On August 26, 1921, Nikolai Gumilev was executed by firing squad near Petrograd. It is believed that Nikolai Gumilev was the first Russian writer executed by punitive organs after the Bolsheviks came to power. From this execution, it has become customary to start the "martyrology" of Russian literature under Soviet rule. I do not know how "honorable" such a distinction can be considered, but Gumilev was not actually the first on this list. As early as 1918, on the shore of Lake Valdai, in front of six young children, the famous pre-revolutionary literary critic and publicist of the newspaper "Novoye Vremya," Mikhail Menshikov, was executed. The Cheka sentence stated that he was executed "for obvious disobedience to Soviet power," which was a lie, because after the closure of the newspaper "Novoye Vremya," Menshikov, left without work, quietly lived with his large family in his house on Valdai and did not engage in politics.

The reasons for Gumilev's execution remain not fully understood to this day. Officially, he was executed for participation in the "Petrograd Combat Organization of V. N. Tagantsev." Vladimir Nikolaevich Tagantsev—a geographer, scientific secretary of the Russian Academy of Sciences—was considered the leader of the conspiracy. More than 50 people were executed in connection with the "Tagantsev case," and Nikolai Gumilev was among them. Gumilev was arrested on August 3 after a meeting of the poetry circle he led. The list of those sentenced in the "Tagantsev case" was published on September 1, indicating that the sentence had already been carried out.

A contemporary recalled: "I stopped by the fence where a printed sheet was posted, and my eyes immediately fell on Gumilev’s name… And below: the sentence has been carried out… It seemed to me that someone shouted these terrible words into my ear. The ground slipped from under my feet…"

After Gumilev’s arrest, Petrograd writers, including Maxim Gorky, signed a letter in his defense. There is a legend that Gorky even traveled to Moscow to see Lenin, but Grigory Zinoviev, then chairman of the Petrograd Soviet and at odds with Gorky, accelerated the sentence and its execution because of this. This is unlikely. However, it is believable that Gumilev’s execution became one of the last straws for Gorky, who protested against Bolshevik repression of the intelligentsia. In the same year, 1921, he left Soviet Russia for seven years.

It is still debated whether the "Tagantsev conspiracy" existed at all. Those close to the poet, including Irina Odoyevtseva, believed that the conspiracy did exist and that Gumilev participated in it. Some modern biographers of Gumilev also adhere to this version.

The fact remains that Gumilev, who never wrote a single political poem in his life, was a convinced monarchist and did not hide this after the revolution. Moreover, he was an officer in the Tsarist army, having participated in the Russo-German war and received two St. George’s Crosses.

According to another version, the conspiracy existed, but Gumilev did not participate in it. And according to a third version, officially announced in 1992, the conspiracy was fabricated by the Cheka in connection with the Kronstadt rebellion. In this case, Gumilev was executed among the so-called "hostages."

The exact place of the poet’s execution and burial remains unknown. Suggested locations include the Bernhardovka microdistrict in the valley of the Luby River, the "Fox Nose" area near the Razdelnaya station, and the probable execution site in Kovalevsky Forest near an abandoned arsenal (powder magazine) of the Rzhevsky training ground, where a cross-cenotaph has been erected at the bend of the Luby River.

The poet’s first wife, Anna Akhmatova, believed that Gumilev was executed in the Rzhevka-Porokhovye area.

Like many great poets, Gumilev foresaw his death.

"And I will not die in bed,

With a notary and a doctor,

But in some wild crevice,

Drowned in thick ivy," he wrote in 1917 in the poem "You and I."

There are accounts that the former combat officer Nikolai Gumilev met his death with composure and dignity. Before the execution, he wrote on the wall of his cell: "Lord, forgive my sins, I am going on my last journey! Nikolai Gumilev."

Sources:

https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rzhevsky_training_ground

https://rg.ru/2021/08/26/100-let-nazad-byl-rasstrelian-nikolaj-gumilev.html