Life Feat of the Louknitsky Family

Abstract

This article is devoted to life and creative work of Pavel Nikolaevich Louknitsky, the first biographer of the poets Nikolai Gumilev and Anna Akhmatova. The article tells the readers how Pavel Nikolaevich, his wife Vera Konstantinovna and their son Sergei have contributed to the cause of preserving memory of the poet Nikolai Gumilev, his archive and literary heritage. They were the founders of the contemporary Gumilev studies. Pavel Louknitsky and his family have been keeping the poet’s archive for many decades often risking their own lives in doing so. They also did their best to promote the works of innocently murdered poet. Sergei Louknitsky devoted 20 years of his life to rehabilitation of Nikolai Gumilev which took place only in 1991. After that, the books by Gumilev were published in millions of copies. The family transferred the archive to the Pushkin House Museum in Saint Petersburg in 1997. Only due to this in 1998-2006 the complete collection of works by Gumilev with commentaries in 8 volumes was published.

Extended abstract:

This article is devoted to the life and creative work of Pavel Nikolaevich Luknitsky, the first biographer of the poets Nikolai Gumilev and Anna Akhmatova. The article tells the readers about the infatuation of the young student Pavel with the poetry of the executed poet Nikolai Gumilev, who was accused of anti-revolutionary activity and was shot in 1921. To have more access to the materials of the deceased and forbidden poet Pavel got acquainted with Gumilev’s ex-wife, also a poet, Anna Akhmatova and became her true friend and secretary. Realizing that nobody except her can provide the true story of Gumilev’s life Akhmatova started to dictate the biography of her ex-husband and encouraged Luknitsky to interview all the witnesses of Gumilev’s life and creative work. In this way the unique archive of the Silver age was collected, which contained authentic autographs and documents of such prominent poets as Nikolai Gumilev, Anna Akhmatova, Osip Mandelstam, Marina Tsvetaeva and others. Moreover, Pavel daily made notes in his diary about the everyday life of Anna Akhmatova, her habits, friends, interests and her research. In this way Luknitsky became a biographer of the two prominent Russian poets – Gumilev and Akhmatova. He managed to defend his thesis on Gumilev in 1925 but continued to collect the archive. For this forbidden activity he was arrested by NKVD in 1927 and warned to give up his research. But Luknitsky didn’t obey the orders, he became more cautious and secretly continued his work. He had been keeping the poet’s archive for many decades often risking his own life in doing so. Some of the materials that are presented in this research are published for the first time. After Luknitsky’s death in 1973 his wife Vera Konstantinovna and their son Sergei continued his work and contributed to the cause of preserving Gumilev’s memory, his archive and literary heritage. They also did their best to promote the works of the innocently murdered poet. Sergei Luknitsky became a lawyer and devoted 20 years of his life to the rehabilitation of Nikolai Gumilev which took place only in 1991. After that, the books by Gumilev were published in millions of copies. The family transferred the archive to the Pushkin House in Saint Petersburg in 1997. Only due to this in 1998-2006 the complete collection of works by Gumilev with commentaries in 8 volumes was published. The Luknitsky familywere the founders of the contemporary Gumilev and Akhmatova studies. In 2011 the Gumilev Society was founded and continued the work of the Luknitsky family by promoting the literary heritage of the Gumilev family.