SOURCE: "After the Symbolists," in Modern Russian Literature: From Chekhov to the Present, Oxford University Press, 1953, pp. 211-33.

Slonim was a Russian-born American critic who wrote extensively on Russian literature. In the following excerpt, he discusses Gumilev's development as a poet and his influence, citing his recurrent themes of strength, combativeness, and heroism as those most often reflected in later Soviet literature.

The Acmeist group, founded by Gumilev in 1912, and succeeded by his Guild of Poets, included a great many people of diverse literary aspirations. They had no other unity save that of negation: they all rejected what they considered the aberrations of Symbolism, but they differed vastly in their personalities, the character of their work, and their contributions to literature. The leader of Acmeism, Nicholas Gumilev (1886-1921), was the son of a naval physician; he studied under Annensky in the gymnasia of Czarskoe Selo, at the University...