Nikolai Gumilev

Andrei Rogatchevski (UiT - The Arctic University of Norway)

Ed. by Andrei Rogatchevski, UiT - The Arctic University of Norway
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 2.2.1.00: Slavic and Russian Writing and Culture: Old, Medieval and Tsarist, 700-1917.
Vol. editors: Neil Cornwell (University of Bristol), Roman Koropeckyj (University of California, Los Angeles), Andrei Rogatchevski (UiT - The Arctic University of Norway)

Dates

Born 15 Apr 1886
Died 26 Aug 1921
Activity 1902-1921

Places

Born in Russia
Active in Russia

Activities

Primary

Poet

Other

Literary Critic/ Historian
Prose writer
Translator

Resources

The son of a naval physician, Gumilev was born in Kronstadt and studied in several gymnasiain and near St Petersburg and Tiflis before graduating from the Tsarskosel’skaia gymnasiumin 1906, two years behind his age group. However, Gumilev’s unimpressive academic performance (he completed none of his Sorbonne and St Petersburg University degrees) was compensated by his literary talent, which manifested itself quite early. He reportedly wrote his first four-line poem at the age of six. His first publication, the poem “Ia v les bezhal iz gorodov” [I Ran from Cities into Woods], appeared in the Tiflisskii listok newspaper in 1902. His first collection of poetry, Put’ konkvistadorov [Conquistadors’ Way], came out in 1905, while he was still at school. His writings attracted the attention of two major Russian poets, Innokentii Annenskii (a director at the Tsarskosel’skaia...

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2777 words

Citation: Rogatchevski, Andrei. "Nikolai Gumilev". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 12 July 2018 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=12469, accessed 09 June 2026.]