Silver Age poet who founded Acmeism and fell to the Cheka's guns
At a poetry reading, asked his political convictions, he replied: 'I am a convinced monarchist.'
A central poet of the Russian Silver Age who, with Sergei Gorodetsky, founded Acmeism, rejecting Symbolism's vague mysticism for concreteness and craftsmanship in verse. His adventurous life of African expeditions and volunteer service in World War I infused his poetry with exotic color and heroic spirit; his late collection The Pillar of Fire (1921) reached a new philosophical depth, ranking among the high points of Russian poetry. He was Anna Akhmatova's first husband and the father of historian Lev Gumilev, and never concealed his anti-Bolshevik convictions. Arrested in 1921 in the Tagantsev conspiracy case, he was executed by the Cheka; his work was banned in the USSR until 1986 and he was posthumously rehabilitated in 1991.
Career Timeline
- 1905Published first collection, The Path of the Conquistadors
- 1908Published Romantic Flowers; launched literary magazine Sirius in Paris
- 1909–1910Co-founded Apollon journal; first African expedition
- 1911–1912Founded Guild of Poets with Gorodetsky, proclaimed Acmeism; published Pearls and Foreign Sky
- 1914–1917Volunteer cavalry officer in WWI; awarded two St. George Crosses for bravery
- 1918–1920Published The Pyre and The Tent; worked at Gorky's World Literature; chaired All-Russia Union of Poets
- 1921Published The Pillar of Fire; arrested Aug 3, executed Aug 26