The theme of revolution in A.A. Blok's poem "The Twelve". The image of the revolutionary era in A. Blok’s poem “Twelve Different Interpretations of the Image of Christ

A.A. 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's consider one of these poems, which, in the author's opinion, best reflects the era of revolutions and their contradictions.

The poem "12" is a reflection of that era and those events that shook the entire country with the change of the state apparatus. The revolution was spontaneous, the poem was also written in a fit of impulse, and therefore in the work itself, “one snowstorm is dusty,” the poet compares the revolution with an unexpected snowstorm that swept away everything in its path.

The poetic rhythm and solemn vocabulary of the poem give it a marching sound. A.A. Blok in one of his sayings calls the revolution music and calls on people to “listen to it with their whole body, with their whole heart and with their whole mind.” This helps to fully experience the mood that reigned in the country at that time.

Immediately after its appearance, the poem “The Twelve” caused the most fierce debate and contradictory interpretations. Some rejected it with contempt as “Bolshevik,” others saw in it and its heroes the evil truth of the Bolsheviks. And there are reasons for this.

On the one hand, this is the confident march of twelve Red Guards walking along the streets of snow-covered Petrograd, and the church already infringed on its rights (“And there’s the long-skirted one - / With his side behind the snowdrift... / Why is he so sad now, / Comrade priest?”), which shows the power of the Bolsheviks.

On the other hand, Blok characterizes his heroes as follows:

And they go without the name of a saint

All twelve - into the distance.

Ready for anything

No regrets...

And also: “There’s a cigar in your teeth, they’ll take a cap, / You should have an ace of diamonds on your back!” The poet openly compares revolutionaries with convicts and shows that these people are ready for anything, that in their souls there is only “sad, black” albeit “holy malice.” And after we see that Petka’s comrades mock him, calling him a weakling, after Petya’s murder, and declare impending robberies and beatings, it becomes clear that these are people who do not have any spiritual culture. and the foundations of morality and honor, that under the sick idea of ​​a bright future hide insignificant and vile people.

The symbolism of the main elements of the poem is even more confusing. For example, the number twelve is found in many religions and mythologies: the 12 apostles in Christianity, the 12 most important Christian holidays in Orthodoxy, Hercules performed 12 labors, in Buddhism the process of rebirth of living beings was a “wheel” formed by 12 steps, and so on, in addition to this, There are 12 months in a year, and watches are traditionally made with a 12-hour dial. In Blok, this number appears three times: the name, the number of Red Guards and the number of chapters, and as we know, 3 is also a symbolic number. Of particular significance is the appearance of Jesus Christ at the head of this detachment. It is no coincidence that the spelling of his name is the popular “Isus”, and not the book “Iesus”, which proves the national character of the work. And the fact that the bloody procession is led by the son of God depicts Blok’s pity for the main participants in the events of the era. Perhaps the poet believed that these people, who had forgotten about the Light within themselves for many reasons - centuries-old miserable life, grievances that had accumulated for a long time, lack of education, lack of internal culture, were worthy not of hatred, but of pity. Because they themselves don’t know what they are doing. That is why God is ahead of them - above his lost, blind children.

Thus, we see how Blok was inspired by the revolution and at the same time frightened by its mercilessness and cruelty. Not all the arguments of both sides are described above; the poem is filled with symbols, such as a dog with its tail between its legs and a complaining old woman, which make it special. Regarding the plan, the poet himself wrote: “... those who see political poems in “The Twelve” are either very blind to art, or sit up to their necks in political mud, or are possessed by great malice - be they enemies or friends of my poem " This poem is not propaganda, it is a picture of revolutionary reality with all its horrors and hopes, it, as a true creation of art, reflects the real thoughts and feelings of the people of its time.

Updated: 2018-05-20

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Alexander Aleksandrovich Blok was everything - a poet, writer, publicist, playwright, translator, literary critic. In addition, A. A. Blok is one of the classics of Russian literature of the twentieth century. Russian symbolism is unthinkable without this author. He made a huge contribution to its development and is one of its largest representatives. A. A. Blok lived in difficult historical times, which were rich in events. One of them was the October Revolution. Blok’s attitude towards the revolution cannot be defined as unambiguous, which is what will be discussed in this article.

Historical background - October Revolution

The October Revolution did not come out of nowhere; it had its own reasons. The people of that time were tired of hostilities, complete collapse threatened industry and agriculture, the peasants became increasingly poor every day in the absence of a solution to the agrarian issue. The implementation of social and economic reforms was constantly delayed, and a financial crisis of a catastrophic nature arose in the country. As a result of this, at the beginning of July 1917, Petrograd was shaken by popular unrest, which demanded the overthrow of the Provisional Government. The authorities issue a decree to suppress a peaceful demonstration with the use of weapons. A wave of arrests sweeps through, and executions begin everywhere. At this moment the bourgeoisie wins. But in August the revolutionaries regain their positions.

Since July, the Bolsheviks carried out extensive campaigning among workers and military personnel. And it brought results. The attitude has taken root in the minds of the people: the Bolshevik Party is the only element of the political system that truly stands for the protection of the working people. In September, the Bolsheviks receive more than half of the votes in the elections to the district dumas. The bourgeoisie is collapsing because it did not have mass support. Vladimir Ilyich Lenin begins developing a plan for an armed uprising in order to win power for the Soviets. On October 24, the uprising began, and armed units loyal to the government were immediately isolated from it. On October 25, in Petrograd, the Bolsheviks successfully captured bridges, the telegraph, and government offices. On October 26, the Winter Palace was captured and members of the Provisional Government were arrested. The October Revolution of 1917 divided the world into two large sides - capitalist and socialist.

A turning point, difficult and global changes

The 20th century was a difficult period in Russian history. The October Revolution of 1917 shook society. This historical event left no one indifferent. One of the public groups that responded to what happened was In 1918, the famous poem “The Twelve” was written by Alexander Alexandrovich Blok.

The author’s attitude towards the 1917 Revolution has been discussed for many generations, and each time more and more new interpretations of his position appear. No one can say that A. A. Blok adhered to a specific side (let’s say as simply as possible: “Was the uprising good for the country?”). Let's figure out what is contradictory about Blok's attitude towards the revolution.

Brief plot of the poem "The Twelve"

For those who did not study well at school, let us briefly recall the plot of the poem. The first chapter introduces the plot of the action. The author describes the winter snowy streets of Petrograd, engulfed in revolution (winter of 1917-1918). The portraits of passers-by are striking in their brevity, but their imagery. A patrol detachment consisting of twelve people is walking along the streets of Petrograd. The revolutionaries are discussing their former comrade Vanka, who abandoned the revolution for the sake of drinking and became friends with a former prostitute, Katka. In addition to talking about a comrade, the patrolmen sing a song about serving in the Red Army.

Suddenly the patrol encounters a cart in which Vanka and Katka were traveling. The revolutionaries attack them, the cabman was able to escape, and Katya was killed by a shot from one of the patrolmen. The man who killed her regrets what happened, but the others condemn him for it. The patrol moves further down the street, and a stray dog, who was driven away with bayonets, joins them. After this, the revolutionaries saw the vague outlines of a figure in front of them - Jesus Christ was walking in front of them.

Not only "Twelve"

During the period of time when Blok was creating the poem “The Twelve,” he was simultaneously working on the poem “Scythians” and the article “Intellectuals and Revolution.” Blok’s attitude towards the October Revolution in these works was very clear. He encouraged everyone to listen and hear the Revolution fully.

Delight is what the author initially felt in relation to what happened. Blok saw great changes that would in the future lead Russia to a time of prosperity and a truly better life. However, Blok's attitude towards the Revolution began to change over time. After all, sometimes hopes are not destined to be justified.

Wind of change. Blok's new attitude to revolution

In the poem "The Twelve" the author rethinks history. The former enthusiasm and praise are absent. Objectivity in relation to what is happening is what comes to the fore when determining the Bloc’s attitude towards the Revolution. Historical events are beginning to be perceived as spontaneous phenomena. He compares them to a storm, a blizzard, which in their movement and action do not have any specific goal or direction.

What is Blok’s attitude towards the revolution now? From a symbol of a new better life, it is transformed into natural will and inevitability. Everything that had been accumulating for years, discontent and complaints, suddenly broke free and began to destroy everything that stood in the way. This is the reason why at the beginning of the poem, when describing the winter streets, the wind tears down the bourgeois posters.

A world that is dying

The symbolism of Blok, of which he became the personification, is also present in this poem. The pre-Soviet world is dying - it is represented by the “lady in karkul”, the “bourgeois” and others who feel uncomfortable under the revolutionary wind.

The lady slips, and the bourgeois hides his nose in his collar to keep warm. At the same time, Blok does not mean the death of the entire large country, but rather the departure of the old way of life.

Contrasting colors of events that happened

The natural contrast of black evening and white snow is transferred to people. Their emotions are painted in two contrasting colors: anger is divided into black and holy. Blok's attitude towards the Revolution in the poem "The Twelve" becomes contradictory, because he understands the obviousness that revolutionary good goals are often achieved through violent and oppressive means.

Everywhere a reign of robbery, violence, murder and immorality is established. But at the same time, the thought runs through the entire work about whether there is still at least a drop of hope for the creative power of the revolution.

Twelve Red Guards

The main expression of Blok's attitude to the revolution in the poem "12" is the image of patrolmen. The purpose of the patrol is to establish order. However, the Red Guards themselves are uncontrollable, like a storm or the wind. They act completely unpredictably, their actions cannot be predicted, and their emotions and feelings are unknown. This is the tragedy of the situation.

In addition, the outward expression of the image of the patrollers does not correspond to a new better life. They look more like prisoners - wrinkled caps, rolled cigarettes in their teeth. On the other hand, for the poet, patrolmen are ordinary Russians who are ready to sacrifice their lives for the sake of the Revolution, but specifically for what purpose remains unclear.

Issues of Morality and Holiness

Revolutionaries believed in creating a new world, but what kind? Blok's attitude towards the Revolution and the new world is frightening. In the newly created state, people rob, engage in looting, and bring death not only to the guilty, but also to completely innocent people. This symbolizes the death of Katka, killed in a spontaneous outburst of a patrolman who succumbed to a flash of momentary violent emotions. Blok cannot help but emphasize the tragedy of Katya’s death, since Blok’s woman is being killed. Holiness and sinfulness are united in the poem. Throughout the entire narrative, the patrolmen constantly talk about renouncing Christ. Russian people have always been characterized by the “sacred,” a symbol of morality and spiritual purity. But despite everything, the guards cannot completely renounce Christ. At the end of the poem, they still meet with him, while the patrolmen were waiting for the enemy, and a holy image appeared. The importance of the image of Christ lies in the fact that he walks with a gentle step. Which is equal to how he came two thousand years ago to save human souls. One of the provisions of Blok’s attitude towards the revolution is that he understood and accepted the inevitability of what was happening around him, but at the same time he never came to terms with immoral and inhuman revolutionary methods.

In conclusion

Considering the twentieth century, its events and the intelligentsia who lived at that time, one can notice how they reacted emotionally and deeply to the historical events taking place. A. A. Blok was one of the first to react to revolutionary actions, and at the same time his reaction was complex and mysterious. In the poem "The Twelve" this problem reaches its peak. On the one hand, the fact that the poem ends with the image of Christ carrying a flag makes the reader understand that revolution can be a positive phenomenon. But on the other hand, the scene of the girl’s murder is accompanied by real and sincere pity and compassion. Katya is the image of the old, passing world. This leads the reader to the fact that Blok’s rethinking of the revolution becomes less logical and more mystical in nature. From a historical event for Blok, the revolution became a process of transition of society into a new, completely different state, which could lead to the degeneration of the human personality. The collision between two worlds must lead humanity somewhere.

It is no accident, of course, that the pessimism that gripped Blok on the eve of October was no accident. The poet was not connected with the people, with the revolutionary movement led by the Bolsheviks. He saw the feverish gathering of forces by the counter-revolution, and around him, in the environment close to him, reactionary sentiments were growing.
Shortly before October, a curious poem was published in the satirical magazine “New Satyricon”, which half-jokingly, half-seriously expressed the feelings of ordinary people, frightened by the events. It was dedicated to the policeman:

Policeman! How resonant this word is!
What power, what strength is in him!
Oh! I'm afraid of the calm of the past
We will not return you to our homeland without you.
Beautiful is the cry of the insurgent people,
Great things excite the chest,
But without you there is freedom itself
Not sweet to a frightened heart.

The “typical” nature of the experiences expressed in this poem is evidenced by the following parallel to it from a magazine that is not at all satirical - from “Russian Thought”.
“Power is never the power of the ministry... Specifically, the power of the ministry is the physical strength of the policeman, who can grab by the collar anyone who does not obey the order... It is customary to see the manifestation of revolutionary ferment in all phenomena such as pogroms, outrages of soldiers and sailors, seizures of the landowners land, robberies, etc. But this, of course, is not a revolution, but is the result of the lack of police...”
The Merezhkovskys, with whom Blok could not completely abandon his closeness, teamed up with the terrorist Savinkov, organizing a newspaper with him. Z. Gippius, the most active figure in the white emigration, recalled a conversation with Blok on the phone on October 15, 1917 (before she fled abroad): “Blok says... “The war cannot last. We need peace." - “How is the world separative? Now there is peace with the Germans?.. Perhaps you are not with the Bolsheviks?”, and Blok, who never lied, replies: “Yes, if you want, I’m rather with the Bolsheviks, they demand peace.” It was hard to resist: “What about Russia? Russia? You and the Bolsheviks have forgotten Russia, and Russia is suffering.” - “Well, she’s not really suffering...” It took my breath away...”
This conversation shows that, despite his confusion, Blok did not lose his revolutionary flair even during the period of decline that he experienced in the fall of 1917.
Events developed, “... the days and hours of the existence of the Provisional Government were already numbered. No forces could stop the victorious march of the socialist revolution.” The Soviet victory was met with a furious cry of rage from almost the entire bourgeois-noble intelligentsia. “Greed, the dirty, evil, mad self-interest of the money bag, the intimidation and servility of its hangers-on - this is the real social basis of the modern howl of the intellectuals, from Rech to Novaya Zhizn, against violence on the part of the proletariat and the revolutionary peasantry,” Lenin wrote in 1918 year.
But what infuriated and trembled the people whom Lenin called “intellectuals” shocked Blok with extraordinary delight. The bloc accepted the October Revolution unconditionally, completely.
Mayakovsky spoke about his meeting with Blok in the first days of the revolution in his poem “Good” (Chapter 7):

Fire
machine gun
cutting area
Embankments
empty.
And only
swagger
bonfires
in the thick twilight.
And here,
where is the land
knitting from the heat,
with fright
or from the ice,
palms holding
by the fire in tongues,
the soldier is warming up.
The soldier fell
fire in the eyes,
per piece
hair lay down
I found out
surprised
said:
"Hello,
Alexander Blok.
Lafa to the futurists, -
old tailcoat
will fall apart
every seam."
Blok looked -
the fires are burning -
"Very good".

These days, Blok freed himself from everything that oppressed him. He was breathing deeply. The biographer, M. A. Beketova, very vividly depicts his condition:
“The October 25 coup, the collapse of the Constituent Assembly and the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk Al. Al. greeted me joyfully, with new faith in the cleansing power of the revolution.” He understood that “... the old world is really collapsing,” and it seemed to him that “something new and beautiful should take its place. He walked young, cheerful, vigorous, with shining eyes and listened to that “music of the revolution”, to that noise from the fall of the old world, which was constantly heard in his ears, according to his own testimony. This uplift of spirit, this joyful tension reached its highest point at the time when the famous poem “The Twelve” (January 1918) and “Scythians” was written. The poem was created by one impulse of inspiration, the power of which was reminiscent of the times of the poet’s youth.”
The entry made by Blok on March 1, 1918 is typical: “The revolution is not me alone, but us. The reaction is loneliness, mediocrity, crushing clay.”
The bloc accepted the revolution without being afraid of the sacrifices that are inevitable in the struggle. The language of Blok’s notes and notes at this time acquires a special sharpness and masculinity, corresponding to the tension and firm certainty of his experiences.
Blok categorically answers the questions of the Petrograd Echo newspaper questionnaire: “Is it possible for the intelligentsia to reconcile with the Bolsheviks?” “Can the intelligentsia work with the Bolsheviks?” “Maybe I have to... The intelligentsia has always been revolutionary. The decrees of the Bolsheviks are symbols of the intelligentsia” (January 14, 1918). And on those same days he writes in his Diary: “A completely extraordinary thing happens (like everything):
“Intellectuals,” people preaching the revolution, “prophets of the revolution,” turned out to be its traitors. Cowards, baiters, hangers-on of the bourgeois bastard... in fact, their entire revolution was a fig in the pocket of the tsarist government” (January 14, 1918).
Blok wrote with hatred and contempt about the fragments of the old world destroyed by the revolution:
“Speculators in the church anathematize the Bolsheviks, and speculators in the coffee shop sell canceled loans, both of them wink at each other across the street; they understand each other. I’ll still go to the coffee shop, but I won’t go to church anymore. Church mazuriki are more dangerous to me than coffee mazuriki.”
In January 1918, Blok published the article “The Intelligentsia and the Revolution,” in which he most fully expressed his attitude to the revolution. “In that stream of thoughts and premonitions,” wrote Blok, “which captured me ten years ago, there was a mixed feeling of Russia: melancholy, horror, repentance, hope... All this lasted for a few years, but a few years fell on my shoulders like a long , a sleepless night filled with ghosts..."
And then Blok proclaimed: “Remake everything... Arrange so that everything becomes new; so that our deceitful, dirty, boring, ugly life becomes a fair, clean, cheerful and beautiful life... Woe to those who think to find in the revolution the fulfillment of only their dreams, no matter how high and noble they may be. A revolution, like a thunderstorm, like a snowstorm, always brings something new and unexpected; she cruelly deceives many; she easily cripples the worthy in her whirlpool; it often carries the unworthy to land unharmed, but - this is its particularity, it does not change either the general direction of the flow, or the menacing and deafening roar that the flow emits. This hum, anyway, is always about the great...”
The need for sacrifices, the inevitability of the tragic events of the struggle were clear to Blok, for he well remembered the horrific past:
“...Why do they shit in the noble estates dear to the heart? - Because they raped and flogged girls there: not from that master, but from a neighbor. Why are hundred-year-old parks being torn down? “Because for a hundred years, under their spreading linden and maple trees, the gentlemen showed their power: they poked money in the nose of a beggar, and education in the face of a fool.”
The article “Intellectuals and Revolution” ended with the call: “Listen to the Revolution with all your body, with all your heart, with all your consciousness!..”
Reactionary intellectuals - both those who later fled abroad and became emigrants, and those who remained and became internal emigrants - met Blok with furious persecution. The reactionary press threw mud at him, they did not shake hands with him, people who were once close to him broke off relations with him. He wrote on January 22, 1918:
“Yesenin called and talked about yesterday’s “morning of Russia” in the Tenishevsky Hall. And the crowd shouted at him, A. Bely - and mine - “traitors”. They don't shake hands. The cadets and Merezhkovskys are terribly angry with me.”
A little later (January 26) it was written:
“Impressions from my article (“Intellectuals and Revolution”): The Merezhkovskys are transparently hinting at a future boycott. Sologub (!) mentioned in his speech that A. A. Blok, “whom we loved,” published his feuilleton against the priests on the day when the Alexander Nevsky Lavra was smashed.”
Blok, thus, inextricably linked himself with the revolution from its very first days. But it is wrong, however, to think that, having accepted it so openly and sincerely, he at the same time understood its true content.
Feeling extremely acutely the unacceptability of the old world, accepting its destruction with all his heart, dreaming of creating a new happy life, Blok at the same time did not have any clear idea of ​​how it should be created. Political naivety led him to the “Left Social Revolutionaries,” who used pompous revolutionary phraseology to cover up the defense of the interests of the kulaks. Blok published in magazines and newspapers of the “Left Social Revolutionaries”, and this - although completely external - connection with the imaginary “revolutionaries” is characteristic of his political inexperience and ignorance of theoretical issues. Even after October, his revolutionary spirit remained purely emotional and did not acquire political hardening. The contradictory nature of Blok’s revolutionary spirit was also reflected in his work of 1918.
The extraordinary upsurge that Blok experienced during the days of the revolution awakened the artist in him. Having fallen silent in 1917, turning into an editor of shorthand reports, Blok again became a poet in 1918. At the beginning of 1918, he experienced an exceptional surge of creative strength and created his two largest works: “The Twelve” and “Scythians.”
Blok wrote the poem “The Twelve” in an extremely elated state. “The other day, lying in the dark with my eyes open, I listened to a rumble, a rumble: I thought that an earthquake had begun,” he wrote on January 9, 1918, during the days of the creation of the poem (the first entry about it dates back to January 15: “My “Twelve” "do not move", but it shows that the work began earlier).
Finishing the poem, Blok writes on January 29: “A terrible noise growing in me and around me. Gogol heard this noise... Today I am a genius.”
It should be remembered that for Blok, genius is first and foremost a people's genius. When creating “The Twelve,” Blok felt the nationality of his creation and was confident in its significance for the people and the revolution.
And one cannot but agree with Blok - in his poem the power of revolutionary upsurge is expressed so fully and vividly, with such selflessness that the poem will forever go down in the history of Soviet literature. But at the same time, “The Twelve” occupy a special place in it. The poem reflected the inconsistency of Blok’s revolutionary spirit, which was clearly revealed in a purely political sense.
Blok had a vague idea of ​​the social forces that determined the essence of the socialist revolution. Therefore, he portrays the revolution, first of all, as a raging element; he sees mainly its external, destructive side. In "The Twelve" the Red Guards are represented by the "golytba".

“Eh, eh!
It's not a sin to have fun!
Lock the floors
There will be robberies today!
Unlock the cellars -
There's a bastard running around these days!"

But this vague idea of ​​the revolution, this ignorance of its organized forces and the people who created it, is redeemed by genuine revolutionary passion, which sounds in many stanzas of the poem:

How did our guys go?
To serve in the Red Guard -
To serve in the Red Guard -
I'm going to lay down my head!

Oh, you, bitter grief,
Sweet life!
Torn coat
Austrian gun!

We are woe to all the bourgeoisie
We will fan the world fire,
World fire in blood -
God bless!

It is this passion that transforms in Blok’s mind people who “need an ace of diamonds on their back” into heroes of the revolution:

And they go without the name of a saint
All twelve - into the distance.
Ready for anything
No regrets...

Their rifles are steel
To an invisible enemy...
In the back streets,
Where one snowstorm gathers dust...
Yes, downy snowdrifts -
You can't drag your boot...

It hits my eyes
Red flag.
Is heard
Measured step.
Here he will wake up
Fierce enemy...

And the blizzard throws dust in their eyes
Days and nights
All the way...

Forward, forward,
Working people!

The pathos of revolutionary passion is closely connected in the poem with the denial of the old world, which is so characteristic of Blok. A satirical image of the old world runs through the entire poem, ending with the brightest symbol that reveals Blok’s attitude to the past:

A bourgeois stands at a crossroads
And he hid his nose in his collar.
And next to him he cuddles with coarse fur
A mangy dog ​​with its tail between its legs.

The bourgeois stands there like a hungry dog,
It stands silent, like a question.
And the old world is like a rootless dog,
Stands behind him with his tail between his legs.

Blok’s coming to revolution, expressed in the creation of the poem “The Twelve,” was thus far from accidental. This poem seemed to sum up the moods that were ripening in Blok long before October, the images that his hatred of the old world had already suggested to him. The world that turned a person into a dead man had to be broken. And Blok rushed towards the force that was breaking this world, pinning his aspirations on it, merging his hatred of the old world with the hatred of the broad masses.
That is why the satirical depiction of the old world is so significant in the poem and the depiction of the revolutionary upsurge is so sincerely pathetic. But the old world took revenge for itself. Blok was too closely connected with him to understand the nature of the new force that was crushing the old world. Having enthusiastically accepted the revolutionary destruction of the social system he hated, he was far from truly understanding the social content of the socialist revolution. Therefore, the poem, sounding with enormous revolutionary force, ends with the image of Christ, so far from revolution, walking ahead of the Red Guards:

So they walk with a sovereign step -
Behind is a hungry dog,
Ahead - with a bloody flag,
And invisible behind the blizzard,
And unharmed by a bullet,
With a gentle tread above the storm,
Snow scattering of pearls,
In a white corolla of roses -
Ahead is Jesus Christ.

Subjectively, from Blok’s point of view, this image was a statement of the revolution; the poet sought to show that the goals of the revolution were sacred to him, but objectively, by introducing this image into the poem, he deprived the revolution of real content.
However, the pathos of revolutionary upsurge and hatred of the destroyed world was so powerful in the poem that it drowned out this alien and internally unjustified religious note in its ending.
The poem was the first significant work in post-October Russian literature, artistically embodying the heroic rise of the masses. She responded with her basic sound to this rise, and that was the main thing.
But Blok’s revolutionary spirit, his striving for the people collided, as before, with his distance from them: therefore, in the poem, which in its essence had undoubtedly national significance, Blok did not find such images that would adequately express the content of the era and the characters of the fighters of the revolution, not found a truly folk form.
The image of Christ, of course, is not accidental in the poem, speaks with particular force about this creative contradiction of Blok - the gravest legacy he inherited from his past.
This image in Blok’s interpretation should not be given a purely religious meaning. It is much more vague and complex. The meaning of the poem is clear. First giving an image of the hated old world, Blok depicts its destruction by a force that he considered beautiful, blessed and heroic, although it sometimes seems dark and cruel to him. But he believes that the old world itself made it this way (as he wrote about it in the cited article “Intellectuals and Revolution”) and that the great truth and justice that this force brings to the world atones for the excesses of the revolutionary element. If Blok had been able to correctly define the goals of the revolution and see its organizing forces, this would mean that he had completely overcome the past, that he had finally broken through to the people, that his poem had become truly folk in the deepest sense of the word. But Blok could not do this. The burden of the past was too heavy, the poet was too far from the people and the proletarian party. Therefore, he did not find such symbolism for the revolution that would truly objectively convey its essence.
Blok himself acutely felt that the image of Christ was alien to the poem. His entries in the “Diary” related to the poem are interesting:
“The terrible thought of these days: the point is not that the Red Guards are “unworthy” of Jesus, who is walking with them now, but that it is he who is walking with them, but another must go” (February 20, 1918).
And further:
“I just stated a fact: if you look closely at the snowstorm along this path, you will see “Jesus Christ.” But sometimes I myself deeply hate this feminine ghost” (March 10, 1918).
He expressed the same thought on February 17: “That Christ goes before them is certain. The point is not whether they are “worthy of him,” but the scary thing is that again he is with them and there is no other one yet; do we need another -? »
When he was asked to republish the poem in 1919, he asked: “Don’t you think that the note in “The Twelve” is a little late? »
But - subjectively - the image of Christ for Blok was truly an affirmation of the revolution. This image, in Blok’s understanding, was not at all the embodiment of humility and forgiveness. In the cycle of poems “Motherland” he has an interesting poem that reveals the unique meaning that Blok put into this image.

Forested steep slopes:
Once upon a time there, on top,
Grandfathers chopped down a flammable log house
And they sang about their Christ.

Now the shepherd's whip will not whistle,
And the pipe will not sing a song,
Only damp moss hangs from a cliff,
Like witches a broken tow.

Forever an everlasting shadow
The eyelashes of mosses are pubescent,
They sleep, lulled by laziness
The human enemy is silence.

And the man of the sad heron
It won’t scare you off a swamp hummock,
But in every quiet, rusty drop -
The origin of rivers, lakes, swamps.

And rusty forest drops,
Born in the wilderness and darkness,
Carrying frightened Russia
The news of the burning Christ.
(29 August 1914)

Even earlier, in the 1908 article “Element and Culture,” Blok, speaking about the “national element” that threatens an earthquake more terrible than the one that just destroyed Messina, wrote about the growth of hooliganism on the one hand, and on the other - sectarianism:
“These are the ones who attract the hearts of the dead with their sonorous singing.” They sing:

You are love, you are love,
You are holy love
From the beginning you are persecuted,
Drenched in blood.

They sing other songs:

We have cast knives,
Forged weights,
We are single guys
Practiced...

Let them fry and heat us
Razmazurikov guys -
We will not respect the authorities
We'd better sit in the casemate...

Oh, you folding book,
The path to hard labor,
Good fellow will suffer
A little bit for you...

In the days of approaching thunderstorms, both of these songs merge: it is clear to horror that those who sing about “cast knives” and those who sing about “holy love” will not betray each other, because - the elements are with them, they - children of one thunderstorm... We are experiencing a terrible crisis... We see ourselves already, as it were, against the backdrop of a glow, on a light lacy airplane, high above the earth; and below us is a thundering and fire-breathing mountain, along which, behind clouds of ash, streams of red-hot lava crawl, freeing themselves.”
These thoughts are obviously deeply related to the poem. In it, too, Blok strives to understand the popular movement in its contradictions, strives to justify its external, frightening manifestations with internal lofty goals, but he does this in an extremely clouded form. It is characteristic that he does not notice the incompatibility of the first ditty with the last, clearly revolutionary in color.
But the main thing is that Blok associated the idea of ​​a national Christ with the idea of ​​a popular uprising; Christ was “burning” for him; and he places this Christ at the head of the Red Guards, who seemed to him “single, practiced boys.”
Thus, “The Twelve” reflected the limitations of Blok’s revolutionary spirit, its abstractness and emotionality, its political defectiveness.
But, despite all this, Blok’s poem lives on today due to its bright revolutionary romanticism.
In the article “Intellectuals and Revolution,” written at the same time as the poem, Blok clearly expressed his romantic attitude towards the world: “It is worth living only in such a way as to make immeasurable demands on life: all or nothing; expect the unexpected; to believe not in “what is not in the world,” but in what should be in the world; Let this not happen now, and it won’t happen for a long time. But life will give it to us, because it is beautiful.”
Blok’s poem is imbued with this romantic pathos of daring. It bizarrely merges the satirical grotesquery familiar to Blok with a huge pathetic upsurge, the pathos of contempt for the old world and delight at the sight of its destruction are combined with a vague dream of the beautiful thing that the revolution is heading towards. The exclusivity of the characters and events of the poem, the reckless young men transforming into devotees of the revolution, the image of Christ appearing over the murderers of the innocent Katka - all this corresponded to the romantic aspect in which Blok perceived the revolution.
Here his path from reactionary-mystical romanticism to revolutionary romanticism found its most complete expression. But if in new conditions, in the conditions of the emergence of a socialist society, the old critical realism collapsed, because it needed to be supplemented by the romance of the revolution, then romanticism, not supported by deep realism, became superficial, insufficient to fully reflect the world. Only in the unity of the revolutionary-romantic and realistic approach to the world, i.e. in the method of socialist realism, striving for a truthful depiction of life with its positive and negative sides and, at the same time, for a deep disclosure of the leading revolutionary tendency of its development - only in In such unity it was possible to find the basis for an equal relationship between art and reality. But Blok could not do this. The strength of the poem is in the brightness of its revolutionary romance, its weakness is in the limitations of this romance. In other words, its strength lies in reflecting the emotional upsurge of the revolution and its weakness lies in the unclear idea of ​​its specific content, its true political meaning.
Blok's poem attracted a lot of attention, extremely angered the reactionaries, and was met with sympathy by the revolutionary audience. By the way, it was published behind Kolchak’s lines as an underground leaflet.
It is characteristic that the poem was translated into Italian (not to mention many others) under the title “Bolshevik Songs”.
In one of the Petrograd clubs, Blok’s wife recited “The Twelve” every evening. A description of one of the evenings with the reading of “The Twelve” is given by M. Beketova: “A large audience, including quite a few soldiers and workers, enthusiastically greeted the poem, the author and the reader. The impression was amazing, many were moved to tears, including Al himself. Al., who was present at the reading, was very excited and wrote in his diary: “Lyuba read wonderfully.” Soon after this, a large concert took place at the Mariinsky Theater in favor of the school of journalists with the participation of Chaliapin. Al. Al. read my poems, Lyub. Dm. I read “The Twelve”; The bourgeois audience of Chaliapin's concerts listened very attentively, but, as always in such cases, only half of the audience applauded, the other remained hostilely silent. Among the sympathizers was unexpectedly A.I. Kuprin, who approached Lyub. Dm. and expressed his pleasure to her.”
The poem, therefore, played a direct revolutionary role at the beginning of the revolution. This best speaks of its main content, the main emotional tone that corresponded to the mood of the masses.
Now after the “Twelve” Blok created the “Scythians”. If in “The Twelve” Blok defined his attitude towards the revolution, then in “Scythians” he accomplished the same task regarding Europe. Even during his trips abroad, Blok had a clear idea of ​​the hypocrisy and cynicism of bourgeois civilization. Now, when the bourgeoisie of European countries began a brutal reprisal against the rebellious workers and was preparing an intervention to strangle the Russian revolution, Blok decisively and clearly defined his attitude towards it, and this was the objective positive meaning of “Scythians”. But, as always, Blok’s subjective concept of the world turned out to be far from reality. And this was the weakness of the Scythians. In its emotional intensity, the poem is an example of political lyrics. But for political lyrics, sobriety and clarity of assessments of reality are especially necessary. Blok did not have this. Hence the artistic inconsistency of Blok’s last major work.
As in “The Twelve,” Blok in “Scythians” felt unusually deeply the new things that the revolution brought to the world. Blok realized that she absorbed all the best created by humanity.
Blok felt with all his heart the truth of Herzen’s prophetic words that “Russia is the last people, full of youthful aspirations for life at a time when others feel tired and outdated.” He wrote in Scythians, addressing the old world:

Yes, to love as our blood loves,
None of you have been in love for a long time!
Have you forgotten that there is love in the world,
Which burns and destroys.

Finally, Blok clearly saw that the old world had ceased to be the guardian of culture and progress and therefore would sooner or later perish.
And on behalf of the new world, he addresses the old with an appeal:

For the last time - come to your senses, old world!
To the fraternal feast of labor and peace,
For the last time - for a bright fraternal feast
The barbaric lyre is calling!

But at the same time, as in “The Twelve,” in “Scythians” the goals in the name of which the revolution opposes the old world remain unclear for Blok. He paints a picture of the future that is far from understanding the international and social significance of the revolution. If the old world does not follow the inspired call, then the “Scythians,” that is, the new Russia, will generally withdraw from the life of the world. “Before it’s too late, sheathe the old sword,” he says to the old world. - Comrades! We will become brothers!..”
It is easy to notice in this poem an echo of Pushkin’s thoughts about the great cultural role that Russia played in its time, taking on the blow of the Mongol hordes, preserving the possibility of calm development for European culture. In a letter to P. Ya. Chaadaev dated October 19, 1836, he wrote: “It is Russia, it is its vast expanses that swallowed up the Mongol invasion. The Tatars did not dare to cross our western borders and leave us in the rear; they returned to their steppes, and Christian civilization was saved.” But this idea came to Blok through Vladimir Solovyov, who gave it a completely mystical coloring. V. Solovyov said that the Antichrist will lead the yellow race, while the Christian principle will be defended by the white race. In this regard, Russia, standing on the border between the Mongols and Europe, acquired special providential significance. These apocalyptic ideas of V. Solovyov greatly influenced the Symbolists. They were developed by A. Bely in “Petersburg”. During the war, Bryusov wrote that this was the last war of nations, and it would be followed by a war of races: yellow and white. In Blok's letters and diaries there are a number of comments indicating that this strange “philosophy of history” seemed very convincing to him. It found its expression in "Scythians": here, as in "The Twelve", the objectively extremely deep content - a call for the brotherhood of peoples, indignation against the interventionists, deep patriotic pathos - received a sharply subjectively colored form, which also influenced the content , limiting it and depriving it of a broad popular sound.
Blok's creative upsurge in 1918 was fraught with deep contradictions. And now, for all his subjective, deeply sincere revolutionary spirit, Blok was objectively far from understanding the revolution. Therefore, his creativity could give the brightest flash, but it could not yet turn into a stable and strong, long-term creative burning.

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Essay text:

Blok expressed his attitude towards the revolution and everything that followed it in the poem Twelve, written in 1918. It was a terrible time: the Bolsheviks came to power, four years of war, devastation, murders were behind us. People who belonged to the large intelligentsia, which included Blok, perceived what was happening as a national tragedy. And against this background, Blok’s poem sounded in clear contrast, in which the poet, who quite recently wrote heartfelt lyrical poems about Russia, directly says: Let’s fire a bullet at Holy Rus'.
Contemporaries did not understand Blok and considered him a traitor to his country. However, the poet’s position is not as clear-cut as it might seem at first glance, and a more careful reading of the poem proves this.
Blok himself warned that one should not overestimate the importance of political motives in the poem Twelve; the poem is more symbolic than it seems. In the center of Blok’s poem we put a blizzard, which is the personification of the revolution. In the midst of this blizzard, snow and wind, you can hear the music of the revolution, which for him is opposed to the most terrible philistine peace and comfort. In this music he sees the possibility of the revival of Russia, the transition to a new stage of development. The bloc does not deny or approve of the riots, robberies, seething dark passions, permissiveness and anarchy that have reigned in Russia. In all this terrible and cruel present, Blok sees the cleansing of Russia. Russia must pass this time, plunging to the very bottom, into hell, into the underworld, and only after that will it ascend to heaven.
The fact that Blok sees in the revolution a transition from darkness to light is proven by the very title of the poem. Twelve is the hour of transition from one day to another, an hour that has long been considered the most mystical and mysterious of all. What was happening at that moment in Russia, too, according to Blok, emanated a certain mysticism, as if someone unknown and omnipotent at the midnight hour began to practice witchcraft.
The most mysterious image of the poem, the image of Christ walking ahead of a detachment of Red Army soldiers, is also associated with this motif. Literary scholars offer many interpretations of this image. But it seems to me that Blok’s Jesus Christ personifies the future of Russia, bright and spiritual. This is indicated by the order in which the characters appear at the end of the poem. Behind everyone trudges a mangy dog, in whose image one can easily guess the autocratic and dark past of Russia, ahead of him walks a detachment of Red Army soldiers, personifying the revolutionary present of the country, and this procession is led in a white corolla of roses by Jesus Christ, an image embodying the bright future awaiting Russia when she will rise from the hell she finds herself in.
There are other interpretations of this image. Some literary scholars believe that Jesus Christ (this version appeared due to the fact that Blok is missing one letter in the name of Jesus, and this cannot be called an accident or the necessity of the verse) is the Antichrist, leading a detachment of Red Army soldiers, and therefore the entire revolution. This interpretation is also consistent with Blok’s position regarding the revolution as a transitional period to the kingdom of God.
The poem Twelve still causes a lot of controversy among critics and readers. The plot of the poem and its images are explained in different ways. However, one thing leaves no doubt. At the time of its writing, Blok treated the revolution as a necessary evil that would help lead Russia to the true path and revive it. Then his views will change, but at that moment Blok believed in the revolution, like a sick person believes in an operation that, although it causes pain, will nevertheless save him from death.

The rights to the essay “Attitude to the Revolution of the Author of the Twelve Poem” belong to its author. When quoting material, it is necessary to indicate a hyperlink to

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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