Osip Mandelstam was one of the greatest Russian poets of the 20th century, an essayist, translator, and literary critic. His tragic fate reflected the catastrophic events in Russian history. From his student studies and first publications in the 1910s, Mandelstam's poetic talent truly blossomed in the 1930s, but it was precisely during this time that he was unable to publish, finding himself an outcast. Anna Akhmatova called Mandelstam 'a rare poet who, even during his years of exile in Voronezh, continued to write works of indescribable beauty and power.' Mandelstam's legacy was rediscovered in his homeland only at the end of the 20th century; his name became a symbol not only of creative mastery but also of immense moral strength.