Irma Kudrova. The Death of Marina Tsvetaeva

Marina Tsvetaeva's return to her homeland in 1939, following her husband, a Soviet intelligence officer who had hastily fled France after the scandalous murder of the "defector" Ignatius Reiss, is the subject of Irma Kudrova's new book. The narrative draws extensively on previously unavailable documents from the KGB archives, eyewitness accounts, and personal archives. The story of Marina Tsvetaeva's death, written in the genre of documentary historical fiction, reads like a tragic detective story. The mystery of the poet's death in 1941 in Yelabuga is revealed in a new light—and yet remains a mystery. The appendices contain transcripts of Tsvetaeva's interrogation at the Paris Prefecture (published in Russian for the first time), as well as the author's essay, "The Riddle of Crime and a Pure Heart," about one of the recurring motifs in the poet's work.