Poem "Twelve"- a poem-response to the accomplished revolution - differs in style from other works of the poet: it clearly shows folklore basis, ditty rhythm, use of proverbs and elements of urban romance.

The main principle of the construction of “The Twelve” is contrast. Black wind, white snow, red flag - the color scheme varies within three colors. The poem is polyphonic: it contains many intonations and points of view. The images of the poem acquire particular symbolism: 12 Red Guards are opposed to the old world in the image "a rootless dog»:

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

The old world is presented in the poem satirically, although satire in general is not characteristic of the poet. Images of the “past” acquire a generalizing meaning; they are outlined with only one or two strokes - Vitia, a lady in karakul, a priest whose belly used to shine like a cross at the people.

Opposed to the old world is the new world, the world of revolution. Revolution, according to Blok, is an element, a wind.” all over the world", this is mainly a destructive force, whose representatives go " no saint name».

The image in the title of the poem is multifaceted - 12. This is a real detail: in 1918 the patrol consisted of 12 people; and the symbol is the 12 disciples of Jesus Christ, the apostles, into whom the Red Guards turn in the course of the revolutionary action. Transformation is a child flax: for example, the gait of the heroes from an impetuous waddling movement turns into a sovereign gait.

Ahead - with a bloody flag,
And invisible behind the blizzard,
And unharmed by a bullet,
Gently walking above the storm,
Snow scattering of pearls,
In a white corolla of roses -
Ahead is Jesus Christ.

Another equally interesting image of the “Twelve” is the image of Christ. A. Blok himself did not give an exact answer as to why this image, far from the revolution, appears in the poem, which gave rise to multiple interpretations. Thus, Christ is seen as embodiment of justice; How symbol of the greatness and holiness of an epoch-making event; How symbol of a new era and etc.

The image of a blizzard in the poem is multifaceted. Firstly, a blizzard is a raging, uncontrollable, “primitive” element, which is how the poet imagined the revolution: “ Wind! Wind! A man can't stand on his feet" Secondly, the image of a blizzard also appears in some of the author’s poems, where a blizzard becomes a symbol of death, going to “nowhere” and “never.” Let us remember the poem “The Dead Man Goes to Sleep”: “ The dead man goes to bed // On a white bed. // Easy to spin in the window // Calm snowstorm" Thirdly, a blizzard as a symbol of God's providence and fate is traditional for Russian classical literature ( Pushkin's "Blizzard" and "The Captain's Daughter").

The poem is also interesting in terms of its system of aesthetic principles. “The Twelve” is not pure symbolism; the scope of aesthetics in the poem is expanded: symbolic images are combined with satirical denunciation, the pathos of contempt for the “past” - for the old world is combined with the dream of a new Russia, purified and revived.

The poem “The Twelve,” written in 1918, still remains enigmatic and mysterious due to the multiplicity of interpretations and diversity of images, which provides great opportunities for researching the work.

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Materials for A. Blok's poem "The Twelve"

Why is the poem called "The Twelve"?

Why does Jesus Christ at Blok precede the procession of a detachment of Red Guards?

What is the role of contrast in the artistic structure of a poem?

The poem "The Twelve" was created after the poet's long thoughts about the fate of his homeland, which were reflected in all his work, permeated with a feeling of imminent catastrophe. In the poem, two planes are clearly felt: one is concrete, real, arising from the immediate essence of the events depicted, the other is hidden, conditionally symbolic, arising from the general perception of the revolution as a “world fire”.

The motive of movement is the main motive of both the rhythmic-intonation and content structure of “The Twelve”. Its bearers are the heroes of the poem, acting both as a revolutionary watch and as apostles of the new world. The association with these biblical characters arises thanks to the not randomly chosen number - twelve, although the poet does not at all idealize his heroes: “There’s a cigarette in your teeth, you’ll wear a cap, you’d need an ace of diamonds on your back.” These people, walking through the windy revolutionary St. Petersburg, will not stop at blood and murder. The revolution, according to Blok, splashed onto the forefront of history the masses - the bearers of elemental forces, which become the driving force of the world historical process. Even twelve Red Army soldiers feel like grains of sand in that world whirlwind, the scope and power of which is felt by representatives of a world hostile to the revolution: “a writer, a hero,” “a lady in karakul,” “a sad comrade priest.”

Blok mentally accompanies his heroes, going through their difficult path with them. His narrator is “fused” into the narrative, his voice is the same expression of the era as the other equal voices of the poem. The polyphony of "The Twelve" is a reproduction of the polyphony of the "turned over" era. The contrast and diversity of the poem reflect the social contrast of the era. The author's position is manifested not in individual remarks or appeals, but in the construction of the common “fate” of the twelve, in the nature of the path that they take on the pages of the poem.

The beginning of the poem introduces the reader to the setting of St. Petersburg at the end of the 17th year. The signs of a turbulent revolutionary era were embodied in such expressive details as a huge poster “All power to the Constituent Assembly!”, a “lady in karakul” mourning Russia, an angry hissing “writer, vita”, individual, fragmentary remarks, as if reaching the reader.

From the first lines of the second chapter, a continuous image appears before us:

The wind is blowing, the snow is fluttering,

Twelve people are walking.

The single image of the twelve is illuminated by the author from different angles. The heroes are representatives of the lower classes of society, that urban stratum that has concentrated in itself a huge reserve of hatred for the “tops”. “Holy malice” controls them, becoming a high and significant feeling. Solving the problem of revolution for himself, Blok at the same time, as it were, reminds the heroes of their high mission, that they are the heralds of a new world. This is how the ending of the poem is logically prepared. After all, Blok not only leads the Red Guard apostles through twelve chapters from the old world to the new, he also shows the process of their transformation. Among the twelve, only Petrukha is named, the other eleven are given in the form of an indivisible image of the mass. These are both the apostles of the revolution and the broad symbolic embodiment of the lower classes of society. What is the purpose of this movement? What is the outcome?

The main question of the poem: “What lies ahead?” - was clear to Blok, he saw with his inner eye who was walking ahead of the gang of Red Army soldiers.*

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,

With the snowy tread of pearls,

In a white corolla of roses -

Ahead is Jesus Christ.

Harmony is born from chaos. This image of Christ is the antithesis of the wolf dog, as a symbol of evil and the old world, an image that embodies the ideal of goodness and justice. Christ is, as it were, elevated above everyday life and above events. He is the embodiment of harmony and simplicity, which Blok’s heroes subconsciously yearn for. At the end of the poem, everything is enlarged and has an openly conventional character. This is the combined image of the “twelve”, and the newly emerging images of the bourgeois and the hungry dog, and the image of Christ that crowns the poem. There are no names here, all remarks consist of the most general words or rhetorical questions. The illusiveness of Christ walking at the head of the twelve apostles dissociates with the sovereign step of the revolution. Over the years, literary scholars have interpreted the meaning of the poem from diametrically opposed points of view - from welcoming the new revolutionary Russia, “taking a sovereign step,” to completely denying the revolution as a rebellion of a bunch of thugs. I think that it was M. Voloshin who most accurately defined the main idea of ​​the poem: “All twelve walk into the distance without the name of the saint.” And their invisible enemy is not at all a hungry “beggar” dog (a symbol of the old world) hobbling behind.

Get off, you scoundrel.

I'll tickle you with a bayonet!

The old world is like a mangy dog,

If you fail, I'll beat you up!

As we see, the Red Guards only brush aside the hungry dog ​​- the old world. Their anxiety and anxiety are caused by someone else who keeps flashing ahead, hiding and waving a red flag.

– Who is waving the red flag there?

- Take a closer look, it’s so dark!

-Who is walking there at a quick pace?

Burying for everything at home?

The spiritually blind “twelve” are not allowed to see Christ; for them he is invisible. These apostles of the new world only vaguely sense his presence. Their attitude towards Christ is tragically ambivalent: they call him with the friendly word “comrade”, but at the same time they shoot at him. But Christ cannot be killed, just as one cannot kill conscience, love, pity in oneself. As long as these feelings are alive, the person is alive. Despite the blood, dirt, crimes, everything “black” that the revolution brings with it, there is also a “white” truth in it, a dream of a free and happy life, for the sake of which its apostles kill and die. This means that Christ, who ghostly appeared at the end of the poem, is Blok’s symbol of the spiritual and moral ideal of humanity.

The entire poem is built on contrasts: contrasts of color, contrasts of tempo and melody of the verse, contrasts of the characters’ actions. The poem opens with the lines:

Black evening.

White snow.

Wind, wind!

The man is not standing on his feet.

Wind, wind -

All over God's world!

The black sky and white snow are symbols of the duality that is happening in the world, that is happening in every soul. A formidable whirlwind disrupts the calm flow of life, takes on a worldwide scale, the cleansing storm of revolution brings new ideas that are incompatible with the entire established way of the old world. At the same time, the revolution also brings blood, dirt, and crimes. Blok does not hide its dark side. In the poem “The Twelve,” the author gives an objective, impartial assessment of the events taking place; Blok the symbolist is side by side with Blok the realist. The red color of anxiety and rebellion appears from time to time on the pages of the poem. ("The red flag hits my eyes"). The color scheme of the poem is almost limited to these three colors, symbolizing the main aspects of life in revolutionary Petrograd.

From chapter to chapter, the rhythm of the verse changes sharply, as completely different layers of society appear, events are contrasting and contradictory. “How our guys went to serve in the Red Guard...”, obviously without hesitation for long - this is a folk ditty, “You can’t hear the noise of the city, There is silence above the Neva Tower...” - the smooth music of a Russian urban romance enters the poem. And in this passage we are talking about the “bourgeois..., silent as a question,” about the upper strata of society, hostile to the revolution. The minted revolutionary slogan is repeated several times: “Keep your step revolutionary! The restless enemy does not sleep!”, which immediately after the release of the poem ended up on street posters. Blok called for “listening to the music of the revolution,” and it was this music that he conveyed in his poem. Unexpected transitions give the poem special expressiveness, charging it with new dramatic energy. This feature of “The Twelve” was noted by O. Mandelstam, calling the poem a “monumental dramatic ditty,” which is doomed to immortality, like folklore.

The actions and feelings of the heroes are also contrasting, they instantly move from love to “black anger”, from murder to despair, having heard the justification of “the current times”, Petrukha immediately “became cheerful again” and is ready for robbery.

The folk element permeates the poem, expanding the “personal” plane of the narrative and deepening the “social” one. The central climactic episode of the poem - the murder of Katka - is the pinnacle of the dramatic suffering of Petrukha - one of the “twelve”, who, unlike his comrades, cannot suppress his feelings: either frantic jealousy for the unfaithful Katka, then deep despair and love for her, then gloomy an attack of melancholy for everything around him. It would seem, what historical significance can the experiences of the most ordinary, far from ideal person have? But this is where Blok’s brilliant insight was reflected. He, focusing on the intimate and personal experiences of a person, revealed their social and public significance. The poet was able to capture the emergence of a dangerous tendency to suppress for the sake of the idea of ​​everything personal, which would subsequently lead to the moral deformation of society. The ideological meaning of the poem is not limited to the artistic depiction of the conflict between the old and new worlds. For this, the images of a bourgeois and a hungry dog ​​would be enough. The conflict of the poem is hidden deeper - in the soul of the Red Guard bandits, walking “without the name of a saint,” who “need nothing, do not regret anything.” Called upon to maintain order, they are ready to shoot at anyone without looking, without thinking, expecting that “the fierce enemy will wake up.”

The soldiers’ thoughts and feelings are contradictory, but their actions are global, irreversible:

We are at the mercy of all bourgeoisie

Let's fan the world fire,

World fire in blood -

God bless!

* K Chukovsky, in the article “Alexander Blok as a Man and Poet,” recalls an interesting episode: “Gumilyov said that the end of the poem “The Twelve” (the place where Christ appears) seems to him to be artificially glued, that the sudden appearance of Christ is a purely literary effect. Blok listened, as always, without changing his face, but at the end of the lecture he said thoughtfully and carefully, as if listening to something:

I don't like the ending of "The Twelve" either. I wish this ending had been different. 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 to myself: unfortunately, Christ.”

Bibliography

To prepare this work, materials were used from the site http://www.kostyor.ru/

Immediately after the revolutionary events, Alexander Alexandrovich Blok wrote his famous poem “The Twelve”. How did it happen that the writer chose such a bloody topic? But he chose her for a reason. Blok truly believed that the revolution could radically change people's lives for the better. He believed in it so much, believed that the revolution was capable of burning out all the rubbish surrounding people that prevented them from living in a wonderful new world. So the poem Twelve appears, where we can observe images of the old and new worlds, where the old world is an old woman, a writer-vitia, prostitutes, a bourgeois, a tramp and a rootless dog.

The image of the Red Army soldiers in the poem

Further in the poem, images of Red Army soldiers appear. This is a collective image of twelve people, which we associate with the twelve apostles. They appear in the poem for a reason. By this, Blok shows that many people strive to change the old world. Shows the collective will of the people, and not someone’s individual opinion. It is with the image of the Red Guards in poem 12 that the idea of ​​the new world, which we see in the created image of the heroes, is connected. These are rifle belts, a cigarette in the mouth, a cap on the head, and all around is the ghost of freedom without a cross.

The twelve apostles of the new world are ready to fight enemies, fulfilling their revolutionary duty; they are representatives of the popular element, entrusted with the mission of defending the revolution, no matter what. Even though their path runs through death and cruelty. In this freedom they see an anarchic free spirit, the embodiment of their dreams, against the old foundations, against the established rules. We see how the Red Army soldiers make their way through the blizzard, succumbing to instincts, without really imagining what awaits them there ahead. By creating the image of the Red Army soldiers, the author reveals permissiveness and shows violence without which change is impossible. At the same time, Blok himself believes that without chaos it is impossible to achieve harmony in the future.

The Red Army soldiers are followed by an old dog, which they brush aside, because this dog is a legacy of the old world. But they are worried about what is hiding there ahead. And there the image of Christ appears as a symbol of the spiritual and moral ideal of people. We see how the Red Army soldiers in a friendly manner call the stranger comrade, but at the same time, they themselves shoot at him.

The revolutionary unrest of the early twentieth century in Russia evoked responses from many writers. The events of 1917 and the Civil War inspired the creation of works by both contemporaries and writers of later periods, right up to the present day. Among the poets who were inspired by this period of Russian history was A.A. Block. The poem “The Twelve” reflected the author’s ambiguous perception of the coup, the meaning of which is still being wondered about. The rich symbolism of the work has a large number of interpretations.

Symbols: role and their meaning

What does a symbol mean to a poet? It’s the same as a term for a scientist, that is, with the help of it you can express a thought more succinctly, without unnecessary words. And Blok actively took advantage of this opportunity in his work.

• Colors. The first thing the reader encounters in the poem is the antithesis of colors - black and white. In world culture, these shades have dozens of meanings, but for this particular poem, white is renewal, the desire for the future, black is the darkness of the old world, the suffering of the soul caused by sin. In addition, the text contains red, expressing resistance and desire for change.
• Wind is a sign of storm and revolution. He is trying to stir up the snow to bring in everything that is old and experienced.
• 12 is a number with a special meaning. The number of Red Army soldiers in the poem is comparable to the many apostles at the Last Supper. There are many hypotheses about what author’s position is hidden behind the Gospel symbolism. Perhaps for Blok the events of the 17th year are comparable in significance in the history of mankind to Holy Week.

Images

1. It is important to emphasize the role and image of the author in “The Twelve”. Blok realized that he was present at an epoch-making event; he intuitively sensed the coming changes in the country, which is why in this work “The Writer is a Vitia”, and the poem itself is associated more with a chronicle. Here the poet plays the role of Pimen or Nestor, whose goal is to capture what is happening.
2. Let us turn to the image of the twelve Red Guards. Not everyone is named by name, but it is no coincidence that the characters named in the poem coincide with the apostles. Such a mention makes it possible to attach to the characters the largest number of associations evoked in the reader. Ivan, Andrey, Peter - these names are both sacred and social at the same time.
3. For example, Petrukha repents of killing out of jealousy, but this hero would not be so significant for the poem if his name were not an allusion to Peter, who renounced Christ. In both cases, crime is not a reason to leave the path, but stimulates you to move on with even greater zeal. Both for Blok’s Peter and for the Evangelical Peter there was no time to regret what they had done: they needed to move forward to realize the common idea.
4. The most discussed image in the poem is Christ (an essay on his role in the work is available). It is interesting to see how it appears in the poem. At the beginning of the poem there is wind, in the 12th chapter a red flag appears in this element, the same attribute in the hands of Christ. It can be assumed that the Savior is present in the poem from the first lines, but in the form of a spirit, a breath, and finds its embodiment only at the end of the work. What does this image mean for the poem? It is unfair to consider that this is a sign of the author's approval of the events of 1917. Blok realized the inevitability of revolution, the impossibility of returning to the old order. The world has become different, the old world is a thing of the past, the country is on the threshold of a new era. The previous one began with Christ and the apostles. And they haven’t disappeared anywhere: the scenery has changed, but the main characters remain.

A symbol is an allegorical image that has many interpretations (or, in other words, cannot be unambiguously interpreted) and evokes a whole chain of associations in readers. At the beginning of the 20th century, during the heyday of Russian literature, symbolism was considered one of the most significant trends in literature and art. The poets who were part of this movement used symbols as the most important tool for understanding reality, a means to get closer to understanding the true essence of things. Individual symbols that expressed their worldview, the result of individual poets’ understanding of the world, acquired great importance in their artistic world.
A.A. at the initial stage of his work, he also belonged to the symbolists, and having doubted the truth of the creative and ideological quest of the symbolists, he dissociated himself from them, but continued to use symbols in an attempt to convey his feelings and experiences associated with the poet’s contact with the outside world.
The poem was one of the last works written by Blok; it can also be considered the most controversial creation of the poet, because of which most of his contemporaries turned away from Blok. The poem was written in 1918, when the poet was at the peak of his inspiration for the idea of ​​a revolutionary struggle, a revolutionary transformation of the world. In the same year, he wrote the article “The Intelligentsia and the Revolution,” in which he examines the revolution from an epoch-making point of view, writing that it could not fail to happen. The article ends with the call: “With all your body, with all your heart, with all your mind - listen to the revolution.”
Thus, the poem can be considered an attempt by the poet himself to listen and understand what the revolution brings with it. Blok himself wrote: “... those who see political poems in “The Twelve” are either very blind to art, or are sitting up to their ears in political mud, or are possessed by great malice - be they enemies or friends of my poem.” The poet did not want his work to be viewed as some kind of political manifesto. It was quite the opposite. In the poem “The Twelve,” Blok posed more questions that primarily concerned him himself than he answered them. Therefore, the use of symbols in the poem is more than justified: in this way the poet tried to reflect the ambiguity and versatility of the revolutionary movement, tried to understand what hopes to associate with the “world fire”.
The central image-symbol of the poem becomes the symbol of the elements. The poem opens to them, and a feeling of discomfort and unsteadiness is immediately created:

Black evening.
White snow.
Wind, wind!
The man is not standing on his feet.
Wind, wind -
All over God's world!

The rampant nature of the elements: a blizzard is playing out, “the snow has become a funnel,” a “blizzard is gathering dust” in the alleys - symbolizes the rampant of the historical, revolutionary elements, confusion and chaos at a turning point in Russian history. The “world fire” is also associated with the elements, which the Red Army soldiers are going to fan “to woe to all the bourgeois.” The consequence of the rampant nature is freedom - freedom of action, freedom of conscience, liberation from old moral and moral norms. So it turns out that the freedom of the revolutionary detachment turns out to be “eh, eh, without a cross!” Freedom to violate Christ’s commandments, that is, freedom to kill (“Where is Katka? - Dead, dead! / Shot in the head!”), to fornicate (“Eh, eh, fornicate! / My heart sank in my chest”), is transformed into the element of permissiveness (“ Let’s fire a bullet into Holy Rus' - / Into the barn, / In the hut, / In the fat-ass!”). The Red Guards from the revolutionary detachment are ready to shed blood, be it Katka who betrayed her lover or the bourgeois: “You fly, bourgeois, like a sparrow! / I’ll drink the blood / For the sweetheart / Black-browed one.” Thus, the element of passion flares up in the devastated city. City life takes on the character of spontaneity: the reckless driver “rushes at a gallop,” he “flies, screams, yells,” and “Vanka and Katka are flying” on the reckless driver. After the murder, new atrocities are expected, and it is not clear whether the revolutionary patrol will rob, or whether its “free” actions “free the hands” of the real criminals - the “naves”:

Eh, eh!
It's not a sin to have fun!
Lock the floors
There will be robberies today!
Unlock the cellars -
The bastard is on the loose these days!

It seems to the Red Army soldiers that they control the revolutionary element, but this is not so. At the end of the poem, the wind begins to fool the fighters: “Who else is there? Come out! / This is the wind with a red flag / Played out ahead...”, and the blizzard “fills with a long laugh / Floods in the snow.”
Color symbolism plays a special role in the poem. In "The Twelve" Blok uses three colors: black, white and red. Old Russia and revolutionary Russia of 1917 were associated in Blok’s mind with black; he wrote in his diary: “In Russia everything is black again and will it be blacker than before?” The color black in the poem is associated with sin, hatred, the revolutionary detachment: black evening, black sky, black human malice, also called holy malice, black rifle belts. White color - the color of snow - is associated with blizzards and rampant elements. This is how the poet expressed hope for a revolutionary, spontaneous transformation of black Russia into white Russia. And this transformation will be led by “Jesus Christ” (“in a white corolla of roses”; walking “like a scattering of snowy pearls”). The color red also occupies an important place in the color symbolism of the poem. It is this that characterizes the revolutionary era - blood, murder, violence, “world fire”, the bloody flag of the detachment of twelve - the “Red Guard”. Blok believed in overcoming bloody sin, in the outcome from the bloody present to a harmonious future, which is personified in the poem by the image of Christ. He wrote: “It’s only at first - blood, violence, atrocity, and then - clover, pink porridge.”
If the wild elements personify the revolutionary beginning, then the symbol of the “old world” in the poem is a hungry, mangy dog, appearing in the poem along with the bourgeoisie:

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

“A cold dog is a rootless dog,” keeping pace with the revolutionary detachment, lagging behind the bourgeoisie. This, it seems to Blok, will be the choice of the “old world”: he will not remain “at the crossroads” with the bourgeoisie, but will follow the Red Guards, either because they have strength, or because they bring renewal with them.
The revolutionary troop of twelve is itself the central symbol of the poem. Describing them at the beginning, Blok compares them to criminals and convicts: “They have a cigar in their teeth, they wear a cap, / You need an ace of diamonds on your back!” But you can also see Christian symbolism in them. By association with the evangelical apostles, of whom there were also twelve, the patrol can be called “apostles of the revolution,” because at the end of the poem it turns out that “Jesus Christ” is walking in front of the detachment. The image-symbol of Christ has many interpretations, each of which makes its own contribution to its understanding. Jesus brings with him purity, whiteness, redemption, the end of suffering. He is located on a different plane, far from the elements of the street, the blizzard land along which the apostles of the revolution march. He is above history, chaos, blizzard. The author shows the separation of earth and heaven; Jesus remains only a reminder of holiness, unattainable for those who remained on earth. This interpretation is contradicted by the fact that Jesus is holding a red flag in his hands - His involvement in earthly, spontaneous, revolutionary affairs is obvious. The Russian poet M. Voloshin proposed a strikingly different interpretation of the ending of the poem. In the final scene, he saw a picture of an execution. Christ does not walk at the head of the twelve; on the contrary, the apostles of the revolution pursue him, but do not notice him - Jesus is visible only to the author. Thus, the poet believed that the poem was written against the Bolsheviks.
Blok himself repeatedly admitted that the image of Christ in the finale appeared as if against his will: “I myself was surprised: why Christ? But the more I looked, the more clearly I saw Christ.”
The poem “The Twelve” represents the poet’s attempt to listen to the music of the revolution, to “throw himself” into its “multi-foaming shaft.” The ambiguous symbols that fill the poem prevent an unambiguous interpretation of the meaning of the revolution. This is what the author of the poem sought, inviting his readers not to judge the revolutionary transformations unambiguously, but with him to plunge into the “vortex of atoms of the cosmic revolution.” Unfortunately, not all of his contemporaries understood the poet’s call.