Analysis of the poem “Twelve. Analysis of the poem "twelve" Analysis of the last chapter of the poem 12

But here the political thinker (or non-thinker) Blok interfered with the lyric poet Blok, and his poem “The Twelve” (see its full text) is deeply unsatisfying.

Poem by A. Blok “The Twelve”: “Without the Name of a Saint”

Reproducing style and rhythm well " comrades"and their actions, not at all alien, of course, to artistic merits, it still does not shine with them entirely, repels in places with its, however, deliberate rudeness, is not poor in verbal roughness, and most importantly, without any internal connection, without organicity and necessity, only outwardly connects its actual plot with our revolution. This latter is brought into the plot artificially. In fact, doesn’t the fact that Petka, jealous of Vanka, kill Katka, stand completely apart from the social or at least political revolution? And is revolution really a frame into which any picture can be mechanically inserted, not to mention the fact that in general a frame with a picture is not also an organism? The event depicted by Blok could have happened in any other era, and the clash between Petka and Vanka over Katka is, in its psychological essence, neither revolutionary nor counter-revolutionary and does not weave its bloody thread into the fabric of modern history. True, Petka, like the rest of his eleven comrades, is a Red Guard: this tribute to recent fashion, this, in the era of the creation of the poem, the last cry of modernity, allowed the author to write his robbery incident against the backdrop of the revolution; This is how politics turned out.

Mysteries of Alexander Blok's poem "The Twelve"

In itself, it is dual for our poet. On the one hand, he seems to lament that we have “freedom without a cross”; he finds to face, or, better said, to the back of his twelve “ace of diamonds”; he hears on the city street, amidst a snowy blizzard that does not leave the Blok even here, the words of women: “and we had a meeting... in this building... discussed... decided... for a time of ten, for the night - twenty five"; and many other touches make one think that the writer gave not so much a poem as a satire - a caustic satire on the Russian revolution, on its vulgar slogans, on its attitude towards the “bourgeoisie”, “priests”, towards the “conscious” and “unconscious”. On the other hand, Blok seriously, it seems, sacrificing artistry, personifies the “old world” and speaks about it as if it “stands” behind the “bourgeois” “silently like a question” (by the way: the question is not at all silent - it is, rather, persistent , noisy, shouting until he is satisfied, until he is answered) - yes, so the “old world” stands “like a rootless dog, with its tail between its legs” (by the way: the “old world” can least of all be compared with the “rootless” being; he gives birth, he is old, and his strength lies precisely in the fact that behind him is a long series of generations, an impressive gallery of ancestors).

And the very name “Twelve”, and not at least “Thirteen” (this dozen would be more appropriate here than the ordinary one) and not some other number symbolically hints that the poet has in mind some sacred precedent: although all twelve go into the distance “ without the name of a saint,” we involuntarily, or rather, by the will of the author, have a memory of the twelve apostles. And that such a rapprochement is not an arbitrary trick on the part of the blasphemous reader, but was assumed by the writer himself, this is clear from the unexpected ending of the poem:

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.

This cannot be taken as irony. In addition to the tone, the final chord of the poem, Christ with a red flag, with a bloody flag, should also be taken by us not as a mockery, but seriously, because here we can hear the long-familiar and cherished lyrical notes of Alexander Blok - delicate pearls of snow, snowy white blizzard, breath heavenly divinity amid an earthly blizzard. The twelve heroes of the poem, gathered into one robber gang, are drawn as dark and drunken savages - what do they have in common with the twelve from the Gospel? And is it appropriate for them to be crusaders (however, they are without a cross...) in the struggle for a new world? So Blok failed to convince his readers that at the head of the twelve, the leader of the Red Guards, was Christ with a red flag. The name of Christ was taken in vain.

“Twelve” by A.A. Blok

The title of the poem reproduces the key New Testament motif (the twelve apostles of Christ. The number of the main characters, the Red Guards, predetermined the composition of the work (twelve chapters). According to Blok’s note on the manuscript (“And he was with the robber. There lived twelve robbers”), this number also goes back to the poem “ Who lives well in Rus' "N. A. Nekrasov. The appearance in the poem of a collective, a kind of collective image of the Twelve (personified, only Petrukha is especially shown, only one more Bolshevik is briefly mentioned: “Andryukha, help!”) Red Guards is natural: Blok wanted to depict collective, in the words of L. Tolstoy, “swarm" consciousness and collective will, which replaced the individual principle. Blok proceeded from the fact that it was the Russian intelligentsia that was capable of understanding and accepting the revolution. In response to the questionnaire “Can the intelligentsia work with the Bolsheviks?” Blok wrote on January 14, 1918: "The intelligentsia has always been revolutionary. The decrees of the Bolsheviks are symbols of the intelligentsia." In this regard, Blok contrasted the intelligentsia with the bourgeoisie: "The bourgeoisie has definite soil under his feet, like a pig has manure: family, capital, official position, order, rank, God on the icon, king on the throne. Take it out and everything goes upside down.”

This position predetermined the satirical depiction of the bourgeoisie and the “passing world” in the first chapter of the poem. First, an “old woman” appears, who “is killed and cries” and at the sight of the poster “All power to the Constituent Assembly!” “He won’t understand what it means, / What is such a poster for, / Such a huge flap? / There would be so many foot wraps for the guys, / And everyone is undressed, barefoot...” This is the philistine view of an outside witness to the events. Next appears “The Bourgeois at the Crossroads,” who “hid his nose in his collar.” We find a striking coincidence with this satirical image from M. Tsvetaeva, who did not welcome the revolution at all, in the same 1918 essay “October in a Carriage”: “So this remains with me, the first vision of the bourgeoisie in Russia: ears hiding in hats, souls hiding in fur coats<...>skin vision." Then “Writer - Vitia” appears: “Long hair / And says in a low voice: / - Traitors! / - Russia has perished!” The fourth hero is “nowadays sad, / Comrade Pop.” The fifth - “The Lady in Karakul”, is also depicted in a satirical vein: “She slipped / And - bam she stretched out!” Finally, prostitutes appear, in whom Bolshevik criticism saw a parody of the revolution:

And we had a meeting...

In this building... ...Discussed - Resolved:

For a while - ten, at night - twenty-five...

And don’t take less from anyone...

Let's go to sleep...

The responses of the five participants in this conversation are separated from each other by periods.

After the prostitutes, another character will appear - “The Tramp”, who restlessly “slouches”. It can be assumed that the “tramp” is identified with the “man” from the “prologue” to the poem: “Black evening. / White snow. / Wind, wind! / A man does not stand on his feet,” which, in turn, goes back to the Man from “The Life of a Man” by Leonid Andreev. So, if we add five prostitutes to the seven designated heroes, we get another symbolic number. In the second chapter of the poem, twelve Red Guards are contrasted with twelve shadow characters from the “old” world. From the dialogue of twelve Red Guards in the second chapter, readers learn about Vanka, who “is now rich himself... / Vanka was ours, but he became a soldier!”, “son of a bitch, bourgeois,” and about Katka walking with him: “And Vanka is with Katka - in the tavern.., / - She has kerenki in her stocking!

The portrait of Katya is drawn in especially detail: “You threw your face back, / Your teeth shine with pearls... / Oh, you, Katya, my Katya, / Thick-faced... / On your neck, Katya, / The scar from the knife has not healed. / Under your chest, Katya, / That scratch is fresh!”

In the fifth chapter, Petrukha’s “voice” is heard. It was he, Petrukha, who killed the officer with whom Katka had previously “fornicated”: “She wore gray leggings, / She ate Mignon chocolate, / She went for a walk with the cadets - / Now she went with the soldier? / Eh, eh, sin! / It will be easier for the soul!”

As can be seen from the letter to the illustrator of “The Twelve” Yu. P. Annenkov, Blok was concerned about Katka’s appearance. He emphasized: “Katka is a healthy, thick-faced, passionate, snub-nosed Russian girl; fresh, simple, kind - swears great, sheds tears over novels, kisses desperately<...>. “Thick muzzle” is very important (healthy and clean even to childishness).”

The sixth chapter depicts the Red Guards chasing Vanka and Katka: “Where is Katka? - Dead, dead! / Shot in the head!” Petrukha, the “poor murderer,” whose “face can’t be seen at all” and his hands are covered in blood, mourns his and Katka’s ruined soul: “— Oh, dear comrades, / I loved this girl... / Black, drunken nights / With this spent with a girl..."

But other Red Guards pull him back, the “bitch,” and all together they go on a robbery spree: “Lock the floors, / Today there will be robberies! / Unlock the cellars - / There’s a bastard on the loose today!”

In the article “Intellectuals and Revolution,” Blok called the people the recently awakened “Ivanushka the Fool”: “What were you thinking? That the revolution is an idyll?<...>That people are good boys? That hundreds of swindlers, provocateurs, Black Hundreds, people who love to warm their hands, will not try to grab what is bad? And, finally, how will the centuries-old dispute between the “black” and “white” bones be resolved so “bloodlessly” and so “painlessly”? This is how the subtext of the collision of the love triangle between Petka, Katka and Vanka is drawn.

At the end of the poem, in a blizzard, in a blizzard (cf. the motif from Pushkin’s “The Captain’s Daughter”), “they walk without the name of a saint...” (“Ready for anything, / I don’t regret anything...”) twelve Red Guards. Behind them trudges a “hungry dog,” personifying the “old world,” and in front is Christ: “...with a bloody flag, / And invisible behind the blizzard, / And unharmed by a bullet, / With a gentle tread above the blizzard, / A scattering of pearls in the snow, / In a white corolla of roses - / Ahead is Jesus Christ.”

Blok himself wondered: why Christ? But he could not help himself: he saw Christ. Diary entry: “Did I “praise”? (Bolsheviks - Ed.). I just stated a fact: if you look closely at the pillars of the snowstorm along this path, you will see “Jesus Christ.” But sometimes I myself deeply hate this feminine image.” But the combination of Katka’s shed blood and the figure of Christ is organic for Blok of the “Twelve” era. The key to the poem is the idea of ​​polyphony, incorporating the most diverse “voices” of the era - from songs to the language of posters.

However, Blok soon becomes disillusioned with the revolution and begins to look at his poem differently. In his “Note on the Twelve,” he highlighted the period of time “from the beginning of 1918, approximately until the end of the October Revolution (3-7 months).” Conveying the feeling of enchantment (Tsvetaev’s word) of that time, the poet wrote: “... in January 1918, I surrendered to the elements for the last time no less blindly than in January 1907 or March 1914.” Although now, in April 1920, he “could not<...>I wish I could write what I wrote then,” but it is impossible to renounce “The Twelve,” because the poem was written “in accordance with the elements...”.

Nevertheless, in his dying delirium, Blok demanded from L. D. Mendeleeva a promise to burn every single copy of the poem “The Twelve.”

Many things are incomprehensible to us not because our concepts are weak; but because these things are not included in the range of our concepts
Kozma Prutkov

Blok's poem "The Twelve" is one of the most mysterious works of the twentieth century. More than one generation of both literary critics and ordinary admirers of his talent has generated various, sometimes extremely contradictory and inconsistent interpretations of this work. However, no one has yet given a sufficiently objective and most relevant point of view to the author’s thoughts. But now, in the 21st century, when the poem is again at the peak of relevance, the time has come to try to understand what Blok really wanted to tell us.

In this note, I will not talk about the interpretation of ordinary small details that create the color of the work, only about the central images that create the semantic load of A. Blok’s poem “The Twelve”.

At first glance, the central action of the work is the ordinary revelry of Vanka and Katka and the murder of the latter. What is this, the biography of a simple prodigal girl? And why throughout the entire poem do the apostles of the twentieth century constantly turn their gaze to this story? A suspicion creeps in that the poem is not so much about a “simple Russian woman” and her finding “such an end,” but rather about the fate of the country. In relation to Katka, Blok uses the epithet “fat-faced”, in relation to Rus' - “fat-assed”. It is clear that these epithets are related to each other because they have the same root. It is logical to assume that the images they characterize are also connected. Let's see how this relationship manifests itself in the poem and in life.

Let's turn to history. You won’t have to search for long - here in front of us is one of the most famous rulers of Russia - Catherine II. This woman became famous for her huge number of favorites and her gigantic contribution to the strengthening of serfdom. Regarding the first, we can say that the empress did not stand on ceremony in choosing men and at times preferred not to look at the classes:

Fornicated with the officers -
Get lost, get lost!
I went for a walk with the cadets -
Did you go for a walk with the soldier?

Eh, eh, sin!
It will be easier for the soul!

The Empress can be seen as a symbol of Russian statehood, and then the behavior of Blok’s Katya can be seen as an allegorical description of the country’s foreign policy. If we accept the interpretation of the image of Katka as the personification of the state system, then the lines

Wore gray leggings
Minion ate chocolate...

can be explained as a description of the state of this system. Neither leg warmers nor Mignon chocolate are products of Russian industry. At the beginning of the twentieth century, as now, most goods for the use of the wealthy minority were imported from abroad. Those. the state economy was not sustainable, because could not provide all its citizens with domestic products. But moreover, the state’s unpretentiousness in choosing world allies (like Empress Catherine = Blok’s Katka in choosing partners) is due precisely to the fact that the Russian economy and the well-being of its citizens depended on the goodwill of its allies to export their goods.

This system of organization was brought to Russia by Peter I. “I will cut beards,” the king said then, meaning the beginning of radical transformations, and here you go:

Katya is on your neck,
The scar did not heal from the knife.

So, behind the image of Katka lies the image of the Russian state management system, whose representatives in the 18th century got away with beards and a scratch on the neck, and in the 20th century they paid with their heads:

Where's Katka? - Dead, dead!
Shot in the head!

Regarding the second (the first was: rampant favoritism), it should be noted that Catherine II brutally suppressed the peasant class. It was she who issued in 1767 the most inhumane decree in the entire history of serfdom. This decree declared any complaint from a peasant against a landowner to be a grave state crime. Landowners had the right to do whatever they wanted with their serfs - they could torture them, send them to hard labor, and trade people like cattle. Those. The empress's policy was aimed at developing deeper into the very same serfdom, which at the beginning of the twentieth century could not be dealt with peacefully, as a result of which 12 appeared, and Katka (the state) was killed.

It is precisely this Holy, “fat-assed” Rus', with its rotten statehood, its shabby order and dilapidated huts, with its unpretentiousness in choosing world allies, that twelve are going to fire.

But why a saint? Such an epithet, in my opinion, cannot be explained by the fact that: “... in him Blok became equal to Dostoevsky - in the spiritual, prophetic vision that in this world vice and abomination are adjacent to holiness and purity.” Such an opinion only confuses the picture and hides what Blok put forward

Why I'm not happy these days,
Comrade pop?

Perov - Monastic meal

Perov - Tea party in Mytishchi

Now about the reflection in the poem of the main global problem, which can no longer be passed over in silence. Let's turn to the bourgeois standing at the crossroads and the pathetic dog behind him.

The bourgeois stands 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.

In my opinion, in this place everything is most transparent - Blok himself, realizing how important it is for everyone to understand this part, gave the key to understanding: the dog, the personification of the old world, is trying to hide behind the symbol of capitalism of the Soviet era - the bourgeois. The crossroads quite clearly hints at the cross, the symbol of Christianity, “truth”. The bourgeoisie firmly relies on this “truth” and the old dog stands on it (“the old world” - Europe). It is important to note that the bourgeois is none other than the main enemy of the “twelve” (judging by the socialist ideology of that time), however, he not only does not run away from them, but is not even afraid, seeing the advance of a merciless and incomprehensible force for the old world . Why? Here, the time has come to explain one point from Christian teaching, on which I will rely in constructing further reasoning.

***digression from the topic ***

The modern Church of Christ proclaims sacred not only the books of the New Testament, but also the Old Testament. Together they make up the Bible, now recognized as “God-breathed teaching.” One of the books of the Old Testament, namely “Deuteronomy” by the “prophet” Isaiah, contains the following “prophecies”:
« Don't lend money to your brother (in context to a fellow Jew) no silver, no bread, no anything else that can be given at interest; to a foreigner (i.e. not a Jew) give at interest, so that the Lord your God will bless you in everything that is done with your hands on the land where you are going to possess it. , — Deuteronomy 23:19, 20. « And you will rule over many nations, but they will not rule over you. », — Deuteronomy 28:12. « Then the sons of foreigners (i.e. subsequent generations of non-Jews, whose ancestors entered into obviously unpayable debts to the Jews) They will build your walls and their kings will serve you; For in my anger I struck you down, but in my good pleasure I will be merciful to you. And your gates will be opened, they will not be shut day or night, so that the wealth of the nations may be brought to you and their kings may be brought in. For the nations and kingdoms that do not want to serve you will perish, and such nations will be completely destroyed », — Isaiah 60:10 - 12.

The hierarchy of Russian Orthodoxy insists on the sacredness of this abomination, and the canon of the New Testament, censored and edited even before the Council of Nicea (325 AD), proclaims it in the name of Christ, without any reason, until the end of time as God's good providence:
« Do not think that I came to destroy the law or the prophets. I did not come to destroy, but to fulfill. Truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass, not one jot or one tittle will pass from the law, until all is fulfilled. », — Matthew 5:17, 18.

Thus, the Bible openly proclaims the policy of global usurious enslavement based on loan interest, which in the modern world is clearly represented by the credit and financial system. The implementation of this policy is best possible in states with the Christian religion and a capitalist structure of society and is carried out by a really existing government that directs the course of the global historical process in the desired direction with the help of both structural management (i.e., henchmen of the “unofficial” government - the official government ), and not noticeable to the majority, with the help of unstructured management. Let me explain the last thing - at the beginning of the 19th century, a new teaching was formed, serving the same people as the Christian one and pursuing the same goals, also hiding behind noble theses - the teaching of Karl Marx. It was this teaching that guided revolutionaries in Russia at the beginning of the twentieth century.

So, the bourgeois does not run away from the “new” power in the person of 12 because this power was given to these people by themselves. It still relies on Christianity and the main symbol of this Christianity - Jesus, will lead the supporters of the “new” teaching raised on the “old” soil. Both Jesus and the bourgeois are invulnerable to the twelve, because the “apostles” of the twentieth century, due to the limitations of their horizons and abilities, cannot realize and comprehend how these people control them.

...They walk into the distance with a mighty step...
- Who else is there? Come out!
This is the wind with a red flag
Played out ahead...

Note that 12 felt the presence of a certain force that, of its own free will, directed their movement. As can be seen further from the text of the poem, the “apostles” of the twentieth century are making attempts to identify this leadership, overcome it and even destroy it (i.e., free their will from someone else’s power). These attempts lead to nothing - this leader is invulnerable to them, because he is incomprehensible. And the leader is the same as 2000 years ago, having changed his appearance and therefore not recognized, and carrying the same doctrine, which found expression in other images, and therefore not noticed.

Only a poor dog is hungry
Waddles behind...
The old world is like a mangy dog

The old dog smelled the scent of the former essence and rushed after the familiar evil. However, 12 cannot properly understand the meaning of the presence of this dog, and sincerely believing in the novelty of their truth, they are trying to drive away the old world, as they think, the bearer of past disastrous errors that have nothing in common with the new teaching. But it’s difficult to deceive a dog’s nose when it smells its owner:

In a white corolla of roses
Jesus Christ is ahead.

Don't blame everything on Jesus Christ. Historically, a real person named Jesus does not bear responsibility for the unscrupulous cult of his descendants. However, it is he who goes ahead of the twelve, because his image has become a symbol of the slave construction of the world, a symbol of Christian teaching and, as a result, the personification of the protege “hiding” the face of the bourgeois.

In the poem “The Twelve,” Blok, with the help of symbols, showed us the true background not only of the 1917 revolution, but also of Christian teaching, the capitalist and monarchical Russian state structure, as well as the anarchy of exemplary politicians. He was not understood by his compatriots, since his symbolic language, like the figurative language of Pushkin, far exceeded the concepts of his contemporaries. Even after almost a century, the poem “The Twelve” is not understood objectively by everyone. However, it is necessary to understand what Blok allegorically revealed to us with his work, namely

As the historian Klyuchevsky said: “ History is not a teacher, but an overseer. She doesn't teach anything, but severely punishes for not knowing the lessons." Blok’s poem “The Twelve” can serve each of us as a good lesson, having learned which we could objectively evaluate our modern world and determine where the true truth is, and where the lies exposed by the poet are hidden under various masks, so as not to pay that high price for mistakes anymore. , a bloody price already paid once by our ancestors. It is the will of everyone, which view to adhere to, however, once an incorrect decision is made, it can tragically affect the fate of everyone, as Klyuchevsky warned about this and A. Blok tried to prevent it.

Let us analyze the poem “The Twelve” - Blok’s greatest poem of the 20th century. The theme of the people, the historical fate of Russia organically merges in Blok’s poems with the theme of revolution. The poem “The Twelve” (1918) became the anthem of the revolution. It was the completion of the entire trilogy of incarnation, the entire “novel in verse,” although formally it is not included in it. Blok expressed his attitude to the revolution in the article “Intellectuals and Revolution” (1918). “Redo everything. Arrange so that everything becomes new, so that our deceitful, dirty, boring, ugly life becomes a fair, clean, cheerful and beautiful life.”

However, despite the seemingly obvious correlation between the content of the poem and real historical events, “The Twelve” is a symbolist work, not at all political. The poem contains themes and motifs of the “trilogy of incarnation”: the indomitable elements, the “terrible world”, the hope for the “transformation” of the world and man, the struggle of light and
darkness. The twelve Red Guards are both the “apostles of the revolution” (as they are traditionally called) and a symbolic designation of the masses rushing to a new life, the path to which runs through violence, innocent blood (robberies, pogroms, the murder of Katka).

The first chapter (exposition) of the poem begins with a symbolic landscape, designed in black and white:

Black evening
White snow..

The author emphasizes the universal scale of the blizzard, which broke out “all over God’s world, and the color contrast indicates the irreconcilability of the opposing sides, symbolizing light and darkness, old and new. Against this background, a man appears (a man does not stand on his feet), whose image is not specified - this is a man captured by the elements of revolution (often against his will).

The exhibition (Chapter 1) presents the main images - symbols of the poem: the elements (wind, blizzard, black sky, white snow), the old world (bourgeois, fellow priest, lady in karakul, old woman, tramp).

Many of these images will become cross-cutting in the poem. In the second chapter, new heroes appear - twelve Red Guards. The rhythm of the verse changes and becomes marching. The author characterizes the new heroes in a very contradictory way: the people participating in the revolution are very far from ideal:

a cigar in his teeth, a cap taken,
You should have an ace of diamonds on your back!

Among them you can find both criminals and homeless people, for whom the slogan “Rob the loot!” seemed attractive. But what is important for the author is not the social characteristics of these people, but the “element of popular rebellion” itself, directed against evil:
Revolutionary step up!
The restless enemy never sleeps!

Against this background, a love plot develops (the relationship between Vanka, Katka, Petrukha), the dramatic tension of which is tragically resolved in the sixth chapter (the climax of the poem). “The murder of Katka, the only event in the poem, is symbolic; it is connected with the “black anger of armed people directed against the “old” world. It is no coincidence that at this moment the “revolutionary call” sounded again: “Revolutionary, keep your step!” / / The restless enemy does not sleep!” The violence and arbitrariness committed briefly caused the hero’s worries: very soon, succumbing to the persuasion of his comrades, Petrukha became cheerful and took part in the reprisal of the bourgeoisie. This rapidity with which the change in the hero’s mood occurs testifies to his moral immaturity. There are no moral limits for Petrukha when he commits a brutal crime.

The eighth chapter (development of the action) of the poem paints a terrible picture of pogroms:
I'm using a knife
I'll slash, I'll slash! ..

These lines contain the fall of man, horror, blood, tyranny.

In one of his diaries, Blok wrote: “Destroying, we are still the same, slaves of the old world. (1918). Obviously, the described pictures were seen by Blok as an attribute of the “old” world, which would not let people go. It is no coincidence that in the ninth through twelfth chapters new images appear: a “bourgeois” at a crossroads (the crossroads is a symbol of the crossroads at which Russia finds itself), a mangy dog, relentlessly following the detachment. “Old” and “new” are still inseparable.

The revolution marked the beginning of the movement of a “new” life, towards a “new” (transformed) personality, but this path runs through darkness, chaos, and blood. Depicting these processes, Blok “did not hide their tragic contradictions, ... did not remain silent about the fragmentation, confusion, hopelessness of suffering, and did not give any solution ... ".

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Slide captions:

“With all your body, with all your heart, with all your mind - listen to the Revolution!” A. Blok.

The time of creation of the poem was in January 1918, hot on the heels of events that shook the world. Started on January 8th, took a break, finished on January 17th and 28th. The poem “The Twelve” is inspired by revolutionary events: the last months of 1917 and January 1918. were apocalyptic weeks - the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, the Red Terror, the beginning of the Civil War, shelling of the Kremlin, pogroms and lynchings, arson of estates and murders of landowners, rumors of the arson of Mikhailovsky and native Shakhmatovo. The poem, written in less than a month, at the highest peak of creative powers, remains a monument to the shortest era of the first weeks of the 1917 revolution. Having finished it, Blok said: “Today I am a genius.”

The meaning of the name is 1) 12 Red Army soldiers patrolling revolutionary St. Petersburg; 2) 12 apostles of Christ - peddlers of the teachings of Christ. 3) Contains 12 chapters.

Genre, style and composition of the poem “Twelve” “Twelve” is an epic poem, as if composed of individual sketches, pictures from nature, quickly replacing one another. Dynamic and chaotic plot. The expressiveness of the pictures that make up the poem convey the confusion that reigned both on the streets and in the minds. - Are there lyrical motives in the poem? How does the author manifest himself? The author is not the hero of the poem, his position is manifested indirectly in what and how he depicts; in the initial landscape painting, at the end of the poem.

The composition, reflecting the elements of the revolution, determines the stylistic diversity of the poem. “Listen to the music of the revolution,” Blok urged. This music sounds in the poem. The music of the revolution is a metaphor, an expression, the sound of life. This music is reflected in the rhythmic, lexical, and genre diversity of the poem. Traditional iambic and trochee are combined with different meters, sometimes with unrhymed verse. The intonations of a march sound in the poem: The Red Flag beats in the eyes. A measured step is heard. Here he will wake up... Fierce enemy (chapter 11).

“Music of the Revolution” The poem contains the intonations of a march. You can hear urban romance. A ditty motif is often found. A revolutionary song is directly quoted. The slogans are striking: “All power to the Constituent Assembly!”

Black evening. White snow. Wind, wind! The man is not standing on his feet. Wind, wind - All over God's world! The wind curls white snow. There is ice under the snow. Slippery, hard, Every walker Slides - oh, poor thing! Contrast of black and white. Black evening, White snow... (“White snow” is a symbol of purity and hope) But Under the snow there is ice. Slippery, hard, Every walker Slides - oh, poor thing! What does “ice” symbolize? Chapter 1

The image of the wind - the entire action of the poem unfolds against the backdrop of wild natural elements: Wind, Wind, All over God's light! “The wind is biting”, it “walks”, “whistles”, “both angry and happy”, “some kind of blizzard has broken out”, “oh, what a blizzard, save us!” “The blizzard bursts with long laughter in the snow.” The image of the wind would comment on what is happening: it knocks some people off their feet, others seem “cheerful,” it “tears, crumples the poster about the “Constituent Assembly,” when the Red Guards appear, it joyfully “walks.” The wind merges with the Petrograd landscape and the Revolution.

Characters of the 1st chapter. Old lady: figurative comparison: “the old lady, like a chicken, / somehow rewound over a snowdrift.” Bourgeois: “...at the crossroads he hid his nose in his collar.” A biting epithet and oxymoron: “And there’s the long-skirted one - / Side behind the snowdrift ... / Why isn’t he cheerful these days, / Comrade priest?” Vitia: “Who is this? - Long hair And says in a low voice: - Traitors! “Russia is dead!” orator, a person skilled in eloquence (obsolete or ironic). Ornate, intricate (about syllable, style of speech, handwriting) Pop: “belly” “And there’s the long-skirted one - Sideways - behind the snowdrift... Why is he so sad these days, Comrade priest? Lady: “astrakhan” Tramp: “slouching”

Can we agree that Blok satirically depicts the old world? What artistic features does the author use to depict the old world? Epithets: long hair, long-skirted irony: “What is the sad comrade priest now? “Do you remember how it used to be, I walked forward with my belly, And my belly shone like a cross at the people; Colloquial vocabulary: Slipped and - bam - stretched out Is it only the old world that is depicted satirically? How do you understand the following lines? And we had a meeting... Here in this building... ... Discussed - Decided: For a while - ten, for the night twenty-five... And take less from anyone... (These are representatives of the most ancient profession solving problems that have arisen following the example of “builders of a new life” .)

Chapter 2 - the image of freedom without a cross In Chapter 2, 12 come to the fore. The significance of this number is emphasized by the title of the poem. How do they appear in the poem? - against the backdrop of polyphony (abundance of dialogues) - a clear marching rhythm - anarchic lines... twelve people are walking. There are black belts on the rifles, Lights, lights, lights all around... There’s a cigarette in your teeth, you’ll take a cap, You should have an ace of diamonds on your back! These are the urban poor, former convicts. Their appearance personifies the spiritual appearance: Freedom, freedom, Eh, eh without a cross! They are atheists; they bear too clearly the traces of the life they lived, a life in which, in order to survive, they had to become like that.

Replies from Chapter 2: Freedom, freedom, Eh, eh, without a cross! Tra-ta-ta! It's cold, comrades, it's cold! Comrade, hold the rifle, don’t be afraid! Let's fire a bullet into Holy Rus'... Eh, eh, without a cross! Slogans: Forward, forward, forward, Working people! (6) Comrade! Look both ways! (10) Revolutionary step! The restless enemy never sleeps! (2)

12 speaks of them as potential convicts. Their appearance and habits are unusual and even frightening. The “words” are replete with rude vernacular and swearing, thoughts and motives are base: not without envy they speak 12 about their former comrade, Vanka, successful in everyday and love affairs. The new world, like the old one, does not idealize. He doesn’t straighten out or idealize his heroes.

this is an internal, psychological portrait of “comrades”, their collective consciousness (“ours”, “we”). But this is also Blok’s reflection on the need to overcome the contradiction between the external and the internal. For the revolution to be justified, it is not enough to burn the bourgeoisie with a global conflagration. This fire must be in the blood. But out of old habit, they turn to the Lord for blessings on this step.

Chapters 4-7 – Katka’s story Why was Katka killed? What is her fault? In fact, Katka is an innocent victim: even if we assume that her guilt before the revolution is that she used to spend nights with the Red Army soldier Petrukha, and now with the bourgeois Vanka, then isn’t the punishment too severe for such a guilt? - murder without trial and then mockery of the corpse? Where's Katka? - Dead, dead! - Shot in the head! What, Katka, are you happy? - not a hoo-hoo... Lie, you carrion, in the snow!”

Pay attention to the moral assessment of the committed act. Petrukha is worried because “I loved this girl... I spent black, drunken nights with this girl.” Chapter 7 But Petrukha’s experiences are devoid of a moral basis. His comrades do not worry at all: in their value system, what they did is an ordinary act, not worthy of experiencing. Their “sympathy” for Petrukha is very peculiar: in providing moral support, they are trying to turn Petka to the great idea of ​​the revolution: “What are you, Petka, a woman or something... Maintain your posture! Keep control over yourself! Now is not the time to babysit you! It will be a harder time for us, dear comrade!

Chapter 8 In Chapter 8, the emptiness of the hero’s soul pushes him into bacchanalia. “Boring” is an absolute inner emptiness. When there is no spiritual and emotional “content” of your life, then someone else’s is worth nothing. The egoism of revolutionary self-will is socially directed towards the “floors”, towards the bourgeoisie. However, blood retribution did not bring satisfaction to Petrukha. It is impossible to fill an empty soul with someone else's blood, and therefore the hero remains in the same state. Compositionally, the chapter is looped with the word “Boring!” 8 lines create an eerie picture of lack of spirituality: shelling seeds, scratching the crown of the head, and slashing with a knife appear as phenomena of the same order.

Chapter 9 - the bourgeoisie at the crossroads is compared to a hungry dog. The beginning of the chapter is a romance about the Decembrists. Is the image of a bourgeois given at a crossroads by chance? What is a crossroads? Are there only 4 roads, or is it also a cross? Can at least one of the roads lead to a life where he will become himself? How do you understand the image of the “man-question”? Who does this question address? Is it possible to answer this? Who could answer it? Why did the question man freeze where the heart of the crucified Christ is? In Chapter 9, Blok paints a picture of the suffering of a man, terrible in its hopelessness, doomed to death not due to some personal qualities, but because the world in which he could be a man is destroyed by the very “twelve” who continue their victorious march “Go for a walk, guys, without wine!”

Chapter 10 - The blizzard intensifies... The crossroads is swept away by a blizzard, and in this dead-end situation Petrukha, embarrassed by the bourgeois’s proposal, tries to rely on the old, familiar values: “Oh, what a blizzard, save us!” Savior – Savior is another name for Jesus Christ. Petrukha’s “comrades” object: “Petka!” Hey, don't lie! What did the Golden Iconostasis protect you from? You are unconscious, really, Judge, think sensibly - Are your hands not covered in blood Because of Katka’s love?

Chapter 11 The first stanza affirms what has happened: And all twelve go without the name of the saint into the distance... Let us pay attention to the word “all.” They found unity, which is symbolized by the marching rhythm of music. At this moment, the external elements lose their power - “And the blizzard throws dust in their eyes” - but the forward movement continues. By the end of the poem, the motive of movement changes and almost rings it. Let’s compare three phrases: “Twelve people are coming”; “They walk without the name of a saint”; “They walk into the distance with a mighty step.” Has the internal content of the movement changed? Undoubtedly. Power is the fulfillment of a state mission. In this performance they realize their purpose. Has the revolution fulfilled its task of “remaking everything”? Yes. Such Blok “heard” her in January 1918. But in reality? In reality, it was more terrible, bloody and complex. Blok will soon understand this: the music will stop sounding. - Why is this stanza separated from the previous and subsequent ones by ellipses? Does this mean that Blok attaches special importance to it?

Chapter 12 In the final chapter there are command words and intonations. “Comrades” come into their own and move from words to “deeds.” The plot of the poem ends with a bloody stanza: Fuck-tah-tah! Fuck-fuck-fuck... And with an ellipsis indicating the continuation of bloodshed. Having killed Katka, they realized their right to kill others with impunity... It was from this moment that the real revolution began. The picture painted in the last chapter is of twelve Red Army soldiers and behind them a hungry dog, the personification of the old world. Blok understood that the past and the future at such sharp turns of history as the revolution are inextricably linked.

The last stanza, which concludes the poem, is meaningful. Firstly, having begun with an echo of march intonation, it almost instantly loses it, and a melodious, prayerful melody emerges, Blok’s personal melody, taking us back to his cycles “Snow Mask” and “Faina”. Secondly, the poet expressed his understanding of the historical movement of humanity in symbolic images: from “behind” to “ahead.” It should be presented schematically as follows: P 12 I.Kh. "P" stands for dog, the past in all its manifestations; diabolical beginning; twelve symbolizes humanity moving towards Truth, Beauty, Virtue, which are personified in Christianity by Jesus Christ. Dog and Christ rhyme. If there is good, then there is also evil. But if “Dog” in the composition of the stanza is placed next to those walking, then they are separated from Christ by an enormous distance - twenty significant words! Will they reach Him?

Is it a coincidence that Christ appears in the last chapter? The appearance of Christ cannot be considered unexpected: starting from the first stanza, the image of the Creator is constantly present in the poem. Let us remember that initially Christianity was the religion of the disadvantaged, striving for a better fate. Perhaps Christ, at the end of the poem, takes up a bloody flag in his hands and finds himself with those who do not need it, because He is not free in himself, for he does not have the right to leave the weak and imperfect creation - man - alone with that world of evil, which is the same and was created by man... For if He is with them, then there is, albeit insignificant, but still hope that the turmoil and darkness in human souls will give way to a world of light and goodness... Without Him such hope cannot exist. This is probably why the poem ends in white: “In a white aureole...”

What is the significance of the image of Christ in the poem? Some perceive the image of Christ as an attempt to sanctify the cause of the revolution. The appearance of Christ can be a guarantee of light, a symbol of the best, justice, Love, a sign of faith. He is both “unharmed by the bullet” and he is dead – “in a white crown of roses.” “The Twelve shoot at him, even if he is “invisible.” Others perceive this image as blasphemy

Christ is mentioned several times in the poem. “Lord bless!” - exclaim the revolutionaries, who do not believe in God, but call on him to bless the “world fire” they are fanning. Petrukha also turns to the Savior: “Oh, what a blizzard, Savior.” And already in the final episode - the appearance of Christ with a bloody flag in his hand. This ending haunted Blok himself: “The more I looked, the more clearly I saw Christ. And then I wrote down to myself: unfortunately, it was Christ.” But Blok also wrote that it was not Christ who should go with the Red Guards, but Another. Who really appears at the end of the poem?

Who's waving the red flag there? This image is interpreted differently. M. Voloshin, for example, believed that Christ was being persecuted by the Red Guards. And this pursuit ends with shooting at him. Another thing can be assumed: Christ here is the Savior of the sinful souls of people lost in political darkness. They don't know what they're doing. Bringing them back to God is the purpose of Christ. How then to explain the red flag in the hand of Christ? Blok spoke vaguely about this: “Christ with a flag is, after all, “this way and not that way.” The poet said everything he could. In those January days, it seemed to him that the element of revolution was creative, but it turned out to be destructive.

No matter how Blok wanted to see the revolution, he portrayed it objectively, following his call “with all your body, with all your heart, with all your consciousness - listen to the revolution.” He heard it in January 1917, and in January he understood it and... fell silent. Only once more, on February 11, 1921, were his new poems “To the Pushkin House” heard - poems to the one who for Blok was the embodiment of Russia’s spirit of its people. "No. “Pushkin was not killed by Dantes’ bullet,” Blok will say, “he was killed by the lack of air, his secret freedom was taken away from him.” The “lack of air” also killed Blok.

Thus, in the revolution, A. Blok saw the elements, agreed with its natural character, but at the same time saw its cruel face, and largely foresaw its disastrous consequences. Welcoming the revolution as a radical way to change life for the better, the poet romantically imagined its forces as more reasonable and humane than they actually turned out to be.