Akhmatova met the Petrovs in Leningrad and was friends with her until her death. Anna Andreevna read her poems and translations to her friend, listened to her criticism. It was Petrovykh who helped the poetess in compiling collections of poetry.

Anna Andreevna often stayed “at the Petrovs on Begovaya”, in a two-story apartment building. The Petrov House was located at the corner of Begovaya Street and Khoroshevskoye Shosse. Today, this building has not been preserved.

The Petrovs' Moscow apartment is connected with many remarkable events in Akhmatova's life. So, in 1962, she met Alexander Solzhenitsyn here, who called Anna Andreevna the greatest poet of our days. In the same apartment, she listened to Solzhenitsyn's poems and his stories and predicted fame for the writer in the prose genre.

Anna Andreevna also highly appreciated Maria Sergeevna's poems, noting their depth. However, the Petrovs' work gained recognition only after her death, after the publication in the 1980s of her collection of poems, which included several lines dedicated to Akhmatova.