Bella Akhmadulina, one of the most prominent and influential members of the postwar generation of Soviet poets, died in Moscow on Monday, several of her friends and colleagues said. She was 73.
The first to report her death was writer Yevgeny Popov. The cause of death and funeral arrangements were not immediately announced. Akhmadulina is survived by her husband, artist Boris Messerer, and daughter Yelizaveta Kuliyeva.
Moscow-born Akhmadulina, a graduate of the Maxim Gorky Literature Institute, debuted in print in 1962 and published more than 20 books of poetry over the course of her career. She was also active as a publicist and poetry translator.
Akhmadulina largely avoided conflicts with Soviet authorities, despite campaigning in support of many dissidents, and won praise for her poetry from many contemporaries, including Nobel laureate Josef Brodsky.
Akhmadulina gathered numerous awards in her lifetime, including an induction into the American Academy of Arts and Letters as an honorary member in 1977 and the Russian State Prize, handed to her by then-President Vladimir Putin in 2004.
