Nikolai Gumilev was a Russian writer known for his poetry, translations, and literary criticism. He is also remembered as the founder of the Acmeist movement, which included such outstanding poets as Anna Akhmatova (his wife) and Osip Mandelstam. He was born near St Petersburg and lived there for most of his life, but he also travelled extensively, most famously to Africa. Gumilev distinguished himself as one of the few writers of his generation to serve in the First World War. After the war, he returned to Russia, but did not embrace the new Soviet government. In 1921 he was arrested and executed for alleged participation in a Tsarist conspiracy.