3 August 1921 year
Nikolai Gumilev, a poet and African explorer, was arrested in connection with the "Petrograd Combat Organization" case. He was the first husband of Anna Akhmatova and the father of Lev Gumilev, the creator of the passionary theory of ethnogenesis.
Only snakes shed their skins,
So that the soul grows old and grows.
We, alas, are not similar to snakes,
We change souls, not bodies.
Gumilev was born in 1886. He was a poor student at school, with the only A on his report card being in logic. He published his first book of poetry, "The Path of the Conquistadors," with his parents' money.
Who knows the darkness of the human soul,
Her joys and sorrows?
They are enameled blue
The tablets are closed from us
In 1909 and 1913, he traveled to Abyssinia. From his African expeditions, he brought back a rich collection for the Kunstkamera.
And how can I tell you about the tropical garden,
About slender palm trees, about the scent of unimaginable herbs...
— Are you crying? Listen... far away, on Lake Chad
A graceful giraffe wanders
In 1911, Gumilev founded the Guild of Poets, which included Akhmatova, Mandelstam, Narbut, and others. In 1912, Gumilev announced the birth of a new artistic movement—Acmeism, with its cult of concreteness.
From the lair of the serpent,
From the city of Kyiv,
I didn't take a wife, but a witch.
And I thought she was funny,
I told fortunes to the wayward one,
A cheerful songbird
In 1912, Gumilev and Akhmatova had a son. In 1914, the couple's relationship began to deteriorate. Gumilev volunteered for the war and received awards. Akhmatova wrote to her son:
News rarely arrives
To our porch.
They gave me a white cross
To your father
In 1918, the Gumilevs divorced. The poet married Anna Engelhardt, the daughter of the historian. He lectured and wrote. The 1921 collection "The Pillar of Fire" is considered the pinnacle of his work.
I'll scream... But who will help?
So that my soul does not die?
Only snakes shed their skins,
We change souls, not bodies.
Hundreds of people were implicated in the "PBO Tagantsev case"—the young Soviet government needed a deterrent. Investigator Agranov wrote: "In 1921, 70% of the Petrograd intelligentsia had one foot in the enemy camp. We had to burn that foot." Gumilev was executed 23 days after his arrest. He was rehabilitated in 1991. The PBO case was deemed falsified.
