Неоконченное стихотворение Анны Ахматовой «Из завещания Васильки»: Претекст и контекст [Anna Akhmatova’s Unfinished Poem “Iz zaveshchaniia Vasil’ki: Pretext and Context]

Abstract

This paper aims to establish the source of Anna Akhmatova’s five-line poem “Iz zaveshchaniia Vasil’ki” composed in Kiev in 1909 and describing the life of a widowed kniaginia (princess). The paper shows that Akhmatova’s text is very close to the excerpt from East Slavic chronicles included in the list of suggested reading, which Akhmatova could not have missed during her studies in Kiev.