Marina Tsvetaeva (1892–1941) is one of the most beloved and influential authors in Russian literature. She is admired for the rawness and fierceness of her verse, which often conceal its considerable sophistication. In 1922, following the Russian Civil War, Tsvetaeva was forced to flee, first to Berlin, then Prague, and then Paris, before her eventual ill-fated return to the Soviet Union on the eve of World War II.