The Guest from the Future: Anna Akhmatova and Isaiah Berlin by Gyorgy Dalos - 1999

'Akhmatove believed that she and [Isaiah] Berlin between them has started the Cold War. He remained sceptical, but Gyorgy Dalos....argues in this fascinating book that in one sense she was right. In 1945 the Soviet government needed to reassert control over citizens who had begun to elude its grip during the relatively liberal War years. Stalin's instinct recognized Akhmatova's unexpected visitor as the perfect pretext...[but] over the nest two decades, Akhmsyobs's transformed an ignominious defeat into another triumph.'
-Hilary Spurling, The Daily Telegraph
Translated from the German by Antony Wood.