Hope Against Hope - Nadezhda Mandelstam In recounting his memories with

In recounting his memories with intimate narrative force (not forgetting his own personal passions)

it chronicles the story of those who dared to oppose Stalin

except for harried undertakers

Translator: Susan Bernofsky

Hope Against Hope - Nadezhda Mandelstam In recounting his memories withIn 1933 the poet Osip Mandelstam friend to Boris Pasternak and Anna Akhmatova wrote a spirited satire denouncing Josef Stalin. It proved to be a sixteen line death sentence. For his one act of defiance he was arrested by the Cheka, the secret police, interrogated, exiled and eventually re arrested. He died en route to one of Stalin's labour camps. His wife, Nadezhda, was with him on both occasions when he was arrested, and she loyally accompanied him