Nikolay Gumilyov Where the Earth Ended in Heaven: Biography. Poems

"To such unexpected and melodious nonsense..."

For Russian writers, their own surname often became a pseudonym. It was enough to move the stress in one direction or another (sometimes, in rarer cases, the form of the surname itself changed slightly). Ivanov with the stress on the last syllable turned into Ivanov with the stress on the first syllable, Zabolotsky - here, on the contrary, the stress initially overshadowed the first syllable - became Zabolotsky. After such a transformation, it was necessary to do the most difficult thing - to keep a pseudonym, for which it was necessary, at a minimum, to stay within the bounds of literature. Particularly happy or resourceful managed to hold out for a long time.

The surname Gumilyov in its original, generic sound had an emphasis on the first syllable, since it belonged to seminary surnames, at least such surnames were common among representatives of the clergy. The way it is. Gumilyov's paternal great-grandfather was a priest, his grandfather was a sexton and the son of a deacon. But Gumilyov himself, either embarrassed by such an origin, or partly despising it, did not accept his last name except with an emphasis on the last syllable, which is why the original “e” turned into “yo”. According to the memoirs of S. Makovsky, a person who was quite competent, although not an eyewitness to some of the events he described, even at the gymnasium Gumilyov did not respond to his last name with an emphasis on the first syllable, he did not get up. I will add that for a high school student this was a clear violation of discipline.

It is strange that in the family they tried to forget about some of the details related to the origin. And therefore, in the memoirs of A. Gumilyova, the wife of the poet's elder brother, information is partly incorrect. However, this applies only to the figure of the grandfather, the rest is completely reliable: “The poet's grandfather, Yakov Stepanovich Gumilyov, was a native of the Ryazan province, the owner of a small estate, in which he was the owner. He died, leaving his wife and six young children. Stepan Yakovlevich, the poet's father, was the eldest son in this large family. He graduated with honors from the gymnasium in Ryazan and entered the Moscow University at the Faculty of Medicine. Possessing great abilities and besides strong character and perseverance, he soon won a scholarship. To ensure the existence of the family, he gave lessons, sending the money he earned to his mother. After graduating from the university, S. Ya. entered the naval department and, as a naval doctor, committed more than once circumnavigations. He often spoke about his experiences in travels and the adventures associated with them, and I think that this had a great influence on the ardent fantasy of the future poet. Being quite young, S. Ya. married a sickly girl, who soon died, leaving him a three-year-old girl, Alexandra. By the second marriage, S. Ya. married the sister of Admiral L. I. Lvov, Anna Ivanovna Lvova. Although the difference in years was also large - S. Ya. was 45 years old, and A.I. 22 years old - but the marriage was happy. After the wedding, the young people settled in Kronstadt.

S. Ya. Gumilyov

A. I. Gumilyova

About Gumilyov's mother, the same memoirist says: “Anna Ivanovna, the poet's mother, was from an old noble family. Her parents were wealthy landowners. A. I. spent her childhood, youth and youth in family nest Slepnev, Tver province. A. I. was pretty - tall, thin, with a beautiful oval face, regular features and large, kind eyes; very well educated and very well read. The nature of pleasant; always happy, balanced, calm. Calmness and restraint passed to the sons, especially to Kolya. Shortly after her marriage, A.I. felt like a mother, and the expectation of a child filled her with a sense of joy. Her dream was to have a son first and then a girl. Her wish was half fulfilled, her son Dimitri was born. A year and a half later, God gave her a second child. Dreaming of a girl, A.I. prepared all the dowry for the baby in pink tones, but this time her expectation was deceived - the second son Nikolai, the future poet, was born.

Nikolai Gumilyov was born on April 3, 1886. According to family legend, the night he was born was stormy, and therefore the old nanny predicted a stormy life for the newborn. As A. Gumilyova, who, of course, also knows this period only from family legends, says, the child was “sluggish, quiet, thoughtful, but physically healthy” (this information can also be questioned, P. Luknitsky, who devoted his life to studying everything connected with Gumilyov, who collected both written and oral testimonies about him, claimed that until the age of ten the child was frail, weak and suffered from headaches). He loved to listen to stories. The children of the Gumilyovs were brought up in the strict principles of Orthodoxy. Mother often went to church to pray and light a candle, the child liked it, he went to church with his mother. All this seems to be true, at least there is no need to question the words of the memoirist, but the statement that Gumilyov was a deeply religious man, religious until the end of his days, should at least be clarified.

Kronstadt. Postcard, 1900s

Tsarskoye Selo. Postcard, 1900s

V. Khodasevich, in an article devoted to Gumilyov and Blok, comparing these two so different people who lived side by side, looked at life and literature in absolutely different ways and ended their days almost simultaneously, notes: “Blok was a mystic, an admirer of the Beautiful Lady, and wrote blasphemous poems are not only about her. Gumilyov did not forget to be baptized in all the churches, but I rarely saw people who were so unaware of what religion is. The irony is quite appropriate, while there is no need for clarification, anyone who has read Gumilyov's poems will agree that there is no religiosity whatsoever in them, despite the mention of the heavenly host, paradise and similar attributes.

However, Gumilyov's childhood, since we are talking about childhood years, no longer took place in Kronstadt. Shortly after the birth of his son, Stepan Yakovlevich Gumilyov (by the way, correct form his name is by no means Stepan, but Stefan) was dismissed from service due to illness. And on May 15, the Gumilyovs moved to Tsarskoye Selo.

What is Tsarskoye Selo in those days, says one of the Tsarskoye Selo, D. Klenovsky: “In the “City of Muses” - Tsarskoye Selo - for a long time, until the very revolution, two completely dissimilar worlds existed side by side. One of them is the solemn world of magnificent palaces and huge parks with ponds, swans, statues, pavilions, a world in which, contrary to any common artistic sense, classical colonnades, Turkish minarets and Chinese pagodas coexisted so harmoniously side by side. And the second world (right there, around the corner!) - the world of a semi-provincial garrison town, dusty in summer and snowy in winter, with one-story wooden houses behind carved front gardens, with hussars marching into the bathhouse with brooms under their arms on foot, with a white cathedral on a deserted square and with an equally deserted gostiny yard, where Mitrofanov's only bookstore in the city actually traded only once a year - in August, on the opening day of local educational institutions. These two worlds got along very well side by side, and the second, aging, gradually "grew" into the first. And when a tall white hussar horse, “transferred” from the guard to the cab shafts in old age, shaking the old times with unexpected agility, famously rolled up to the cast-iron gates of the park - the jump a century ago was somehow completely imperceptible, how imperceptible was the return to everyday life provincial (despite the proximity of the capital) modernity.

This place was like a reading book on Russian history, signs of one era coexisted with signs of other eras, interesting and glorious in their own way. Poet I.F. Annensky, who will be discussed later, not without reason dedicated almost his best poems to Tsarskoye Selo.

... There is a nymph with Taitian water,
Water that won't spill
Felitsa became a swan there
And bronze Pushkin is young.

There the waters ripple lightly
And birches proudly reign
There were roses, there were roses
Let them be carried away into the stream.
There is everything that is gone forever,
To evoke dreams of lilacs.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Say: "Tsarskoye Selo" -
And we smile through our tears.

One of Gumilyov's first memories is associated with this place. Here he began to compose poetry. Some lines are preserved in the memory of loved ones.

Lived Niagara
Near Delhi lake
Love for Niagara
The leaders all flew ...

So six-year-old Gumilyov wrote. Mother collected poems and kept them in a special box.

In 1893 he entered the preparatory class of the Tsarskoye Selo gymnasium, but very soon fell ill. Bronchitis for a weak boy turned out to be quite a serious illness. Parents had to pick up their son from the gymnasium. Now he studied at home, he was taught by a student of the Physics and Mathematics Department B. Gazalov, and when the Gumilev family moved to St. Petersburg the following year, he also prepared his student for entrance exams Gurevich Gymnasium.

Although the gymnasium was very famous and they apparently taught well there, Gumilev school course not particularly interested. He studied badly, of all the sciences, only zoology and geography aroused interest. Pets appeared at home: mice, guinea pigs, birds.

A small estate in Popovka, bought in 1890, became a favorite vacation spot. Here the children spent at first only the summer, and then the winter holidays. Gumilyov also recalled his childhood years as an adult: “In a dream - isn’t it strange? I see myself as a child all the time. And in the morning, in those short mysterious minutes between my awakening, when the consciousness swims in some kind of radiance, I feel that now, now, lines of new verses will sound in my ears ...

It's good to reminisce about your childhood too.

I was spoiled a lot as a child - more than my older brother. He was a healthy, handsome, ordinary boy, and I was weak and ill. Well, of course, my mother lived in perpetual fear for me and loved me fanatically. And I loved her more than anything in the world. I tried my best to please her. I wanted her to be proud of me."

Children's games were largely inspired by books that boys read - novels by Mine Reed, Fenimore Cooper, Gustave Aimard, Jules Verne. Was created " secret society”, his meetings were held by candlelight. These games were arranged not only with schoolmates, but also in the summer, in Popovka. They played Indians, pirates. Depicting the bloodthirsty hero of one of the novels of Louis Bussenard, Gumilyov once had to show this bloodthirstiness. Either after losing a game, or for some other reason, he had to bite off the head of a living crucian in the presence of his comrades.

Whatever they did, they rode horses, played, Gumilyov always tried to excel: “I suffered and got angry when my brother overtook me on the run or climbed trees better than me. I wanted to do everything better than others, always be the first. In everything. It was not easy for me, given my weakness. And yet I managed to climb to the very top of the spruce, which neither my brother nor the yard boys dared to do. I was very brave. Courage replaced my strength and dexterity. But I studied badly. For some reason, he did not place his pride in learning. I even wonder how I managed to finish high school. I do not understand anything in mathematics, and I have not learned to write correctly. And I'm proud of it. You should be proud of your shortcomings. It turns them into virtues.”

Petersburg

A. Gumilyova, the wife of her elder brother, later wrote: “The elder brother was more accommodating and did not protest, but predicted that not everyone would obey him like that, to which Kolya replied: “But I am stubborn, I will force you.”

Having matured a little, Gumilyov began to read other books, he read and reread Pushkin, whose poems he loved very much, V. Zhukovsky, and G. Longfellow's Song of Hiawatha, as well as D. Milton, S.T. . Coleridge, L. Ariosto. In addition to poetry, he also writes stories, where the influence of the adventure novels he read affected. One such story was published in a handwritten literary magazine published in the gymnasium. The title of the poem, written at the same time, in adolescence, is characteristic in its own way: "On the transformations of the Buddha."

No matter how much Nikolai's parents loved, the daughter and the other son were no less dear to them. And when it became known that Dmitry had tuberculosis, it was decided to move to places with a more suitable climate. The estate was sold, the apartment was left. The Gumilyovs went in 1900 to the Caucasus.

The family settled in Tiflis. Nikolai entered the Second Tiflis Gymnasium, but the head of the family did not like this school for some reason, and six months later Nikolai was transferred to the First Tiflis Men's Gymnasium, the best, as it was believed, from the city's gymnasiums. However, not so much the next educational institution as the city itself and its environs had a special influence on Gumilyov.

Tiflis. Tatar mosque and bridge on the Maidan. Postcard, 1900s

First Tiflis Gymnasium. Photography, late 19th century

They say that over time Tiflis more and more resembled St. Petersburg. At least, I. Chavchavadze claimed this in all seriousness. But this, of course, is an absurd exaggeration. Georgians in general always remind themselves of someone. Either they find something in common with the French, it seems, and you can’t distinguish the same Tbilisi from Paris, except that the Eiffel Tower does not rise above the thundering Kura jumping from stone to stone, then they turn out to be of the same root with the Basques, and support this myth in every possible way, then they decide that they are in the Caucasus as the standard of European culture, and they begin to carry it, culture, to the unenlightened masses - sitting on tanks and armored personnel carriers, they go on an educational mission to South Ossetia and Abkhazia, and are very offended when the dark peoples, not wanting to be civilized, meet them with weapons in hands. No, culture-mongering positively haunts Georgians.

The house in Tiflis where the Gumilyov family lived. Photo by P. Luknitsky, 1960s.

But one amusing detail really could remind you of St. Petersburg - on the trading square at exactly noon, as at noon in Northern Palmyra, a cannon shot was heard. The Georgians, unlike the Petersburgers, did not manage with a single shot. What to do, so warlike nation: “Early in the morning, a cannon shot called the townspeople to trading area- Maidan.

A street led to it among squat one-story shops. The shops sold more than just fruits and food. There were workshops of gold and silver craftsmen, dukhans, coffee houses, tea houses and barbers; wine cellars with huge waterskins made of buffalo skin, blacksmith shops and furriers' workshops. The noise was unimaginable. People scurried back and forth; sometimes a caravan of camels passed by, or donkeys laden with greens, grapes, and fruits stretched in a line. Often, in the midst of all this crowded bazaar, the boys started wrestling, fisticuffs, and games among themselves. And adults behaved by no means sedately. But more about that later, later.

Here, in the middle of the sidewalk, someone put a brazier with barbecue on burning coals. But the whole street is cluttered with boxes and bales.

... And on the Maidan, in the middle of the market, a banner flutters on a striped pole. Nearby, at the kapani - huge scales, people are crowding. Bags of salt, bales of cotton and wool are weighed on a drip. The people are invisible. The area is cramped, in a patch, squeezed on all sides by crooked and slanting houses of cards and fantastic buildings hanging in the sky.

A spectacle, colorful, varied, entertaining, pleasing to the eye. You can imagine that you are in some eastern city, but what to imagine, the way it is. Think about who you are - Sinbad the Sailor or Harun al Rashid, dressed in simple clothes, or Aladdin, bargaining for an old copper lamp in the market: a second-hand book dealer with a pile of books, tightly tied with a belt, peers into the crowd ... Turks and Arabs silently sit at the counters, smoke a hookah, sort out an amber rosary. A bluish smoke curls over the red-hot torne - bakeries. It smells of hot bread, spices and something else fermented.

The whole of Tiflis is represented on the Maidan: a Persian with eyes "like scrambled eggs", in a reddish ram's hat, with a red beard and painted nails, in a wide satin caftan. An Armenian in a chokha and a Moscow cap, a gloomy Lezgin and a Georgian in a hat, famously twisted on one side.

Stopping every now and then, the square is forded by the famous "ship of the desert". The guide - a Tatar or a Turk - pulls him by a rope with a ring threaded through his nostrils; the gelding of the tulukhchi-water carrier will be dragged along. Water-filled furs tremble convulsively on the sides of the gelding and splash passers-by.

After a cannon shot, which is heard at twelve o'clock, shopkeepers, pedlars and dealers had the right to buy goods.

Kinto and Karachokheli play an important role in the life of Tiflis. These are not just two urban types. And not even the usual symbols of Tiflis life. Here is what the same I. Grishashvili writes about them: “Kinto and Karachokheli are different people. Kinto is an obese loafer, a shameless swindler, a petty thief. Karachokheli is a knight without fear and reproach.

The character of a person puts a seal both on his clothes and on his appearance. Karachokheli, which means “dressed in a black chokha,” is a tall, broad-shouldered, strong man. His woolen chokha is trimmed around the edges with a braid; under the chokha - arkhaluk - a shirt made of black satin with a small pleat. Black woolen harem pants, wide at the bottom, are put into boots with an upturned toe, the tops are tied with silk braid. It is girded with a karachokheli silver type-setting belt. A pipe inlaid with silver smokes in his teeth. A pouch embroidered with gold and a motley silk scarf are tucked into the belt. On the head is a crumpled pointed hat.

Kinto - “carrying heavy things on the neck” - in the old days the word “quinti” also meant a brownie - dressed in a chintz shirt with white polka dots with a high, almost never buttoned, collar. Spacious satin bloomers tucked into socks. He is shod in accordion boots, wears a cap, a long watch chain hangs from his breast pocket. Quinto is belted with a narrow type-setting strap. He doesn't wear Chokha at all."

Thus, Kinto and Karachokhels are two completely different attitudes to the world, and since both Kinto and Karachokhels are also poets, they embody completely opposite poetic systems. Kinto is a cheerful, mocking rogue poet who loves not so much poetry as himself, Karachokheli is a poet, he creates in the name of poetry. Kinto immortalized N. Pirosmani on his oilcloths and boards, karachokheli can be seen in the paintings of L. Gudiashvili, paintings of the early, even pre-Paris period.

However, the poetic Georgian nature should be treated with some skepticism. All Georgians are poets. Southern blood is on fire, calling for accomplishments, and southern laziness prevents you from doing anything seriously. Georgians are famous sybarites.

I saw all this, I could not help but see Gumilyov, wandering around the city and its environs alone and often being late home even for dinner, which his father was angry at - the house order was observed by family members very strictly. A. Gumilyova tells about a rare exception: “Once, when Kolya came late to dinner, his father, seeing his triumphant face, without making the usual remark, asked what was wrong with him? Kolya cheerfully gave his father a "Tiflis leaflet", where his poem was printed - "I fled the cities into the forest." Kolya was proud that he was in print. He was then sixteen years old." This happened in September 1902.

The young man felt more and more independent. He is alone after summer holidays traveled to Tiflis from the estate of Berezka in the Ryazan province. The next year, when the family left, he stayed in Tiflis with a gymnasium friend, studied mathematics with a tutor, and then passed the exams for the sixth grade.

A short and not entirely serious passion for politics (Gumilyov read propaganda literature, studied even Capital) in the years preceding the first Russian revolution ended semi-anecdotally, although not without a touch of some drama. Gumilyov so convincingly and, apparently, enthusiastically agitated the workers at the mill in Berezki that, due to the dissatisfaction of the authorities, he had to leave the estate.

During the Russo-Japanese War, he was seized by a patriotic impulse and seriously intended to go to the front as a volunteer. He was barely dissuaded from this reckless undertaking.

Meanwhile, the Gumilyov family was preparing to return to Tsarskoye Selo. In order for his son to be accepted into the Nikolaev Tsarskoye Selo gymnasium, S.Ya. Gumilyov submits a corresponding petition addressed to the director of this educational institution:

“Wishing to continue the education of my son Nikolai Gumilyov, a student of the 7th grade of the 1st Tiflis Gymnasium in the educational institution entrusted to you, I have the honor to ask your order that he be placed in the 7th grade, to which he was transferred according to his knowledge, and I have the honor to report that until now he studied at the 1st Tiflis Gymnasium.

I wish Nikolai Gumilyov, if admitted to the institution, to study in the classes assigned to him in both new foreign languages, will make sufficient progress in the compulsory subjects for all, otherwise in French alone. At the same time, a diary is attached about his successes, behavior and about his transfer to the 7th grade, but I ask you to demand certificates of age, rank and inoculation from smallpox from the 1st Tiflis gymnasium.

State Councilor Stepan Gumilyov.

1903 July 11 days.

I have residence in the Ryazan province.

Station Vyshgorod

Moscow-Ryazan railway d.

Manor Berezki.

In winter, in the mountains. Tsarskoye Selo.

In addition, the parents of the future student were required to confirm in writing that they would fulfill all the necessary requirements related to the education of their son. S. Ya. Gumilyov writes:

“To the petition filed by me dated July 11, 1903, for the transfer of my son, a student of the 7th grade of the Tiflis Gymnasium, Nikolai Gumilyov, to the Imperial Nikolaev Tsarskoye Selo Gymnasium, I have the honor to add the following obligation:

1) I undertake to dress the aforementioned Nikolai Gumilyov in the prescribed form, supply all teaching aids and pay the established fee for the right to study; 2) that all orders of the authorities regarding the students of the gymnasium in general and the Imperial Nikolaev Tsarskoye Selo gymnasium in particular are carried out by them exactly, I will make every possible effort. Under the fear that otherwise he will be fired from the institution; 3) he will live in the boarding school of the Gymnasium, to whom I entrust the supervision of his behavior outside the gymnasium, and the gymnasium authorities will be immediately notified of any change in the apartment.

Another written by S.Ya. Gumilyov's obligation, which is more extensive, includes as many as thirteen points. In addition to timely tuition fees, it is mentioned that parents will monitor their son's behavior during the holidays and Sundays, so that public places, such as circuses, theater, concerts, he attended only with his parents or guardians, notify the gymnasium authorities about the change of the apartment by the family, and when leaving Tsarskoye Selo, the parent not only notifies the directorate of the gymnasium , but also to appoint another guardian instead of himself, and much more. All this is important, because the gymnasium, where he asked to take his son S.Ya. Gumilyov, could not accept a student as an external student. Gumilyov was accepted as an intern, but at the same time he was allowed to live not in a gymnasium boarding school, but at home. As a special clause in the obligation, it was indicated that S. Ya. Gumilyov undertakes to inspire his son “so that when meeting with the Sovereign Emperor and members of the Imperial family, he should stop and take off his cap, and when meeting with Mr. Minister public education and his comrade, the trustee of the educational district and his assistant, the chiefs, the honorary trustee, teachers and educators of the Gymnasium, gave them due respect. It must be remembered what kind of place Tsarskoye Selo is in order to understand the importance of this point of obligations. Both members of the royal family and the emperor himself could appear nearby at the most unexpected moment.

Tsarskoye Selo Gymnasium. Postcard, 1900s

Having received a petition, the director of the gymnasium I.F. Annensky, in turn, sent a request to the director of the First Tiflis Gymnasium, asking him to send the required documents of Gumilyov's student - a certificate of academic performance, metric and medical certificates. In the requested certificate of the troika in Russian, Latin and Greek and mathematics coexisted with fours in other subjects - the Law of God, physics, history, geography and languages ​​​​French and German. There were no other ratings.

D. Klenovsky tells about what the educational institution was like, for admission to which it was necessary to fill out a lot of papers and take on many obligations: “I was in lower grades Tsarskoye Selo gymnasium, when Innokenty Annensky was finishing his directorial career there, finally ruining the educational institution entrusted to his care. In dirty classrooms, behind slashed desks, moustached loafers roared and behaved outrageously, contriving to sit in each class for two years, or even more. The teachers were a match for their pets. Drunk, the deacon's father would come to class and snore comfortably in the pulpit. A half-mad mathematics teacher, Maryan Genrikhovich, frowned like a crested sick bird from under hanging gray eyebrows. Annensky himself appeared in the corridors two or three times a week, not more often, returning to his director's apartment from a lesson in the final class, the last to finish teaching the Greek language, which had already been canceled at that time in classical gymnasiums.

I. F. Annensky. Photography, 1900s

He spoke slowly and solemnly, with a briefcase and Greek folios under his arm, not noticing anyone, his head thrown back with inspiration, his right hand behind the side of his uniform coat. He reminded me then of Kozma Prutkov from that famous “portrait” that usually opened a volume of his works. Annensky was surrounded by a dense crowd of high school students who moved along with him, who loved him because they could completely ignore him. There was an unbelievable uproar. Annensky did not walk, but walked slowly, with Olympian calm, with an absent look.

About any confidential closeness of I.F. Annensky and Gumilyov were then out of the question. Even after the appearance of the collection Quiet Songs, released in 1904, absolutely no one knew that the author, who took refuge under the pseudonym Nick. T-o, and the director of the gymnasium, the famous Hellenist, is one and the same person. This idea is shared by S. Makovsky, who knew both of them well. And if so, then I.F. could not. Annensky and associate with Tsarskoye Selo. The understanding of who this quiet elderly gentleman really is came much later, as the connection between the poets later arose, the connection that Gumilyov tells about in the poem, dedicated to memory I.F. Annensky (included in the collection "Quiver").

* * *

To such unexpected and melodious nonsense
Calling with me the minds of people,
Innokenty Annensky was the last
From Tsarskoye Selo swans.

I remember the days: I, timid, hasty,
Entered the high office
Where calm and courteous waited for me,
Slightly graying poet.

A dozen phrases, captivating and strange,
As if accidentally dropping
He threw nameless people into space
Dreams - weak me.

Oh, in the dusk receding things
And barely audible spirits
And that voice, gentle and ominous,
Already reading poetry!

Some kind of resentment was crying in them,
Copper rang and a thunderstorm blew,
And there, above the closet, the profile of Euripides
Blinded burning eyes.

... I know the bench in the park; I was told,
That he liked to sit on it,
Thoughtfully looking at how blue they gave
Alleys in pure gold.

There in the evening it is both scary and beautiful,
Marble slabs shine in the fog
And a woman, like a chamois is timid,
In the darkness, he hurries to the passerby.

She looks, she sings and cries,
And she cries and sings again
Not understanding what it all means
But only feeling - not the same.

The water murmurs, cutting through the floodgates,
The haze smells of raw grass,
And the voice of a lonely muse is pitiful,
The last one is Tsarskoye Selo.

I.F. Annensky was then still alive, Gumilyov was young and least of all resembled a poet. Rather, the poet in the usual sense of the word. Youth, the desire to stand out was also reflected in appearance and in actions. “I began to look closely at Gumilyov in the gymnasium. But with caution - after all, he was 6 or 7 classes older than me! - recalls D. Klenovsky. - That's why I didn't see it properly... And if I remember anything, it's purely external. I remember that he was always especially clean, even smartly dressed. In the gymnasium magazine there was a caricature of him: he stood, preening, in front of a mirror, pulled into a uniform, in trousers with thongs, in patent leather boots. He loved to be at the gymnasium balls, energetically looked after the gymnasium students.

A similar impression was left by another younger contemporary, E. Hollerbach, who writes that Gumilyov had an “adult” appearance, was a swashbuckler, and wore a mustache.

Gumilyov himself spoke about this time as follows: “I have always been a snob and an esthete. At fourteen I read The Picture of Dorian Gray and imagined myself as Lord Henry. I began to pay great attention to appearance and considered myself ugly. I suffered from this. I really, probably, was then ugly - too thin and awkward. The features of my face have not yet become spiritualized - after all, over the years they acquire expressiveness and harmony. In addition, as often in boys, a red complexion and acne. And the lips are very pale. I would lock the door in the evenings and, standing in front of the mirror, hypnotize myself to become handsome. I firmly believed that I could change my appearance by willpower. It seemed to me that every day I become a little more beautiful.

Much later, in a conversation, A. Akhmatova said that the Tsarskoye Selo period of life was a “dark” time for Gumilyov, and the Tsarskoye Selo people themselves were “beast-like”. Perhaps so, but the reason for such an assessment, named in the conversation, can be understood not only as a kind of metaphor. Gumilyov, said A. Akhmatova to her interlocutor, was "an ugly duckling in the eyes of Tsarskoye villagers." If you look closely at Gumilyov's photographs, especially the one that was taken for the investigative case, immediately after the arrest, you can see that Gumilyov's nose is a duck, and his head is large, but of a strange shape, not quite proportional, plus very short hair, similar to down . In his youth, although Gumilyov wore long hair then, this resemblance, I think, was even stronger.

“One must always follow the line of greatest resistance. If you accustom yourself to this, nothing will be scary ... ”- Nikolai Gumilyov remained true to this principle throughout his life. Even before his own execution, the poet retained iron restraint, and neither with a gesture, nor with a muscle of his face trembling with excitement, he did not express the slightest anxiety about the fact that he had only a few minutes left to live. According to the recollections of eyewitnesses, before the execution, smiling, he calmly finished smoking his cigarette - his equanimity impressed even his executioners.

Famous poet Russian emigration, Georgy Ivanov, will later say: “A terrible, senseless death? No - terrible, but having deep meaning. Better death Gumilyov himself could not wish for himself ... ". Perhaps it is. After all, this amazing person repeatedly repeated that "death must be earned." And he, indeed, "earned" for himself the right to bravely smile in the face of his executioners, having lived, albeit a short one (only 35 years), but very bright life, in which there was everything - both love, and glory, and, of course, the constant walking "along the line of greatest resistance."

“Niagara lived near Lake Delhi, the leaders all flew with love for Niagara ...”

When little Kolya was seven years old, he and his parents moved from Tsarskoe Selo to Petrograd to 3rd Rozhdestvenskaya Street (now called 3rd Sovetskaya). In those distant years of childhood, Gumilyov's daily routine was scheduled literally by the hour: "breakfast, talking about business and politics, walking, reading aloud, candles were lit in the evening, guests came, white tablecloths crunched." However, there was one curious detail that largely determined the future development of the boy. So, Stepan Yakovlevich Gumilyov liked to tell his son about traveling to different parts of the world, often referring to his own experience. round-the-world trips. Kolya not only listened attentively to his father - he laid out a map on the table and diligently marked the paths of the heroes of the stories on it, not even assuming that in the future he would develop his own routes. By the way, the first verses young poet were devoted specifically to travel: "Niagara lived near Lake Delhi, the leaders all flew with love for Niagara ...".

The address: 3rd Sovetskaya street, 32

"Orchid. Wilde. Kanander"

Studying at the prestigious Gurevich gymnasium evoked “endless longing” for Gumilyov, so he studied very badly: he stayed twice for a year, first in the fourth and then in the seventh grade. What is most surprising - not only was he not ashamed of this, but even considered it a reason for pride: “You should be proud of your shortcomings, this turns them into virtues ...”. In the eighth grade, Nikolai published the first book of poems called "The Way of the Conquistadors" - he took the manuscript to the printing house on his own, and then took 300 printed copies.

Gumilyov began to fall in love and sometimes do crazy things for the ladies of his heart while still studying at the gymnasium. His first object of sighing was the girl Masha Marks - because of her, the poet became interested in Marxism for a while and even tried to read Capital.

The second love of Nikolai was the schoolgirl Tanya - this short love story for young Romeo turned into a real embarrassment. Wanting to impress the young lady, he answered the typical questions of the girl's album “your favorite flower, writer, dish?”, “Orchid. Wilde. Kanander". The ardent young man was so pleased with himself that he decided to show off his originality to his family. Anna Ivanovna, just in case, asked her son again: “Repeat, Kolenka, what is your favorite dish? ..”. "Kanander. This, mother, don't you know? - French very expensive and very tasty cheese, ”Gumilyov was terribly proud, when he suddenly heard in response:“ Camembert, Kolenka, not canander! ..». Kolenka was ready to fall through the ground - all night he was deciding how to steal the album and how best to destroy it. But by morning it became obvious that it was easier to fall out of love with the beautiful Tatyana.

Another funny episode was connected with passing the exam. When Gumilyov was asked why he prepared so poorly, he answered with a challenge: “I think that coming to the exam prepared ... it's like playing ... with marked cards!”.

The address: Ligovsky prospect, building 1

Flowers of the Empress as a gift

Nikolai Gumilyov's acquaintance with Anna Akhmatova took place in Tsarskoe Selo, where the schoolboy came to visit his parents. The girl did not like him at all, but it was not in the nature of the poet to give up. So, on the birthday of his beloved, he presented her with a beautiful bouquet of flowers as a gift, but, having heard the words of her mother “God ... this is already the seventh bouquet today!”, Silently left and returned only a few hours later with a new, even more magnificent bouquet. “How nice, Kolya, of you to make us happy with the eighth bouquet!”, - not wanting to offend the young man, Akhmatova's mother still could not help smiling. “Sorry, this is not the eighth bouquet, these are the flowers of the Empress!” was received in response. It turned out that Gumilyov secretly made his way into the royal garden and plucked flowers from the flower bed under the very windows of the empress's wing, thereby committing the first, but by no means the last, romantic act for Anna Akhmatova.

The address: Tsarskoye Selo, corner of Orangery and Srednaya streets, Poluboyarinov's house

The era of "Clouds"

After five refusals and two suicide attempts (Gumilyov sincerely believed that any woman could demand that he commit suicide), Anna Akhmatova finally accepted the proposal of the poet's hand and heart. In 1912, the couple moved to Tuchkov Lane, affectionately calling their new home "Tuchka". "Cloud" is not only the first joint apartment of Gumilyov and Akhmatova, but also, in principle, his first independent address in St. Petersburg. It was here that the son Leo was born to the couple of poets, and it was here that such a new trend in poetry as acmeism began to emerge - its development took place within the framework of the activities of the famous poetic association "Poets' Workshop".

In the last years of her life, Anna Akhmatova will tell the poet Lev Ozerov how the idea of ​​a new trend with such an unusual name appeared: “Gumilyov argued and quarreled with ... symbolists. Youth - six people - separated. Gathered, looking for a name. Reached for Greek vocabulary. I was ordered to remember new term- "acme".

The address: Tuchkov lane, house 17

"Gumilyov? Taken to Gorokhovaya!"

Eternally in love, eternally risking Gumilyov lived surprisingly carelessly Last year own life. He was warned about surveillance, even offered to run away, but the poet only shook his hands and calmly answered: “Thank you, but I have no reason to run ...”. The arrest took place on August 3, 1921 - Gumilyov was placed in cell No. 7 (according to another version - No. 77) of the House of Preliminary Detention.

It was here that he scrawled his last words on the wall, about which his comrade in misfortune, philologist and translator Georgy Stratanovsky will remain silent until the very gray hairs: “Lord, forgive my sins, I’m going to last way. Gumilyov. They tried to help the poet, until the last refusing to believe that everything was lost - they finally gave up only when terrible words sounded from the “window-embrasure”: “Gumilyov? Taken to Gorokhovaya!" It was the end - they were taken out from there to be shot.

The execution took place on the night of August 26 - "the romance, the poet, the duellist, the vagabond and the dandy, the adventurer and lover", who had walked "along the line of greatest resistance" all his life, was gone. The poet's mother refused to believe in his death: “The son is alive, I know!” she repeated, as if in delirium. Someone, apparently wanting to calm her down, convinced this poor woman that Gumilyov managed to escape by fleeing to his beloved Africa.

Anna Akhmatova after the execution ex-spouse left all their disagreements and mutual insults in the past and became an ideal widow for him: she carefully kept his poems and manuscripts, took care of their publication. Yes, and in the works of the poetess themselves, no, no, but the shadow of this amazing person.

The address: Shpalernaya street, 25

Vera Luknitskaya
1886 - 1904
Sun, burn the real
For the sake of the future
But have mercy on the past!
April 3, 1886, according to the old style, in Kronstadt, in the house of Grigorieva on Ekaterininskaya Street, a son was born to the naval doctor Stepan Yakovlevich Gumilyov13 and his wife Anna Ivanovna, who was baptized by Nikolai twelve days later. The sacrament of baptism at home was performed by the archpriest of the Kronstadt military hospital of the Alexander Nevsky Church, Fr. Vladimir Krasnopolsky. The godfather was Admiral Lev Ivanovich Lvov, the poet's maternal uncle, the godmother was Alexandra Stepanovna Sverchkova, the daughter of S. Ya. Gumilyov from his first marriage.
In the materials of Luknitsky, without specifying a date, there is an entry: "The poet's ancestor on the mother's side, Prince Milyuk, was the first owner of the Slepnevo estate in the Bezhetsky district of the Tver province 14.
I. Ya. Milyukov (the poet's great-great-grandfather on his mother's side) participated in the battle near Ochakovo.
Ya. A. Viktorov (the poet's great-grandfather on his mother's side) participated in the battle of Austerlitz, was wounded, lost his sight and was taken to Russia as a batman. Lived for over a hundred years. (According to Akhmatova, Pavel Nikolaevich recorded Gumilyov's poems from the unfinished cycle about Napoleon, 1912)
My great-grandfather was wounded at Austerlitz
And dead in the forest carried away by a batman,
To languish for long, long years
In his sad and poor estate
There is a note: it is possible that instead of the word "dull" in the poem there was the word "gloomy".
On October 6, 1806, Ivan Lvovich Lvov was born - the poet's grandfather on his mother's side. December 27, 1814 Juliana Yakovlevna Lvova was born, nee. Viktorova, is the poet's maternal grandmother.
On July 30, 1836, the poet's father, Stepan Yakovlevich, was born in Zholudev, Ryazan province. Father's father was a deacon in Zholudev. Stepan Yakovlevich was the youngest in the family, he also graduated from the seminary. His sisters were married to priests.
A month and a half after the birth of his son, S. Ya. Gumilyov was promoted to state councilor and dismissed due to illness from service "with a uniform and a pension", and on May 15 the family moved to Tsarskoe Selo.
The Gumilyovs bought a two-story house with a garden and outbuildings at No. 42 Moskovskaya Street, opposite Torgovy Lane. (Today, a boarding school has been built on this site. The Gumilyovs' house has not been preserved. But if it had been preserved, it would most likely have been under No. 55).
The poet grew up small, thin, and until the age of ten he was in very poor health. He suffered from severe headaches. After walks, especially city walks, he felt completely ill. Only in Tiflis at the age of fifteen did the headaches stop completely.
Gumilyov's mother valued only one method of education - kindness, and in education she considered the main and necessary thing - to develop taste. She argued that the essence human nature determined and expressed by our tastes. To develop taste in a child is the same as to form his character.
In the sixth year, Kolya learned to read.
The first attempts at literary creativity date back to this time. The boy composed fables, although he still did not know how to write them down. Soon he began to write poetry. P. N. Luknitsky wrote down, according to Akhmatova, an excerpt from a poem by six-year-old Kolya Gumilyov:
Lived Niagara
Near Delhi lake
Love for Niagara
The leaders all flew ...
In the spring of 1893, N. Gumilyov passed the exam for the preparatory class of the Tsarskoye Selo gymnasium. Before the exams, he doubted his knowledge and shared his doubts in secret with the governess. However, at the exams he answered quite calmly, without any excitement, and it turned out that he knew everything very well.
Gumilyov's character developed calm, gentle and not at all gloomy. He patiently endured all the troubles associated with his poor health, was quiet, rarely cried. His nanny, Mavra Ivanovna, became attached to the boy for his complaisance, affectionateness, meek disposition and lived with the Gumilevs for four years.
Life in the house proceeded measuredly and calmly. Every day was painted exactly like a sheet of music: breakfast, conversations about business and politics, walks, reading aloud, candles were lit in the evening, guests came, white tablecloths crunched ...
Classes in the gymnasium were tiring. Sometimes the boy stayed up until eleven o'clock at night: he made extracts from books, memorized troparia. At the end of autumn, he fell ill with bronchitis. Parents took their son from the gymnasium and invited a home teacher. The boy began to study at home with a student of the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics Bagrapy Ivanovich Gazalov. The student stayed with the pupil in the summer.
In autumn, the Gumilyovs moved from Tsarskoye Selo to St. Petersburg, rented an apartment in Shamin's house, on the corner of Degtyarnaya and 3rd Rozhdestvenskaya streets. The house on Rozhdestvenskaya Street then stood at No. 32. The Gumilyovs lived in apartment No. 8. Now this street is called 3rd Sovetskaya. The building, fortunately, has been preserved.
Gazalov prepared Gumilyov for the entrance exams to the Gurevich gymnasium - famous teacher and directors of own educational institutions.
The gymnasium was located on Ligovsky Prospekt, No. 1, that is, on the corner of Basseinaya (now Nekrasov Street).
The boy became interested in zoology and geography. He brought animals at home - guinea pigs, white mice, birds, squirrels. When they read the description of a trip at home, Kolya always followed the route on the map. The teacher, unable to instill in his little friend a love for mathematics, gave him a book with the inscription: "To the future zoologist", and jokingly called him Lobachevsky.
The course of compulsory education did not arouse interest in the gymnasium Gumilyov, and it would be an exaggeration to talk about academic success. I went to the gymnasium without zeal. He deftly compensated for his indifference to regular studies by making up for lost time in a short time and, quickly abandoning his studies, became more and more immersed in reading. I always loved my first book - Andersen's fairy tales. Akhmatova told how Gumilyov jealously guarded this book and, already famous poet loved to read it.
In 1890, the Gumilyovs bought an estate along Nikolaevskaya railway- in Popovka. The estate is small: two houses, an outbuilding, a pond and a park framed coniferous forest.
In more than one poem, Gumilyov refers to his childhood. And the stanza:
Flowers that I picked as a child
In the green dragon swamp
Alive, on a thin stem,
Oh, where do you bloom now?
uttered in memory of Akhmatova about Popovka.
The Gumilyovs spent ten years in their beloved Popovka, at first only the summer months, and then, with the admission of children15 to the gymnasium, the winter holidays.
Gumilyov said that nothing helps to write poetry like childhood memories:
"When I'm in a particularly creative state ... I live like a double life, half here in today, half there in the past, in childhood. Especially at night.
In a dream - isn't it strange? I see myself as a child all the time. And in the morning, in those short mysterious minutes between my awakening, when my consciousness swims in some kind of radiance, I feel that now, now, lines of new verses will sound in my ears ...
It's good to reminisce about your childhood too.
I was spoiled a lot as a child - more than my older brother. He was a healthy, handsome, ordinary boy, and I was weak and ill. Well, of course, my mother lived in perpetual fear for me and loved me fanatically. And I loved her more than anything in the world. I tried my best to please her. I wanted her to be proud of me."
Bright childhood memories comforted him, entertained, gave strength, helped to cope with failures. He liked to talk about how he was very happy when he was little, and he understands what a great gift of fate - happy childhood. He believed that all the moral ideas of adult life - from childhood. He loved to recall his conversations with his mother... She was little touched by her son's gymnasium failures, she wanted him to understand one important thought: science has done a lot for humanity, but pitiful is the science that would want to replace the holiness of faith.
Perhaps the words of the poet were inspired by conversations with her: “Pay attention to what a never-ending thread of truth passes here. Does not the deity also speak to our mind in every star, in every blade of grass, if we only open our eyes and our soul? Our reverence does not now have such a character, but is it not still considered a special gift, a sign of what we call "poetic nature", the ability to see in every object its divine beauty, to see how each object represents an eye through which we can look, look into infinity itself?
A person who is able to notice everywhere what deserves love, we call a poet, an artist. And does not every person feel how he himself becomes higher, paying due respect to what is really higher than him?
In the summer of 1897 rest in Popovka was interrupted - the family went to Zheleznovodsk: according to the instructions of the doctors, Gumilyov's father had to undergo a course of treatment. The boy did not like traditional walks at the foot of Zheleznaya Mountain. He loved to read. And yet, having captured a fair collection of tin soldiers from home, he arranged battles of all branches of the military.
Returning to St. Petersburg in the autumn, the Gumilyovs settled in a spacious apartment at Nevsky Prospekt, No. 97, apt. no 12.
The boy began classes in the second grade, as always, indifferently calmly. But carried away tin soldiers their peers. Exemplary battles were arranged, in which each high school student put up an entire army.
So he became close to his comrades. He organized a "secret society" with them, where he played the role of Brahma-Tama. In the building of the gymnasium, in the people's room, in an abandoned glacier, in an empty basement, meetings of members of the "society" were held by candlelight, in the most secret atmosphere. The boys were obsessed with secret passages, dungeons, conspiracies and intrigues, they tapped walls in houses, climbed through basements and attics, looked for treasures, were disappointed and again carried away.
At this time, Kolya Gumilyov read everything that was at home and with friends. Parents had to negotiate with a familiar book dealer. His favorite writers: Mine Reed, Jules Verne, Fenimore Cooper, Gustave Aimard, favorite books: "Children of Captain Grant", "Journey of Captain Hatteras".
Gumilyov's gymnasium friend L. Leman said that Nikolai Stepanovich's room in St. Petersburg was cluttered with cardboard armor, weapons, helmets, and various other armor. And books, books. And his love for animals grew: parrots, dogs, newts and other living creatures were permanent residents in the Gumilyovs' house.
He liked to talk about Spain and China, about India and Africa, he wrote poetry and prose. Probably, the reason was not only books, but also the stories of his father about his voyages in the seas and oceans. And the military stories of Uncle Admiral.
Looking forward to spring, Gumilyov is free again, in Popovka. More and more often, he now replaced the games of soldiers with "live" games with his comrades as Indians, pirates, cowboys. Played selflessly. At one time he played the role of Nen-Saib - the hero of the sepoy uprising in India. He even demanded to be called that. Then he became Nadod Red-Eyed - the hero of one of Bussenard's novels. By rank, he was supposed to be bloodthirsty. But the bloodlust didn't work. Once the boys were going to fry the caught crucians on the fire. In retribution for losing in some game, one of the comrades demanded from Kolya to bite off the head of a living crucian. The procedure is not pleasant. But Kolya, in order to maintain the reputation of a bloodthirsty, courageously coped with the task, after which, however, he refused the role.
FROM THE DIARY OF LUKNITSKY
24.12. 1927
AA16: "In July 1925, I was in Bezhetsk with A.I. Gumilyova. She willingly spoke to me about N.S. There I saw two interesting photos: an island on a pond in Popovka and a group of children in a boat (Gumilyov and Krasnos ...) "17
Parents usually gave each of the participants in the games a horse, and it was easy for them to imagine themselves as cowboys or Indians. Gumilyov rode both saddled and unsaddled horses, and with his courage aroused the delight of his comrades. There was an island in the center of the pond, a common place for battles. The company was divided into two detachments: one defended the island, the other took it by storm. In these games, Gumilyov stood out for his adult courage, with all his sweet naivety, and his temper with infinite kindness.
From childhood, Gumilyov was painfully proud: “I suffered and got angry when my brother overtook me on the run or climbed trees better than me. I wanted to do everything better than others, always be the first. In everything. For me, with my weakness, it was not easy "And yet I managed to climb to the very top of the spruce, which neither my brother nor the yard boys dared to do. I was very brave. Courage replaced my strength and dexterity. But I studied badly. For some reason I did not put my pride in learning "I even wonder how I managed to finish the gymnasium. I don't understand anything in mathematics, and I didn't learn to write correctly. And I'm proud of it. One should be proud of one's shortcomings. This turns them into virtues"17.
And he also understood: a person needs to be brave, he must go forward and justify himself as a person. He is only as human as he conquers his fear.
I became more and more interested in writing. He already had a whole notebook of his own poems. Nobody could stop him. Loved Pushkin; I read not only myself - I forced my comrades to read.
Autumn. Petersburg. Classes in the third grade of the gymnasium. Visits to morning performances for Tsarskoye Selo gymnasium students, among whom Gumilyov was invariably. "Ruslan and Lyudmila" and "Life for the Tsar" - at the Mariinsky; Ostrovsky - in Alexandrinsky; "The Drowned Bell" by Hauptmann, Shakespeare - in the Small. Zhukovsky was added to Pushkin's personal library, then Longfellow - "The Song of Hiawatha"; Milton - "Paradise Lost"; Ariosto - " Furious Roland"; Coleridge - "The Poem of the Old Sailor", which the poet would later translate himself;
A handwritten literary magazine was published in the gymnasium. In it, Nikolai Stepanovich placed his story: something similar to Hatteras' Travels. There were northern lights, a ship covered in ice, polar bears. According to the books of the publisher Gerbel and the editions of the "Russian Classroom Library" edited by Chudinov, which Gumilyov bought and read everything in a row, he made notes, and now it was no longer his father who told him about swimming (he became more and more severely ill), but the son "did reports" on contemporary literature. Moreover, Stepan Yakovlevich always noted that his son speaks well without worrying, calmly, and most importantly, consistently, that he has all the makings of a future lecturer.
Gumilyov was then twelve years old.
The following year he wrote a long poem, "On the Transformations of the Buddha."
1900 The older brother Dmitry was diagnosed with tuberculosis, and the parents decided to move them to the Caucasus, to Tiflis, to improve the health of the children. They left an apartment in St. Petersburg, sold Popovka, sold furniture.
Gumilyov entered the fourth grade of the Second Tiflis Gymnasium, studied for six months, and on January 5, 1901. his parents transferred him to the First Tiflis Men's Gymnasium, located on Golovinsky Prospekt (now Rustaveli Avenue). This gymnasium was considered the best gymnasium cities.
During the winter, Stepan Yakovlevich managed to acquire a small, 60 acres, Berezka estate in the Ryazan province. Like every person in his declining years, he was probably drawn to his native places. But still, rather, the climate and life-giving nature determined this choice. In addition, northern children needed healthy rest with cool summers.
May 25, 1901 The Gumilyovs went to the estate, had a wonderful summer, and by September 1 returned to Tiflis.
Fifth grade high school. Successes, as always, are average, and in Greek - none at all. A re-examination has been scheduled for the fall. With this, Gumilyov left, not in the least, though not upset, to Berezki. There, as always, he read, rode horses, composed poems about Georgia and about love.
Impressed by Nadson, he wrote in girlish albums:
When the heart stops beating
Will the sore chest freeze?
When will I enjoy peace
Will the turn come in a damp grave?
But, despite these sepulchral verses, Gumilyov was not a pessimist. Vice versa. Love, mystery, unexplored passion attract him more and more, making his life by no means monotonous and boring.
He came from Berezki to Tiflis alone, on his own: this feeling was infinitely more interesting than the exam, which he nevertheless successfully passed.
At the beginning of September 1902 He appeared in the newspaper "Tiflis Leaf" with his own poem "I fled from the cities to the forest." The first publication brought him great joy and determined further way.
He liked his independent life so much that in the spring of the following year he stayed in Tiflis with a friend from the gymnasium - Bortsov, took a tutor in mathematics and passed the exams for the sixth grade. The range of his interests expanded: he became interested in astronomy, began to take drawing lessons, made a lot of walks in the mountains and hunting, read Vladimir Solovyov, fell in love with Nekrasov, sometimes attended dance parties with friends at home - the Linchevskies, although he was dismissive of dancing. Distinguished by the seriousness of behavior. He diligently improved his unusual appearance with refined manners.
May 21, 1903 Gumilyov graduated from the sixth grade and received from the director of the First Tiflis Gymnasium a vacation ticket to the Ryazan province for a period up to September 1, 1903.
At that time, most of the youth of Tiflis was in a revolutionary mood. Under the influence of his comrades, in particular one of the Legrand brothers, Boris, later a political worker, Gumilyov also became interested (he always quickly caught fire) in politics. Started studying Marx's "Capital". And in the summer, in the village, between training in horseback riding and reading left-wing political literature, he began to campaign among the locals. Since he successfully cultivated in himself the ability to teach, impress, lead - in a word, lead, he also succeeded with the mill workers, which, naturally, caused a lot of serious trouble on the part of the provincial authorities: the high school student had to leave Berezki.
But the passion turned out to be shallow. Gumilyov never returned to politics and did not seek to delve into it. When did it start Russo-Japanese War, he, having seen enough of the major pictures of the victorious actions of the Russian army pasted on the walls of houses and in shop windows, decided, "as a citizen and patriot of Russia", to go to the front as a volunteer without fail. Relatives and friends hardly managed to dissuade him, explaining to him all the shameful senselessness of the massacre on Far East.
Let me give you a few examples of his attitude to politics.
In a letter to Bryusov on 08.01.1907 from Paris, Gumilyov wrote that "politics is carefully expelled" from the journal "Sirius" he created.
In one of the Parisian letters to Bryusov: "... the newspaper itself seemed pretty to me, but I am so naive in matters of politics that I did not understand what direction it is ..."
Larisa Reisner wrote to the Italian Scarpa in 1922: "Malheureusement il ne comprenait rien dans la politique, ce "parnassien russe"18.
Without using summer rest to the end, Gumilyov with his mother and sister went to Tsarskoye Selo. The rest of the family continued to live in Berezki. Stepan Yakovlevich sent a petition to the director of the Nikolaev Tsarskoye Selo Gymnasium to place his son, a student of the First Tiflis Gymnasium N. S. Gumilyov, in the seventh grade, "to which he was transferred according to his knowledge."
In Tsarskoye Selo, the Gumilyovs rented an apartment - at the corner of Orangery and Srednyaya streets, in Poluboyarinov's house (now Srednyaya Street is called Kommunarov Street, and Orangery Street is called Karl Marx). Nikolai, to the surprise of his relatives and the horror of the owners, turned one of the rooms into a "seabed" - he painted the walls to match the color sea ​​water, painted mermaids, fish, various sea monsters, underwater plants on them, arranged a fountain in the middle of the room, overlaid it with outlandish shells and stones.
The director of the Imperial Nikolaev Tsarskoye Selo Gymnasium, I.F. Annensky, had no vacancies for external students, and on July 11, 1903, Nikolai Gumilyov was appointed an intern, but with permission, as an exception, to live at home.
“I have always been a snob and an aesthete,” Gumilyov recalled. “At the age of fourteen, I read The Picture of Dorian Gray and imagined myself as Lord Henry. I began to pay great attention to appearance and considered myself ugly. I suffered from this. I really, probably, was then ugly - too thin and clumsy. The features of my face have not yet become spiritualized - because they acquire expressiveness and harmony over the years. Besides, as often in boys, a red complexion and acne. And my lips are very pale. In the evenings I locked the door and ", standing in front of a mirror, hypnotized himself to become handsome. I firmly believed that by the power of will I could remake my appearance. It seemed to me that every day I become a little more beautiful. "
On December 24, 1903, mutual friends introduced Gumilyov to the schoolgirl Anna Gorenko, the future poet Anna Akhmatova. Then they met at the rink. Some of Gumilyov's poems and poems of this period were dedicated to Ana Gorenko and later included in his first collection "The Way of the Conquistadors". On the copy of the collection she presented to PN Luknitsky, they are marked by Akhmatova's hand: "to me."
AUTUMN SONG
Autumn bliss kiss
Burned in the forests with a scarlet star,
And the song of transparent-voiced jets
She seemed quiet and tired.
A dry leaf fell from the trees,
Now pale yellow, now crimson,
Weeping sadly over the earth
Among the dewy fog
And the sun is lush in the distance
Dreamed of abundance
And kissed the face of the earth
In the languor of sweet impotence
And in the evenings in the sky
Scarlet clothes burned
And reddened, in tears,
Weeping Doves of Hope
Flying in boundless beauty
Hearts beckoned to the distant
And they built on high
Wreaths of airy white lilies
And that autumn was full
With words of burning melody,
Like a fruitful wife
As the ancestor of Eve
In the spring of 1925 Akhmatova showed P.N. Luknitsky a bench under a huge spreading tree, where in the spring of 1904. Gumilyov first declared his love to her. And Luknitsky photographed her.
From the memoirs of a childhood friend Akhmatova V. S. Sreznevskaya:
"With Kolya Gumilyov, then still a seventh-grade schoolboy, Anya met in 190419, on Christmas Eve. We left the house, Anya and I with my younger brother Sergei, to buy some decorations for the Christmas tree, which we always had on the first day of Christmas.
It was a wonderful sunny day. Near Gostiny Dvor we met with the "Gumilyov boys": Mitya (senior) - he studied at the Marine cadet corps, - and with his brother Kolya - a gymnasium student at the Imperial Nikolaev Gymnasium. I used to know them through a common music teacher...
Having met them on the street, we went further together - Mitya and I, Anya and Kolya, for shopping, and they escorted us home. Anya was not in the least interested in this meeting, all the less so, because I was always bored with Mitya; I thought (and I was already fifteen then!) that he did not have any merit to be noted by me.
But, obviously, Kolya did not react to this meeting in the same way. Often, returning from the gymnasium, I saw him walking in the distance, waiting for Anya to appear. He made a special acquaintance with Anya's elder brother Andrey in order to get into their rather closed house. Anya did not like him - probably, at this age, girls like disappointed young people, over twenty-five years old, who have already known many forbidden fruits and are fed up with their spicy taste. But even then, Kolya did not like to retreat before failures. He was not handsome - during this early period he was somewhat wooden, arrogant on the outside and very insecure on the inside. He read a lot, loved the French Symbolists, although he was not very fluent in French ... He was tall, thin, with very beautiful hands, a somewhat elongated pale face, I would say, not very noticeable in appearance, but not devoid of elegance ...
Later, having matured and having passed the harsh cavalry military school, he became a dashing rider who trained young soldiers, a brave officer .. pulled himself up and, thanks to his excellent long-legged figure and broad shoulders, was very pleasant and even interesting, especially in uniform. And a smile and a somewhat mocking, but sweet and not impudent look of large, intent, slightly squinting eyes, were liked by many and many. He spoke in a slightly singsong voice, pronouncing "r" and "l" unsteadily, which gave his dialect a peculiarity that was not at all ugly, not at all similar to tongue-tied tongue. I liked the way he read poetry...
We walked a lot, and in these walks sometimes we were often "caught" by Kolya, who was waiting somewhere around the corner!
I confess ... both of us were not happy about this, we often began to torment him: knowing that Kolya could not stand German language, the two of us began to read aloud the longest German poems ... And poor Kolya listened patiently, stoically all the way - and still came home with us.
At Easter 1904 The Gumilyovs gave a ball in their house, at which Anya Gorenko was among the guests for the first time. Their regular meetings began this spring.
They attended evenings at the town hall, were on tour with Isadora Duncan, at a student evening at the Artillery Assembly, participated in a charity performance at the club on wide street(now - Lenina Street), were at several then fashionable seances with Burns Meyer, although they treated them very ironically.
They met, walked, skated. Gumilyov, who at that time passionately consumed books, shared his "acquisitions" with Anna Gorenko. What were they talking about? Of course, about poetry, about the happiness of creativity, about courage and nobility.
The thoughts that occupied them, after a few years, gained strength, maturity and new meaning old truths, and then they were uttered, testing themselves for strength, for durability. And talks about sin, about suffering, about temptation are only premonitions of passions and troubles, only the first attempts to cope with life...
FROM THE DIARY OF LUKNITSKY
30.11.1926
Do you remember, at the cloud cavities
With you we found a cornice,
Where are the stars, like a bunch of grapes,
They plummeted down.
"Tower" (Turkish) in Tsarskoye Selo - artificial ruins. AA and Nikolai Stepanovich met there, upstairs.
Since autumn, the parents of Gumilyov's classmate, Dmitry Kokovtsev, who wrote poetry, began to arrange literary "Sundays" in their house on Magazeynaya Street. Evenings were attended by I.F. Annensky (since the owner of the house A.D. Kokovtsev was a gymnasium teacher); gymnasium teachers E. M. and A. A. Mukhina, V. E. Evgeniev-Maksimov (literary critic, specialist in Nekrasov, then a teacher), M. O. Menshikov (publisher-new timer), M. I. Tugan-Baranovsky ( historian-economist, representative of "legal Marxism"), VV Kovaleva (daughter of the writer V. Burenin); K. Sluchevsky (poet), L. I. Mikulich, D. Savitsky (poet), V. I. Krivich (son of I. F. Annensky).
Gumilyov visited "Sundays", performed several times with the reading of his poems and withstood fierce attacks, even mockery from some of those present. He was especially criticized by the owner of the house, who did not accept decadence.
In a letter to Bryusov from Tsarskoye Selo on May 8, 1906. Gumilyov writes:
"For a year now, I have not been able to talk to anyone the way I would like to..."
Gumilyov reacted sharply to misunderstanding, to literary "stagnation", to the creative "hopelessness" of the Tsarskoye villagers. By this time, having studied the Russian modernists, he had gone far ahead in his tastes and feelings from some Tsarskoye Selo routineists. And I. F. Annensky was still unattainable for him, a high school student.
The teacher of the gymnasium, Mukhin, said (Luknitsky writes in his diary on February 18, 1925): “At the final exams, to the question of what is remarkable about Pushkin’s poetry, Gumilyov calmly replied:“ Crystalliness. ”To understand the power of this answer, we must remember that we, teachers, were completely alien new literature, decadence ... This answer hit us like a butt on the head. We laughed out loud! Now we understand such terms as this word correctly defines Pushkin's poetry, but then ... "
1905
Something's coming close, right...
Among the Tsarskoye Selo intelligentsia, which breathed, flourished near the always living representatives of Russian culture - Delvig and Küchelbeker, Batyushkov and Chaadaev, Lermontov and Tyutchev and, of course, the main thing - Pushkin, an inhabitant who was in a state of distrust and suspicion at the beginning of the 20th century, especially in the reaction period after 1905 occupied, alas, significant spiritual territories. The layman despised everything that did not meet his standards.
FROM THE DIARY OF LUKNITSKY
12.04.1925
"The dark time is the Tsarskoye Selo period, because the Tsarskoye Selo people are quite animal-like," says AA. And one more thing: "Nikolai Stepanovich absolutely could not stand the Tsarskoye villagers. Of course, he was like that - an ugly duckling in the eyes of the Tsarskoye villagers. The attitude towards him was bad ... among fellow citizens, and they were at such a stage of development that they did not understand this at all. Before returning from Paris - such unrecognizedness, such an unfriendly attitude towards Nikolai Stepanovich. Of course, this tormented him ... "
AA says that her dad fell in love with Nikolai Stepanovich when he was already Akhmatova's husband, when they got to know each other better. “And when Nikolai Stepanovich was a high school student, dad treated him negatively for the same reasons that the Tsarskoye villagers did not like him and treated him with apprehension - they considered him a decadent ...”
And N. N. Punin said that “comrades also mocked Kokovtsev. But the attitude of the comrades towards Nikolai Stepanovich and Kokovtsev was completely different: Kokovtsev was an overgrown sissy, a terrible coward, and his comrades mocked him in a gymnasium - something like stuffing rotten apples into a bag, like that... They were afraid of Nikolai Stepanovich and would never have dared to do something like that to him, to offend him in any way. , incomprehensible to them and causing them both surprise, and fear, and hostility to the "overseas little thing" - Kolya Gumilyov.

Niagara lived...

Lived Niagara

Near Delhi lake

Love for Niagara

The leaders all flew.

The sun cast for us...

The sun has cast for us

And for our torment

In the bright hour, sunset hour,

Precious stones.

Yes, we are the children of existence,

Yes, we will not deceive the sun,

fire snake

Creeped across our borders.

Teaching us to love

Forget that we are all prisoners

She wove a thread for us,

Connecting us to the universe.

Is the song of silence pouring

Or violently beating jets,

Life and death are dreams

It's just kisses.

... And tilting the gaze to the plains ...

... And tilting his gaze to the plains,

He didn't want to lie to me.

Seniors, with one nobleman,

We had a small dispute...

On the balcony steps...

On the steps of the balcony

I'll sit down in the evening

About the age of Napoleon

Singing a ballad.

And carry the banners

From Caer to Paris.

On the steps of the balcony

I won't see them.

My great-grandfather was wounded at Austerlitz...

My great-grandfather was wounded at Austerlitz

And dead in the forest carried away by a batman,

So that long long years of languishing

In his sad and poor estate.

I'm sad that August is wet...

I'm sad that august is wet

Unsaddled our horses,

Curtains the windows

Locks the hayloft.

And get on a sleepy train,

Feeling vaguely at peace

Who is dreamily in love,

Who has a broken head.

And to You, great God,

I will come with one prayer:

Do it in this way, to be the same

Here and next year.

Carmen is thin, brownish ...

Carmen is thin brownish

Her eyes were surrounded by darkness.

Sinister scythe of her agate,

The devil himself tanned her skin.

Freak - there is a conversation about her,

But all the men are taken prisoner.

Archbishop of Toledo

Sang mass at her knees.

Above the dark golden nape

Shinyen is huge and brilliant,

Dissolved by ardent movement

He hides the body to her like a cloak.

Amid the pallor sparkles drunk

Mouth laughing victoriously

He is a red pepper, the color is crimson,

He takes purple from the heart.

She's a swarthy wins

Swarm of the haughtiest beauties,

The sparkle of her eyes inspires her

In the satiety of the former fire.

In her ugliness lies an evil

A grain of salt from those seas,

Where defiantly naked

Venus has come out of the swell.

This city of water, colonnades and bridges...

This city of water, colonnades and bridges,

That's right, he dreamed of someone who, squeezing whiskey,

The intoxicating opium of strange verses,

Gasping, inhaled after a night of longing.

Mirrors are burning in the illuminated shop windows,

But a quiet darkness creeps along the streets,

And the column of the winged lion raised,

And the Gagints on the tower struck seven.

At the cathedral, a passer-by can still distinguish

Byzantine mosaics solemn brilliance

And will hear how it sounds from the dark lagoon

Slowly returning splash.

Over the sea there was a night fog ...

Over the sea there was a night fog,

But through the fog it's even lighter

The moon is burning big tulip

Cloudy greenhouse.

The equator sleeps crossed

twelfth meridian,

And the dream is not like a dream

Under a flaming tulip.

No longer a dream, but oblivion,

And even forgetfulness in it is not enough,

That stone life

Consciousness of dark metal.

And in this place for a long time,

Like a tiger through dense thickets,

Like the pride of predatory packs,

The Dutchman is spinning flying.

dead man, but the heart of a dead man

Full of lightning and fog

They took over to the end

Madness dark tulips.

Not red and not gold

Born here in a tight abyss

T……. what is more fiery than them,

The tulip sways heavenly.

The first din and the howl of locomobiles ...

The first din and the howl of locomobiles ...

We upholstered the door to the wigwam with felt ...

Someone once saw something somewhere ...

Someone once saw something somewhere ...

For good memory

After long sleepy days

Sun and love letter

After so many shadow days

Again time is fabulous.

I am the first person

And she, like Eve, meek,

Teasing eyelid arches

And a slow walk.

All others for me

Like dumb beasts

I give them names

Gold and flesh.

But, like a true adam

(Only knowing everything in advance)

I yearn for the fruits

Sweet - from the tree of knowledge.

When, exhausted from the pain...

When, exhausted from pain,

I don't love her anymore

Some pale hands

They fall on my soul.

And someone's sad eyes

They call me quietly back

In the darkness of the cold night

They burn with unearthly love.

And again, weeping in agony,

Cursing your existence

I kiss pale hands

And her quiet eyes.

Angel

Wings flap in the sky like a banner

Eagle scream, furious flight -

Half of the body is a flame,

Half of the body is ice ...

Women are like nature...

Women are like nature

Animals and birds - do not be angry,

But I, hearing your fractional step,

Soul guess lynx.

Sometimes you, gentle and evil,

Always telling me

Reminds me of an ermine

On a snowy branch in the moonlight.

And rarely, rarely with a meek gaze,

Not looking at me, but around,

You secretly look like a kingfisher

Aspiring to fly south.

My dream flies to distant Paris...

My dream flies to distant Paris

To you, to you alone.

I'm very cold. I really don't see

Snowdrops in spring.

I'm sad about the moon. How hopelessly winds

January sharp snow.

Oh how painful how hard it is to break up

Man with a dream

In the darkness of the cave and womb ...

In the darkness of the cave and womb

Amu-Daryal basins

Always similar to others

The ruby ​​is warming cold...

Oh, the power of female coquetry ...

AND. Odoevtseva

Oh, the power of female coquetry!

It's in my hands

I've been expecting since childhood

A four-foot letter!

Although you wrote out of a whim,

But the gift of coquetry is still a gift.

Maybe you and Eloise

But I? Which Abelard am I?

You are there on a poetic call

Derzhavinsky, alas! Alas!

And Petrograd baits -

You completely forgot about them.

What do you what misses you here

Slightly aging poet?

There, in the electromagnetic paradise,

You don't care about him.

You made friends there with the moon, -

"The moon rises over the Volkhov."

But believe the word over the Neva

She is no less visible.

And it's not forever parting

- “The river of time takes away everything” -

So darling, goodbye

Greetings cordial and regards.

Colonel Melavenz...

Colonel Melavenets

Each gave an egg.

Colonel Melavenets

Ate a lot of eggs.

Have pity on Melavenz,

Died of an egg.

Drums, thunder, and trumpets, roar - and the banners are raised everywhere ...

Drums, thunder, and trumpets, roar - and the banners are raised everywhere.

Since the time of the Macedonian, such a thunderous and miraculous war has not happened.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

The purple blood of the Germans, the blue of the French, and the Slavic red blood.

Russian Civilization