The son of two famous poets was Lev Gumilyov. The biography, personal life and heritage of this historian are of great interest to a wide range of people. He is remarkable both as a scientist and as the son of great poets. Here are two main reasons to get to know him better.
Gumilev Lev - Russian historian, ethnologist, doctor of geographical and historical sciences. He is the author of the doctrine of ethnic groups and humanity as biosocial categories. Lev Nikolaevich studied ethnogenesis, its bioenergetic dominant, which he called passionarity.
Origin and childhood
October 14, 1912 in Tsarskoye Selo, Gumilyov Lev Nikolaevich was born. His brief biography is already remarkable in that his parents were the great Russian poets A. A. Akhmatov and N. S. Gumilev. The Gumilyovs marriage broke up in 1918, and after that the boy lived with his mother, then with his grandmother in Bezhetsk. It is known that his relationship with Anna Andreevna was always difficult. In the photo below - Lev Gumilyov with his parents.
Training and arrests, participation in the war
Lev Nikolaevich in 1934 entered the Leningrad State University, at the Faculty of History. However, at the end of the first year, he was first arrested. Soon Lev Gumilyov was released, but he never managed to graduate from the university. Already in the 4th year, in 1938, he was again arrested for participating in a student terrorist organization. Gumilyov was sentenced to 10 years in camps. Later, his fate was softened. Lev Nikolaevich should have served a 5-year term in Norilsk. After this time, in 1943, he worked for hire in Turukhansk and near Norilsk. Then Gumilev went to the front. He fought the anti-aircraft gunner until victory. Gumilev Lev Nikolaevich reached Berlin himself. A short biography of this scientist, as you see, is marked not only by achievements in the field of history.
Defense of the first dissertation
In 1946, Lev Nikolayevich passed exams at the university as an external student, and then continued his education at the Institute of Oriental Studies of the USSR Academy of Sciences, where he studied at graduate school. His candidate dissertation was already ready, but in 1947 the scientist was expelled from the institute because of the decision on the magazines Leningrad and Zvezda adopted by the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks. This ruling condemned the work of Anna Andreevna Akhmatova. Despite all the difficulties, Lev Nikolaevich still managed to defend his dissertation thanks to the support of the scientific community of Leningrad.
New arrest
In 1949, L. N. Gumilyov was again arrested. A brief biography of him, as you see, is replete with arrests. He was released only in 1956 and then completely rehabilitated. It turned out that there was no corpus delicti in Gumilyov’s actions. In total, Lev Nikolaevich was arrested 4 times. In total, he had to spend 15 years in the Stalinist camps.
Gumilyov's doctoral dissertations and publications
Returning to Leningrad, Gumilyov got a temporary job in the Hermitage. In 1961, he successfully defended his doctoral dissertation on the theme "Ancient TĂĽrks of the VI-VIII centuries." Then the scientist was hired by the Institute of Geography, located at the Faculty of Geography of Leningrad State University. Here he worked until his retirement, which took place in 1986.
Gumilyov Lev defended his doctoral dissertation in 1974. However, the certification committee did not approve his degree. Gumilyov’s manuscript "Ethnogenesis and the Biosphere of the Earth" was forbidden to publish, but it was distributed in samizdat.
Only in 1959 Lev Gumilyov began to be actively published. His biography and creativity are not by chance aroused great interest in academia. He owns more than 220 works, including several monographs. In the post-Stalin era, Lev Gumilyov’s views were criticized in official publications, but he was no longer persecuted. Only in the early 1980s. the flow of his publications was stopped briefly. Lev Gumilyov had to address this question to the Central Committee of the CPSU. He wrote a letter about the prohibition of his publications. D. S. Likhachev and other historians of that time supported him.
Personal life
Several novels were experienced during his life by Lev Gumilyov. Biography, family and children - all this interests his fans. We will not dwell on the personal life of Lev Nikolaevich. However, the most important facts are noted. In 1967, Gumilyov married N.V. Simonovskaya, an artist (years of life - 1920-2004). He met her in June 1966. The couple lived together for 24 years, until the death of Lev Nikolaevich. According to others, this marriage was perfect. The wife devoted her whole life to Gumilyov. She left the old circle of acquaintances and work. The choice of Lev Nikolaevich was influenced by his desire not to have children: at that time his beloved was 46 years old, and he himself was 55.
Relations with Slavophiles and Nationalists
Gumilyov’s extraordinary rise in popularity occurred in the post-Soviet era. His books were published in huge print runs. The political views of this scientist, which he expressed in radio and television programs, in journalistic articles were both anti-Western and anti-communist. This made his figure a symbol of anti-liberalism. The thesis of Lev Nikolaevich about the "Slavic-Turkic symbiosis" was picked up by the Slavophiles at the turn of the 90s. These people reacted negatively to the scientist’s views on the Horde yoke, which, by the way, were very skeptical. The above thesis was picked up by the Slavophiles as a justification for the new ideology of the Russian state. Nationalists of the Turkic-speaking peoples who inhabited the USSR also referred to Lev Nikolaevich. For them, Gumilev Leo was an indisputable authority.
"Theory of Ethnogenesis" and Natural Sciences
Gumilev considered himself "the last Eurasian." Nevertheless, the "theory of ethnogenesis" he created resembled Eurasianism only in general terms. From the point of view of a science such as history, the thoughts of a scientist cannot be considered a theory. However, Gumilev Lev addressed primarily to the Soviet technical intelligentsia, and not to fellow historians. By that time, the technical intelligentsia had the conviction that in the Soviet Union, history was an instrument of propaganda, not a science, that it was falsified. The historical hypotheses of Lev Nikolaevich caused skepticism of scientists, since they were not confirmed. However, the "theory of ethnogenesis" in the eyes of admirers of Gumilyov did not lose at all from this. Lev Nikolaevich judged history from the standpoint of the natural sciences, and their scientific intelligentsia considered them less compromised than the humanities.
Gumilev theory
Lev Gumilyov built his theory on the assertion that "ethnic groups" are a kind of biological organism. They have periods of youth, maturity and old age. Gumilev included in the number of ethnic groups not only ethnic groups themselves, but also political, religious and even professional ones. He believed that about 1200-1500 years pass from their birth to death. According to the scientist’s concept, the emergence of new ethnic groups occurs as a result of the “passionate push”, which is provoked by radiation from space. There are those that are “complementary” to each other, and there are also antagonistic ones. In addition to healthy ones, there are also “chimeric”, pernicious ethnic groups that parasitize other organisms. Healthy people have different ways of interacting with the climatic environment and the "nursing landscape" and differ in these signs.
Gumilev created his theory, trying to figure out why in the Middle Ages and antiquity in the Great Steppe, undulating and rapid ethnic processes were observed. Indeed, they were often often, one way or another, associated with changes in climatic conditions. Therefore, to some extent, linking the landscape and ethnos to the scientists is justified. Nevertheless, the "theory of ethnogenesis" lost its credibility as a result of Gumilyov's absolutization of the role of natural factors. The term "passionarity", belonging to Lev Nikolaevich, began to live its own life. The scientist used it to denote initial ethnic activism. However, now this term has nothing to do with the Gumilev "theory of ethnogenesis."
June 15, 1992 in St. Petersburg, Lev Gumilyov died. The biography, family and heritage of the scientist were briefly reviewed by us. Now you know why the son of two great Russian poets gained great popularity.