Nikolai Gumilyov is one of the brightest representatives of the Silver Age poets. His poems continue to live at various poetry evenings, are set to music.
Childhood and youth
Nikolai Stepanovich Gumilyov was born on April 15, 1886 in Kronstadt, a port town near Petrograd. He was not the only child in the family, he had an older brother Dmitry. The boy's father worked as a ship doctor and after he left his job, the whole family moved to St. Petersburg. At that time, Nikolai was 9 years old.
I must say that Gumilev's childhood was bleak. He was constantly ill. He was tormented by headaches, was highly sensitive to various sounds, he could not normally perceive tastes and smells. All this, of course, greatly darkened his life.
As soon as all of the above symptoms worsened, little Kolya immediately lost his sense of space and even temporarily lost his hearing. However, despite such pain, the boy was very fond of poetry. Already at the age of 6 he wrote his first poem entitled "Niagara Lived", which consisted of only 4 lines.
At the age of 8, the boy was sent to the Tsarskoye Selo gymnasium, but two months later Gumilyov was educated at home. The fact is that in a prestigious educational institution, classmates constantly mocked Kolya because of his unhealthy appearance, and the parents were forced to take their child out of there so that his mental health would not be harmed even more.
In 1900, the family decided to leave for the city of Tiflis (now Tbilisi) for a while to take care of Kolya and Dima's treatment. The latter, by the way, was diagnosed with tuberculosis, which was the root cause of the early departure from home.
Upon his return to Tsarskoe Selo, 3 years later, Gumilyov returns to the school desk at the local gymnasium. But he had no love for any science. Instead of properly studying school subjects, the teenager read Nietzsche's works for days on end.
Such detachment could not but affect the progress of the young man. Not without the help of the director of the gymnasium, in 1906 Gumilyov left the walls of the educational institution with a certificate in his hands.
By the way, a year before graduation, the first collection of Gumilev's poems, The Way of the Conquistadors, was published, which consisted of a sonnet, several poems and poems. It was published at the personal expense of the parents.
Life, work and death of the poet
After graduating from high school, the young man immediately went to Paris to attend lectures on literature. He often visited local painting exhibitions. In France, Gumilev managed to publish 3 issues of a literary magazine called "Sirius".
By that time, he made acquaintances with the masters of poetry: Dmitry Merezhkovsky, Valery Bryusov, Zinaida Gippius and Andrei Bely.
The poet does not forget about his work either. In 1908, the public could get acquainted with a new collection of poems by Gumilev entitled "Romantic Flowers".
Subsequently, the young man travels a lot. He has traveled almost the entire world from sultry Africa to the frozen Russian North. In addition to impressions from the trips, he also brings new poems.
Gradually, Nikolai Stepanovich is gaining more and more popularity and becomes his own man among the poets of the Silver Age. And in 1912 he creates a new trend in literature, which is called "acmeism". This direction is the antipode of symbolism and presupposes the accuracy and down-to-earthness of the word.
In the summer of 1921, Gumilyov was arrested. He was recognized as a conspirator and accused of participating in a "military organization" (VN Tagantsev's PBO). On August 26 of the same year, Nikolai was shot. The place of execution and burial of the man is still unknown. In total, over 60 people were arrested and executed in this case. Only 71 years later, Gumilyov was rehabilitated by the Russian authorities, and the criminal case against him was recognized as nothing more than fabricated.
The bibliography of the famous poet includes 11 collections of poems, 8 plays, 8 prose works, many translations, poems and posthumous editions.
Personal life
During his short life, Nikolai Stepanovich was married twice. His first wife was the well-known Anna Akhmatova. The writer met her in 1904 and since then has shown her attention. In 1905, he proposed to her to marry him, to which he received a categorical "no." This refusal shocked the confident literary critic and drove him into a deep depression, which resulted in an attempt to commit suicide. True, this attempt was unsuccessful, and the young man decided to try his luck again by making a second proposal to his beloved.
This time he did not hear anything new and was again refused, which again prompted him to attempt suicide. But even then nothing came of it. Then he decides to return to his homeland and be more persistent in relation to Akhmatova. They eventually became husband and wife in 1910, and two years later they had a son, Leo.
Despite this, their relationship was unable to go through fire, water and copper pipes. Each of the spouses was looking for an object of desire on the side. In 1912, the poet met the actress Olga Vysotskaya, who in 1913 gave birth to her lover's son, which Gumilyov never found out about.
In 1918, Gumilyov and Akhmatova went through a divorce proceedings. Not having time to wean himself from family life, the man meets Anna Engelhardt, who later became his wife. In 1919 their daughter Elena was born.
