Anna Andreyevna Akhmatova, referred to as the queen of Russian poetry, was born on June 11, 1889, in Odessa into an aristocratic family.

Her father was Andrei Antonovich Gorenko, a retired naval engineer, and her mother was Ina Erasmovna, née Stagop. The third child of a large family, she had siblings Ina (1885-1906), Andrei (1887-1920), Irina (1892-1896), Igor (1894-1922), and Victor (1896-1976).

The three girls died of tuberculosis, while the boys took the path of exile, leaving Anna alone in post-revolutionary Russia during the most difficult period of her life.