Anna Radlova was a St. Petersburg poetess and a renowned beauty of the Silver Age, author of several poetry collections and numerous translations. In the 1920s, she found herself at the heart of literary and theatrical life. The circle of "emotionalists" she and her friends created aspired to lead the new revolutionary culture.

During this time, Radlova experimented with dramatic and prose forms. Her texts are characterized by psychological subtlety and mystical richness, and they are dedicated to the most enigmatic pages of Russian history. "The Tale of Tatarinova" (1931; first published by A. Etkind in 1997) is written in dynamic metaphorical prose. It tells the story of the sectarian community of Ekaterina Tatarinova, which existed in St. Petersburg during the times of Alexander I.

"The Ship of the Mother of God" (1921) is a drama in five scenes, written in Radlova's distinctive verse; the plot is based on an apocryphal legend of Russian Skoptsy. "The Winged Guest" (1922) is a collection of mystical poems through which the tragedy of history and the author's unique eroticism shine through.

In her historical prose and poetry, Radlova relies on documentary sources, integrating them into a lyrical narrative that astonishes with sensational novelty.

"There exists a reality where death is yielding and reversible, resurrections occur repeatedly, and the resurrected retain memories of their past incarnations: the reality of texts. Two hundred years ago, an extraordinary woman tried to cure men of their love. Documents about her were published at the end of the following century. Another extraordinary woman reread them and rewrote them in her own way in 1931. In 1996, we read her version of love, blood, and history for the first time. It seems it's time to reread." A. Etkind