The life of Nikolai Gumilyov

Nikolai Gumilyov is one of the central figures of the Silver Age, bright and unusual, like a flickering star. Filled by unprecedented events, the poet’s life tragically ended in August 1921: he was arrested on suspicion of participating in an anti -Soviet conspiracy and executed by the Chekists. For many years, Gumilyov’s poems were banned in the Soviet Union. His early romantic verses sang conquistadors, caravels, knights, exotic countries, pearls and roses. But the mature Gumilyov remained in the history of Russian literature as a singer of perfect courage, the author of the finest love lyrics and poet-philosophist. The biography of the poet, created by Valery Shubinsky, is not only a thorough study of Gumilyov’s life, this is an exciting journey into a distant past, immersion in a unique atmosphere, perhaps the most strange, bright and tragic era in the history of Russian culture