Blok's attitude to the revolution- a complex complex of thoughts and feelings, hopes and worries. From the poet’s biography you know that he, one of the few among the Russian intelligentsia, accepted the revolution and sided with the Bolsheviks. The poet sincerely writes about his mood in the poetic message “Z. Gippius":
Scary, sweet, inevitable, necessary
I should throw myself into the foamy shaft...
Blok expresses his thoughts about the revolution and the fate of man in an era of colossal achievements in the article “Intellectuals and the Revolution”, in the poems “Scythians” and “The Twelve”.
Let us make an attempt to understand Blok’s worldview through his magnum opus – “The Twelve”. The poem was written in January 1918. The author's first entry about her was made on January 8. January 29 Blok writes: “Today I am a genius.” This is the only self-characterization of this kind in the entire creative destiny of the poet.
The poem becomes widely known. On March 3, 1918, it was published in the newspaper “Znamya Truda”, in April - together with an article about it by the critic Ivanov-Razumnik, “Test in a thunderstorm and storm” - in the magazine “Our Way”. In November 1918, the poem “The Twelve” was published as a separate brochure.
Blok himself never read “The Twelve” aloud. However, in 1918–1920. At Petrograd literary evenings, the poem was read more than once by L. D. Blok, the poet’s wife and professional actress.
The appearance of the poem caused a storm of contradictory interpretations. Many of Blok’s contemporaries, even former close friends and associates, decisively and completely did not accept it. Among the irreconcilable opponents of the “Twelve” were Z. Gippius, N. Gumilyov, I. Bunin. Ivanov-Razumnik, V. Meyerhold, and S. Yesenin accepted the poem with delight. Blok received an approving review from A. Lunacharsky.
The most complex, subtle, and meaningful was the reaction of those who, without accepting the “topical meaning” of “The Twelve,” saw the brilliance, depth, tragedy, poetic novelty, and high inconsistency of the poem. This is how M. Voloshin, N. Berdyaev, G. Adamovich, O. Mandelstam and others rated “The Twelve”.
Listen to how M. Voloshin expressed his impressions:
The poem “The Twelve” is one of the beautiful artistic translations of revolutionary reality. Without betraying himself, Blok wrote a deeply real and - surprisingly - lyrically objective thing. The internal affinity of “The Twelve” with “Snow Mask” is especially striking. This is the same St. Petersburg winter night, the same St. Petersburg blizzard... the same wine and love frenzy, the same blind human heart that has lost its way among the snow whirlwinds, the same elusive image of the Crucified, sliding in the snow flames... To the transmission of carbon monoxide and Blok approached the dull lyrics of his heroes through the tunes and rhythms of ditties, street and political songs, common words and popular democratic words. The poet's musical task was to create a subtly noble symphony of rhythms from deliberately vulgar sounds.
...There is nothing unexpected in this appearance of Christ at the end of the blizzard Petersburg poem. As always with Blok, He is invisibly present and shines through the obsessions of the world, just as the Beautiful Lady shines through the features of Harlots and Strangers. After the first - “Eh, eh without a cross” - Christ is already here...
Now it (the poem) is used as a Bolshevik work, with the same success it can be used as a pamphlet against Bolshevism, distorting and emphasizing its other aspects. But its artistic value, fortunately, stands on the other side of these temporary fluctuations in the political exchange.
Blok felt the direction of the historical movement and brilliantly conveyed this future unfolding before his eyes: the state of souls, the mood, the rhythms of the procession of some segments of the population and the ossified doom of others.
Blok's attitude towards the poem was quite complex. In April 1920, a “Note about the Twelve” was written: “... In January 1918, for the last time, I surrendered to the elements no less blindly than in January 1907 or March 1914... Those who see in the “Twelve” political poems, or are very blind to art, or sit up to their ears in political mud, or are possessed by great malice - be they enemies or friends of my poem.” (Here Blok compares this poem with the cycles “Snow Mask” and “Carmen”.)
The poem “The Twelve” was the result of Blok’s knowledge of Russia, its rebellious elements, and creative potential. Not in defense, not in glorification of the “coup party” - but in defense of the “people's soul”, slandered and humiliated (from Blok’s point of view), erupting in rebellion, maximalist “all or nothing”, standing on the brink of death, cruel punishment - it was written poem. Blok sees and knows what is happening: the shelling of the Kremlin, pogroms, the horror of lynchings, burning of estates (Blok’s family estate in Shakhmatovo was burned), the dispersal of the Constituent Assembly, the murder of the ministers of the Provisional Government Shingarev and Kokoshkin in the hospital. According to A. Remizov, the news of this murder became the impetus for the start of work on the poem. In these “lifeless” weeks of January 1918, Blok considered it the highest duty of a Russian artist, a “repentant nobleman,” a lover of the people to give to the people, to sacrifice to the will of the “people’s soul,” even his last asset—the measure and system of ethical values.
The poem is dictated by this sacrifice, awareness of one’s strength, immeasurable, unreasoning pity. Voloshin will call her “a merciful representative for the soul of Russian Razinovism.”
Bloc and revolutionThe problem of Blok's attitude to the revolution is complex and mysterious. On the one hand, ending “The Twelve” with the image of Christ carrying a flag, Blok makes it clear that revolution is a positive phenomenon, but despite this, in the murder scene there are notes of sincere pity and compassion for the murdered girl, who was, in general, representative of the old and outdated world. This position gives us the opportunity to assume that the poet’s understanding of the revolution was more mystical than logical. Blok saw in it not a historical phenomenon designed to liberate and make people happy, but a process of transition of the entire world into another, new state, leading to the degeneration of not only society , but also the person himself.
The construction of the poem “The Twelve” gives us a clear idea of the system of the world into which the revolution came. At the beginning of the work, a description is given of What remains from the former life. These are shreds and fragments of phrases, the constant and meaningless movement of snow and wind, poverty and darkness. The main properties of the old world are its fragmentation and aimlessness, its two-coloredness. Blok clearly does not recognize the right to life for such a world. A lady, a priest, a writer are just parodies of people. Such a world is like a shell from which a chick has already hatched, that is, twelve.
They are the only force capable of moving forward among the ruins of the old. They have no purpose, but there is structure and orderliness that gives the impression of meaning. The clash between two worlds, the world of chaos and the world of order, is shown in the scene of Katka's murder.
It must be said that different parts of the poem are written in different rhythms, and the theme of twelve is accompanied by the size of a march, while the theme of Katka before what happened to her* is given in the rhythm of ditties. This reveals a fundamental difference between two systems of views, two worldviews. In the first case, when describing the twelve, their unity and determination are emphasized - the most important, in my opinion, force of the revolution. The poet cannot fail to recognize the victory of this way of life. The size of the ditties, on the contrary, convinces us of the out-of-dateness and doom of everything old, everything that was dear to the poet himself. After all, the real feeling shines through in Petka’s monologue, which carries the music of Blok’s previous poems. But at the same time, the poet understands: what happened can no longer not only be returned, but even partially resurrected. That is why Petrukha refuses her love, because “these are not such times,” there is no place for feeling in a world remade by the revolution. In such duality lies the greatest tragedy of the poet. On the one hand, he cannot remain in the old world, but at the same time he cannot go along with the twelve who deny poetry.
It turns out that Blok accepts and at the same time does not accept the revolution, recognizing its unconditional and legal right to change the universe, but not finding his place in it. It is interesting that at the end of the poem the old world is transformed into a small stray dog, tagging along with people. This indicates that the twelve have really escaped from the old cosmos and are moving in a completely different space, led by Christ himself.
The image of Christ can have many meanings, and it is not clear which of them corresponds to the poet’s intention. It seems to me that this symbol was chosen by Blok because Christ is God and the messenger of God, that is, the bearer of a higher, universal meaning, but at the same time, he is a suffering man going to Calvary. It turns out that Christ, walking ahead of the twelve with a bloody flag, not only blesses and justifies them, but also shows them the path of suffering and, perhaps, death.
Summarizing all that has been said, we can conclude that. Blok accepted and justified the revolution, but did not see either his place in the changing world or the ultimate goal of everything that was happening. For him, the destruction of the old fit into the picture of the development of life because, in his opinion, all the vulgarity and filth of the society around him could not but be destroyed, and the only force capable of purifying the universe, he saw the archaic force of the “twelve” - either workers, either a soldier, or perhaps just prisoners who had nothing in common either with himself or with the society in which he lived.
Bloc and revolution
The problem of Blok's attitude to the revolution is complex and mysterious. On the one hand, ending “The Twelve” with the image of Christ carrying a flag, Blok makes it clear that revolution is a positive phenomenon, but despite this, in the murder scene there are notes of sincere pity and compassion for the murdered girl, who was, in general, representative of the old and outdated world. This position gives us the opportunity to assume that the poet’s understanding of the revolution was more mystical than logical. Blok saw in it not a historical phenomenon designed to liberate and make people happy, but a process of transition of the entire world into another, new state, leading to the degeneration of not only society , but also the person himself.
The construction of the poem “The Twelve” gives us a clear idea of the system of the world into which the revolution came. At the beginning of the work, a description is given of What remains from the former life. These are shreds and fragments of phrases, the constant and meaningless movement of snow and wind, poverty and darkness. The main properties of the old world are its fragmentation and aimlessness, its two-coloredness. Blok clearly does not recognize the right to life for such a world. A lady, a priest, a writer are just parodies of people. Such a world is like a shell from which a chick has already hatched, that is, twelve.
They are the only force capable of moving forward among the ruins of the old. They have no purpose, but there is structure and orderliness that gives the impression of meaning. The clash between two worlds, the world of chaos and the world of order, is shown in the scene of Katka's murder.
It must be said that different parts of the poem are written in different rhythms, and the theme of twelve is accompanied by the size of a march, while the theme of Katka before what happened to her* is given in the rhythm of ditties. This reveals a fundamental difference between two systems of views, two worldviews. In the first case, when describing the twelve, their unity and determination are emphasized - the most important, in my opinion, force of the revolution. The poet cannot fail to recognize the victory of this way of life. The size of the ditties, on the contrary, convinces us of the out-of-dateness and doom of everything old, everything that was dear to the poet himself. After all, the real feeling shines through in Petka’s monologue, which carries the music of Blok’s previous poems. But at the same time, the poet understands: what happened can no longer not only be returned, but even partially resurrected. That is why Petrukha refuses her love, because “these are not such times,” there is no place for feeling in a world remade by the revolution. In such duality lies the greatest tragedy of the poet. On the one hand, he cannot remain in the old world, but at the same time he cannot go along with the twelve who deny poetry.
It turns out that Blok accepts and at the same time does not accept the revolution, recognizing its unconditional and legal right to change the universe, but not finding his place in it. It is interesting that at the end of the poem the old world is transformed into a small stray dog, tagging along with people. This indicates that the twelve have really escaped from the old cosmos and are moving in a completely different space, led by Christ himself.
The image of Christ can have many meanings, and it is not clear which of them corresponds to the poet’s intention. It seems to me that this symbol was chosen by Blok because Christ is God and the messenger of God, that is, the bearer of a higher, universal meaning, but at the same time, he is a suffering man going to Calvary. It turns out that Christ, walking ahead of the twelve with a bloody flag, not only blesses and justifies them, but also shows them the path of suffering and, perhaps, death.
Summarizing all that has been said, we can conclude that. Blok accepted and justified the revolution, but did not see either his place in the changing world or the ultimate goal of everything that was happening. For him, the destruction of the old fit into the picture of the development of life because, in his opinion, all the vulgarity and filth of the society around him could not but be destroyed, and the only force capable of purifying the universe, he saw the archaic force of the “twelve” - either workers, either a soldier, or perhaps just prisoners who had nothing in common either with himself or with the society in which he lived.
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