Nikolai Gumilyov (1886-1921) was a Russian poet, literary critic and one of the earliest victims of conscience in the Soviet Union. A cofounder of the Acmeist movement in Russian literature – which espoused compactness of form and clarity of expression as leading virtues in any literary endeavor – Gumilov was among the most renowned of the first generation of poets to live under Soviet oppression. The husband of fellow Russian poet Anna Akhmatova (1889-1966), Gumilov was unequivocal in his disdain for communism and the Soviet regime which destroyed his country and suppressed Christianity. (He would publicly make the Sign of the Cross when such gestures were dangerous if not outright illegal.) On August 26, he was eventually canceled from Soviet culture when he and 61 other “conspirators” in a fabricated plot to overthrow the government were executed. “The Tram That Lost Its Way” is considered one of the greatest poems of the 20th century.
Nikolai Gumilyov (1886-1921) was a Russian poet, literary critic and one of the earliest victims of conscience in the Soviet Union. A cofounder of the Acmeist movement in Russian literature – which espoused compactness of form and clarity of expression as leading virtues in any literary endeavor – Gumilov was among the most renowned of the first generation of poets to live under Soviet oppression. The husband of fellow Russian poet Anna Akhmatova (1889-1966), Gumilov was unequivocal in his disdain for communism and the Soviet regime which destroyed his country and suppressed Christianity. (He would publicly make the Sign of the Cross when such gestures were dangerous if not outright illegal.) On August 26, he was eventually canceled from Soviet culture when he and 61 other “conspirators” in a fabricated plot to overthrow the government were executed. “The Tram That Lost Its Way” is considered one of the greatest poems of the 20th century.
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