About Olga Anstei
Lived 1912 – 1985 (aged 73). Olga Anstei was a Russian and American poet, translator and writer.
Olga Nikolaevna Anstei also Olga Anstey (1 March 1912 – 30 May 1985; ), was a Jewish-Ukrainian émigré poet from Kiev. She was the wife of poet Ivan Elagin . Olga Anstei is best remembered for writing about the Holocaust. Her "Kirillovskie iary" (another name for Babi Yar) written in 1943, was one of the first-ever literary works on the subject of 1941 massacre of Ukrainian Jews in Kiev.
Olga Elagin and her husband defected together from the Soviet Union to the West in 1943. Their works were published side by side in the poetry anthology entitled Berega: Stikhi Poetov Vtoroi Emigratsii (Shores: Poetry of the Second Emigration) by Valentina Sinkevich, the first ever collection of works by the second wave of Jewish emigration from the Soviet Union. She remarried, but divorced again. Olga Elagin died in New York City at the age of 73.
She is buried at the Russian Orthodox Convent Novo-Diveevo in Nanuet, New York.
Selected works Door in the Wall (1949) Stephen Vincent Benet's The Devil and Daniel Webster (1960); translator In the Way (1976)
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Important facts
People in Olga Anstei's life
Named in this biography and alive at the same time
Contemporaries
People whose lives overlapped Olga Anstei's
Frequently asked questions
Who was Olga Anstei?
Jewish-Ukrainian émigré poet (1912-1985)
When was Olga Anstei born?
Olga Anstei was born on 11 March 1912 in Kyiv.
When did Olga Anstei die?
Olga Anstei died on 30 May 1985 in New York City.
What was Olga Anstei's occupation?
Olga Anstei was a poet, translator and writer.
What nationality was Olga Anstei?
Olga Anstei was Russian and American.
Sources & further reading
Cite this page
APA: Biography.guide. (2026). Olga Anstei. https://biography.guide/olga-anstei/
MLA: "Olga Anstei." Biography.guide, https://biography.guide/olga-anstei/.
Chicago: "Olga Anstei." Biography.guide. https://biography.guide/olga-anstei/.
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