'But They Will Still Hear My Voice...' is the second book in a five-book series called 'The Real Akhmatova.' The book includes poems from 1924 to 1965. 'I was in great glory, experienced the greatest dishonor - and became convinced that, in essence, this is one and the same thing' - the second part of Akhmatova's quote refers to this time. And also about the same period: 'The harsh era turned me, like a river...'
In November 1962, K. I. Chukovsky wrote: 'Stalin's police force was shattered by Akhmatova. <...> ...dozens of oprichniks, armed with all sorts of instruments of torture, revolvers, guns - attacked a defenseless woman, and she turned out to be stronger. She defeated them all. <...> 'The word of a poet is always stronger than all the police rapists.'
The series 'The Real Akhmatova' differs from all previous editions of poems and verses by A. Akhmatova, above all, in the quality of the textual preparation: all the texts in this series have been verified against autographs stored in state archives and private collections, as well as against the first publications in the periodical press. In the books of this series, the features of the author's writing have been preserved, as far as possible, the author's punctuation of the originals has been preserved, the type of writing of the texts of the works is observed: the arrangement of lines, indents, 'ladder', italics, uppercase and lowercase letters, etc.
All books in the series are provided with introductory articles and notes.