The Return of Akhmatova (1989)

Photograph of A. A. Akhmatova’s funeral, half-covered with snow.

Tree trunk, panorama of St.

Nicholas Cathedral in Leningrad.

Interior view of the cathedral during Anna Akhmatova’s funeral service (top).

The rector of the cathedral addresses the parishioners with a sermon on Akhmatova’s poetry (synchronously and off-screen).

Akhmatova’s son, historian L. N. Gumilyov among the parishioners.

Faces of men and women.

Church candles are burning, interior of the cathedral.

Face of a woman, burning candle in his hand. L. N. Gumilyov crossing himself.

Faces of people in the church.

Birch tree with yellowed leaves.

Autumn landscapes in Tsarskoye Selo, statues in the park, tree branches and trunks (panoramas).

Autumn sky over Leningrad, view of part of the Neva, buildings on the embankment.

Leafless trees in the Tauride Garden.

Professor of Philology E. G. Etkind. talks about Akhmatova's work, about the influence of St.

Petersburg on her work (synchronously).

Panorama of part of the old Leningrad quarter (above), Akhmatova's poems are heard in the background.

Houses and the dome of the Church of St.

Catherine.

Akhmatova's places in Leningrad.

View of part of the sky from the courtyard-well.

Portrait of Akhmatova by Nathan Altman, painted in 1914.

Sculptural portrait of Anna Akhmatova.

A female sculptor demonstrates sculptural miniatures depicting Akhmatova.

Photographs of Akhmatova.

Etkind E.G. reads Akhmatova’s poems, speaks about the revival of the poetess’s name (synchronously and behind the scenes).

Frozen water at the roots of trees in the Tauride Garden.

The Marble Palace.

Panorama of the Fountain House and the courtyard covered with snow.

Tour participants in the rooms of the Fountain House where Akhmatova lived, renovations in the rooms, the guide tells a story about Akhmatova.

Tour participants pass through the rooms of the Fountain House, the guide continues the story.

The interior of a darkened hall, workers are moving busts of Lenin to a corner.

An employee of the Pushkin House wraps an exhibit in paper. I.N. Punina hands over Akhmatova’s things to B.N. Rybalko for the future museum of the poetess.

Punina talks about Akhmatova’s things.

Packing of exhibits.

Rybalko and Punina discuss the exposition of the future Akhmatova museum (synchronously and off-screen), faces of Punina and Rybalko.

A graphic portrait of Akhmatova, Akhmatova's manuscripts under glass, off-screen Punina's story about Akhmatova's life in 1938-1941. Repair work in the premises of the future Akhmatova museum.

Views of the museum premises during interior decoration.

Museum employees are setting up an exposition in one of the rooms.

Akhmatova's ID with a photograph.

Literary scholar M.M. Kralin talks about the role of the Gumilev estate "Slepnevo" in the life and work of Akhmatova, reads aloud excerpts from the poetess's memoirs (synchronously and off-screen).

A photograph of Akhmatova among guests in Slepnevo.

Panorama of trees with bare branches and a house in Slepnevo, windows on the second floor.

Interior views of rooms in a house in Slepnevo, portraits of Akhmatova, Pushkin, Lenin, stands standing in disarray against the walls.

Interior views of neglected and dilapidated rooms, a staircase leading to the second floor, abandoned and neglected rooms on the second floor.

Restorers are removing the top layer from the wooden walls.

View of a house in Slepnevo, a balcony on the second floor. M.M. Kralin talks about the houses in which Akhmatova lived, about the only surviving house in Slepnevo, talks about transporting the house to the village of Gradnitsy, recalls working in a rural school, talks about Akhmatova's life in Slepnevo, reads her poems aloud (synchronously and off-screen).

An image of a house in Slepnevo hanging on the wall.

A photograph of the last residential building in Slepnevo in Kralin's hands.

A memorial wooden plaque on stones in the former estate park dedicated to Akhmatova's life in Slepnevo in 1911-1917. A ruined and abandoned Orthodox church in Slepnevo, a view of part of the adjacent territory of the village of Gradnitsy (panorama).

A photograph of Gumilev's house and Akhmatova in Kralin's hands.

A photograph of Akhmatova.

Rooks on their nests, a house in Slepnevo.

Portraits and photographs of Akhmatova on the wall, Kralin talks about Akhmatova's poems from the cycle "July 1914", reads excerpts from the poems (synchronously and off-screen).

Windows of the second floor of the house in Slepnevo.

Rooks flying over their nests.

Spring landscapes of the village of Gradnitsy (panorama), a view of an old oak tree.

Spring landscape, trees with bare branches, mud on the meadow (panorama).

Views and panorama of the village of Slobodka Shelekhovskaya near Derazhnya in Ukraine.

Residential buildings in Slobodka Shelekhovskaya, trees with bare branches (panorama), Akhmatova's poems are heard in the background.

Cross and plaque on the grave of Akhmatova's mother, Inna Erazmovna Gorenko.

Portrait of I.E. Gorenko.

Akhmatova's house-museum in Slobodka Shelekhovskaya, panorama of the surrounding area, spring landscapes.

Freshly plowed land in the field (panorama).

Lions on the openwork lattice of the gate at the entrance to the territory of the Fountain House in Leningrad.

Panorama of the garden of the Fountain House in autumn, view of the Fountain House, window of Akhmatova's room.

View of the garden from the window, the White Hall by sculptor Quarenghi.

Decorations of the ceiling and walls of the White Hall.

Photograph of the White Hall before 1917, an Egyptian mask on the wall of the room.

A photograph and a graphic portrait of Akhmatova, candles in front of a mirror.

Director of the Akhmatova Museum N.I. Popova descends the stairs of the Fountain House.

The premises of the Akhmatova Museum during the preparation of the exhibition, Popova’s story about the beginning of her work on the creation of the Akhmatova Museum is heard in the background (synchronously and in the background).

Interior views of the corridor and rooms, unfinished repairs in the rooms, paper on the floors, photographs of Akhmatova placed in two rooms, a painted portrait of Akhmatova under glass.

A copy of the painted portrait by N. Gumilyov.

Popova passes through the corridor and rooms with exhibits.

Popova stands by the window.

A portrait of Akhmatova on an easel.

Interior views of the Akhmatova Museum exhibition in the Fontanny House, with Akhmatova's poems being read off-screen, a museum corridor, and Popova's story about Akhmatova's life in the Fontanny House apartment being read off-screen.

Interiors of rooms in Akhmatova's apartment, things and books on the desk.

An ashtray on the table, a paperweight in the shape of a stone, the stone begins to glow.

A photograph of Akhmatova.

View of the Fountain House garden from the window of Akhmatova's apartment.

An icon on the wall, a sculpture carved from wood (panorama).

A painted portrait of Akhmatova, fragments of the portrait, with Popova off-screen discussing Akhmatova's poetry and telling the story of how the portrait was painted.

View of part of the Fontanka embankment at dusk, dark clouds covering the sky, with Akhmatova's poems being read off-screen.

Sculpture in Tsarskoye Selo Park, fragments of the sculpture.

A path in the park, benches covered with film, views of the park, tree trunks reaching upward.

Soldiers covering one of the statues with wooden shields, view of the statue.

Statue draped in cloth and surrounded by wooden shields, installation of the last shield.

Leningrad sculptor V.P. Astapov examines the bust of Akhmatova he created.

Astapov talks about meeting Akhmatova on March 5, 1963, reading his poems to her, and working on the sculptural portrait of Akhmatova (synchronously and behind the scenes).

A bust of Akhmatova on a shelf in Astapov’s studio, shelves with busts.

A photograph of Akhmatova in the last years of her life.

Busts of Akhmatova by Astapov.

Panorama of the bridge across the Neva, view of part of the Neva, cityscape.

Statue of a sphinx on the Neva embankment.

Etkind E.G. discusses the “secret” of Akhmatova (synchronously and behind the scenes).

Photograph of Akhmatova.

The grand opening of the Akhmatova Museum in the Fountain House.

Participants in the opening ceremony enter the doors of the museum.

Unveiling of a memorial plaque in honor of Akhmatova in the village of Slobodka Shelikovskaya, panorama of the ceremonial event.

A memorial plaque in honor of Akhmatova on the wall of a house, a panorama of a part of the wall.

A memorial service for Anna Akhmatova in the Nikolsky Cathedral.

Akhmatova's son L.N. Gumilev during the memorial service.

Akhmatova's grave in Komarovo, covered with snow, Akhmatova's voice reading her poems is heard in the background, snow on the branches of trees.

A view of a clearing in a winter forest.