It must be said at the outset that these two volumes, the first of four projected, are a model of scholarly editing of Russian poetry. Those who are familiar with the difficulties of putting out any Russian publication in the West can have only praise for the performance of the editors.
These volumes contain reprints of Gumilev’s lyrics and epics from 1903 to 1921, the year in which the poet was executed in Petrograd. In 1922 and 1923, shortly after his death, some of his poems and prose were still published in Russia by his friends. But after 1923 nothing more was brought out, and the poet’s name became taboo in his homeland. That is why the present publication is so valuable.
For a number of years Professor Struve collected Gumilev’s unpublished material abroad, and in the 1940s was lucky enough to receive from Mr. B.V. Anrep, a friend of Gumilev’s, an album with poems he had left in London in 1918. (In military service from the outbreak of the war, Gumilev was on duty in Paris and London before returning to Russia in 1918.)
In the first volume Mr. Struve has written a concise biography of the poet. Obviously, he lacked important documents, which are either hidden or lost in Russia, and the biography therefore remains incomplete. It should be pointed out that Gumilev’s role in the so-called “Tagantsev conspiracy” of 1921 is still a mystery. Allegedly, Gumilev took an active part in that organization to overthrow the Soviet system, but no details have ever been revealed. There was at the time just a government announcement of the execution of all the participants – no open trial, no deliberations.
In the second volume Mr. Struve writes about Gumilev’s poetical development. He was not only a fine poet, of a somewhat Nietzschean and aristocratic bent, but also the founder of a new school of poetry – Acmeism – and a leader and teacher of a group of young poets. He created the “Poets’ Guild” to which some of the most gifted Russian poets of modern times belonged: Anna Akhmatova, Osip Mandelshtam, and George Ivanov, to name a few.
The third volume will contain Gumilev’s seven plays with an introductory essay by Professor Sechkarev. The fourth will contain Gumilev’s fiction and his theoretical and critical prose. Professor Taranovski will supply a study of Gumilev’s prosody.
These last two volumes are awaited with great interest.
Roman Grynberg
New York City
