Blumkin was a lover of poetry. There was an extraordinary incident in July 1921 in which Nikolay Gumilyov, a monarchist who was shot soon afterwards, was giving a poetry recital in a cafe in Petrograd, when "a man in a leather jacket", described as having "bold features, framed by a black beard, and his face looked biblical", began reciting as if "drunk on Gumilyov's verses". Gumilyov was astonished when the man introduced as the notorious Yakov Blyumkin and remarked, "I'm happy when my poems are read by warriors and people of great strength". Gumilyov later wrote "The man amidst crowd who shot the Imperial Ambassador came up to shake me by the hand and thank me for my verses".