This phrase is often found in blogs, media and books, which is attributed to the famous Russian and Soviet historian and ethnologist. We decided to check whether Gumilyov wrote anything similar.
The phrase occurs in two versions: sometimes it begins with the word “if” instead of the word “when.” A quotation allegedly belonging to Gumilyov can be found in Telegram, LiveJournal, Facebook And X. It is also found in other sources, for example in an article by Maxim Ershov in the magazine “Moscow" and in the book "U-turn to nowhere» economist, deputy of the State Duma of the Russian Federation Mikhail Delyagin.
Lev Gumilev (1912–1992) during his life he wrote more than a dozen monographs and published hundreds of scientific articles. He is known primarily for his theory of passionary ethnogenesis, which classifies ethnic groups and establishes the relationship between critical historical events and the passionarity of certain ethnic groups and individuals.
Ukraine was not a major topic in any of the works of the scientist: over the years he studied history of Khazaria, ancient Russian literary monuments And Ancient Tibet. In his most famous book "Ethnogenesis and biosphere of the Earth”, which generalizes the theory of ethnogenesis, Ukraine and Ukrainians are mentioned only six times - and not once in the contemptuous context in which this was done in the quote attributed to Gumilyov. There is no such phrase in lectures, which he read in the 1980s and 1990s.
Gumilev wrote in more detail about the relationship between Russians and Ukrainians in his last book “From Rus' to Russia”, dedicated to the history of the country before Peter’s reforms. But here too the scientist presents his view completely differently. He does not oppose Ukrainians and Russians (considering them to be different ethnic groups), but unites them by choosing a common path in the 17th century: “Perhaps this mutual tolerance of Ukrainians and Great Russians was the most important evidence of the correctness of the choice made at the Pereyaslav Rada in 1654.”
No traces of the phrase “When (if) a Ukrainian gets smarter, he becomes Russian” could be found in Gumilyov’s works. Moreover, it was not found in search results until 2014, that is, before the annexation of Crimea and the beginning of the armed conflict between Russia and Ukraine. The earliest mention that Verified could find was a post in LiveJournal, which was published by user nikolian on July 23, 2014. Apparently, this is the original source - all other posts on social networks are more recent.
The next day, a quote allegedly from Gumilyov was published in his twitter pro-Kremlin activist Maxim Mishchenko is the earliest mention of the phrase now known as X on the social network. rich biography - he was a member of the “Nashi” movement, then headed another pro-Kremlin movement “Young Russia”, collaborated with the far-right organization “Russian Image”, and from 2007 to 2011 was a deputy of the State Duma of the Russian Federation, a member of the “United Russia” faction. After that, he held various government positions, and in 2017 he was convicted of fraud. Perhaps it was from Mishchenko’s post that the phrase about Ukrainians and Russians began to spread.
It can definitely be said that this false quote from Gumilyov was invented in the first year of the war between Russia and Ukraine, not earlier than the summer of 2014.
Cover photo: L. N. Gumilyov Foundation
Read on topic:
- Did Bismarck say: “There is nothing more vile and disgusting than the so-called Ukrainians”?
- Did Bunin write: “I think with horror who this drunken, bloody redneck who has seized power in Russia will give birth to?”
- Did Lord Palmerston say: “How boring it is to live in the world when no one fights Russia”?
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