Gumilev Lev Nikolaevich: short biography

The son of two famous poets was Lev Gumilev. 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 ethnoses and humanity as a biosocial category. Lev Nikolaevich studied ethnogenesis, his bioenergetic dominant, which he called passionarity.

Origins and childhood

October 14, 1912 in Tsarskoe Selo came to light Gumilev Lev Nikolaevich. A brief biography of him is remarkable already because his parents were the great Russian poets AA Akhmatova and NS Gumilev. The marriage of the Gumilevs fell apart 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 Andreyevna has always been difficult. In the photo below - Lev Gumilev with his parents.

The training and arrests, participation in the war

Lev Nikolaevich in 1934 entered the Leningrad State University, the historical faculty. However, already at the end of the first year he was arrested for the first time. Soon Lev Gumilev was released, but he never managed to graduate from the university. Already on the 4th course, in 1938, he was again arrested for taking part in a student terrorist organization. Gumilev was sentenced to 10 years in the camps. Later, his fate was relaxed. Leo Nikolaevich should have served a five-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 with the anti-aircraft gunner until victory. Gumilev Lev Nikolayevich came to Berlin himself. A brief biography of this scientist, as you can see, is marked not only by achievements in the field of history.

Defense of the first dissertation

Lev Nikolaevich in 1946 passed an external exam at the university, and then continued his education at the Institute of Oriental Studies of the USSR Academy of Sciences, where he studied in graduate school. His Ph.D. thesis was already ready, but in 1947 the scientist was expelled from the institute because of the resolution on the journals "Leningrad" and "Zvezda" adopted by the Central Committee of the CPSU (b). This decree condemned the work of Anna Andreevna Akhmatova. Despite all the difficulties, Lev Nikolaevich still managed to defend his thesis thanks to the support of the scientific circles of Leningrad.

New Arrest

In 1949, Gumilev LN was arrested again. His brief biography, as you can see, abounds in arrests. He was released only in 1956 and at the same time fully rehabilitated. It turned out that the corpus delicti were not found in Gumilev's actions. In total, Lev Nikolaevich was arrested four times. In total, he had to spend 15 years in Stalin's camps.

Doctoral dissertations and publications Gumilev

Returning to Leningrad, Gumilev got a temporary job in the Hermitage. In 1961 he successfully defended his doctoral thesis on "Ancient Turks of the 6th-8th centuries." Then the scientist was recruited to the Institute of Geography, located at the Faculty of Geography of Leningrad State University. Here he worked until retirement, which took place in 1986.

Gumilev Lev defended his geographic doctoral dissertation in 1974. However, the certification commission did not approve his degree. The manuscript of Gumilyov's work "Ethnogenesis and the Earth's biosphere" was forbidden to be published, but it was distributed in samizdat.

Only in 1959 Lev Gumilev began to be actively published. Biography and creativity of it is not accidental cause great interest in academia. He owns more than 220 works, including several monographs. In the post-Stalin era, the views of Lev Gumilev were criticized in official publications, but he was no longer persecuted. Only in the early 1980's. The flow of his publications was temporarily stopped. Lev Gumilev had to address this question to the Central Committee of the CPSU. He wrote a letter about the ban on his publications. DS Likhachev and other historians of that time supported him.

Personal life

Lev Gumilev survived several novels for his life. Biography, family and children - all this interests his fans. On the personal life of Lev Nikolaevich, we will not dwell on it in detail. However, the most important facts are worth mentioning. In 1967, Gumilev married NV 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 Leo Nikolayevich. According to others, this marriage was ideal. Wife dedicated to Gumilev all his life. She left an old circle of friends and work. The choice of Lev Nikolaevich was also influenced by his desire not to have children: at that time his chosen one was 46 years old, and to himself - 55.

Relations with the Slavophiles and Nationalists

The extraordinary rise of Gumilev's popularity occurred in the post-Soviet era. His books were published in huge editions. The political views of this scientist, which he expressed in radio and television programs, in publicistic 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-Türkic symbiosis" was picked up by the Slavophiles at the turn of the 90's. These people were negative about the views of the scientist on the Horde yoke, quite by the way, skeptical. The aforementioned thesis was picked up by the Slavophiles as a justification for the new ideology of the Russian state. The nationalists of the Turkic-speaking peoples who inhabited the USSR also referred to Lev Nikolaevich. For them, Gumilev Lev was an indisputable authority.

"Theory of ethnogenesis" and the natural sciences

Gumilev considered himself "the last Eurasian." Nevertheless, the "theory of ethnogenesis" he created reminded Eurasianism only in general terms. From the point of view of such a science as history, the scholar's reflections can not be considered a theory. However, Gumilev Leo appealed primarily to the Soviet technical intelligentsia, and not to fellow historians. By that time the technical intelligentsia had become convinced that in the Soviet Union history was an instrument of propaganda, not science, that it was falsified. Historical hypotheses of Lev Nikolaevich caused skepticism of scientists, because they were not confirmed. However, the "theory of ethnogenesis" in the eyes of Gumilev's admirers did not lose any of it. Lev Nikolaevich judged history from the standpoint of the natural sciences, and their scientific intelligentsia considered them less compromised than humanitarian.

Basic theses of Gumilyov's theory

Lev Gumilev built his theory on the assertion that "ethnoses" are a kind of biological organisms. They have periods of youth, maturity and old age. Gumilev included in the number of ethnic groups not only directly ethnic groups, but also political, confessional and even professional. He believed that from their birth to death is about 1200-1500 years. According to the concept of the scientist, the emergence of new ethnic groups occurs as a result of a "passionary push", which is provoked by radiation from outer space. There are some that are "complimentary" to each other, and there are also antagonistic ones. In addition to healthy, there are also "chimerical", malicious ethnic groups parasitizing on the organisms of others. Healthy people have different ways of dealing with the climate environment and the "nursing landscape" and differ according to these characteristics.

Gumilev created his theory, trying to understand why in the era of the Middle Ages and antiquity in the Great Steppe, wavy and rapid ethnic processes were observed. They, indeed, often were, one way or another, associated with changing climatic conditions. Therefore, to some extent linking scientists landscape and ethnos is justified. Nevertheless, the "theory of ethnogenesis" lost credibility as a result of Gumilev's absolutization of the role of natural factors. The term "passionarity", owned by Lev Nikolaevich, began to live his own life. The scientist used it to refer to the initial ethnic activism. But now this term has nothing in common with Gumilev's "theory of ethnogenesis."

June 15, 1992 in St. Petersburg died Lev Gumilev. The biography, family and heritage of the scientist were briefly examined. Now you know, thanks to which the son of two great Russian poets became very popular.