New Archival Documents about the Gumilev-Sverchkov Family from the Collection of the Museum of Imperial Nikolas Gymnasium in Tsarskoye Selo

Abstract

Over the past few years, in the course of research work, the Museum of the Imperial Nicholas Gymnasium has managed to identify several interesting documents in the St. Petersburg archives that clarify and shed light on new circumstances of the biographies of the Gumilev and Sverchkov family members. Some of them are quite sensational in nature, since they significantly correct previously published information about the family. First of all, they concern the nephew and companion of Nikolai Gumilyov - Nikolai Leonidovich Sverchkov, Kolya Little, as he was called in the family. But among the documents and circumstances there are those that make us take a fresh look at how they both ended up participating in the First World War. The author plans to present the documents collected in the course of the study in full in a book, which he hopes to publish next year, in the article he will tell about the most interesting of them.

Extended abstract:

Over the past few years, in the course of research work, the Museum of the Imperial Nikolaev Gymnasium managed to identify several interesting documents in the St. Petersburg archives that clarify and shed light on new circumstances in the biographies of the Gumilyov and Sverchkov family members. The newly identified documents were found in the Russian State Historical Archive (RGIA) and the Central State Historical Archive (TSGIA). Some of the documents found are quite sensational in nature, as they significantly correct previously published information about the Gumilyov-Sverchkov family. One of the newly discovered documents is the plan of the last house of the Gumilyovs in Tsarskoe Selo on Malaya Street, which makes it possible to get acquainted in more detail and in detail with the last refuge of the family in Tsarskoe Selo, in which they lived in 1911-1917. Until now, very little iconographic material has been known about the house, and only one photograph allows us to judge its appearance. The found project gives an idea about the appearance of the house, its layout, and how the entire Gumilyov plot on Malaya Street looked like. The revealed documents of a biographical nature, first of all, concern the nephew and companion of Nikolai Gumilyov - Nikolai Leonidovich Sverchkov, Kolya Malenky, as he was called in the family. The most sensational of them is the fact that for many years a large family of the Gumilyovs' closest relatives lived in Tsarskoye Selo, about whom no memories were left by members of the Gumilyov family! Alexandra Sverchkova, a well-known author of memoirs about the Gumilyov family, did not write a word about them. Although this family is the Sverchkov family, relatives of her late husband! And moreover, the glory of the head of this family was much greater than that of the Gumilyov family. Only everyone in Tsarskoye Selo knew about him, but also in Russia, and even beyond its borders! The pearl among the documents found is a photograph of Kolya Malenky, never published anywhere before, with a very remarkable autograph on it. Among the documents revealed in the archives and the circumstances set forth in them, there are those that make us take a fresh look at how both Nicholas ended up as participants in the First World War. Until now, it was known that both of them were exempted from military service. In numerous publications about Gumilyov and Sverchkov, there was a strong opinion that they allegedly gave a bribe to the clerk, who changed “unfit” to “fit”, and they went to the front. So, from the documents found, it follows that Kolya Malenky not only managed to serve in the army before the war, but even had the rank of reserve lieutenant! The author plans to present the documents collected in the course of the study in full in a book that has already been practically laid out and which she hopes to publish next year. The article tells about the most interesting of the documents found by the author.