Nadeschda Jakowlewna Mandelstam (1899–1980)

Nadezhda Khazina, a Jewish-Russian writer, married the poet Osip Mandelstam in 1921. After Osip was arrested and sent to the Gulag during Stalin's purges (where he died in 1938), Nadezhda Mandelstam was forced to move about the country constantly, changing jobs, in order to avoid being arrested herself. Having made it her mission in life to preserve and publish her husband's works, she had to memorize them to keep them safe from destruction. After Stalin died, she was permitted to return to Moscow. She originally published her memoirs in the underground press or samizdat.