Russian and Soviet poet Alexander Blok made an invaluable contribution to the development of the school of Russian symbolism. He was famous for his prose, but he also wrote many dramas. In addition, Blok was actively involved in translating foreign literature into Russian, in which he was quite successful - many classic translations of foreign authors are still based on his edition.
Interesting facts from the life of Alexander Blok
- Blok’s father was a hereditary nobleman and professor at the University of Warsaw, and his mother was the daughter of the rector of St. Petersburg University. The girl got married at 18, gave birth to her husband’s son, and then broke off relations with her husband and never returned to him. Ten years later, she obtained permission from the Synod for a divorce and threw in her lot with a guards officer, leaving Alexander with his father’s surname.
- He composed his first quatrains at the age of five. At the age of 8, the boy told his mother that he had decided to devote his life to poetry.
- At the age of 10, Blok published two issues of his own magazine, which he called “Ship”. From 14 to 17 years old, Alexander published the handwritten magazine “Vestnik” together with his brothers - a total of 37 issues were published.
- Blok’s first love was a 37-year-old woman - a 16-year-old boy met her at a German resort, where he was vacationing with his mother. The feelings he experienced then later found expression in his work.
- As a teenager, the poet became interested in theater - he participated in an amateur performance, but after a successful debut, Alexander was no longer given roles, and this hobby was ended.
- The wife and heroine of Blok’s first collection of poems was the daughter of the outstanding scientist Mendeleev. Although the spouses had strong feelings for each other, they both from time to time allowed themselves hobbies on the side - Blok was interested in actresses and opera singers, and his wife’s passionate admirer was the poet Andrei Bely, to whom, however, she did not reciprocate.
- After a trip to France, Alexander Blok spoke with hostility about the French, claiming that they lived in impassable mud, so that any squeamish person would never settle in their country. The poet also argued that Frenchmen and Frenchwomen are completely devoid of attractiveness; in France there is no normal food, furniture, or even washbasins.
- Alexander Blok was one of the writers who not only accepted Soviet power, but also agreed to work in its interests. The poet was constantly appointed and selected to various positions in organizations, committees and commissions, often without his consent or even knowledge.
- Due to the many public responsibilities that fell on Blok, he did not write poetry for more than a year. The poet was mentally and physically exhausted, telling his friends that “he was drunk.” As a result, he developed asthma, serious heart problems, mental disorders and scurvy.
- For a long time, the seriously ill writer could not obtain an exit visa for treatment in a Finnish sanatorium - historians claim that Lenin and Menzhinsky played an important role in this. When Gorky and Lunacharsky finally obtained visas for Blok and his wife, it was already too late - a day later the poet died of inflammation of the heart valves. The poet was 40 years old ().
- Shortly before Blok's death, rumors spread throughout Petrograd that the poet had completely lost his mind. It is known that on the eve of his death, the writer was delirious, repeatedly demanding to check whether all copies of his poem “12” had been destroyed. However, Blok died in his right mind and fully aware of reality. Having learned that the path abroad was closed for him, the poet deliberately destroyed all his notes and stopped eating and drinking.
The red date of the calendar for Russian symbolism in poetry was November 28/16, 1880, when Alexander Alexandrovich Blok was born in the northern capital of Russia. The father (Alexander Lvovich) of the future poet worked as a teacher at the University of Warsaw, and his mother (Alexandra Andreevna) was engaged in translations. Despite the good sign of the same names of his parents and his own name, fate was not favorable to Blok from childhood, since the boy received his upbringing from his grandfather Andrei Beketov, due to his parents’ divorce even before his birth.
Adolescence and first poems
Alexander Blok spent his childhood on the Shakhmatovo estate, and spent his adolescence there as well. Alexander’s company included his cousins and second cousins, and the first poems came from the poet’s pen at the age of 5. Simple quatrains became the foundation of one of the biggest names in Russian poetry and a clear dominator in the style of symbolism.
In 1889, the family of Alexander’s mother cast their lot in with a guards officer and they, together with a 9-year-old boy, moved to St. Petersburg, where young Blok began studying at the Vvedensky gymnasium. After graduating from the gymnasium, Blok, in 1898, entered the University of St. Petersburg at the Faculty of Law, but jurisprudence did not appeal to the future poet and in 1901 he transferred to the Faculty of History and Philology. At the beginning of the century, Blok made friends with the symbolists Bryusov and Bely, at this moment he became a symbolist poet, although he was still far from fame.
Alexander Blok marries Lyubov Mendeleeva in 1903. She will outlive Blok and subsequently write a book of memoirs, where she will describe interesting pages of their life. It was Mendeleev Blok who dedicated the cycle “Poems about a Beautiful Lady”.
Alexander graduated from the university in the Slavic-Russian department in 1906, and its first edition was published a little earlier, in 1903, the year the poet’s poems were published by the magazine “New Way”. Following the first lines, the second lines, printed in the almanac “Northern Flowers,” also see the light. The cycle in the almanac is called “Poems about a Beautiful Lady”; in them, the sprouts of symbolism are already beginning to make their way to the reader.
The period of the revolution was the time of the poet’s formation; from 1905 to 1908, poems were published that brought the poet his first fame. Let us note “The Stranger” and “Snow Mask” - these are the first poems by which the author began to be recognized. Well-known magazines in St. Petersburg circles collaborate with the young poet; in one of them, “Golden Fleece,” the poet has been running his own critical section since 1907.
Creativity flourishes
In 1909, Blok was already a well-known poet in Russia, readers were waiting for the release of his new poems, and a circle of fans was forming around Alexander. Having received an inheritance after the death of his father in 1909, Blok decides to get to know the world better and plunges into travel.
From 1909 to 1913, Blok traveled around Europe three times. He visited France and Italy, Germany and Belgium, but it is not only the interest in European traditions and way of life that excites the poet during his travels. Alexander Blok actively works abroad. During these years, the cycle of poems “Italian Poems”, the collection “Night Hours” and the play “Rose and Cross” were published. The poet clearly shows that there is Europe, and there is Russia, which he is not going to renounce. Lines:
And in a new, different life,
I'll forget my old dream,
And I will also remember the Doges,
How I remember Kalita now.
Army service also did not escape Blok; the poet was drafted into the army in 1916 and served as a timekeeper near the Belarusian Pinsk. Blok was spared from bloody battles, since the revolution soon came and “everything was mixed up in the Oblonskys’ house.” The Tsar is gone, there is no one to fight for, and Blok returns to St. Petersburg. This is where the most controversial years in the poet’s biography begin, because never expressing obvious sympathy for the communists, Blok takes their side and serves them, albeit without much servility, but faithfully.
At the beginning of 1918, the poem “The Twelve” appears, where Blok puts Jesus Christ in front of the twelve red soldiers, thus subscribing to complete loyalty to the existing government. This can also be attributed to fear for one’s own life in the era of a revolution in consciousness, then the lines:
“Do you remember, Katya, the officer - he did not escape the knife”
It is difficult to connect the words written in the same poem with loyalty; here one can also see one’s own conviction in the rightness of the authorities.
Immediately after this poem “Scythians” appears, where the lines:
“Comrades! We will become brothers!
And many other points also speak of the Bloc’s support for Soviet power.
“You cannot serve two Gods,” this can be attributed to the period of Blok’s biography from 1918 to 1921, when the poet did not write anything original, being content with reports at meetings of the Free Philosophical Organization and humorous lines that did not arouse much interest among anyone.
The rethinking of the present begins in 1921; unfortunately, the poet did not have much time left to live, and it is unlikely that he managed to say even half of his thoughts and do some of his deeds. In 1921, the poet wrote a poem “To the Pushkin House”, in which notes of a will and repentance are visible. Having been the chairman of the Petrograd Council of Poets since 1920, Blok does a lot for young talents, but, unfortunately, there are few of them in this difficult time. Blok also becomes a shield for famous poets and critics, for example, he has long stood as a shadow between the NKVD and Gumilyov, and other writers and poets are grateful to him. Mass purges, bloody purges began precisely after the death of Alexander Blok.
Decline of the Poet
The Soviet government does not touch Blok, but does not have much respect for him either. For example, in 1921, the Politburo refused to allow Blok to travel to Finland for treatment, although Blok’s condition was already critical. The heart disease progressed, plus Blok fell into deep depression. In the last days of his life, Blok was unconscious, he tried to destroy the poem “The Twelve”; it seemed to him that it had only been written and not published. “Destroy all copies, everything.” What it was - madness, resentment for being denied a visa for treatment or a rethinking of life - a question that has no answer. Different sources describe the last days of Blok in different ways, so let’s leave this in the closed casket of history.
Alexander Alexandrovich Blok died on August 1, 1921 and was immediately buried in the Smolensk churchyard, from where the ashes were transferred to the Volkovskoye cemetery in 1944.
Life at the turn of the century and a turning point in consciousness left its mark on Blok’s work, but for all the complexity and ambiguity of his life’s path, Blok was and remains one of the greatest Russian poets. It was he who reminded us of the truth in wine, it was he who put Christ ahead of the Bolsheviks, he taught us to accept this even for torment and death:
“For torment, for death - I know
It’s all the same: I accept you!”
In the house on Dekabristov Street, where Blok lived and died in recent years, there is an apartment museum.
Film "I'm Slowly Losing My Mind"
Alexander Alexandrovich Blok was born on November 28, 1880 in St. Petersburg. His father was a lawyer, in addition to this he was a teacher at the University of Warsaw. Mother - Alexandra Beketova, was the daughter of the rector of one of the St. Petersburg universities. Soon after Alexander's birth, the parents broke off their relationship and the son began to live with his mother. Soon the mother remarried officer F.F. Kublitsky-Piottukha, the family began to live in the guards barracks.
In 1889 he began studying at the Vvedenskaya Gymnasium. When he went abroad in 1897 to one of the German resort towns, he experienced his first love for Ksenia Sadovskaya. A year later, after graduating from high school, he fell in love with Lyubov Mendeleeva, who later became his wife. Blok entered the Faculty of Law, but later changed his mind and began studying at the Faculty of History and Philology, from which he graduated in 1906.
The poet's literary path began in childhood. At the age of 10, young Blok began publishing his own handwritten magazines. From the age of 16 he attended a theater group, but he was practically not given roles. In 1901 he published his first collection of poems, “Poems about a Beautiful Lady,” which was written in the genre of symbolism. Over the years, his work evolved, and he began to raise such topics as human social life (“City” 1904-1908), religiosity (“Snow Mask” 1907), philosophy of life (“Scary World” 1908-1916), patriotism (“Motherland” ” 1907-1916)
After receiving higher education, Alexander Blok traveled abroad a lot, sometimes living there for months. It is characteristic that he spoke negatively about France and other European countries. The poet did not like the culture and customs of these countries.
The February and October revolutions had a significant impact on Blok's work and life. He had ambiguous thoughts about these events, but unlike other artists, he not only did not oppose the new government, but also supported it in every possible way, although later it seemed to him a mistake. The difficult financial situation and constant exhaustion negatively affected Blok’s health and he began to get sick. The new government, represented by the Politburo, refused to give permission to travel to Finland in order to begin treatment there. On August 7, 1921, Alexander Blok died from prolonged inflammation of the heart. Many famous personalities in Petrograd attended his funeral. In 1941, his ashes were again buried on the Literatorskie Mostki at the Volkovskoye cemetery.
Biography and creativity
In 1880, on November 28 (16), a son was born into the cultured St. Petersburg family of nobles Alexander Blok and Alexandra Beketova. The boy was named Sasha. Family happiness did not last long; the parents soon separated. Sasha's mother remarried and Blok grew up with his stepfather.
The family of the future poet spent the winter in his native St. Petersburg, and went to Shakhmatovo for the summer. The estate of Andrei Nikolaevich Beketov, Blok’s maternal grandfather, became for Sasha a window into the wonderful world of Russian nature.
The boy rode horseback, spent hours in the garden and happily tinkered with various domestic animals. Thus, from early childhood, Sasha learned to feel and love his native land.
The first experience of versification took place at the age of five. And at the age of nine, Blok entered the gymnasium. From an early age, Sasha, who was partial to reading, became interested in publishing. Ten-year-old Blok published a couple of issues of the handwritten magazine “Ship”, and at the age of 14, together with his brothers, he published “Vestnik”.
In 1898, after finishing his studies at the gymnasium, Alexander decides to devote his life to the study of law. But, after studying law for three years at St. Petersburg University, he became interested in ancient philosophy and moved to the Faculty of History and Philology.
Blok met the beginning of the twentieth century in the creative circle of the brightest writers of our time. Fet, Solovyov, Merezhkovsky, Gippius, Bryusov accepted the twenty-year-old talented young man into the arms of cultural St. Petersburg.
Blok became passionately interested in Russian symbolism. The first poems were published by the publishing house “New Way”; later the poet’s works were published in the almanac “Northern Flowers”.
The Beketovs' neighbors were the Mendeleevs. The daughter of the great chemist, Lyubov Dmitrievna, became for the poet not only his beloved girl, but also his muse. In 1903, Mendeleeva became his wife.
Blok is at the very beginning of his amazing creativity. In the same year, his poetic cycle “Poems about a Beautiful Lady”, dedicated to his wife, was published. The poet, filled with love, imagines a woman as a wonderful spring of light and purity, admiring the great power of true love, capable of uniting the whole world in one person.
The events of 1905-1907 and the First World War pressed the poet’s lyrical mood. Blok thought about the problems of society; he was concerned about the embodiment of the theme of the creator against the backdrop of existing reality. In the poet’s work, the homeland is like a loving wife, which is why patriotism acquired individuality and depth.
The year 1909 became tragic for the Blok family. The father and newborn child of Alexander Alexandrovich and Lyubov Dmitrievna died. At the same time, the poet conceived the poem “Retribution,” the work on which was never completed.
What was happening in Russia gloomily echoed the poet’s personal experiences, but Blok sincerely believed in the bright future of his native country.
1916 became the year of military service for the poet. He did not take part in hostilities; he served as a timekeeper.
Blok met the 1917 revolution with hope for changes for the better. The inspiration lasted for at most a year, presenting the public in 1918 with the controversial poem “The Twelve,” the article “Intellectuals and Revolution” and the poem “Scythians.”
With these works, the poet showed that he accepted Bolshevik Russia and was ready to live and work in a renewed country.
This allowed the new government to fully exploit the name of the famous poet. The poet no longer belonged to himself.
Heart pain, asthma, and nervous disorders became constant companions of the poet, who was loaded with everyday hardships, financial problems and constant work.
Blok tried to obtain permission to travel to Finland to rest and improve his health, especially since in 1920 he fell ill with scurvy.
Gorky, Lunacharsky and Kamenev asked for the poet. But the application was approved too late. On August 7, 1921, Alexander Blok passed away.
Very briefly by date
On November 16, 1880, the writer was born in the city of St. Petersburg. Born into a cultured family of a professor and writer.
In 1889 he was sent to a gymnasium and graduated in 1898.
Blok also graduated from the Institute of Law and History and Philology.
Blok began writing his first poems at the age of five. As a teenager, he was involved in acting.
At the age of 23 he married the daughter of the scientist Mendeleev, L.D. Mendeleeva. There was a quarrel with Andrei Bely over Mrs. Mendeleeva.
In 1904, a collection of poems by Alexander Blok was published and it was called “poems about a beautiful lady.”
A few years later, Blok and his wife managed to relax in Spain and Germany.
During the period of his creative activity, he was accepted by the “academy” society. Where were the wealthy, future famous creative figures?
Blok’s most famous work is “Night, Street, Lantern, Pharmacy.”
The dawn of the writer came in 1912-1914. The block mostly did not travel. During this time he worked in a publishing house.
The block was very sick. He was not allowed to go abroad for treatment. So in the end, in poverty and hunger, the writer died in 1921 from heart disease.
Biography by dates and interesting facts. The most important.
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The poet was born at the end of the nineteenth century in St. Petersburg. His parents belonged to the local intelligentsia. Father, Alexander Lvovich, was a professor at the University of Warsaw. Mother, Alexandra Andreeva, worked as a translator. The parents did not live long in marriage.
After his parents' divorce, Alexander lived with his mother.
The childhood of the great poet took place at my grandfather's house. It is this place that evokes the poet’s warmest memories. The nature around was simply magical. This greatly inspired young Alexander.
Relationship with mom were warm, trusting and sincere. Blok loved his mother with all his soul, because it was she who instilled in him a craving for poetry.
The first person to see Blok’s poems was, of course, my mother. It was she who was both a kind critic and a support for the young author. The mother’s contribution was very great, and her contribution to the development of the poet was difficult to assess.
Alexander received his education at the Vvedenskaya Gymnasium, and later went with his mother to the Nemean resort of Bad Nauheim.
First love Blok was Sadovskaya. She won the young man’s heart, but there could be no relationship. They had a huge age difference, about ten years.
It was Ksenia Sadovskaya who was the muse for Alexander. Many of his works are dedicated to a beautiful woman.
After graduating from high school, Blok entered the University in his hometown. Initially, he studied at the Faculty of Law, and later moved to another faculty related to history.
The beginning of the creative path of Alexander Blok
The first impulses of creativity began at a young age. Author wrote his first poems at the age of five. From an early age he was an inquisitive boy: he read many books, went to theaters and was a lover of art.
Blok began to actively engage in creativity in the first years of the twentieth century.
For the first time, Blok began publishing his creations in the magazine “New Way”, which was owned by Merezhkovsky and Gippius.
Alexandru right away loved the symbolism. He strived for experimentation, destruction of stable stagnations and risk. The author rejected realism, paying great attention only to symbolism. After the author’s poems appeared in the “New Way”, they began to publish it in the “Northern Flowers” almanac.
In 1903, the cycle of works “Poems about a Beautiful Lady” was published. Woman was one of the key themes in Blok's works. He considered the fair sex a real source of goodness and light.
Revolutions in Blok's work
This historical process left a peculiar imprint on Blok’s work. The events that took place during the revolution greatly influenced the poet and his worldview. The theme of love faded into the background.
Blok began to try himself as a playwright, writing the play “Balaganchik,” which was staged at the theater in 1906.
The main theme of the 1920s was the problem of the relationship between the common people and the intelligentsia. This was a tendency in creativity - to write about what excites the soul so much. All his poems about the Motherland were imbued with patriotism and individuality. Each of them had their own identity.
The bloc was not categorical towards Soviet power. He even collaborated with her. All the events of those times were reflected in his poetry. Blok was easy-going and quickly adapted to new events in life.
It was at this time that Blok wrote the poem “Scythians” and the famous poem “The Twelve”.
The last years of the poet's life
After the October Revolution, a difficult stage in the poet’s life began. Alexander began to get sick often. He was tormented by diseases such as asthma, heart disease and scurvy.
Alexander Blok is considered one of the most significant figures in Russian poetry. His fate was not easy, but he left a deep mark on the history and culture of Russia.
How little we know about the life and work of those great literary artists who gave us so many wonderful works. Today we will try to look at the fate of Alexander Alexandrovich Blok, using facts from his biography...
Blok - the most “romantic” poet of the Silver Age
Romance lies not so much in the poet’s poems, but in his craving for beautiful and sublime feelings. So, until his death, he read his works to the ladies, however, he noted that all women, with the exception of his Lyuba, are the same for him, because true love cannot be exchanged for fleeting hobbies and passion. And this is only a small part of what interesting facts from Blok’s life can say about this amazing person.
Lived a short but rich life
On August 7, 1921, the main poet of the Silver Age, Alexander Blok, died from inflammation of the heart valves. It is unnecessary to talk about his works; they need to be read. Alexander Blok was born on November 16, 1880. He lived a short but eventful life (he died when he was only 41), forever securing his fame as a genius and one of the brightest poets of the Silver Age. His works: dramatic poems, cycles of poetry - are still shrouded in controversy among critics; symbols, signs, allusions that permeate his works make them relevant today.
Curious facts from the life of A. Blok:
1. A few months before his death, the poet, as usual, read his poems at the Bolshoi Drama Theater. Before his speech, Chukovsky took the floor, saying a lot of good things about Blok, after which Blok himself read his poems about Russia.
As his contemporaries later recalled, the atmosphere was too solemn and sad, and one of the spectators breathed out an almost prophetic phrase: “This is some kind of wake!” This was his last performance on the stage of this theater.
2. In February 1919, Blok was arrested for a day and a half. He was suspected of conspiring against the Soviet regime. But then Anatoly Lunacharsky put in a word for him, and the poet was released.
3. Blok was married to the daughter of the famous chemist Dmitry Mendeleev. They had known each other since childhood; the scientist was on friendly terms with the poet’s grandfather. Feelings for Lyubov Mendeleeva were so sublime that Alexander Blok was afraid for a long time to spoil them, to discredit them with carnal relationships. It was her image that formed the basis of “Poems about a Beautiful Lady.”
4. Alexander Blok was credited with an affair with Anna Akhmatova. However, after the death of the poet, Akhmatova returned to this topic more than once in her memoirs, dispelling all rumors about a “monstrous passion for Blok.”
5. Before his death, Alexander Blok was delirious for several days. Almost in an unconscious state, he only remembered one thing: whether there were any copies of his poem “The Twelve” left by chance. The poet wanted to completely destroy her.
6. Perhaps Blok’s most famous poem “Night, street, lantern, pharmacy...” on a street in Leiden in the Netherlands is captured in the form of a monument - written on the wall of one of the houses as part of the worldwide project “Wall poems”.
7. Asteroid 2540, which was discovered in 1971, was given the name Alexander Blok.
8. If you believe the questionnaire that Blok filled out in one of the sanatoriums where he had to relax, he had a passion for beer and ice cream.
9. Alexander Blok wrote his first poems at the age of five.
10. Many of Blok’s works might never have been born, and the years of the poet’s life would have been noticeably shortened, if not for chance. The poet was friends with the artist Sapunov, and at the beginning of April 1912, the artist invited him and his friends to vacation in a fishing village. Blok could not keep them company. Fortunately. One night, friends went boating. But the boat capsized. Sapunov drowned because he could not swim. Blok, by the way, couldn’t swim either. Therefore, his fate could have been the same if he had been there.
Hidden romantic
The first love that the world's most famous romantic experienced happened to him at the age of 17. In addition, the object of his love was not someone the same age or a girl younger than him, but Ksenia Sadovskaya, who was 37 years old at that time. Despite the difference of 20 years, the passion that the lovers experienced lasted for four long years. Only after 4 years, spent in separation and communicating only in correspondence, Blok finally decided to end the relationship.
However, Ksenia herself did not know how deep the young poet’s feelings were. Thus, interesting facts from Blok’s life illuminate this moment, supporting it with evidence in the form of a huge stack of letters filled with tender and sad poems dedicated to Sadovskaya. Ksenia herself learned about these letters only when she was on her deathbed.
A strange idea of love
The fact is that, despite his great love for his only wife, he did not sleep with his wife. As the poet himself put it, he cannot consider her at the same time an ideal of beauty and behave like a “mean” girl. In their relationship, on the initiative of Alexander himself, certain boundaries were established, which were limited only to communication and spiritual intimacy, excluding carnal pleasures and “animal” passion.
Maybe it was for this reason that just a few years after her marriage, Lyubov Mendeleeva gave in to Andrei Bely, whose feelings were no less exalted, but related more to receiving physical evidence of love.