And not just any khan, but Akhmat, the last khan of the Golden Horde, a descendant of Genghis Khan. This popular myth began to be created by the poetess herself back in the late 1900s, when the need arose for a literary pseudonym (Akhmatova’s real name is Gorenko). “And only a seventeen-year-old crazy girl could choose a Tatar surname for a Russian poetess...” Lydia Chukovskaya recalled her words. However, such a move for the era Silver Age was not so reckless: the time demanded artistic behavior, vivid biographies and sonorous names from new writers. In this sense, the name Anna Akhmatova perfectly met all the criteria (poetic - it created a rhythmic pattern, two-foot dactyl, and had an assonance on “a”, and life-creative - it had a flair of mystery).
As for the legend about the Tatar Khan, it was formed later. The real genealogy did not fit into the poetic legend, so Akhmatova transformed it. Here we should highlight the biographical and mythological plans. The biographical one is that the Akhmatovs were actually present in the poetess’s family: Praskovya Fedoseevna Akhmatova was a great-grandmother on her mother’s side. In the poems, the line of kinship is a little closer (see the beginning of “The Tale of the Black Ring”: “I received rare gifts from my Tatar grandmother; / And why was I baptized, / She was bitterly angry”). The legendary plan is associated with the Horde princes. As researcher Vadim Chernykh showed, Praskovya Akhmatova was not a Tatar princess, but a Russian noblewoman (“The Akhmatovs are an old noble family, apparently descended from service Tatars, but Russified a long time ago”). There is no information about the origin of the Akhmatov family from Khan Akhmat or from the Khan’s family of Chingizids in general.
Myth two: Akhmatova was a recognized beauty
Anna Akhmatova. 1920s RGALI Many memoirs indeed contain admiring reviews of the appearance of the young Akhmatova (“Of the poets... Anna Akhmatova is most vividly remembered. Thin, tall, slender, with a proud turn of her small head, wrapped in a flowery shawl, Akhmatova looked like a giant... It was impossible to pass by her, without admiring her,” recalled Ariadna Tyrkova; “She was very beautiful, everyone on the street looked at her,” writes Nadezhda Chulkova).
Nevertheless, those closest to the poetess assessed her as a woman who was not fabulously beautiful, but expressive, with memorable features and a particularly attractive charm. “...You can’t call her beautiful, / But all my happiness is in her,” Gumilyov wrote about Akhmatova. Critic Georgy Adamovich recalled:
“Now, in memories of her, she is sometimes called a beauty: no, she was not a beauty. But she was more than a beauty, better than a beauty. I have never seen a woman whose face and entire appearance stood out everywhere, among any beauties, for its expressiveness, genuine spirituality, something that immediately attracted attention.”
Akhmatova herself assessed herself this way: “All my life I could look at will, from beauty to ugly.”
Myth three: Akhmatova drove a fan to suicide, which she later described in poetry
This is usually confirmed by a quote from Akhmatova’s poem “High vaults of the church...”: “High vaults of the church / Bluer than the firmament... / Forgive me, cheerful boy, / That I brought you death...”
Vsevolod Knyazev. 1900s poetrysilver.ru All this is both true and untrue at the same time. As researcher Natalia Kraineva showed, Akhmatova really had “her own” suicide - Mikhail Lindeberg, who committed suicide because of unhappy love for the poetess on December 22, 1911. But the poem “High Vaults of the Church...” was written in 1913 under the impression of the suicide of another young man, Vsevolod Knyazev, who was unhappily in love with Akhmatova’s friend, dancer Olga Glebova-Sudeikina. This episode will be repeated in other poems, for example in “”. In “Poem Without a Hero,” Akhmatova will make Knyazev’s suicide one of the key episodes of the work. The commonality of the events that happened with her friends in Akhmatova’s historiosophical concept could later be combined into one memory: it is not without reason that in the margins of the autograph of the “ballet libretto” for the “Poem” there appears a note with Lindeberg’s name and the date of his death.
Myth four: Akhmatova was haunted by unhappy love
A similar conclusion arises after reading almost any book of poetry by the poetess. Along with the lyrical heroine, who leaves her lovers of her own free will, the poems also contain a lyrical mask of a woman suffering from unrequited love(“”, “”, “Today they didn’t bring me a letter...”, “In the evening”, cycle “Confusion”, etc.). However, the lyrical outline of books of poetry does not always reflect the biography of the author: the beloved poetess Boris Anrep, Arthur Lurie, Nikolai Punin, Vladimir Garshin and others reciprocated her feelings.
Myth five: Gumilyov is Akhmatova’s only love
Anna Akhmatova and Nikolai Punin in the courtyard of the Fountain House. Photo by Pavel Luknitsky. Leningrad, 1927 Tverskaya regional library them. A. M. Gorky Akhmatova's marriage to the poet Nikolai Gumilyov. From 1918 to 1921, she was married to Assyriologist Vladimir Shileiko (they officially divorced in 1926), and from 1922 to 1938 she was in a civil marriage with art critic Nikolai Punin. The third, never officially formalized marriage, due to the specifics of the time, had its own strangeness: after separation, the spouses continued to live in the same communal apartment (in different rooms) - and moreover: even after Punin’s death, while in Leningrad, Akhmatova continued to live with his family.
Gumilyov also remarried in 1918 - to Anna Engelhardt. But in the 1950s-60s, when “Requiem” gradually reached readers (in 1963 the poem was published in Munich) and interest in Gumilyov, banned in the USSR, began to awaken, Akhmatova took on the “mission” of the poet’s widow (Engelhardt also time was also no longer alive). A similar role was played by Nadezhda Mandelstam, Elena Bulgakova and other wives of departed writers, keeping their archives and taking care of posthumous memory.
Myth six: Gumilyov beat Akhmatova
Nikolai Gumilyov in Tsarskoe Selo. 1911 gumilev.ru This conclusion was made more than once not only by later readers, but also by some of the poets’ contemporaries. No wonder: in almost every third poem the poetess admitted the cruelty of her husband or lover: “...My husband is an executioner, and his house is a prison,” “It doesn’t matter that you are arrogant and evil...”, “I marked with charcoal on the left side / The place where to shoot / To release the bird - my longing / On the deserted night again. / Cute! your hand will not tremble. / And I won’t have to endure it for long...”, “, / With a double folded belt” and so on.
The poet Irina Odoevtseva in her memoirs “On the Banks of the Neva” recalls Gumilyov’s indignation about this:
“He [the poet Mikhail Lozinsky] told me that students were constantly asking him whether it was true that out of envy I prevented Akhmatova from publishing... Lozinsky, of course, tried to dissuade them.
<…>
<…>Probably you, like all of them, repeated: Akhmatova is a martyr, and Gumilyov is a monster.
<…>
Lord, what nonsense!<…>…When I realized how talented she was, even to my own detriment, I constantly put her in first place.
<…>
How many years have passed, and I still feel resentment and pain. How unfair and vile this is! Yes, of course, there were poems that I did not want her to publish, and quite a lot. At least here:
My husband whipped me with a patterned one,
Double folded belt.
After all, think about it, because of these lines I became known as a sadist. They started a rumor about me that, having put on a tailcoat (and I didn’t even have a tailcoat then) and a top hat (I actually had a top hat), I was whipping with a patterned, double-folded belt not only my wife, Akhmatova, but also my young fans, having previously stripped them naked.”
It is noteworthy that after the divorce from Gumilyov and after the marriage to Shileiko, the “beatings” did not stop: “Because of your mysterious love, / I screamed as if in pain, / I became yellow and fitful, / I could barely drag my feet,” “And in the cave the dragon has / No mercy, no law. / And there’s a whip hanging on the wall, / So that I don’t have to sing songs” - and so on.
Myth seven: Akhmatova was a principled opponent of emigration
This myth was created by the poetess herself and is actively supported by the school canon. In the fall of 1917, Gumilev considered the possibility of moving abroad for Akhmatova, which he informed her about from London. Boris Anrep also advised leaving Petrograd. Akhmatova responded to these proposals with a poem known in school curriculum like “I had a voice...”.
Admirers of Akhmatova’s work know that this text is actually the second part of a poem, less clear in its content - “When in the anguish of suicide...”, where the poetess talks not only about her fundamental choice, but also about the horrors against which a decision is made.
“I think I can’t describe how painfully I want to come to you. I ask you - arrange this, prove that you are my friend...
I am healthy, I really miss the village and think with horror about winter in Bezhetsk.<…>How strange it is for me to remember that in the winter of 1907 you called me to Paris in every letter, and now I don’t know at all whether you want to see me. But always remember that I remember you very well, I love you very much, and that without you I’m always somehow sad. I look with sadness at what is happening in Russia now; God is severely punishing our country.”
Accordingly, Gumilyov’s autumn letter is not a proposal to go abroad, but a report at her request.
After the impulse to leave, Akhmatova soon enough decided to stay and did not change her opinion, which can be seen in her other poems (for example, “You are an apostate: for the green island ...”, “Your spirit is darkened by arrogance ...”), and in the stories of contemporaries . According to memoirs, in 1922, Akhmatova again had the opportunity to leave the country: Arthur Lurie, having settled in Paris, persistently calls her there, but she refuses (in her hands, according to Akhmatova’s confidant Pavel Luknitsky, there were 17 letters with this request) .
Myth eight: Stalin was jealous of Akhmatova
Akhmatova at a literary evening. 1946 RGALI The poetess herself and many of her contemporaries considered the appearance of the 1946 Central Committee resolution “On the magazines “Zvezda” and “Leningrad”,” where Akhmatova and Zoshchenko were defamed, as a consequence of an event that occurred at one literary evening. “It’s me who earns the decree,” Akhmatova said about a photograph taken at one of the evenings held in Moscow in the spring of 1946.<…>According to rumors, Stalin was angry at the ardent reception that Akhmatova received from her listeners. According to one version, Stalin asked after some evening: “Who organized the rise?” recalls Nika Glen. Lydia Chukovskaya adds: “Akhmatova believed that... Stalin was jealous of her ovation... The standing ovation was due, according to Stalin, to him alone - and suddenly the crowd gave an ovation to some poetess.”
As noted, all memories associated with this plot are characterized by typical reservations (“according to rumors,” “believed,” and so on), which is likely sign speculation. Stalin’s reaction, as well as the “quoted” phrase about “getting up,” have no documentary evidence or refutation, so this episode should not be considered as absolute truth, but as one of the popular, probable, but not fully confirmed versions.
Myth ninth: Akhmatova did not love her son
Anna Akhmatova and Lev Gumilev. 1926 Eurasian National University named after. L. N. Gumileva And that's not true. IN difficult history There are many nuances in the relationship between Akhmatova and Lev Gumilyov. In her early lyrics, the poetess created the image of a negligent mother (“...I am a bad mother”, “...Take away both the child and the friend...”, “Why, abandoning the friend / And the curly-haired child...”), in which there was a share of biography: childhood and Lev Gumilyov spent his youth not with his parents, but with his grandmother, Anna Gumileva; his mother and father only occasionally visited them. But at the end of the 1920s, Lev moved to the Fountain House, to the family of Akhmatova and Punin.
A serious disagreement occurred after Lev Gumilyov returned from the camp in 1956. He could not forgive his mother, as it seemed to him, her frivolous behavior in 1946 (see myth eight) and some poetic egoism. However, it was precisely for his sake that Akhmatova not only “stood for three hundred hours” in prison lines with the transfer and asked every more or less influential acquaintance to help with the release of her son from the camp, but also took a step contrary to any selfishness: stepping over her convictions for the sake of her son’s freedom Akhmatova wrote and published the series “Glory to the World!”, where she glorified the Soviet system When Akhmatova’s first book after a significant break was published in 1958, she covered pages with poems from this cycle in the author’s copies..
IN last years Akhmatova more than once told her loved ones about her desire to restore her previous relationship with her son. Emma Gerstein writes:
“...she told me: “I would like to make peace with Leva.” I replied that he probably wanted this too, but was afraid of excessive excitement for both her and himself when explaining. “There’s no need to explain,” Anna Andreevna quickly objected. “He would come and say: ‘Mom, sew on a button for me.’”
Probably, the feelings of a disagreement with her son greatly accelerated the death of the poetess. IN last days In her life, a theatrical performance unfolded near Akhmatova’s hospital room: her loved ones were deciding whether or not to let Lev Nikolayevich see his mother, whether their meeting would bring the poetess’s death closer. Akhmatova died without making peace with her son.
Myth tenth: Akhmatova is a poet, she cannot be called a poetess
Often discussions of Akhmatova’s work or other aspects of her biography end in heated terminological disputes - “poet” or “poetess”. Those arguing, not without reason, refer to the opinion of Akhmatova herself, who emphatically called herself a poet (which was recorded by many memoirists), and call for the continuation of this particular tradition.
However, it is worth remembering the context of the use of these words a century ago. Poetry written by women was just beginning to appear in Russia, and was rarely taken seriously (see the typical titles of reviews of books by women poets in the early 1910s: “Women’s Handicraft”, “Love and Doubt”). Therefore, many women writers either chose male pseudonyms (Sergei Gedroits Pseudonym of Vera Gedroits., Anton Krainy The pseudonym under which Zinaida Gippius published critical articles., Andrey Polyanin The name taken by Sofia Parnok to publish criticism.), or wrote on behalf of a man (Zinaida Gippius, Polixena Solovyova). The work of Akhmatova (and in many ways Tsvetaeva) completely changed the attitude towards poetry created by women as an “inferior” movement. Back in 1914, in a review of “The Rosary,” Gumilyov made a symbolic gesture. Having called Akhmatova several times a poetess, at the end of the review he gives her the name of a poet: “That connection with the world that I spoke about above and which is the lot of every true poet, Akhmatova has almost achieved.”
In the modern situation, when the merits of poetry created by women no longer need to be proven to anyone, in literary criticism it is customary to call Akhmatova a poetess, in accordance with generally accepted norms of the Russian language.
The difficult fate of Lev Gumilyov, the son of famous Russian poets of the Silver Age Nikolai Gumilyov and Anna Akhmatova, was replete with many difficulties, hardships and dangers. He was arrested only 4 times during the years of Stalin’s repressions and spent 15 years in camps, far from civilization. Therefore, he practically had almost no conditions to arrange his personal life more or less tolerably. Lev Gumilyov's wife, Natalya Simonova, registered a relationship with him only in 1968, two years after they met, when she was 46 years old and her husband was 54 years old.
In the mid-50s, Lev Nikolaevich was in a relationship with his proofreader Kryukova, but it did not last long. Then 18-year-old Kazakevich became his girlfriend, also for a short time. The affair with Inna Sergeevna Nemilova, the first beauty of the Hermitage, who was married, lasted a little longer. All these love interests had no support from their parents and ended in nothing. In 1966, Gumilyov met future wife and their relationship developed quite slowly: both were no longer young, had seen a lot of grief and were getting used to each other.
Natalya Viktorovna Simonovskaya was an artist and worked in book graphics. She and Gumilyov met in Moscow, in the apartment of mutual friends, and liked each other. Then, after a while, they decided to get married and Simonovskaya moved to Lev Nikolaevich in Leningrad, where he had a small room in a communal apartment on the sixth floor. Here, in a cramped 12 sq. meters Gumilyov had already lived for 12 years, defended his doctoral dissertation and finally got used to “life in the wild.” The couple got along well with their neighbors, but it was very difficult to work in such conditions. Natalya immediately took upon herself all the worries about her husband, giving up her career, and devoted her whole life to this.
In 1973, they received a 30-meter room on Bolshaya Moskovskaya Street next to the Vladimir Cathedral. The Gumilevs lived there for 16 calm, happy years. In total, they family life lasted 24 years, until the death of Lev Nikolaevich, and all relatives called their marriage ideal. The caring wife helped Gumilyov in his work and took care of his life. By the way, he was an unpretentious person and did not have the habit of being capricious. True, he nevertheless inherited some eccentricity from his famous parents. For example, he did not like to rest and rarely went on vacation anywhere other than Moscow.
Gumilyov smoked a lot and could drink quite a bit, but he was never drunk, he was modest in his choice of food and clothing, and he loved to joke. Natalya Viktorovna, after the death of her husband, remembered him with reverence and love. She did a lot to collect, preserve and publish scientific and literary heritage Gumilev. Their last apartment on the street. Kolomenskaya, she left it as a gift to the state as a museum. Lev Gumilyov's wife outlived her husband by 12 years and all these years were filled with the memory of him. Natalya Viktorovna Simonovskaya-Gumileva bequeathed to bury her ashes next to her husband’s grave, so that even death would not separate them.
28 April 2015, 14:36Childhood
♦ Akhmatova Anna Andreevna (real name - Gorenko) was born into the family of a marine engineer, retired captain of the 2nd rank at the station. Big Fountain near Odessa. The mother, Inna Erasmovna, devoted herself to the children, of whom there were six in the family: Andrei, Inna, Anna, Iya, Irina (Rika) and Victor. Rika died of tuberculosis when Anya was five years old. Rika lived with her aunt, and her death was kept secret from the other children. Nevertheless, Anya felt what had happened - and as she later said, this death cast a shadow throughout her entire childhood. 
♦ Akhmatova considered the poets I. Annensky and A. S. Pushkin to be her teachers. Since childhood, Anna strove to be faithful to the high Pushkin tradition. She saw a mystical meaning in one of her childhood finds: while walking with her nanny along the alley of fragrant Tsarskoe Selo, surrounded by greenery, she saw a pin in the shape of a lyre in the grass. Little Anya was sure: this pin was dropped by Alexander Sergeevich, who wandered along these alleys about a century ago. Pushkin and Akhmatova are a separate topic. One day, around 1940, Pushkin dreamed about her friend Faina Ranevskaya. Ranevskaya called Akhmatova. Anna, turning pale with excitement, exhaled briefly. : “I’m going immediately,” and added with envy: “How happy you are!” I never dreamed of Him." Akhmatova did not hide the fact that she could not stand Natalya Goncharova; it looked like she was jealous. When talking about Pushkin, Anna Andreevna became airy, unearthly. Her friends and admirers, with whom this lonely woman was always surrounded, got the impression that she loved only Alexander Sergeevich and no one else. 
♦ Anna grew up in an atmosphere quite unusual for a future poet: there were almost no books in the house, except for the thick volume of Nekrasov, which Anna was allowed to read during the holidays. The mother had a taste for poetry: she read the poems of Nekrasov and Derzhavin to the children by heart, she knew a lot of them. But for some reason everyone was sure that Anna would become a poetess - even before she wrote the first line of poetry.
♦ Anna began to speak French quite early - she learned it by watching her older children’s classes. At the age of ten she entered the gymnasium in Tsarskoe Selo.
♦ A few months later, the girl became seriously ill: she lay unconscious for a week; They thought she wouldn't survive. When she came to, she remained deaf for some time. Later, one of the doctors suggested that it was smallpox - which, however, left no visible traces. The mark remained in her soul: it was from then on that Anna began writing poetry.
Gumilev
♦ On Christmas Eve 1903, Anna met Nikolai Gumilyov. Then 14-year-old Anya Gorenko was a slender girl with huge gray eyes, standing out sharply against the background of a pale face and straight black hair. Seeing her chiseled profile, the ugly 17-year-old boy realized that from now on and forever this girl would become his muse, his Beautiful Lady, for whose sake he would live, write poetry and perform feats.
♦ She struck him not only with her extraordinary appearance - Anna was beautiful with a very unusual, mysterious, bewitching beauty that immediately attracted attention: tall, slender, with long thick black hair, beautiful white hands, with radiant gray eyes on an almost white face, her profile resembled antique cameos. Anna stunned him and was completely different from everything that surrounded them in Tsarskoe Selo.
The mermaid has sad eyes.
I love her, the maiden undine,
Illuminated by the secret of the night,
I love her glow look
And burning rubies...
Because I myself am from the abyss,
From the bottomless depths of the sea.
(N. Gumilyov “Mermaid”)
♦ At that time, the ardent young man tried his best to imitate his idol Oscar Wilde. He wore a top hat, curled his hair and even wore a little lipstick. However, in order to complete the image of a tragic, mysterious, slightly broken character, Gumilev was missing one detail. All such heroes were certainly consumed by fatal passion, tormented by unrequited or forbidden love - in general, they were extremely unhappy in their personal lives. Anya Gorenko was ideal for the role of a beautiful but cruel lover. Her unusual appearance attracted fans, and it soon became clear that Anna did not have reciprocal feelings for Nikolai at all.
♦ The cold reception did not at all diminish the ardor of the poet in love - here she is, that same fatal and unrequited love, which will bring him the desired suffering! And Nikolai eagerly rushed to win the heart of his Beautiful Lady. However, Anna was in love with someone else. Vladimir Golenishchev-Kutuzov, a tutor from St. Petersburg, was the main character in her girlish dreams.
♦ In 1906, Gumilev left for Paris. There he hopes to forget his fatal love and return as a disappointed tragic character. But then Anya Gorenko suddenly realizes that she lacks the blind adoration of the young poet (Akhmatova’s parents found out about their daughter’s love for a St. Petersburg tutor and separated Anya and Volodya out of harm’s way). Nikolai's courtship flattered Akhmatova's pride so much that she was even going to marry him, despite the fact that she was still in love with the St. Petersburg tutor. In addition, Gumilyov’s eternal conversations about fatal love were not in vain - now Akhmatova herself is not averse to playing the role of a tragic figure. Soon she sends Gumilyov a letter complaining about her uselessness and abandonment.
♦ Having received Akhmatova’s letter, Gumilev, full of hope, returns from Paris, visits Anya and makes her another marriage proposal. But the matter was ruined... by dolphins. Then Akhmatova was vacationing in Yevpatoria. While walking along the beach with Gumilyov and listening to declarations of love, Anya came across two dead dolphins washed ashore. It is not known why this spectacle influenced Akhmatova so much, but Gumilyov received another refusal. Moreover, Akhmatova cynically explained to the loving Nikolai that her heart was forever occupied by Golenishchev-Kutuzov. 
Double portrait: Anna Akhmatova and Nikolai Gumilev. T. M. Skvorikova. 1926
♦ The rejected poet leaves for Paris again, believing that the only acceptable way out of the situation is suicide. The suicide attempt was staged with the theatricality and pomposity characteristic of Gumilyov. The poet goes to the resort town of Tourville to commit suicide. The dirty water of the Seine seemed to Gumilyov an unsuitable haven for the tormented soul of a young man in love, but the sea was just right, especially since Akhmatova more than once told him that she loved looking at the sea waves. However, the tragedy was destined to turn into a farce. The vacationers mistook Gumilyov for a tramp, called the police, and, instead of going to last way, Nikolai went to give an explanation to the police station. Gumilev regarded his failure as a sign of fate and decided to try his luck in love again. Nikolai writes a letter to Akhmatova, where he again proposes to her. And again he is refused.
♦ Then Gumilev tries to commit suicide again. This attempt was even more theatrical than the previous one. Gumilev took poison and went to await death in the Bois de Boulogne. Where he was picked up in an unconscious state by vigilant forest rangers.
♦ At the end of 1908, Gumilyov returned to his homeland. The young poet never gave up his dreams of winning Akhmatova’s heart. And therefore he continues to besiege Anna, swearing eternal love to her and proposing marriage. Either Akhmatova was touched by such almost dog-like devotion, or Gumilyov knocked consent out of her with stories about unsuccessful attempts suicide, or the image of the St. Petersburg tutor faded somewhat, but one way or another Anna gave her consent to the marriage. But, agreeing to marry Gumilyov, she accepted him not as love - but as her Fate.
“Gumilev is my destiny, and I humbly surrender to it.
Don't judge me if you can.
I swear to you, everything that is sacred to me, that this
an unhappy person will be happy with me" (A. Akhmatova)
♦ None of the groom’s relatives came to the wedding; the Gumilev family believed that this marriage would not last long.
After the wedding
“Beautifully proportioned women, worth sculpting and painting, always seem clumsy in dresses.”Amedeo Modigliani
♦ After the wedding, the Gumilevs left for Paris. Here Anna meets Amedeo Modigliani- then an unknown artist who makes many of her portraits. Something similar to a romance even begins between them - but as Akhmatova herself recalls, they had too little time for anything serious to happen. “Anna and Amedeo” is not so much a love story as just an episode from the life of two people charred by the breath of art. 
♦ Akhmatova later noted: “Probably, we both did not understand one essential thing: everything that happened was for both of us the prehistory of our lives: his - very short, mine - very long. The breath of art had not yet charred or transformed these two existences; it should have been a bright, light pre-dawn hour. But the future, which, as we know, casts its shadow long before entering, knocked on the window, hid behind the lanterns, crossed dreams and frightened us with the terrible Baudelairean Paris that lurked somewhere nearby. And everything divine in Modigliani only sparkled through some kind of darkness. He was completely unlike anyone else in the world. His voice somehow remained forever in my memory. I knew him as a beggar, and it was unclear how he lived. As an artist he did not have even a shadow of recognition.". about Anna and Amadeo was already on Gossip, back in 2009. Therefore, I see no point in covering it again. I will only add portraits of Akhmatova, works by Modigliani (1911)
Anna Akhmatova on the trapeze. 1911
♦ Regarding the portraits, Akhmatova said the following: “He did not draw me from life, but at his home - he gave these drawings to me. There were sixteen of them. He asked me to frame them and hang them in my room. They perished in a Tsarskoye Selo house in the first years of the Revolution. The one who survived was in which his future “nudes” are less foreshadowed than in the others..."
♦ For Nikolai Gumilev, marrying Anna Gorenko was not a victory. As one of Akhmatova’s friends from that period put it, she had her own complex “life of the heart,” in which her husband was given a more than modest place. She didn’t even raise an eyebrow when her loving husband, who had been wooing her for so many years, left for Africa in search of adventure five months after the wedding. She hated exotic things and went into the other room when he started talking about his travels in Abyssinia and hunting tigers. And for Gumilev it turned out to be not at all easy to combine in his mind the image of a Beautiful Lady - an object of worship - with the image of a wife and mother. Therefore, just two years after his marriage, Gumilyov starts a serious affair. Gumilyov had light hobbies before, but in 1912 Gumilyov fell in love for real. Immediately after returning from Africa, Gumilev visits his mother’s estate, where he encounters his niece, the young beauty Masha Kuzmina-Karavaeva. The feeling flares up quickly, and it does not go unanswered. However, this love also has a touch of tragedy - Masha is mortally ill with tuberculosis, and Gumilyov again enters the image of a hopeless lover. Anna was not surprised by the news of this - it was as if she knew in advance that this would be exactly the case, and had prepared revenge ahead of time. Returning home from Paris, Anna deliberately inserted a bundle of Modigliani’s letters into a volume of poems by Théophile Gautier and slipped the book to her husband. They were even and generously forgave each other.
♦ Akhmatova has a hard time - she has long been accustomed to the fact that she is a goddess for Nikolai, and therefore it is difficult for her to be overthrown from the pedestal and realize that her husband is capable of experiencing the same high feelings for another woman. Mashenka's health quickly deteriorated, and shortly after the start of their affair with Gumilyov, Kuzmina-Karavaeva died. True, her death did not return Akhmatova to her husband’s former adoration. And then in 1912 Anna Andreevna decided to desperate step and gives birth to Gumilyov's son Leo. Gumilyov perceived the birth of the child ambiguously. He immediately organizes a “demonstration of independence” and continues to have affairs on the side. He has a choir of lovers from among his students, one even gave birth to a child for him. Continuing to maintain their marriage and friendship, Akhmatova and Gumilyov deal blow after blow to each other. However, Anna has absolutely no time to seriously suffer from her husband’s infidelity. She has long called Nikolai Stepanovich a friend and brother. Subsequently, Akhmatova will say: “Nikolai Stepanovich has always been single. I can’t imagine him being married.”
Sorin S. Akhmatova. 1914
♦ It’s amazing how these two managed to produce a son. The birth of Gumilvenka, as the baby’s friends christened it, did not make a visible impression on the couple. Both of them spent more time writing poems in honor of this event than fussing with the child. But mother-in-law Anna Ivanovna softened towards her daughter-in-law and forgave her everything for her grandson. Little Levushka settles firmly in the arms of a happy grandmother.
♦ In 1914, Gumilev leaves for the front, and Akhmatova begins a whirlwind romance with the poet Boris Anrep. And only Anrep’s emigration to England put an end to their relationship. However, Anrep was not the only one close to Akhmatova.
Anna with her son Leo
♦ In September 1921, schoolchildren decided not to give textbooks to nine-year-old Leva Gumilyov. Simply because on August 25 his father was shot on charges of involvement in a White Guard conspiracy. The last thing the poet wrote was:
I laughed at myself
And I deceived myself
When I could have thought that in the world
Is there anything other than you.
Other marriages
♦ Subsequently, Akhmatova married three more times, but all her marriages ended in divorce. Probably, the great poetess was not suited to the role of a wife. However, for all her husbands, and first of all for Gumilyov, Akhmatova became an ideal widow. She renounced him alive, revered by everyone, but dead, shot by the Bolsheviks, she remained faithful to the end. She kept his poems, took care of their publication, helped enthusiasts collect information for his biography, and dedicated her works to him.
Anna Akhmatova. L.A. Bruni. 1922
♦ When Gumilev finally returned to Russia (after the war he spent some time in London and Paris), Akhmatova tells him the stunning news: she loves another, and therefore they will have to part forever. Despite the cool relationship between the spouses, the divorce was a real blow for Gumilyov - he still loved his Beautiful Lady Anya Gorenko. After her divorce from Gumilyov in 1918, Anna Andreevna wandered among her acquaintances until she was sheltered in service apartment Orientalist Voldemar Shileiko of the Marble Palace. 
♦ He translated masterfully from Akkadian and was superbly educated. And at the same time he is capricious, contentious, sarcastic and rude, which for some reason Akhmatova steadfastly endured, believing that her new husband was a little crazy. Their relationship amazed those around them.
“I learned French by ear, in the lessons of my older brother and sister,” said Akhmatova.
- If a dog had been trained as much as you, it would have become a circus director long ago! - responded Shileiko.
1924
Shileiko tore her manuscripts and threw them into the stove and used them to melt the samovar. For three years Anna Andreevna dutifully chopped wood because Shileiko had sciatica. When she thought that her husband was healed, she simply left him. And she said with a satisfied sigh: “Divorce... What a pleasant feeling!”
Submissive to you? You are crazy!
I am submissive to the Lord's will alone.
I don't want any thrill or pain
My husband is an executioner, and his house is a prison.
1921
But after their breakup, he did not hesitate to compare the poetess to a dog. So he said: “... in my house there was a place for all the stray dogs, so there was one for Anya.” Akhmatova herself composed the following poems:
From your mysterious love,
As if in pain, I scream.
Became yellow and fitful,
I can barely drag my feet.
Afterwards, in 1922, the poetess married art critic Nikolai Punin ♦ Nikolai Punin had long been in love with Anna and, when she was again left homeless, proposed to her. Akhmatova and Punin had to live together with his ex-wife Anna Evgenievna and daughter Ira. Anna Andreevna donated monthly “feed” money to the common pot. The second half of her meager income, leaving only for cigarettes and the tram, she sent her mother-in-law’s son to Bezhetsk to raise. 
Anna Akhmatova and N. Punin in the courtyard of the Fountain House, 1920
♦ We lived strangely. “It’s always like this with me,” Akhmatova explained briefly. In public, Punin pretended that nothing connected them with her. When one of Anna Andreevna’s acquaintances came, Nikolai Nikolaevich, an art critic and a brilliantly educated person, did not even greet the guest, read the newspaper as if he had not seen anyone. With Anna they were invariably on first-name terms. 
Punin in later years
♦ When Akhmatova made attempts to leave this absurd life, Punin lay at his feet and said that he could not live without her, and if he did not live and receive a salary, the whole family would die. Finally (to the great jealousy of Leva’s son) maternal tenderness has awakened in her: she is busy with Punin’s daughter. Punin pointedly does not notice Leva, who, upon arrival from Bezhetsk, gets an unheated corridor to spend the night. Anna with her son Leo
“Living in the Punins’ apartment was bad... Mom paid attention to me only to study with me French. But given her anti-pedagogical abilities, it was very difficult for me to perceive this,”- the no longer young Lev Nikolaevich did not forget the insults.
After breaking up with Akhmatova, Punin was arrested and died during his imprisonment in Vorkuta.
Akhmatova’s last love was a pathologist Garshin(writer's nephew). They were supposed to get married, but at the last moment the groom abandoned the bride. The day before, he dreamed of his late wife, who begged: “Don’t take this witch into your house!”
Out of favor with the authorities
Excerpts from the Report “On the need to arrest the poetess Akhmatova” No. 6826/A dated June 14, 1950 was handed over to Stalin by the USSR Minister of State Security Abakumov.
Beginning in 1924, Akhmatova, together with Punin, grouped hostile literary workers around her and organized anti-Soviet gatherings in her apartment. Arrested on this occasion Punin showed: “Due to anti-Soviet sentiments, Akhmatova and I, talking with each other, more than once expressed our hatred of the Soviet system, slandered the leaders of the party and the Soviet government and expressed dissatisfaction with various measures of the Soviet government... Anti-Soviet gatherings were held in our apartment , which were attended by literary workers from among those dissatisfied and offended by the Soviet regime... These persons, together with Akhmatova and me, discussed events in the country from enemy positions... Akhmatova, in particular, expressed slanderous fabrications about the allegedly cruel attitude of the Soviet government towards the peasants, was outraged by the closure of churches and expressed her anti-Soviet views on a number of other issues.”
Self-portrait of A. Akhmatova with charcoal from December 30, 1926
As the investigation established, in these enemy gatherings in 1932–1935. Akhmatova’s son, Lev Gumilyov, at that time a student at Leningrad State University, took an active part. About this the arrested Gumilev showed: “In the presence of Akhmatova, we at gatherings without hesitation expressed our hostile sentiments... Punin made terrorist attacks against the leaders of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) and the Soviet government... In May 1934, Punin, in the presence of Akhmatova, figuratively showed how he would commit terrorist attack over the leader of the Soviet people." Similar testimony was given by the arrested Punin, who admitted that he harbored terrorist sentiments against Comrade Stalin, and testified that these sentiments were shared by Akhmatova: “In conversations, I made all sorts of false accusations against the Head of the Soviet State and tried to “prove” that the existing situation in the Soviet Union can be changed in the direction we desire only through the forcible removal of Stalin... In frank conversations with meAkhmatovashared my terrorist sentiments and supported malicious attacks against the Head of the Soviet State. Thus, in December 1934, she sought to justify the villainous murder of S.M. Kirov, regarding this terrorist act as a response to the excessive, in her opinion, repressions of the Soviet government against Trotskyist-Bukharin and other hostile groups.”
It should be noted that in October 1935, Punin and Lev Gumilyov were arrested by the NKVD Directorate Leningrad region as members of an anti-Soviet group. However, soon, at the request of Akhmatova, they were released from custody.
Speaking about his subsequent criminal connection with Akhmatova, the arrested Punin testified that Akhmatova continued to conduct hostile conversations with him, during which she expressed malicious slander against the CPSU (b) and the Soviet government.
In 1935, Akhmatova managed to rescue her arrested son and husband after personal meeting with Stalin. But before this happened, both were interrogated “with partiality” and were forced to sign false testimony against Akhmatova - about her “complicity” in their “crimes” and about her “enemy activities.” The security officers manipulated the facts masterfully. Numerous intelligence denunciations and eavesdropping materials were also constantly collected against Akhmatova. The “operational development case” was opened against Akhmatova in 1939. The special equipment in her apartment had been working since 1945. That is, the case has long been concocted, all that remains is to bring it to its logical conclusion - arrest. All that is required is Stalin's go-ahead.
Portrait of the poetess Anna Akhmatova. White Night. Leningrad. A. A. Osmerkin. 1939-1940
♦ Akhmatova quickly mastered the science of being the mother of a prisoner. Akhmatova spent seventeen months in prison queues, the “three hundredth, with the transfer” stood under the Crosses. One day, while climbing the stairs, I noticed that not a single woman looked in the large mirror on the wall - the amalgam reflected only strict and clean female profiles. Then the feeling of loneliness that had tormented her since childhood suddenly melted away: “I was not alone, but together with my country, lined up in one big prison line.” For some reason, Anna Andreevna herself was not touched for another ten years. And only in August 1946 the fateful hour struck. "What to do now?" - Mikhail Zoshchenko, who happened to meet on the street, asked Akhmatova. He looked completely devastated. “Probably personal troubles again,” she decided and spoke comforting words to the nervous Misha. A few days later, in a random newspaper in which the fish was wrapped, she read a formidable Resolution of the Central Committee, in which Zoshchenko was called a literary hooligan, and she herself - a literary harlot.
“The range of her poetry is limited to the point of wretchedness,” he hammered the words like nails. Andrey Alexandrovich Zhdanov at a meeting of Leningrad writers in Smolny, - the poetry of an enraged lady, rushing between the boudoir and the chapel! The writers, frightened to death, obediently excluded Akhmatova from their professional union. And then they suffered without sleep, not knowing whether to say hello to Anna Andreevna tomorrow or pretend that they did not know each other. Zoshchenko’s famous Resolution was trampled and literally killed. Akhmatova, as usual, survived. She just shrugged: "For what great country Do we need to go through the chest of one sick old woman with tanks?”
Martiros Saryan 1946The portrait of A. A. Akhmatova was painted in 1946, immediately after the resolution of the Central Committee and Zhdanov’s report on the magazines “Zvezda” and “Leningrad”. And if the endlessly tired and offended woman agreed to pose for the artist, then, apparently, only because she was aware of the civic courage of his action. Akhmatova posed in Saryan's Moscow studio. Saryan worked on the portrait for four days; Akhmatova, having fallen ill, did not come to the fifth session. The portrait remained unfinished - the model's hands were not worked out.
♦ In 1949 Once again Nikolai Punin and Lev Gumilev were arrested. And the head of the MGB, Abakumov, was already rubbing his hands, but for some reason Stalin did not give permission for Akhmatova’s arrest. The point here is the behavior of Akhmatova herself. No, she knew nothing about Abakumov’s report and was least worried about herself. But she desperately wanted to save her son. Therefore, she wrote and published a cycle of loyal poems “Glory to the World,” including an anniversary ode to Stalin. And at the same time she sent a letter to Joseph Vissarionovich with a prayer for a son. In fact, for the sake of saving her son, Akhmatova threw the last victim at the feet of the supreme executioner - her poetic name. The executioner accepted the victim. And that settled everything. Lev Gumilyov, however, was still not released, but Akhmatova was not arrested either. 16 painful years of loneliness awaited her ahead.
Anna Akhmatova
♦
When the leader died, the long darkness dissipated. On April 15, 1956, the birthday of Nikolai Stepanovich Gumilyov, Lev returned from hard labor. This outcast of outcasts had no chance of remaining free, little chance of surviving and even less of becoming a global celebrity. But Lev Nikolaevich became a brilliant historian, refuting the opinion that nature rests on children. He blamed Anna Andreevna for all his troubles. And especially in the fact that she did not take him abroad while it was possible. He could not forgive either his childhood, or the cold corridor in Punin’s apartment, or her mother’s, as it seemed to him, coldness . 
Akhmatova with her son Lev Gumilev
♦ In recent years, Akhmatova finally found her own home - someone in the Leningrad Literary Fund became ashamed, and she was given a dacha in Komarovo. She called this home a booth. There was a corridor, a porch, a veranda and one room. Akhmatova slept on a sunbed with a mattress, instead of one leg there were bricks. There was also a table made from a former door. There was a drawing by Modigliani and an icon that belonged to Gumilyov.
Moses Volfovich Langleben 1964
Other facts
♦ First publication. In 1905, after the divorce of her parents, Akhmatova and her mother moved to Evpatoria. In the spring of 1906, Anna entered the Kyiv Fundukleevsky Gymnasium. For the summer she returned to Evpatoria, where Gumilyov stopped by to see her on his way to Paris. They reconciled and corresponded all winter while Anna was studying in Kiev. In Paris, Gumilyov took part in the publication of a small literary almanac “Sirius”, where he published one poem by Anna. Her father, having learned about his daughter’s poetic experiments, asked not to disgrace his name. "I don't need your name"- she answered and took the surname of her great-grandmother, Praskovya Fedoseevna, whose family went back to the Tatar Khan Akhmat. This is how the name of Anna Akhmatova appeared in Russian literature. Anna herself took her first publication completely lightly, believing that Gumilyov had “been hit by an eclipse.” Gumilyov also did not take his beloved’s poetry seriously - he appreciated her poems only a few years later. When he heard her poems for the first time, Gumilyov said: “Or maybe you’d rather dance? You are flexible..."– from a standing position, she could bend so that her head could easily reach her heels. Later, the ballerinas of the Mariinsky Theater envied her.
Anna Akhmatova. Cartoon. Altman N. I. 1915
♦ When Akhmatova's son, Lev Gumilyov, was arrested, she and other mothers went to the Kresty prison. One of the women asked if she could describe IT. After this, Akhmatova began writing "Requiem".
♦ Throughout its entire conscious life Akhmatova kept a diary, excerpts from which were published in 1973. On the eve of her death, going to bed, the poetess wrote that she was sorry that her Bible was not here, in the cardiological sanatorium. Apparently, Anna Andreevna had a presentiment that the thread of her earthly life was about to break.
♦ Akhmatova's last collection of poems was published in 1925. After this, the NKVD did not allow any work of this poetess to pass through and called it “provocative and anti-communist.” According to historians, Stalin spoke positively about Akhmatova. However, this did not stop him from punishing the poetess after her meeting with the English philosopher and poet Berlin. Akhmatova was expelled from the Writers' Union, thereby effectively dooming her to vegetating in poverty. The talented poetess was forced to translate for many years.
Anna Akhmatova and Boris Pasternak
♦ Akhmatova spent the entire Second World War in the rear, in Tashkent. Almost immediately after the fall of Berlin, the poetess returned to Moscow. However, there she was no longer considered a “fashionable” poetess: in 1946, her work was criticized at a meeting of the Writers’ Union, and Akhmatova was soon expelled from the Union of Writers. Soon another blow falls on Anna Andreevna: the second arrest of Lev Gumilyov. For the second time, the poetess’s son was sentenced to ten years in the camps. All this time, Akhmatova tried to get him out, wrote requests to the Politburo, but no one listened to them. Lev Gumilyov himself, knowing nothing about his mother’s efforts, decided that she had not made enough efforts to help him, so after his release he moved away from her.
Portrait of Akhmatova. Altman, Nathan, 1914 (my favorite portrait)
♦ In 1951, Akhmatova was reinstated in the Union of Soviet Writers and she gradually returned to active creative work. In 1964, she was awarded the prestigious Italian literary prize "Etna-Torina" and she is allowed to receive it because the times of total repression have passed, and Akhmatova is no longer considered an anti-communist poet. In 1958 the collection “Poems” was published, in 1965 – “The Running of Time”. Then, in 1965, a year before her death, Akhmatova received a doctorate from Oxford University.
♦
Before her death, Akhmatova nevertheless became close to her son Lev, who for many years harbored an undeserved grudge against her. After the death of the poetess, Lev Nikolaevich took part in the construction of the monument together with his students (Lev Gumilev was a doctor at Leningrad University). There was not enough material, and the gray-haired doctor, together with the students, wandered the streets in search of stones. 
Funeral of Anna Akhmatova. Students standing on the poetic word Joseph Brodsky (covered bottom part face with hand), Evgeniy Rein (left)
October 1, 2012 marks the hundredth anniversary of the birth of the Russian scientist, historian-ethnologist, poet, translator Lev Nikolaevich Gumilyov.
Russian scientist, historian-ethnologist, poet, translator Lev Nikolaevich Gumilyov was born on October 1 (September 18, old style) 1912 in St. Petersburg in the family of Russian poets Nikolai Stepanovich Gumilyov and Anna Andreevna Akhmatova.
From 1912 to 1916, Lev Gumilev lived with his grandmother Anna Ivanovna Gumileva in Tsarskoye Selo, near St. Petersburg, from 1916 to 1918 - on the family estate Slepnevo and in Bezhetsk (Tver region).
In August 1921, his father Nikolai Gumilyov was arrested and executed on charges of participating in a counter-revolutionary conspiracy.
In 1929, Lev Gumilev graduated from school in Bezhetsk and moved to his mother in Leningrad (now St. Petersburg).
In 1929-1930, Gumilyov studied at the unified labor school No. 67 in Leningrad and lived with his mother in the Fountain House. His first attempt to enter the Pedagogical Institute was not successful: children of the nobility were not accepted into higher educational institutions.
In November-December 1930 he worked as a laborer in the Railway and Current Service.
In the spring of 1931, he was hired as a collector by the Geological Committee (Geolcom), and worked in the Baikal Geological Expedition.
In 1932 he worked as a laboratory assistant on an expedition to Central Asia, then as a malaria scout at the Dangara state farm, he learned the Tajik language. Upon returning to Leningrad, he got a job as a collector at the Central Scientific Research Geological Prospecting Institute of Non-Ferrous and Precious Metals (TSNIGRI).
In 1933, Lev Gumilyov was a scientific and technical employee of the Geological Institute of the Academy of Sciences (GINAN), worked in Crimea as part of several expeditions.
In December 1933, Gumilyov was arrested, but no charges were brought.
In 1934 he entered the Leningrad State University(LSU) to the restored history department. In 1934-1936 he worked as part of several archaeological expeditions.
On November 23, 1934, he was arrested along with several students. On December 3, 1934, after Anna Akhmatova’s letter to Joseph Stalin, everyone was released.
On March 10, 1938, Lev Gumilyov was arrested again; on September 28, 1938, a military tribunal sentenced him to ten years in prison with disqualification for four years and confiscation of property. To serve his sentence, he was sent to Medvezhyegorsk for the construction of the White Sea Canal.
In 1939, as a result of a review of the case, the sentence was changed: five years in the camps (including imprisonment and work on the construction of the White Sea Canal). Gumilyov was sent to a forced labor camp in Norilsk.
From October 1939 to March 1943 he worked in Norilsk, mainly in the mine.
On March 10, 1943, at the end of his term, he was released from prison and left in a free settlement.
From March 1943 to October 1944 he worked as a geotechnician in a geophysical expedition on Lake Khantaiskoe and near Turukhansk in the Krasnoyarsk Territory.
In October 1944, Lev Gumilev volunteered for the front and took part in battles in East Prussia and during the capture of Berlin. He was awarded the medals “For the Capture of Berlin” and “For the Victory over Germany.”
In October 1945 he was demobilized, returned to Leningrad and was reinstated at the university.
In 1946, Gumilyov graduated from the university and entered graduate school at the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Academy of Sciences (IVAN).
After the expulsion of Anna Akhmatova from the Writers' Union in 1946, in December 1947 Lev Gumilyov was expelled from graduate school with the wording: “for inadequacy of philological preparation for the chosen specialty,” although his dissertation had already been written and candidate exams had been passed.
From February to May 1948, he worked as a librarian at the Psychotherapeutic Clinic named after. M.I. Balinsky, from May to November was research fellow Gorno-Altai expedition, took part in the excavations of one of the stone mounds in the Pazyryk valley in Altai.
On December 28, 1948, he defended his Ph.D. thesis on the topic " Political history the first Turkic Khaganate. VI-VIII centuries n. uh."
In 1949, he worked as a senior researcher at the State Museum of Ethnography (GME), and participated in the work of the Sarkel archaeological expedition.
In the same year he was accepted as a full member of the Geographical Society of the USSR Academy of Sciences.
On November 6, 1949, Lev Gumilev was arrested again and sentenced to ten years in forced labor camps. From 1949 to 1956 he served time in camps in the village of Churbai-Nura near Karaganda, in the village of Olzheras and near Omsk. During that period, he was sick a lot, but continued to work on a book on the history of Central Asia.
In December of the same year, he was hired by the State Hermitage in the Central Scientific Library.
From 1957 to 1962 he headed the work of the Astrakhan archaeological expedition of the Hermitage.
In 1959, Gumilev headed the ethnography section at the Leningrad branch of the All-Union Geographical Society (VGO).
In November 1961, Gumilyov defended his doctoral dissertation on the topic “Ancient Turks.”
In 1962, he went to work at the Scientific Research Institute of Geography and Economics of Leningrad State University (NIGEI) at the Faculty of Geography.
Anna Akhmatova died on March 5, 1966. Lev Gumilyov achieved a funeral service for his mother according to church rites, and legal proceedings about Akhmatova’s inheritance began.
In the same year, his book “The Discovery of Khazaria” was published; Gumilev met in Moscow the artist Natalia Simonovskaya, who later became his wife.
In 1970, Gumilyov's articles on history, historical geography, nomadic studies and ethnography were published; continuation of the series of articles “Landscape and Ethnicity”, the book “Search for an Imaginary Kingdom” was published, which aroused great interest among readers, and at the same time a surge of unkind criticism.
In 1971, Lev Gumilyov's publications and speeches became known abroad, his articles were published in foreign magazines. In 1972, the book “Ancient Turks” was published in Warsaw (Poland), and “Xiongnu” was published in Turin (Italy). In 1973, his book “The Search for an Imaginary Kingdom” was published in Poland.
In 1974, a harsh critical article was published in the journal “Questions of the History of the USSR” (the author was Doctor of Historical Sciences Viktor Kozlov), after which Gumilyov’s articles and books were no longer published. Gumilyov's response to the criticism was not published.
In May of the same year, Gumilyov defended his second doctoral dissertation, in geography, “Ethnogenesis and the Earth’s biosphere.”
In 1976 the Higher certifying commission(Higher Attestation Commission) refused to award Lev Gumilyov the degree of Doctor of Geographical Sciences. A period of “silence” began: Gumilyov’s works were not published, articles were returned from the editorial offices. However, his lectures became widely known, some articles were published in “non-scientific” magazines: during these years his collaboration with the magazine “Decorative Arts” began.
From 1981 to 1986, Gumilyov’s publications were banned; the Siberian Branch of the Academy of Sciences refused to publish the book “Ethnogenesis and the Biosphere of the Earth.” At the same time, he was still invited to give lectures to scientific communities in different cities, as well as for consultations at film studios, radio and television.
In 1987, Gumilyov sent a letter to the Department of Science and educational institutions under the Central Committee of the CPSU, after which the ban on publications was lifted.
In 1988, 22 publications of the scientist were published. One of the most significant publications is "Biography scientific theory, or Auto-obituary" in the magazine "Znamya" and in two issues of the magazine "Neva" entitled "Apocryphal Dialogue".
In 1989, the publishing house of Leningrad State University published the book “Ethnogenesis and the Biosphere of the Earth” (which became one of Gumilyov’s main works), and in Baku, the historical and psychological study “The Black Legend” was published in the Khazar magazine.
In the fall of the same year, Gumilyov suffered a stroke.
In 1990, the monographs “Ethnogenesis and the Earth’s Biosphere”, “ Ancient Rus' And Great Steppe"(she was subsequently awarded the A.V. Lunacharsky Prize) and "Geography of an Ethnic Group in the Historical Period" - a course of lectures on ethnic studies (original title: "The End and the Beginning Again").
On December 29, 1990 he was elected full member Russian Academy natural sciences.
In 1991, the publication of his books and articles continued, and series of lectures were organized on radio and television.
On June 15, 1992, after a serious and long illness, Lev Gumilyov died and was buried at the Nikolskoye cemetery of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra in St. Petersburg.
On October 1, 1992, Gumilyov was awarded the prize. X. 3. Tagieva (Azerbaijan) (posthumously) for the book “A Millennium Around the Caspian Sea”.
In December of the same year, his last book, “From Rus' to Russia,” was published, an advance copy of which he managed to see in the hospital.
Gumilyov is the author of over 200 articles and 12 monographs, lectures on folk studies, poems, dramas, stories and poetic translations. His teaching about humanity and ethnic groups as biosocial categories is one of the most daring theories about patterns in historical development humanity and still causes heated controversy.
In 1995, Lev Gumilev’s book “From Rus' to Russia” received the “Vekhi” award, and in 1996 it was recommended as an optional history textbook for grades 8–11 high school. In the same year, the book “Ancient Rus' and the Great Steppe” was recognized by the Book Chamber as the best book of the year.
In 2003, a monument to Lev Gumilyov, Nikolai Gumilyov and Anna Akhmatova by sculptor Andrei Kovalchuk was unveiled in the center of the city of Bezhetsk.
In August 2005, a monument to Lev Gumilyov was unveiled in Kazan.
In 1996, in Astana (Kazakhstan), one of the leading universities in the country, the Eurasian University, was named after Gumilyov. National University named after L.N. Gumilyov.
The material was prepared based on information from RIA Novosti and open sources
Biography of Lev Gumilyov
Lev Nikolaevich Gumilyov (October 1, 1912 - June 15, 1992) - Soviet and Russian scientist, historian-ethnologist, doctor of historical and geographical sciences, poet, translator from Persian. Founder of the passionary theory of ethnogenesis.
Born in Tsarskoye Selo on October 1, 1912. The son of the poets Nikolai Gumilyov and Anna Akhmatova (see pedigree), . As a child, he was raised by his grandmother on the Slepnevo estate in the Bezhetsk district of the Tver province.
Lev Gumilyov with his parents - N. S. Gumilyov and A. A. Akhmatova
From 1917 to 1929 he lived in Bezhetsk. Since 1930 in Leningrad. In 1930-1934 he worked on expeditions in the Sayan Mountains, the Pamirs and the Crimea. In 1934 he began studying at the history department of Leningrad University. In 1935 he was expelled from the university and arrested, but after some time he was released. In 1937 he was reinstated at Leningrad State University.
In March 1938, he was arrested again while a student at Leningrad State University and sentenced to five years. He was involved in the same case with two other Leningrad State University students - Nikolai Erekhovich and Theodor Shumovsky. He served his sentence in Norillag, working as a geological technician in a copper-nickel mine; after serving his term, he was left in Norilsk without the right to leave. In the fall of 1944 he voluntarily joined Soviet Army
, fought as a private in the 1386th anti-aircraft artillery regiment (zenap), part of the 31st anti-aircraft artillery division (zenad) on the First Belorussian Front, ending the war in Berlin.
In 1945, he was demobilized, reinstated at Leningrad State University, from which he graduated at the beginning of 1946 and entered graduate school at the Leningrad branch of the Institute of Oriental Studies of the USSR Academy of Sciences, from where he was expelled on the grounds of “due to the inadequacy of philological preparation for the chosen specialty.”
On December 28, 1948, he defended his thesis for Candidate of Historical Sciences at Leningrad State University and was accepted as a research assistant at the Museum of Ethnography of the Peoples of the USSR.
On November 7, 1949, he was arrested and sentenced by a Special Meeting to 10 years, which he served first in a special purpose camp in Sherubai-Nura near Karaganda, then in a camp near Mezhdurechensk in the Kemerovo region, in the Sayans. On May 11, 1956, he was rehabilitated due to the lack of evidence of a crime.
From 1956 he worked as a librarian at the Hermitage. In 1961 he defended his doctoral dissertation on history (“Ancient Turks”), and in 1974 - his doctoral dissertation on geography (“Ethnogenesis and the Earth’s biosphere”). On May 21, 1976, he was denied a second degree of Doctor of Geographical Sciences. Before retiring in 1986, he worked at the Research Institute of Geography at Leningrad State University.
With mother, Anna Akhmatova
Died on June 15, 1992 in St. Petersburg. Funeral service in the Church of the Resurrection of Christ near the Warsaw Station. He was buried at the Nikolskoye cemetery of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra.
In August 2005, in Kazan, “in connection with the days of St. Petersburg and the celebration of the millennium of the city of Kazan,” a monument was erected to Lev Gumilyov.
On the personal initiative of the President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev, in 1996, in the Kazakh capital Astana, one of the leading [source not specified 57 days] universities in the country, the Eurasian National University named after L. N. Gumilyov, was named after Gumilyov. In 2002, the office-museum of L. N. Gumilyov was created within the walls of the university.
The main works of L. N. Gumilyov
* History of the Xiongnu people (1960)
* Discovery of Khazaria (1966)
* Ancient Turks (1967)
* Quest for an Imaginary Kingdom (1970)
* Xiongnu in China (1974)
* Ethnogenesis and biosphere of the Earth (1979)
* Ancient Rus' and the Great Steppe (1989)
* Millennium around the Caspian Sea (1990)
* From Rus' to Russia (1992)
* The End and the Beginning Again (1992)
* Synchrony. Experience of describing historical time
* Part of the works
* Bibliography
* From the history of Eurasia
