(This is the first major selection to appear in Britain fr...)
This is the first major selection to appear in Britain from one of the finest poets of the Silver Age of Russian literature. The rich, exotic poetry of Nikolay Gumilyov (1886-1921) draws on his extensive travels in Europe and Africa. Its deepest concerns are man's inner being and striving for spiritual fulfilment.
Nikolay Stepanovich Gumilyov was an influential Russian poet, literary critic, traveler, and military officer. He was a cofounder of the Acmeist movement. Nikolay Gumilev was arrested and executed by the Cheka, the secret Soviet police force, in 1921.
Background
Nikolay Stepanovich Gumilyov was born in the town of Kronstadt on Kotlin Island, Saint Petersburg, Russian into the family of Stepan Yakovlevich Gumilyov (1836-1920), a naval physician, and Anna Ivanovna L'vova (1854-1942). His childhood nickname was Montigomo, the Hawk's Claw.
Education
Nikolay Stepanovich studied at the gymnasium of Tsarskoe Selo, where the Symbolist poet Innokenty Annensky was his teacher.
His first publication were verses I ran from cities into the forest on September 8, 1902. In 1905 Nikolay Stepanovich published his first book of lyrics entitled The Way of Conquistadors. It comprised poems on most exotic subjects imaginable, from Lake Chad giraffes to Caracalla's crocodiles. Although he was proud of the book, most critics found his technique sloppy.
From 1907 and on, Nikolai Gumilyov traveled extensively in Europe, notably in Italy and France. In 1908 his new collection Romantic Flowers appeared. While in Paris, he published the literary magazine Sirius, but only three issues were produced. On returning to Russia, he edited and contributed to the artistic periodical Apollon. At that 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: Elisaveta Ivanovna Dmitrieva [ru] and Maximilian Voloshin. On November 22, 1909 he had a duel with Voloshin over the affair.
Nikolay Stepanovich was fascinated with Africa and travelled there almost each year. He explored, helping development of Ethiopia, sometime hunted lions, and brought to the Saint Petersburg museum of anthropology and ethnography a large collection of African artifacts. His landmark collection The Tent (1921) collected the best of his poems on African themes, one of them "Giraffe".
In 1910, Nikolay Stepanovich fell under the spell of the 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, Nikolay Stepanovich 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, Nikolay Stepanovich 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).
When World War I started, Nikolay Stepanovich 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 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.
During the Russian Revolution, Nikolay Stepanovich served in the Russian Expedition Corps in Paris. Despite advice to the contrary, he rapidly returned to Petrograd. 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 Nikolaevna Engelhardt, a noblewoman and daughter of a well-known historian.
In 1920 Nikolay Stepanovich co-founded the All-Russia Union of Writers. He made no secret of his anti-communist views. He also crossed himself in public and didn't care to hide his contempt for half-literate Bolsheviks. On August 3, 1921 Nikolay Stepanovich was arrested by the Cheka on charges of participation in a nonexistent monarchist conspiracy known as the "Petrograd military organization". On August 24, the Petrograd Cheka decreed execution of 61 participants of the case, including Nikolai Gumilev. They were shot on August 26 in the Kovalevsky Forest (the actual date was established only in 2014; previously it was thought he died on August 25). The execution placed a stigma on Anna Akhmatova and her son with Nikolai, Lev Gumilev. Lev was arrested later in the purges of the 1930s.
Nikolay Stepanovich married Anna Akhmatova in 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