He was, it seems, the first visitor from the West that Akhmatova (1889-1966) had met since 1917.

ECONOMIST: Sir Isaiah Berlin

In Moscow Sir Isaiah met Anna Akhmatova, the best-known of Russia's women poets.

ECONOMIST: Sir Isaiah Berlin

Critics and writers as well established in their own right as Anna Akhmatova and Vladimir Nabokov have contented themselves with tackling distinct literary peaks, rather than grappling with the paradoxical nature of the whole man.

ECONOMIST: Russian writers

The one devoted to the Russian revolution, short enough to whet the appetite for more, is amongst the strongest, both in its choice of extracts, and in the effectiveness and immediacy of its poetry by the likes of Alexander Blok and Anna Akhmatova.

ECONOMIST: Encapsulating a century in verse