Kresty prison

A memorial plaque to the poet Anna Akhmatova, hanging on the building of the former solitary prison “Crosses” on the Vyborg side in St. Petersburg, has disappeared. On this drew attention St. Petersburg photographer Mikhail Burlatsky. A memorial plaque with a portrait of Anna Akhmatova and lines from her poem “Requiem” hung on the facade of the house number 7 letter K. Previously, there was the main entrance to the prison “Crosses”.

According to the source of the St. Petersburg portal 78.RU, close to the local department of the Federal Penitentiary Service, the memorial plaque was stolen, but the police were not informed about its loss. Petersburg Legislative Assembly deputy Boris Vishnevsky, with a request to return the sign to its place, turned to the city governor Alexander Beglov and the general director of DOM.RF, which has owned Kresty since May.

In the 1930s, the son of the poetess Lev Gumilyov was sitting in the “Crosses”. In the 1930s, he, along with Anna Akhmatova’s third husband, Nikolai Punin, was arrested on charges of participating in a “counter-terrorist anti-Soviet organization.” After Joseph’s letter to Stalin, they were released.

In 1939, Lev Gumilyov was arrested again and placed in the “Crosses”. Under torture, he signed a protocol with a confession “in the leadership of an anti-Soviet youth organization.” According to the poetess, she spent 300 hours at the prison walls, trying to give a parcel that was never accepted.

In addition to Lev Gumilyov and Nikolai Punin, during the Great Terror, “Crosses” were overflowing with people accused of counter-revolutionary crimes: the poet Nikolai Zabolotsky, the orientalist Teodor Shumovsky, the actor Georgy Zhzhenov, Marshal Konstantin Rokossovsky were sitting there. At various times, Leon Trotsky, Vladimir Nabokov, Joseph Brodsky sat there.

Anastasia Larina