In blogs, media and books, this phrase is often found, which is attributed to the famous Russian and Soviet historian and ethno -Legs. We decided to check if Gumilyov wrote something like that.
The phrase is found in two versions: sometimes it begins with the word “if” instead of the word “when”. A quote supposedly belonging to Gumilyov can be found in Telegram, Livejournal, Facebook And X. It is in other sources, for example, in an article by Maxim Ershov in the journal "Moscow"And in the book"Uvil to nowhere»Economist, State Duma of the Russian Federation Mikhail Delyagin.
Lev Gumilyov (1912–1992) During his life he wrote more than a dozen monographs and published hundreds of scientific articles. It is primarily known for its theory of passionate ethnogenesis, classifying ethnic groups and establishing the relationship between fracture historical events and the passionarity of certain ethnic groups and individuals.
Ukraine was not the main topic in any of the works of the scientist: in different years he studied The history of Khazaria, Old Russian monuments of literature And Ancient Tibet. In his most famous book "Ethnogenesis and Earth's biosphere", Summarizing the theory of ethnogenesis, Ukraine and Ukrainians are mentioned only six times - and never once in the contemptuous context in which this is done in the quote attributed to Gumilyov. There is no such phrase in lectures, which he read in the 1980-1990s.
Gumilyov wrote more about the relationship between Russians and Ukrainians in his last book "From Rus' to Russia", Dedicated to the history of the country to Peter's reforms. But here, the scientist sets out his eyes in a completely different way. He does not contrast Ukrainians and Russians (considering different ethnic groups), but unites the choice of a common path in the 17th century: “Maybe 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) the Ukrainian clever, then it becomes Russian” in the works of Gumilyov could not be found. Moreover, it is not in the search results until 2014, that is, before the annexation of Crimea and the beginning of the armed conflict of Russia and Ukraine. The earliest mention that was able to detect “verified” is a post in LivejournalWhich on July 23, 2014 was published by Nikolian user. Apparently, this is the source - all other records in social networks are later.
The next day, the quote allegedly from Gumilyov published in his Twitter Prochremlin activist Maxim Mishchenko is the earliest mention of the phrase in the social network, now known as X. Mishchenko Rich biography - He was a participant in the movement “ours”, then headed another pro -Khmrelevsky movement “Russia Young”, collaborated with the ultra -right organization “Russian Image”, and from 2007 to 2011 he was a deputy of the State Duma of the Russian Federation, a member of the United Russia faction. After that, he held various government posts, and in 2017 he was convicted of fraud charges. Perhaps it was from the post of Mishchenko that the phrase about Ukrainians and Russians began to spread.
It can be definitely said that this False City of Gumilyov was invented in the first year of the Russian war with Ukraine, not earlier than the summer of 2014.
Photo on the cover: L.N. Gumilyova Foundation
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