At that time I was staying on the earth...

Anna Andreyevna Akhmatova (1889–1966) is a poet whose work is unequivocally included in the golden fund of Russian literature. "Akhmatova's poetry for new people is not the same as it was for us. We were perplexed, amazed, delighted, argued, and... finally began to take pride. They do not need our admiration. They are not surprised, because they came later," wrote the philologist B. M. Eikhenbaum in 1923. This edition collects poems from the published books before 1940: "Evening," "Rosary," "White Flock," "Plantain," "Anno Domini," "Reed," as well as poems from this period that were not included in books. The texts have been verified against autographs stored in state archives and private collections, as well as against the first publications in periodicals. The peculiarities of the author's spelling, the punctuation of the originals, and the recording style of the works have been preserved as much as possible. The volume is equipped with a preface and notes prepared by N. I. Kraynevaya.