Poet and writer Nikolay Gumilyov lived a rather tragic life full of events, not all of which can be called positive. His life was cut short early due to a conflict with the Soviet authorities, and at the same time his poems were banned. However, the descendants appreciated his contribution to the development of the Silver Age poetry and presented him with a second life.
As a child, young Nikolai was rather unsociable, preferring the pet community to his peers. He wrote his first poem at 6 years old. During his studies at the gymnasium, Nikolai Gumilyov proved to be a poor student – he was behind, failed examinations, did not want to study. He was allowed to complete his studies, not excluding from the gymnasium, solely because of his magnificent poems, which he wrote already then. In the final certificate, only one subject, logic, was listed as “excellent”. He published his first collection of poems a year before graduation. Soon after receiving the certificate, he went to France for three years. There he met Anna Akhmatova, whom he fell in love with without memory. She did not answer him in return, and Gumilyov decided to commit suicide by drowning. The incarnation of this intention was prevented by police who happened to be nearby. Then he did not know that in a few years everything would change, and Akhmatova would become his wife.
Marriage was not happy – Nikolai and Anna were often addicted to someone on the side. It is possible, therefore, he did not last too long. Once he took part in a duel on pistols with the poet Voloshin. The reason for the call was Gumilyov’s unflattering remarks about Voloshin’s wife, who was the former lady of Gumilyov’s heart. There were no casualties – Voloshin’s pistol could not fire, but Gumilyov defiantly fired into the air. During his travels, Gumilyov traveled a fair amount of Africa. During the First World War, the poet voluntarily went to the front. He had to deceive the draft board, as he had previously been declared unfit for military service for health reasons. He often burned his manuscripts, disappointed in the written verses.
Soon after the Bolshevik revolution, Gumilyov and Akhmatova divorced. The poet did not accept the new government, openly declaring himself a supporter of the monarchy. The sad result was not long in coming – when he was only 35 years old, he was arrested and soon executed. Formally, he was accused of participating in an illegal organization. Gumilyov became one of the founders of the literary genre of Acmeism, ideologically opposing symbolism. Contemporaries noted that the poet, regardless of the situation and circumstances, was always extremely cultural and polite with those around him. Officially, the name of Nikolai Gumilyov was rehabilitated only after the collapse of the USSR, in 1992.
