A worldless woman …

… Rediscovering Regina Derieva | TLS.

Venclova described Derieva as “first and foremost, a Christian poet, a worthy heir to a long line of metaphysical poets, be they English, French or Russian”. She credited T. S. Eliot, G. K. Chesterton, and Piotr Chaadayev for her conversion. However, the couple chose not to be baptized into Russia’s Orthodox Church, whose clerical hierarchy had ties to the KGB. Instead they were baptized into the Catholic Church in Kazakhstan, with encouragement from a priest they had met in Latvia. A Jew in the Soviet Union, a Catholic among atheists, a Ukrainian among Kazakhs, and writing poetry in Russian: such was Derieva’s situation. Obviously, the family had plenty of incentive to emigrate during the glasnost years. The Derievs were allowed to leave the Soviet Union for Israel with only two suitcases – which meant a drastic winnowing of their possessions and papers. “Life can be called precious only when everything superfluous has been cut out of it”, Derieva wrote.