Nikolai Stepanovich Gumilev (also Gumilyov; , ; – August 26, 1921) was a Russian poet, literary critic, traveler, and military officer. He was a co-founder of the
Acmeist movement. He was the husband of
Anna Akhmatova
Anna Andreyevna Gorenko rus, А́нна Андре́евна Горе́нко, p=ˈanːə ɐnˈdrʲe(j)ɪvnə ɡɐˈrʲɛnkə, a=Anna Andreyevna Gorenko.ru.oga, links=yes; , . ( – 5 March 1966), better known by the pen name Anna Akhmatova,. ...
and the father of
Lev Gumilev. Nikolai Gumilev was
arrested and executed by the
Cheka
The All-Russian Extraordinary Commission ( rus, Всероссийская чрезвычайная комиссия, r=Vserossiyskaya chrezvychaynaya komissiya, p=fsʲɪrɐˈsʲijskəjə tɕrʲɪzvɨˈtɕæjnəjə kɐˈmʲisʲɪjə, links=yes), ...
, the secret Soviet police force, in 1921.
Early life and poems
Nikolay Gumilev was born in the town of
Kronstadt
Kronstadt (, ) is a Russian administrative divisions of Saint Petersburg, port city in Kronshtadtsky District of the federal cities of Russia, federal city of Saint Petersburg, located on Kotlin Island, west of Saint Petersburg, near the head ...
on
Kotlin Island
Kotlin (; ) is a Russian island, located near the head of the Gulf of Finland, west of Saint Petersburg in the Baltic Sea. Kotlin separates the Neva Bay from the rest of the gulf. The fortified city of Kronstadt is located on the island and form ...
, into the family of Stepan Yakovlevich Gumilev (1836–1910), a naval physician, and Anna Ivanovna L'vova (1854–1942). His childhood nickname was "Montigomo," the Hawk's Claw.
["Gumilyov's Magic Wand". Mikhail Sinelnikov. '']Moscow News
''The Moscow News'', which began publication in 1930, was Russia's oldest English-language newspaper. Many of its feature articles used to be translated from the Russian language ''Moskovskiye Novosti.''
History Soviet Union
In 1930 ''The Mo ...
'' (Russia). CULTURE; No. 15. April 18, 1996. He studied at the gymnasium of
Tsarskoye Selo
Tsarskoye Selo (, , ) was the town containing a former residence of the Russian House of Romanov, imperial family and visiting nobility, located south from the center of Saint Petersburg. The residence now forms part of the Pushkin, Saint Peter ...
, where the
Symbolist poet
Innokenty Annensky was his teacher. Later, Gumilev admitted that it was Annensky's influence that turned his mind to writing poetry. He spent some of his youth in
Tbilisi
Tbilisi ( ; ka, თბილისი, ), in some languages still known by its pre-1936 name Tiflis ( ), ( ka, ტფილისი, tr ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Georgia (country), largest city of Georgia ( ...
,
Georgia
Georgia most commonly refers to:
* Georgia (country), a country in the South Caucasus
* Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the southeastern United States
Georgia may also refer to:
People and fictional characters
* Georgia (name), a list of pe ...
attending the First Gymnasium.
His first poem, ''I Ran from Cities into Woods'' (), was published on September 8, 1902 in the newspaper ''Tifliski Listok''. In 1905 he published his first collection of poetry entitled ''Conquistadors’ Way''. It was composed of poems on the most exotic subjects imaginable, from
Lake Chad
Lake Chad (, Kanuri language, Kanuri: ''Sádǝ'', ) is an endorheic freshwater lake located at the junction of four countries: Nigeria, Niger, Chad, and Cameroon, in western and central Africa respectively, with a catchment area in excess of . ...
giraffe
The giraffe is a large Fauna of Africa, African even-toed ungulate, hoofed mammal belonging to the genus ''Giraffa.'' It is the Largest mammals#Even-toed Ungulates (Artiodactyla), tallest living terrestrial animal and the largest ruminant on ...
s to
Caracalla
Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (born Lucius Septimius Bassianus, 4 April 188 – 8 April 217), better known by his nickname Caracalla (; ), was Roman emperor from 198 to 217 AD, first serving as nominal co-emperor under his father and then r ...
's crocodiles. Although Gumilev was proud of the collection, most critics found his technique sloppy; later he would refer to this publication as ''apprentice's work''.
From 1907 on, Nikolai Gumilev traveled extensively throughout Europe, most notably in
Italy
Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...
and
France
France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...
. In 1908 his new collection ''Romantic Flowers'' appeared. While in
Paris
Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...
, he published the literary magazine ''Sirius'', but only three issues were produced. Upon returning to Russia, he edited and contributed to the artistic periodical ''
Apollon''. During this period, he fell in love with a non-existent woman
Cherubina de Gabriak. It turned out that Cherubina de Gabriak was the literary pseudonym for two people: and
Maximilian Voloshin. On November 22, 1909, he had a
duel
A duel is an arranged engagement in combat between two people with matched weapons.
During the 17th and 18th centuries (and earlier), duels were mostly single combats fought with swords (the rapier and later the small sword), but beginning in ...
with Voloshin over the affair.
Gumilev married
Anna Akhmatova
Anna Andreyevna Gorenko rus, А́нна Андре́евна Горе́нко, p=ˈanːə ɐnˈdrʲe(j)ɪvnə ɡɐˈrʲɛnkə, a=Anna Andreyevna Gorenko.ru.oga, links=yes; , . ( – 5 March 1966), better known by the pen name Anna Akhmatova,. ...
on April 25, 1910. He dedicated some of his poems to her. On September 18, 1912, their child
Lev was born. He would eventually become an influential and controversial historian.
Travel to Africa
Like
Flaubert and
Rimbaud before him, but inspired by exploits of
Alexander Bulatovich and
Nikolay Leontiev, Gumilev was fascinated with Africa and travelled there almost every year. He explored, sporadically hunted lions, and even contributed to the development of
Ethiopia
Ethiopia, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country located in the Horn of Africa region of East Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the north, Djibouti to the northeast, Somalia to the east, Ken ...
, eventually donating a large collection of African artifacts to the
Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography in Saint Petersburg. His landmark publication, ''The Tent'' (1921), collected his best poems on African themes, one of them "Giraffe".
Guild of Poets
In 1910, Gumilev fell under the spell of the
Russian Symbolist poet and philosopher
Vyacheslav Ivanov and absorbed his views on poetry at the evenings held by Ivanov in his celebrated "Turreted House". His wife Akhmatova accompanied him to Ivanov's parties as well.
Dissatisfied with the vague mysticism of
Russian Symbolism, then prevalent in the Russian poetry, Gumilev and
Sergei Gorodetsky established the so-called ''Guild of Poets'', which was modeled after medieval guilds of Western Europe. They advocated a view that poetry needs craftsmanship just like architecture needs it. Writing a good poem they compared to building a cathedral. To illustrate their ideals, Gumilev published two collections, ''The Pearls'' in 1910 and the ''Alien Sky'' in 1912. It was
Osip Mandelstam, however, who produced the movement's most distinctive and durable monument, the collection of poems entitled ''Stone'' (1912).
According to the principles of
acmeism (as the movement came to be dubbed by art historians), every person, irrespective of his talent, may learn to produce high-quality poems if only he follows the guild's masters, i.e., Gumilev and Gorodetsky. Their own model was
Théophile Gautier
Pierre Jules Théophile Gautier ( , ; 30 August 1811 – 23 October 1872) was a French poet, dramatist, novelist, journalist, and art and literary critic.
While an ardent defender of Romanticism, Gautier's work is difficult to classify and rema ...
, and they borrowed much of their basic tenets from the French
Parnasse. Such a program, combined with colourful and exotic subject matter of Gumilev's poems, attracted to the Guild a large number of adolescents. Several major poets, notably
Georgy Ivanov
Georgy Vladimirovich Ivanov (; – 26 August 1958) was a Russian poet and essayist of the Russian emigration between the 1930s and 1950s.
As a banker's son, Ivanov spent his young manhood in the elite circle of Russian golden youth. and
is father ...
and Vladimir Nabokov, passed the school of Gumilev, albeit informally.
When World War I started, Gumilev hastened to Russia and enthusiastically joined a corps of elite cavalry. He fought in battles in East Prussia and Macedonia. For his bravery he was invested with two Cross of St. George (Russia)">St. George crosses (December 24, 1914 and January 5, 1915).
His war poems were assembled in the collection ''The Quiver'' (1916). In 1916 he wrote a verse play, ''Gondla'', which was published the following year; set in ninth-century Iceland, torn between its native paganism and Irish Christianity, it is also clearly autobiographical, Gumilev putting much of himself into the hero Gondla (an Irishman chosen as king but rejected by the
s, he kills himself to ensure the triumph of Christianity) and basing Gondla's wild bride Lera on Gumilev's wife Akhmatova (or maybe
). The play was performed in
. Despite advice to the contrary, he rapidly returned to
. There he published several new collections, ''Tabernacle'' and ''Bonfire'', and finally divorced Akhmatova (August 5, 1918), whom he had left for another woman several years prior. The following year he married Anna Engelhardt, a noblewoman and daughter of a well-known historian.
In 1920 Gumilev co-founded the ''All-Russia Union of Writers''. He made no secret of his anti-communist views. He also made the
s". On August 3, 1921, he was arrested by the
. On August 24, the Petrograd Cheka decreed execution of 61 participants of the case, including Nikolay Gumilev. They were shot on August 26 in the
(the actual date was established only in 2014; previously it was thought he died on August 25).
, his friend and fellow writer, hurried to Moscow and appealed to Lenin, but was unable to save Gumilev.
Gumilev's execution placed a stigma on Akhmatova and on their son, Lev. Lev was arrested later in the purges of the 1930s and spent almost two decades in a
.
Despite Gumilev's execution, ''Gondla'' was again performed in Petrograd in January 1922: "The play, despite its crowd scenes being enacted on a tiny stage, was a major success. Yet when the Petrograd audience called for the author, who was now officially an executed counter-revolutionary traitor, the play was removed from the repertoire and the theatre disbanded."
In February 1934, as they walked along a Moscow street,
quoted Gondla's words "I am ready to die" to Akhmatova, and she repeated them in her "Poem without a Hero."
Although banned in the Soviet times, Gumilev was loved for his adolescent longing for travel and