Aiming to secure his freedom, Akhmatova published a dithyramb to Joseph Stalin, which did not help to release Gumilev, although it possibly prevented her own imprisonment.

After Stalin's death in 1953, Gumilev joined the Hermitage Museum, whose director, Mikhail Artamonov, he would accept as his mentor.

He proposed an archeological site for Samandar as well as the theory of the Caspian transgression[clarification needed] in collaboration with geologist Alexander Aleksin as one of the reasons for Khazar decline.

Although the official Soviet authorities rejected his ideas and banned most of his monographs from being published, Gumilev came to attract much publicity, especially in the Perestroika years of 1985–1991.

Senior researcher in the Department of Ethnology at the University of Tartu, Aimar Ventsel, states the following: Gumilev’s central concept is that of the ethnos.

He connected it to the biosphere concept promoted by Academician Vernadsky and came to the conclusion that the ethnos is like a human being: it has its own character, childhood, adulthood and waning period.

[5] Drawing inspiration from the works of Konstantin Leontyev (1831-1891) and Nikolay Danilevsky (1822-1885), Gumilev regarded Russians as a "super-ethnos" kindred to Turkic-Mongol peoples of the Eurasian steppe.

[6] In accordance with his pan-Asiatic theories, he supported the national movements of Tatars, Kazakhs and other Turkic peoples, in addition to those of the Mongols and other East Asians.

The historian Mark Bassin stated that Gumilev's theories are scientifically unproven and problematic but that they have a significant impact in a range of Soviet and post-Soviet contexts.

[14] In particular, he asserted that the Radhanites had been instrumental in the exploitation of East Slavic people and had exerted undue influence on the sociopolitical and economic landscape of the early Middle Ages.

[15][16][17] In Kazan, the capital of Tatarstan (Russia), an inscription for a statue in honor of Gumilev quotes the following: "I, a Russian, have been defending the Tatars all my life".

[19] Russian President Vladimir Putin stated during a speech in November 2023: "Alexander Nevsky was given the yarlyk [permission] by Golden Horde khans to rule as prince, primarily so that he could effectively resist the invasion of the West".