ideological and artistic originality of the poem by a. block "twelve

Ideological and artistic originality of the poem "The Twelve" by Alexander Blok.

Lesson Objectives: 1) educational: to show the polemical nature of the poem by A. A. Blok "The Twelve", its artistic features; repetition of concepts: genre, composition, symbol.

2) developing: development of skills and abilities of a lyric-epic work; improve expressive reading and the ability to analyze a poetic text; to improve the ability of students to draw independent conclusions after getting acquainted with the work of the poet.

3) educational: fostering interest in the work of A. A. Blok,

educate attention to the word, determine the author's attitude to the events of the 1917 revolution.

with the whole body,

With all my heart,

All consciousness-

Listen to the Revolution.

Creation of a poem:

- The poem was written in January 1812 in 3 days. Having finished the work, Blok wrote in his diary: “Today I am a genius!” "Twelve" - ​​whatever they are - is the best thing I've written. Because then I lived in modernity, ”the poet said. Every year, the surrounding reality more and more seemed to Blok a "terrible world" that must be destroyed. It is no coincidence that Blok perceived the revolution as a universal fire, which was supposed to bring the desired renewal. After 1918, the poet did not write anything significant until his death. Disillusionment with the revolution was the reason for this. The author very accurately felt the terrible thing that entered life: the complete depreciation of human life, which is no longer protected by any law. Everything became permitted. Unable to keep from the dark, terrible manifestations of the human soul and faith in God, she is also lost. Having lost moral guidelines, seized by rampant permissiveness - this is how Russia appears in the poem "12".

Teacher: - In this work, he did not express his attitude to the revolution, after the first reading, the poem usually causes bewilderment, as it is difficult to understand. Blok showed the revolution as an elemental phenomenon, which, like the wind, storm, hurricane, blizzard, has no purpose and direction. He wrote the revolution as he heard it. Blok heard a lot of sounds conveying shooting, slogan cries, march songs, ditties, and swearing. Contemporaries could not understand whether Blok welcomed the revolution or condemned it. According to V. Mayakovsky, "Some read in this poem a satire on the revolution, others - the glory of it."

The composition of the poem:

The poem consists of 12 chapters, built on the principle of a ring composition (night, winter, human figures on the streets - at the beginning and at the end of the work).

Each chapter has a certain independence. The poem seems to be made up of separate pictures that convey the confusion that reigned in those days on the streets and in the mind.

When does the action in the poem take place?(depicted is the harsh winter of 1918, bonfires in the streets, patrols)

- What details recreate the picture of that time?(Patrols of the Red Army on the streets of Petrograd really numbered 12 people each. The poem mentions "Kerenki" - paper money that was issued by the Provisional Government, a lantern on the shafts that St. Petersburg cabbies flaunted, a poster "Power to the Constituent Assembly!")

Reading the first chapter.

What images appear in chapter 1? ( evening, snow, wind)

Teacher: - The action of the poem develops against the backdrop of wind, blizzard. The symbolic image of the wind that dominates the world is further updated, develops, it seems to comment on what is happening: it knocks down some, it seems “fun” to others, when the Red Army soldiers appear, it joyfully “walks”.

At the heart of the work is a conflict, the struggle between the old and the new world. This clash cannot end in reconciliation, so polar are the fighting forces.

- What opposites collide?(old and new world, color, love and death, private and public)

Block is characterized by symbolic colors. What colors are present? Write down the phrases, try to explain the meanings. (“black evening” - chaos, anger, anxiety, a symbol of the “old world”;

"white snow" - purity, harmony, a symbol of the "new world";

"red flag" - the color of revolution, the color of blood (Katka is killed))

- How do passers-by relate to the revolution? Whose voices do we hear in chapter 1?(the voice of the old woman, she does not understand why so much matter was used in vain - something can be sewn from it for the children;

the pop says nothing, but he is "unhappy";

Reading 2,3,4,5,6 chapters.

- Consider the image of Katya. What do we know about her?(The image of Katya is endowed with realistic details: “she walked in lace underwear”, “she wore gray leggings”, “Mignon ate chocolate”, “she has Kerenki in a stocking”, “she fornicated with officers”; “teeth shine with pearls”, “painful legs are good "," Fat-faced. "Katka is a symbol of corrupt love, a symbol of old sinful, dissolute Russia).

What event underlies chapter 6?(The murder of Katya, as a spontaneous act, is the culmination of the poem. There is no crime, there are no moral standards for murderers, their actions are uncontrollable.

-How does Petrukha feel after Katya's murder?

(Awkwardly, repents, turns to his comrades for help. However, his repentance evokes pity in his comrades, and then anger and bitterness. Petrukha, ashamed by his comrades, feels the inappropriateness of his suffering. He acts to drown out remorse. "He again cheered up." Blok definitely felt the terrible thing that had entered life - the complete depreciation of human life, which no longer protects any law: it never even occurs to anyone that someone will have to answer for Katya's murder. , now everything is allowed: “Lock the floors, today there will be robberies”).

Pay attention to the fact that 12 Red Army soldiers go WITHOUT A CROSS (that is, there is nothing sacred), and this is the future of Russia.

Reading 7,8,9,10 chapters11.

-How does Blok convey the music of the revolution? What rhythms did you hear?(Intonations sound in the poem march:

It beats in the eyes

Red flag.

Is distributed

measured step;

meet ditties:

Lock up the floors

Today there will be robberies.

Open the cellars

Walking now naked;

quoted in a poem revolutionary song:

Revolutionary keep step:

The restless enemy does not sleep!

heard romance:

Can't hear city noise

Silence over the Neva tower

And there is no more city-

Walk, guys, without wine.

In addition, one constantly hears crackling shots:

Fuck-tararah- tah-tah-tah-tah!

Reading chapter 11.

- What gave rise to the freedom given by the revolution?(From the feeling of a just coup that has taken place, there is a mood of recklessness, an intoxication with freedom, characteristic of the urban squalor. The freedom given by the revolution gave birth to an even more terrible world. Now people, merged in a blood-red whirlwind, are difficult to stop, if at all possible, because they take revenge for their past to everyone in a row.This is where their strong connection with the "old world" is clearly traced, "a rootless dog stands ... with his tail between his legs").

-What does Russia look like?

(Russia has lost moral guidelines, is engulfed in rampant dark passions, rampant permissiveness. Old Russia is symbolized by the bourgeoisie and the hungry dog, and the new one by twelve Red Army soldiers)

-Who is the hero of the poem? ("working people"

Reading chapter 12.

Teacher: - In chapter 12, twelve Red Army soldiers go through a blizzard. If they notice someone, they shout to stop, otherwise they will start shooting. At the end of the poem, the image of Christ appears.

- How to explain the appearance of the figure of Christ in the poem?

(There are many interpretations of the finale of the work.

Some researchers explained the appearance of Christ in the poem almost by chance, Blok's misunderstanding of who should be ahead of the Red Guards.

Others said that the appearance of Christ in the final testifies to the poet's perception of the revolution as holy and saving (Christ blesses what is happening)

Still others believed that the ending proves Blok's awareness of the inhuman essence of what is happening.

For the then reader, brought up in the traditions of Christian culture, who studied the Law of God at school, the number twelve was the number of the apostles, disciples of Christ. The whole path that the heroes of Blok's poem follow is the path from the abyss to Sunday, from chaos to harmony.

The poem ends with the belief of A. Blok in the coming Sunday of Russia, the resurrection of the human in man. The struggle of the worlds in the work is, first of all, an internal struggle, overcoming by a person in himself the dark and terrible.

Homework:

Why do you think A.A. Blok so highly appreciated his own composition-poem "Twelve" ("Today I am a genius!")?

How would you interpret the image of Christ in A. Blok's poem "The Twelve"?

Literature:

N.V. Egoraeva, I.V. Zolotareva. Lesson developments in Russian literature of the 20th century. M., 2004

L.A. Skubachevskaya, T.V. Nadozirnaya, N.V. Slautina. Literature. Universal reference book. M., "Eksmo", 2011.

Ideological and artistic originality of A. Blok's poem "The Twelve"

Candidate Ped. Sciences, Associate Professor KFU

The poem "The Twelve" marked a new stage in his work. Written in the first winter after the October Revolution, it surprised contemporaries with its unusual content and form. “Immortal as folklore,” O. Mandelstam, a contemporary of Blok, assessed the poem in this way.

In the poem "The Twelve" Blok pointed out the question of the spiritual essence of the arbiters of the new history of the 20th century. In the center of the poem "The Twelve" is the state of human souls. The main internal theme of the poem is the question of faith, conscience, the precariousness of convictions, the Russian reckless inclination to sin and repentance.

The problematics of the poem demanded an update of the aesthetic arsenal, a qualitatively different artistic expressiveness. The author sets out to convey the "music of the revolution". He seeks to find a new form that best matches the content of the poem. The many-voiced noise of the revolutionary city breaks into it with its rhythms, sounds, its songs.

A. Blok's poem "The Twelve" traces the traditions of oral folk poetry.

Just as in a Russian folk tale there is a fairy-tale "double world", in which there is "one's own" world (the kingdom of the hero) and a "foreign" world (the kingdom of the enemy), so in Blok's poem the real world is divided into two contrasting halves. A concrete manifestation of reality is “bourgeois at the crossroads”, “hungry dog”, brothel, officer debauchery, “disassembly” with a knife blow, the murder of an officer, a priest, etc. The polar world found its expression in the “holy” beginning of the revolution - the image Christ associated with the idea of ​​renewal.

Blok's small poem, due to the presence of ambiguous, symbolic details in it, strikes with the depth of insight.

The action of the poem takes place "In all God's world" against the backdrop of raging natural elements. The noises, rhythms, voices of Russia embraced by the revolutionary whirlwind were brilliantly embodied by Blok in the poem.

There are images of wind, snow and blizzards in the poem. These images are symbols not only of the raging elements, but also of future changes. It seems that everything is mixed up, spun in a whirlwind. There is chaos and disorder all around, where there is a battle between good and evil, black (the old world) and white (the new world). The raging natural element of snow takes the heroes away from the comfort of home, from love and passion to another world - cruel, cold, requiring courage.

In "The Twelve" the element itself sounds. Here are her musical themes, her rhythmic play, dissonances and contrasts. The rhythmic structure of the poem is based on the colloquial-song system of Russian folk speech. These are ditties, and popular prints, and crying, and lamentations. They are adjoined by urban romance and march. "Twelve" is Blok's most unconventional work.

The poem has real and metaphorical plans. The procession of twelve sailors is really a movement along the snow-covered streets, but also symbolic - as the path of revolution and history.

Black evening.

White snow.

Wind, wind!

A person does not stand on his feet.

Wind, wind -

In all God's world!

The "old world" is present in the poem in the form of a bourgeois and the image of a dog, rootless, lonely and feral. The twelve are fused into a single, monolithic image, because the elements are embodied through them. Their unity is expressed in gait.

Blok does not close his eyes to the rampant elements. Her cruelty causes an internal protest in him. But there is simply no other way than through tragedy, through "sin". The violent freemen with robbery and drunkenness are perceived by the poet not as the personal fault of the barbarians, but as their tragic misfortune.

Cosmic and earthly, worldly and worldly are inseparable in the poem. The elements of nature echo the human, human storms evoke reciprocal winds in the surrounding world. After Katya's death: “Something blizzard broke out, oh, blizzard, oh, blizzard! Not to see each other at all for four steps!” A raging snowstorm makes Petrukha remember, exclaim: “Oh, what a blizzard, Savior!” But the comrades again correct him: “- Petka! Hey, don't lie! Why did the golden iconostasis save you? You are unconscious, really, judge, think sensibly - or are your hands not covered in blood because of Katya's love? And again the refrain - it is addressed not only to Petrukha - to all the soldiers of the Red Guards, to the entire rebellious people: “Keep the revolutionary step! The restless enemy is near!” And in confirmation - persistent, imperious, obliging, on behalf of History - a three-fold call to exert strength: "Forward, forward, forward, working people!"

An important place in the poem is occupied by the idea that there is freedom, but there is still no holy beginning:

Freedom, freedom

Eh, eh, no cross!

The heroes of Blok go "without a cross." But at the head of them, the poet sees none other than Jesus Christ. The author wanted to embody the symbol of the new world in the image of Christ, bringing moral purification to humanity, the age-old ideals of humanism. Blok draws an analogy between the era of the collapse of tsarist Russia and the era of the death of Rome, when the legend of Christ arose as the herald of a new world religion. Christ, the symbol of the renewal of life, was to act as such a herald in the poem. But for the majority of the real Red Guards, Christ was in fact identified with the religion and tsarism against which they fought.

Blok himself felt the insufficient persuasiveness of the image of Christ in the text of The Twelve. However, it was in this way that he concluded his work. It was in the image of Christ that Blok embodied both his expectation of the revolution, and his faith in its purifying power, and his disappointment in it, and the acquisition of a new faith - faith in the moral rebirth of people.

Blok wrote: “When I finished, I myself was surprised: why Christ? But the more I looked, the more clearly I saw Christ. And then I wrote down in my place: “Unfortunately, Christ.”

In the plot of the poem, one can see similarities with the biblical legend. The new era, in Blok's understanding, is the renewal of public consciousness: instead of pagan beliefs and sacrifices to the gods, a new faith has been established, associated with the need for universal equality. On the one hand, an obsolete world deserves to be destroyed. The poet rejoices that this ugly world is being replaced by something new, perhaps more perfect. On the other hand, this affirming new in some details is inextricably linked with the past. That's why:

Anger, sad anger

Boiling in the chest...

Black malice, holy malice...

A detachment of twelve Red Guards, associated with the apostles, does terrible deeds on its way: the murder of Katya, robbery and stabbing. This shows their connection with the old world - the world of the wild, unbridled, evil:

And they go without the name of a saint

All twelve - away,

Ready for everything

Nothing to be sorry

Blok does not accept the moral squalor of the twelve Red Guards, but that is precisely why he puts Jesus Christ at their head. Christ in the poem acts as a symbol of the new, a symbol of the spiritual renewal of the nation.

The Red Guards are not yet aware of the renewal that, according to the poet, they bring to the people, but they undoubtedly bring it. That's why

Ahead - with a bloody flag

And invisible behind the blizzard

And unharmed by a bullet

With a gentle step over the south,

Snowy scattering of pearls,

In a white corolla of roses -

In front is Jesus Christ.

The chapters of the poem are heterogeneous, but in general, this stylistic disunity is intended to give a real reflection of reality. In the poem you can find elements of folklore, prison lyrics, ditties, vulgarisms. Here, next to the revolutionary pathos, the elements of the declassed lower classes freely “get along”, and all manifestations of life are taken in some minor details, as in real reality.

wrote about the poetic richness of Blok's poem: "Immersed in his native element of the popular uprising, Blok overheard her songs, spied on her images ...".

During the period of writing the poem, Blok was especially interested in urban folklore, he recorded the voices of the city streets he heard. Here are the turns of modern vernacular (even abuse), and traditional song vocabulary. Familiar words and vulgarisms ("electrical", "junkerier", "already") determine the social coloring of the characters' language.

Blok sought to convey "the music of street words and expressions". He heard the sounds of this music in everything: "in passion and creativity, in the popular revolt and in scientific work, in the revolution." The music of the revolution is conveyed in the poem not only by the elements of vernacular, with which the scenes on the Petrograd bridges are saturated. In place of "earthiness" comes oratorical pathos.

Lines from "The Twelve" returned to folk speech: the poet penetrated so deeply into its specificity. Many formulas of the poem sounded like proverbs and sayings: “Wind, wind - in all God's world!”, “What did the golden iconostasis save you from?” The slogans of the poem could be seen on the Red Army banners, posters and armored trains. "Twelve" is Blok's pinnacle achievement in mastering folklore.

In folk oral poetry, the symbolism of numbers is traditional. Often there are words that are multiples of three and reflect the ancient mythological thinking of people: 3,6,9,12. Twelve is the key number of the poem, and many associations can be associated with it. First of all, it is twelve hours - midnight, twelve months - the end of the year. It turns out some kind of “borderline” number, since the end of an old day (or year), as well as the beginning of a new one, is always overcoming a certain milestone, a step into an unknown future. For A. Blok, the fall of the old world became such a boundary. It is not clear what lies ahead. Probably, the “global fire” will soon spread to all things.

Another numerical association is the twelve apostles. This is indirectly indicated by the names of two of them - Andryukha and Petrukha. Let us also recall the story of the Apostle Peter, who denied Christ three times in one night. But with A. Blok, the opposite is true: Petrukha returns to the faith three times in one night and retreats again three times. In addition, he is the killer of his former lover.

Wrapped a scarf around his neck -

No way to recover.

The musicality of the poem is expressively conveyed by its rhythm. The swiftness and at the same time the complexity of moving forward are emphasized by the impulsive and difficult rhythm, as if the poem itself is in motion, in constant interruptions. The rhythm of the verse changes all the time, emphasizing the turbulent changeability of life itself, corresponding to the depicted episode. When a detachment of twelve Red Guards enters the poem, the rhythm becomes clear, marching. The change of rhythm causes the extraordinary dynamics of the verse. Thanks to the energy of rhythm, literally every word “works”. Blok wrote: "The power of rhythm raises the word on the spine of a musical wave..."

The language of the poem combines the usual for the former book vocabulary with the common people, "street" dialect, slang expressions. The poet uses words from folk songs, ditty forms of verse. Inserts real slogans of those days into the text:

From building to building

The rope is stretched.

On the rope - poster:

"All power to the Constituent Assembly!"

The range of vocabulary is unusually wide - from solemn intonations:

Revolutionary keep step!

The restless enemy does not sleep!

to gross vulgarisms:

wore gray leggings,

Chocolate "Mignon" ate,

I went for a walk with the junker -

With the soldier now went!

“The poem The Twelve, however, managed to make a hole in the broad crowd, the crowd that had never read Blok before. This crowd identified the poem "The Twelve" by ear, as related to it in its verbal construction, verbal phonetics, which could hardly be called "bookish" then and which rather approached the ditty form. Despite the poet’s creative silence, his popularity, thanks to the “street” phonetics of The Twelve, grew from day to day, ”Shklovsky assessed the artistic originality of the poem.

Blok's poem "The Twelve" was the result of Blok's knowledge of Russia, its rebellious elements, and creative potential.

Literature

1. Alexander Blok. Collected works in six volumes - L .: Fiction., 1982. - V. 5. - S. 248.

2. Zhirmunsky Alexander Blok. Overcoming symbolism. M., 1998.

3. Kling O.: the structure of the “novel in verse”. Poem "Twelve". M., 1998.

4. Orlov Block - M .: "Tsentrpoligraf", 2001. - S. 533-534. - 618 p.

5. Shklovsky table // Shklovsky account: Articles - memories - essays (1914-1933). M .: Soviet writer, 1990. S. 175.

6. Etkind of A. Blok's poem "The Twelve" // Russian Literature. 1972. No. 1.

And there was a fatal consolation

In trampling sacred shrines...

A. Blok
In January 1918, A. Blok created his most famous poem - he creates it in a few days, in a single inspired impulse. Usually demanding of himself, he, evaluating his creation, writes: “Today I am a genius.” The poem, published in February, evoked stormy and contradictory responses. She was talked about everywhere. Much in it seemed unacceptable to fellow writers. It was greeted with an outburst of indignation by the Russian intelligentsia. Bunin attacked the author with angry criticism, some of his friends turned away from him. But, despite this, Blok's poem rightfully took its place in the history of Russian literature,

In The Twelve, Blok captured the image of the revolution in which he believed, which was revealed to him in the glow of fires, in snowstorms, in the breath of Russia. The author showed in his poem the revolution as a cleansing fire, in the fire of which everything old must be destroyed:
We are on the mountain to all bourgeois

Let's fan the world fire

World fire in the blood -

God bless!
In every line we hear the music of the revolution - the one that Blok called for listening to "with the whole body, with the whole heart, with the whole consciousness." But he no longer has an incomprehensible and barely audible rumble, as in his early poems, but a powerful symphony of time: the laughter and crying of a blizzard, fragments of revolutionary songs, shots, the steps of the Red Army.

The creative method of Blok the symbolist is also clearly manifested in this work of his: it is with the help of symbols that the author shows what is happening. The old, rotten world, represented by Blok’s “bourgeois at the crossroads”, the “long-sleeved” priest, the reactionary intellectual, contemptuously called “vitia”, is personified in the poem by a street dog:
And the old world, like a rootless dog,

Standing behind him with his tail between his legs. Or:

The old world is like a lousy dog

Fail - I'll beat you!
Blok shows post-revolutionary chaos and anarchy as an inevitable process that accompanies the great break. The revolution itself is shown in the poem in a generalized symbolic image of the universal wind, a blizzard that breaks into the life of an inhabitant:
Black evening.

White snow.

Wind, wind!

A person does not stand on his feet.
This is an element, albeit cleansing, but ruthless, destructive. And twelve Red Army men become its representatives. Nothing is said about each of them individually, but together they are a force that will destroy the world “to the ground”. They themselves are very vaguely aware of what their goal is. The author shows at the beginning of the poem how much they have in common with ordinary criminals:
In the teeth - a cigarette, a cap is crushed,

Would you like an ace of diamonds on your back?
Their progress down the street should be a symbol of their evolution. At the first stage of their journey, the twelve appear as anarchists, destroyers. It doesn't cost them anything to shoot "into holy Russia." They only have their “holy malice”, but no organization. They are driven by hatred, not love for people. They are attracted by freedom - "oh, without a cross." Their movement is spontaneous, instinctive and sometimes disastrous, not only for enemies. They do not have God in the highest sense of the word: the old religion - the religion of slaves - is unacceptable to them, and they have not yet found a new one. And here the author shows a senseless, unjustified murder - this is the culmination of the action of the poem. After that, everything changes in the story. The internal shock makes the heroes realize their destiny, discard the anarchist and frivolous approach to their revolutionary activities. Playful remarks, extraneous conversations disappear, the lines acquire rigor, rhythmic precision:
Revolutionary keep step!

Measured - a step is distributed.
Being previously part of the elements, from now on, the twelve must fight it themselves. However, until the very end they go “without the name of a saint”, which means they do not understand and do not finally accept the ideals of the new life. And then Block displays the figure of Christ, who leads the heroes with a bloody flag:
And invisible behind the blizzard

And unharmed by a bullet

With a gentle step over the wind,

Snowy scattering of pearls,

In a white wreath of roses

In front is Jesus Christ.
The image of Christ is not amenable to unambiguous interpretation. Either this is not yet recognized and recognized by God, the leader, or a victim not visible in a snowstorm, or a dumb witness and judge. Intentionally or not, the author left this unsaid in his poem. It is up to the reader and his time to decide.

In the poem "The Twelve" Blok also acted as a reformer in the field of art form. He justified the change in his usual manner by saying that it was necessary to write about the new, about the revolutionary, in a new language. Therefore, the work is a striking contrast compared to what was written earlier.

The poem consists of twelve small chapters - according to the number of title characters. At the same time, the author did not avoid the symbolist passion for the magic of numbers - after all, the mystical “loading” of the number “twelve” is well known. In addition, it was precisely so many apostles, disciples that Christ had - and biblical motifs enter the poem directly with his image. "The Twelve" can be called a dramatic poem, since the main thing in it is the action, the bearer of which is the main characters. Most of the story is made up of lines and dialogues of the characters. Each of them has his own language: a poor old woman, a lady, a writer, the Red Army. The poem is characterized by a variety of artistic and speech styles, its language includes lofty poetic and colloquial vocabulary, even vulgar. Political slogans, folklore motifs, urban romance, robber songs and ditties - the author seems to be trying to express all the polyphony of the street using various genres of artistic speech. The rhythm and size of the verse are also varied, from ditty to marching, from four-foot trochaic to dolnik.

The combination of different speech styles, genres, rhythms, the very dramatic form of the poem allowed Blok to express, to embody what he called "the music of the revolution", its polyphony, spontaneity. The poet strove for the unity of content and form, and his poem is a vivid confirmation of this. At the same time, Blok does not avoid the usual symbolist techniques and methods.

In his poem, the author tried to reflect as accurately as possible what he saw and felt. His point of view may not be accepted by everyone. In principle, art does not require the recognition of its images as reality, and even more so, for the only possible truth. The poem “The Twelve” can be interpreted in different ways, especially now that Blok’s dying words have become known that the poem should be destroyed as a failed . I believe that the poet sacredly believed, wanted to believe in what he wrote, in the greatness and nobility of the plans and ways of the revolution, but already in 1921 he managed to see how far his dreams were from reality. And the poem lives on as indisputable evidence of the intense search - whether ideological or formal - of its author.

And there was a fatal consolation
In trampling sacred shrines...
A. Blok

In January 1918, A. Blok created his most famous poem - he creates it in a few days, in a single inspired impulse. Usually demanding of himself, he, evaluating his creation, writes: “Today I am a genius.” The poem, published in February, evoked stormy and contradictory responses. She was talked about everywhere. Much in it seemed unacceptable to fellow writers. It was greeted with an outburst of indignation by the Russian intelligentsia. Bunin attacked the author with angry criticism, some of his friends turned away from him. But, despite this, Blok's poem rightfully took its place in the history of Russian literature,
In The Twelve, Blok captured the image of the revolution in which he believed, which was revealed to him in the glow of fires, in snowstorms, in the breath of Russia. The author showed in his poem the revolution as a cleansing fire, in the fire of which everything old must be destroyed:

We are on woe to all bourgeois
Let's fan the world fire
World fire in blood-
God, bless!

In every line we hear the music of the revolution - the one that Blok called for listening to "with the whole body, with the whole heart, with the whole consciousness." But he no longer has an incomprehensible and barely audible rumble, as in his early poems, but a powerful symphony of time: the laughter and crying of a blizzard, fragments of revolutionary songs, shots, the steps of the Red Army.
The creative method of Blok the symbolist is also clearly manifested in this work of his: it is with the help of symbols that the author shows what is happening. The old, rotten world, represented by Blok’s “bourgeois at the crossroads”, the “long-sleeved” priest, the reactionary intellectual, contemptuously called “vitia”, is personified in the poem by a street dog:

And the old world, like a rootless dog,
Standing behind him with his tail between his legs. Or:
The old world is like a lousy dog
Fail - I'll beat you!

Blok shows post-revolutionary chaos and anarchy as an inevitable process that accompanies the great break. The revolution itself is shown in the poem in a generalized symbolic image of the universal wind, a blizzard that breaks into the life of an inhabitant:

Black evening.
White snow.
Wind, wind!
A person does not stand on his feet.

This is an element, albeit cleansing, but ruthless, destructive. And twelve Red Army men become its representatives. Nothing is said about each of them individually, but together they are a force that will destroy the world “to the ground”. They themselves are very vaguely aware of what their goal is. The author shows at the beginning of the poem how much they have in common with ordinary criminals:

In the teeth - a cigarette, a cap is crushed,
Would you like an ace of diamonds on your back?

Their progress down the street should be a symbol of their evolution. At the first stage of their journey, the twelve appear as anarchists, destroyers. It doesn't cost them anything to shoot "into holy Russia." They only have their “holy malice”, but no organization. They are driven by hatred, not love for people. They are attracted by freedom - "oh, without a cross." Their movement is spontaneous, instinctive and sometimes disastrous, not only for enemies. They do not have God in the highest sense of the word: the old religion - the religion of slaves - is unacceptable to them, and they have not yet found a new one. And here the author shows a senseless, unjustified murder - this is the culmination of the action of the poem. After that, everything changes in the story. The internal shock makes the heroes realize their destiny, discard the anarchist and frivolous approach to their revolutionary activities. Playful remarks, extraneous conversations disappear, the lines acquire rigor, rhythmic precision:

Revolutionary keep step!
The restless enemy does not sleep!

The red flag flies in the eyes.
Measured - step is distributed.

Being previously part of the elements, from now on, the twelve must fight it themselves. However, until the very end they go “without the name of a saint”, which means they do not understand and do not finally accept the ideals of the new life. And then Block displays the figure of Christ, who leads the heroes with a bloody flag:

And invisible behind the blizzard
And unharmed by a bullet
With a gentle step over the wind,
Snowy scattering of pearls,
In a white wreath of roses
In front is Jesus Christ.

The image of Christ is not amenable to unambiguous interpretation. Either this is not yet recognized and recognized by God, the leader, or a victim not visible in a snowstorm, or a dumb witness and judge. Intentionally or not, the author left this unsaid in his poem. It is up to the reader and his time to decide.
In the poem "The Twelve" Blok also acted as a reformer in the field of art form. He justified the change in his usual manner by saying that it was necessary to write about the new, about the revolutionary, in a new language. Therefore, the work is a striking contrast compared to what was written earlier.
The poem consists of twelve small chapters - according to the number of title characters. At the same time, the author did not avoid the symbolist passion for the magic of numbers - after all, the mystical “loading” of the number “twelve” is well known. In addition, it was precisely so many apostles, disciples that Christ had - and biblical motifs enter the poem directly with his image. "The Twelve" can be called a dramatic poem, since the main thing in it is the action, the bearer of which is the main characters. Most of the story is made up of lines and dialogues of the characters. Each of them has his own language: a poor old woman, a lady, a writer, the Red Army. The poem is characterized by a variety of artistic and speech styles, its language includes lofty poetic and colloquial vocabulary, even vulgar. Political slogans, folklore motifs, urban romance, robber songs and ditties - the author seems to be trying to express all the polyphony of the street using various genres of artistic speech. The rhythm and size of the verse are also varied, from ditty to marching, from four-foot trochaic to dolnik.
The combination of different speech styles, genres, rhythms, the very dramatic form of the poem allowed Blok to express, to embody what he called "the music of the revolution", its polyphony, spontaneity. The poet strove for the unity of content and form, and his poem is a vivid confirmation of this. At the same time, Blok does not avoid the usual symbolist techniques and methods.
In his poem, the author tried to reflect as accurately as possible what he saw and felt. His point of view may not be accepted by everyone. In principle, art does not require the recognition of its images as reality, and even more so, for the only possible truth. The poem “The Twelve” can be interpreted in different ways, especially now that Blok’s dying words have become known that the poem should be destroyed as a failed . I believe that the poet sacredly believed, wanted to believe in what he wrote, in the greatness and nobility of the plans and ways of the revolution, but already in 1921 he managed to see how far his dreams were from reality. And the poem lives on as indisputable evidence of the intense search - whether ideological or formal - of its author.

Today I am a genius!
Alexander Blok

The poem "The Twelve" was a response to the events of 1917. The attitude towards the revolution was determined through the expectation of a cleansing storm, sweeping away the old world, hated by the poet. Block's "Note" about the poem has been preserved: “In January 1918, for the last time, I surrendered to the elements no less blindly than in January 1907 and March 1914. That is why I do not renounce what was written then, because it was written in agreement with the elements. Therefore, those who see political verses in The Twelve are either very blind to art, or sit up to their ears in political mud, or are possessed by great malice - whether they are enemies or friends of my poem..

“The Twelve—whatever it is—is the best thing I've written. Because back then I was living in the present.”, the poet said. However, the first reading of the poem usually causes bewilderment and many questions.

Question

Why is the poem called "The Twelve"? What is the meaning of the name?

Answer

First, the poem contains twelve chapters. Secondly, the heroes of the poem are twelve Red Army soldiers. Thirdly, the image of Christ walking ahead of these Red Army soldiers (at the end of the poem) evokes associations with the twelve apostles. The next question arises. Why Christ? What does this image mean in the poem? We will try to answer this question at the end of the lesson.

The poem surprised even Blok's contemporaries. According to Mayakovsky, "Some read in this poem a satire on the revolution, others read its glory".

"The Twelve" is an epic poem, as if made up of separate sketches, pictures from life, quickly replacing one another. The dynamism and chaotic nature of the plot, the expressiveness of the episodes that make up the poem, conveys the confusion that reigned both on the streets and in the minds.

The poem is constructed as a series of successive scenes from the night life of Petrograd in early 1918. There is nothing here that resembles the glorification of the revolution, on the contrary, - "malice, sad malice", shooting, robberies, an extinct black city. "Rootless Dog"- an image that most accurately conveys the state of the inhabitants of Petrograd, associated with "old world" and yesterday still felt like masters of life. "Lady in karakul", "comrade pop" and "bourgeois at the crossroads" timidly hiding from events that are incomprehensible to them and are depicted by Blok with undisguised irony.

Against the backdrop of the devastated city, twelve Red Guards "without a cross" make their victorious march: “In the teeth - a cigarette, a cap is crushed, / An ace of diamonds should be on the back!”. The ace of diamonds - a flap with a rhombus - was attached to the back of convicts and bandits. With the advent of the detachment, the theme of revolution arises in the poem:

Revolutionary keep step!

Question

twelve fighters "they go far with a sovereign step" under the fluttering "bloody flag". In their masterly steps, Blok hears the music of a new world being born.

The composition reflects the element of the revolution, determines the stylistic diversity of the poem. "Listen to the Music of the Revolution", Block calls.

Question

As Block reports "music of the revolution"?

Answer

Primarily, "music" Blok has a metaphor, an expression of "spirit", the sound of the elements of life. This music is reflected in the rhythmic, lexical, and genre diversity of the poem. Traditional iambs and trochees are combined with different meters, sometimes with non-rhyming verse.

Question

What rhythms did you hear?

Answer

In the poem they sound march intonation:

It beats in the eyes
Red flag.
Is distributed
Measure step.
Here - wake up
Fierce enemy.

Heard urban romance. It is interestingly played up: the beginning is familiar, and then the revelry went:

Can't hear the noise of the city
Silence over the Neva tower
And there is no more policeman -
Walk, guys, without wine!

Often meets ditty motif:

Lock up the floors
Today there will be robberies!
Open cellars -
Walking now nakedness!

Directly quoted revolutionary song:

Go-go,
Working people!

In addition to music, slogans stand out noticeably in the poem: "All power to the Constituent Assembly!", fragments of conversations are heard:

…And we had a meeting…
…Here in this building…

The language of the poem was unusual for readers. "In harmony with the elements"- completely new rhythms sounded: a ditty ( "Eh, eh, dance! / It hurts the legs are good!"), urban romance ( “You can’t hear the noise of the city…”), soldier song ( "How did our guys go ..."), mischievous street speech ( “Lock the floors, / Today there will be robberies!”).

Question

What vocabulary is found in the poem?

Answer

The structure of the vocabulary is varied. This is the language of slogans and proclamations, and colloquial language with vernacular: "What, my friend, dumbfounded?"; and word distortions: "floors", "electric"; and reduced, "abusive" vocabulary: "cholera", "ate", "scoundrel"; and high syllable:

With a gentle step over the wind,
Snowy scattering of pearls,
In a white corolla of roses -
The front is Jesus Christ.

Question

How does Blok depict the characters of the poem?

Answer

The characters are drawn concisely and expressively. This is a figurative comparison: “an old woman, like a chicken, / somehow rewound through a snowdrift”; speech characteristic: "Traitors! Russia is dead! / Must be a writer - / Vitya ... "; biting epithet and oxymoron: “And there is the long-haired one - / Side by side behind the snowdrift ... / What is gloomy now, / Comrade pop?”.

Twelve heroes make up one squad: “In the teeth - a cigarette, a cap is crushed, / An ace of diamonds should be on the back!”- briefly and clearly - "the prison is crying for them". Among them Petka, "poor killer", who cheered up at the reminder of his comrades: "Keep control over yourself!".

Katka is shown in more detail. Here is the appearance: “teeth shine like pearls”, “painful legs are good”, “fat-faced” and lifestyle: “she has Kerenki in her stocking”, “she fornicated with officers”, and attractive charm: “because of the trouble’s prowess / In her fiery eyes, / Because of a crimson mole / Near the right shoulder ...”.

Question

What is the peculiarity of the plot of the poem?

Answer

The plot can be defined as two-layered - external, everyday: sketches from Petrograd streets, and internal: motives, justification of the actions of the "twelve", One of the centers of the poem is the end of the 6th chapter: the motive of revenge, murder merges with the motive of the slogans of the revolution:

What, Katya, are you glad? - No gu-gu...
Lie down, you carrion, in the snow!
Revolutionary keep step!
The restless enemy does not sleep!

Question

Track where and how the motive of hatred changes?

Answer

The motive of hatred is observed in seven chapters of the poem. Hatred also manifests itself as a holy feeling:

Anger, sad anger
Boiling in the chest ...
Black malice, holy malice...

And as sacrilege:

Comrade, hold the rifle, don't be afraid!
Let's fire a bullet at Holy Russia -
Into the condo
Into the hut
Into the fat ass!
Eh, eh, no cross!

Question

What motifs did you see in the poem?

Answer

The motif of vigilance occurs several times: "The restless enemy does not sleep!". General hatred, readiness to fight the enemy, spurring vigilance and distrust constitute the revolutionary consciousness of the detachment. In the center of the poem is the permissiveness of massacre, the depreciation of life, freedom "without a cross." The second center of the poem is in chapter 11:

... They go without the name of a saint
All twelve are off.
Ready for everything
Nothing to regret...

Question

What symbolic images did you notice in the poem?

Answer

Wind, blizzard, snow - constant block motifs; color symbols: "Black evening. / White snow", bloody flag; number twelve, "dog without a root", Christ.

Question

What is the significance of the image of Christ in the poem?

Answer

Some perceive the image of Christ as an attempt to sanctify the cause of the revolution, others as blasphemy. The appearance of Christ, perhaps, is a guarantee of the future light, a symbol of the best, justice, love, a sign of faith. He "and unharmed by a bullet" and he is dead "in a white halo of roses". "Twelve" shoot at him, even "invisible". Perhaps the appearance of Christ meant the possibility of a future transformation, and, consequently, the approval of the revolution.

“Christ” in the poem is the antithesis of “dog” as the embodiment of evil, the central “sign” of the old world, is the brightest note of the poem, the traditional image of goodness and justice”(L. Dolgopolov).

“When I finished, I myself was surprised: why Christ? But the more I looked, the more clearly I saw Christ. And then I wrote down at myself: "Unfortunately, Christ". That Christ goes before them is certain. The point is not whether they are worthy of him, but the terrible thing is that he is with them again and there is no other yet, but another is needed? Block wrote.

Literature

D.N. Murin, E.D. Kononova, E.V. Minenko. Russian literature of the twentieth century. Grade 11 program. Thematic lesson planning. St. Petersburg: SMIO Press, 2001

E.S. Rogover. Russian literature of the XX century / St. Petersburg: Paritet, 2002

N.V. Egorova. Lesson developments in Russian literature of the twentieth century. Grade 11. I semester. M.: VAKO, 2005

Evgenia Ivanova. Alexander Alexandrovich Blok. // Encyclopedia for children "Avanta +". Volume 9. Russian literature. Part two. XX century. M., 1999