About the book: 2014 / The book is a detailed documentary biography of one of the largest Russian poets, whose life became a legend, and whose poems became one of the pinnacle events of the Silver Age. The image of Gumilev is given in the broad context of the era and country: on the pages of the book the reader will find a description of the system of gymnasium education in Russia, and colorful details of Abyssinian history, little-known events of the First World War and details of the biographies of Parisian occultists, poems by half-forgotten poets and newspaper advertisements from a hundred years ago. The book is unprecedented in its coverage of documentary material; the author analyzes numerous memoirs and reviews of Gumilyov’s contemporaries (including unpublished ones), letters and diaries. The book contains more than two hundred archival photographs, many of which are published for the first time, and the appendix contains a selection of poetic responses to Gumilyov’s death.