Alexander Alexandrovich Blok. Born November 16 (28), 1880 in St. Petersburg, Russian Empire - died August 7, 1921 in Petrograd, RSFSR. Russian poet, classic of Russian literature of the 20th century, one of the greatest poets of Russia.

A. Blok's father - Alexander Lvovich Blok (1852-1909), lawyer, professor at Warsaw University.

Mother - Alexandra Andreevna, nee Beketova, (1860-1923) - daughter of the rector of St. Petersburg University A. N. Beketov. The marriage, which began when Alexandra was eighteen years old, turned out to be short-lived: after the birth of her son, she broke off relations with her husband and subsequently did not renew them. In 1889, she obtained a decree of the Synod on the dissolution of marriage with her first husband and married a guards officer F. F. Kublitsky-Piottukh, while leaving her son the name of her first husband.

Nine-year-old Alexander settled with his mother and stepfather in an apartment in the barracks of the Life Grenadier Regiment, located on the outskirts of St. Petersburg, on the banks of the Bolshaya Nevka. In 1889 he was sent to the Vvedensky gymnasium. In 1897, finding himself with his mother abroad, in the German resort town of Bad Nauheim, Blok experienced his first strong youthful love for Xenia Sadovskaya. She left a deep mark on his work.

In 1897, at a funeral in St. Petersburg, he met with Vl. Solovyov.

In 1898 he graduated from the gymnasium, entered the law faculty of St. Petersburg University. Three years later he transferred to the Slavic-Russian department of the Faculty of History and Philology, from which he graduated in 1906. At the university, Blok met Sergei Gorodetsky and Alexei Remizov.

At this time, the poet's second cousin, later the priest Sergei Mikhailovich Solovyov (junior), became one of the closest friends of the young Blok.

Blok wrote his first poems at the age of five. At the age of 10, Alexander Blok wrote two issues of the Ship magazine. From 1894 to 1897, together with his brothers, he wrote the handwritten journal Vestnik.

Since childhood, Alexander Blok spent every summer in the estate of his grandfather Shakhmatovo near Moscow. 8 km away was the estate of Beketov's friend, the great Russian chemist Dmitry Mendeleev Boblovo. At the age of 16, Blok became interested in theater. In St. Petersburg, Alexander Blok signed up for a theater group. However, after the first success of roles in the theater, he was no longer given.

In 1909, two difficult events take place in the Blok family: the child of Lyubov Dmitrievna dies and the father of Blok dies. To recover, Blok and his wife leave to rest in Italy and Germany. For Italian poetry, Blok was accepted into a society called the Academy. In addition to him, it included Valery Bryusov, Mikhail Kuzmin, Vyacheslav Ivanov, Innokenty Annensky.

In the summer of 1911 Blok traveled abroad again, this time to France, Belgium and the Netherlands.

In 1912 Blok wrote the drama The Rose and the Cross. The play was liked by K. Stanislavsky and V. Nemirovich-Danchenko, but the drama was never staged in the theater.

On July 7, 1916, Blok was called to serve in the engineering unit of the All-Russian Zemsky Union. The poet served in Belarus. By his own admission in a letter to his mother, during the war his main interests were "food and horses."

Blok met the February and October revolutions with mixed feelings. He refused to emigrate, believing that he should be with Russia in difficult times. In early May 1917, he was hired by the "Extraordinary Commission of Inquiry to investigate the illegal actions of former ministers, chief executives and other senior officials of both civil and military and naval departments" as an editor. In August, Blok began to work on a manuscript, which he considered as part of the future report of the Extraordinary Investigative Commission and which was published in the journal Byloye (No. 15, 1919) and in the form of a book called The Last Days of Imperial Power (Petrograd, 1921).

Blok immediately accepted the October Revolution enthusiastically, but as a spontaneous uprising, a revolt.

In early 1920, Franz Feliksovich Kublitsky-Piottuch died of pneumonia. Blok took his mother to live with him. But she and Blok's wife did not get along with each other.

In January 1921, on the occasion of the 84th anniversary of his death, Blok delivered his famous speech "On the Appointment of a Poet" at the House of Writers.

Blok was one of those artists of Petrograd who not only accepted Soviet power, but agreed to work for its benefit. The authorities began to widely use the name of the poet for their own purposes. During 1918-1920. Blok, often against his will, was appointed and elected to various positions in organizations, committees, and commissions. The ever-increasing volume of work undermined the strength of the poet. Fatigue began to accumulate - Blok described his condition of that period with the words "I was drunk." This, perhaps, also explains the creative silence of the poet - he wrote in a private letter in January 1919: "For almost a year since I did not belong to myself, I forgot how to write poetry and think about poetry ...".

Heavy workloads in Soviet institutions and living in a hungry and cold revolutionary Petrograd completely undermined the poet's health - Blok developed a serious cardiovascular disease, asthma, mental disorders appeared, and scurvy began in the winter of 1920.

In the spring of 1921, Alexander Blok, together with Fyodor Sologub, asked for exit visas. The issue was considered by the Politburo of the Central Committee of the RCP(b). The exit was denied. Lunacharsky noted: “We literally tortured him without releasing the poet and at the same time without giving him the necessary satisfactory conditions.” A number of historians believed that V. R. Menzhinsky also played a particularly negative role in the fate of the poet, forbidding the patient to travel to a sanatorium in Finland for treatment, which, at the request of Lunacharsky, was discussed at a meeting of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the RCP (b) on July 12, 1921 of the year. Produced by L.B. Kamenev and A.V. Lunacharsky at the subsequent meeting of the Politburo, the permission to leave on July 23, 1921 was belated and could no longer save the poet.

Finding himself in a difficult financial situation, he was seriously ill and on August 7, 1921, he died in his last Petrograd apartment from inflammation of the heart valves. A few days before his death, a rumor spread around Petersburg that the poet had gone mad. Indeed, on the eve of his death, Blok raved for a long time, obsessed with a single thought: were all copies of The Twelve destroyed. However, the poet died in full consciousness, which refutes the rumors about his insanity. Before his death, after receiving a negative response to a request to travel abroad for treatment (dated July 12), the poet deliberately destroyed his notes, refused to take food and medicine.

The poet was buried at the Smolensk Orthodox cemetery in Petrograd. The families of the Beketovs and Kachalovs are also buried there, including the poet's grandmother Ariadna Alexandrovna, with whom he was in correspondence. The funeral service was held on August 10 (July 28, old style - the day of the celebration of the Smolensk Icon of the Mother of God) in the Church of the Resurrection of Christ. In 1944, Blok's ashes were reburied at Literary bridges at the Volkovskoye cemetery.

Height of Alexander Blok: 175 centimeters.

Personal life of Alexander Blok:

In 1903, Blok married Lyubov Mendeleeva, daughter, the heroine of his first book of poems, Poems about the Beautiful Lady.

It is known that Alexander Blok had strong feelings for his wife, but periodically kept in touch with various women: at one time it was the actress Natalya Nikolaevna Volokhova, then the opera singer Lyubov Aleksandrovna Andreeva-Delmas.

Lyubov Dmitrievna also allowed herself hobbies on the side. On this basis, Blok had a conflict with Andrei Bely, described in the play "Balaganchik". Bely, who considered Mendeleev the embodiment of the Beautiful Lady, was passionately in love with her, but she did not reciprocate.

After another hobby, Blok's wife gave birth to a boy who lived only a few days. Despite the fact that this union was considered a laughingstock for all of St. Petersburg, it lasted until the death of the poet. After the First World War, relations in the Blok family improved, and in recent years the poet was the faithful husband of Lyubov Dmitrievna.

The poet's relatives live in Moscow, Riga, Rome and England. Until recent years, Alexander Blok's second cousin, Ksenia Vladimirovna Beketova, lived in St. Petersburg. Among Blok's relatives is Vladimir Yenisherlov, editor-in-chief of Our Heritage magazine.

In the family of Alexander Lvovich Blok (1852-1909), professor of law at Warsaw University. Soon after the birth of the future poet, his parents separated.

In 1889-1898, A. A. Blok studied at the Vvedenskaya Gymnasium, in 1898-1901 - at the Faculty of Law, in 1901-1906 - at the Slavic-Russian Department of the Faculty of History and Philology of St. Petersburg University.

In 1903, A. A. Blok married L. D. Mendeleeva, the daughter of a famous Russian scientist.

Since 1903, A. A. Blok, who had been writing poetry since childhood, began to publish his works in print. The collection "Poems about the Beautiful Lady" (1904) secured the poet's reputation as a symbolist lyricist. The revolutionary events of 1905-1907 brought into his lyrics a sense of the catastrophic era and a premonition of a brewing social storm (the cycle "On the Kulikovo Field", 1908, sections of the cycle "Free Thoughts", 1907, "Iambs", 1907-1914).

The love lyrics of A. A. Blok are romantic and carry, along with delight and ecstasy, a fatal and tragic beginning (sections of the cycle "Snow Mask", 1907, "Faina", 1907-1908, "Retribution", 1908-1913, "Carmen" , 1914). His mature poetry is freed from abstract mystical-romantic symbols and acquires vitality, concreteness, features of plastic depiction (Italian Poems, 1909, poem Nightingale Garden, 1915, etc.).

Many ideas of A. A. Blok’s poetry are developed in his dramaturgy: the plays The Stranger, The Puppet Show, The King on the Square (all in 1906), The Song of Fate (1907-1908), The Rose and the Cross (1912- 1913).

The poetic fame of A. A. Blok was strengthened after the release of his collections "Unexpected Joy" (1906), "Snow Mask" (1907), "Earth in the Snow" (1908), "Lyric Dramas" (1908), "Night Hours" ( 1911) and a collection of poems in 3 volumes (publishing house "Musaget", 1911-1912).

From the beginning of the 1900s, A. A. Blok appeared with critical and journalistic articles, essays, speeches (“Colors and Words”, 1906, “Timelessness”, 1906, “On Lyrics”, 1907, “On the Theater”, “Letters on Poetry”, “People and Intelligentsia”, “Elements and Culture”, 1908, “Lightning of Art”, 1909, “On the Current State of Russian Symbolism”, 1910, “The Fate of Apollon Grigoriev”, 1916).

A. A. Blok met the February and October revolutions with mixed feelings. In early May 1917, he was hired by the "Extraordinary Commission of Inquiry to investigate the illegal actions of former ministers, chief executives and other senior officials of both civil and military and naval departments" as an editor. In August 1917, the poet began to work on the manuscript, which he considered as part of the future report of the Extraordinary Commission of Inquiry. It was published in the journal Byloe (No. 15, 1919) and in a separate edition under the title The Last Days of Imperial Power (1921).

In 1918, A. A. Blok created the poem "The Twelve", the theme of which was the collapse of the old world and its collision with the new. The poem is built on semantic antitheses and sharp contrasts. The poem "Scythians" (1918) also revealed the poet's views on the historical mission of the revolutionary.

In the last years of his life, A. A. Blok did a lot of literary and social work: in the State Commission for the Publishing of Classics, in the Theater Department of the People's Commissariat for Education, in the Union of Workers of Fiction, in the publishing house "World Literature", in the Union of Poets. He delivered reports, articles, speeches ("Catilina", 1918, "The collapse of humanism", 1919, "Heine in", 1919, "On the appointment of the poet", 1921, "Without a deity, without inspiration", 1921).

A. A. Blok for a long time refused to emigrate, believing that he should be with in difficult times. However, in the spring of 1921, in the conditions of a severe creative crisis, depression and a progressive illness, the poet applied to the authorities for an exit visa, but was refused.

The last months of his life, the poet was seriously ill. Permission to travel abroad was too late and could no longer save him. On August 7, 1921, A. A. Blok died in his Petrograd apartment. He was buried at the Smolensk cemetery, later reburied at the Volkovskoye cemetery.

The work of A. A. Blok is associated with the traditions of poetry, A. A. Fet,. A. A. Blok is a romantic, the content of whose poetry was Russian reality and a real person.

Alexander Alexandrovich Blok is a wonderful Russian writer who worked on the border of the 19th and 20th centuries. Born November 16, 1880 in an intelligent family of a professor and a writer in St. Petersburg. In 1898 he successfully graduated from the Vvedensky gymnasium, and then from St. Petersburg University. He received two educations: legal and historical-philological.

Young Sasha had a chance to show off his writing talent at the age of five: then he wrote his first poems. In general, it is worth noting that the young man grew up versatile: he was fond of not only science, but also acting and attended courses in performing arts.

In 1897, on vacation with his family, Blok fell in love for the first time. These passionate youthful feelings remained deeply in the memory of the writer and left an indelible mark on all his subsequent work. In 1903, Alexander's wife was the daughter of Professor Mendeleev, whom he literally recaptured from a no less famous admirer, the poet Andrei Bely. He dedicated the collection "Poems about a Beautiful Lady" to his beloved woman with the symbolic name Love. He was marked by the society "Academy" and accepted into the ranks of its members. In the same year, 1903, Blok made his debut in literary circles, declaring himself a symbolist writer. Gradually, he acquires new acquaintances in this area and becomes close to D. Merezhkovsky, Z. Gippius and V. Bryusov.

It is far from a secret that, in addition to his wife, Blok was in love more than once. He experienced a great passion and irresistible craving for several women, who later also left a mark on his poetic work. It was Lyubov Delmas, and later N. Volokhova

Even then, Blok showed himself as a pronounced symbolist writer. His early work is characterized by the versatility of symbols and signs in the description of events and images. The main themes and motives of that period are love experiences and the beauty of nature. In the later period of Blok's work, he became more and more interested in the social problems and experiences of the people belonging to the lower strata of the population. These include his poem "The Rose and the Cross" from 1912 and the cycle "Retribution", published in 1913. One of the most poetic and successful cycles was recognized by critics as the collection Yamby of 1914, which included the well-known verse Night, Street, Lantern, Pharmacy.

The decisive moment that divided the writer's creative path into "before" and "after" is the poem "Factory", which was published in 1903. And the years from 1906 to 1908 can be noted as the most successful in the writer's work. Then he experienced an unprecedented rise and won success and recognition from his surroundings. The collections "Unexpected Joy", "Earth in the Snow", "Snow Mask", "Song of Fate" and "Lyric Dramas" belong to this period. After 1908, there is a clear separation of Blok from the camp of the Symbolists. His further path became independent and not similar to his early work. His collection "Italian Poems", written during a trip to the country of the same name, was received by the public and critics with great enthusiasm and recognized as the best work about Italy ever written by a domestic author.

In addition to journalism and acute social literature, Blok was fond of writing works for children and youth audiences. In 1913, he published two collections of children's poems "Tales" and "All the Year Round" at once. In 1916, Blok went to the front, where he learned that tsarist power was no more. Later, while serving in the Extraordinary Commission, which investigated the crimes of the autocratic system against the people, Blok discovered the whole truth about the autocratic system and called it "garbage". On the basis of his conclusions and materials obtained as a result of interrogations, a documentary work “The Last Days of Imperial Power” was written.

A particularly difficult period of the writer's life fell on the years of the great revolution. Unlike other compatriots, Blok did not emigrate, but remained in Petrograd, and earned a living working in a publishing house. Many articles, as well as the famous poem "The Twelve" are dedicated to those difficult years in the writer's life. Then he worked with special zeal, realizing in himself a violent civic responsibility and patriotism. He praised the great feat of the people, who every day find the strength to live, despite the hard life and poverty. He actively participated in rallies and demonstrations, took an active social position.

Before his death, Blok was weakened and constantly ill. His acquaintances, including Maxim Gorky, strongly asked the government to allocate a ticket to the writer so that he could improve his health and go on vacation. However, all efforts were in vain and in protest, Blok stopped being treated with medicines and went on a hunger strike and buried all the last manuscripts.

The writer spent the last days of his life in poverty and devastation and died of a heart attack that overtook him on August 7, 1921.

Born on November 16 (28), 1880 in St. Petersburg in a highly cultured family (father is a professor, mother is a writer).

In 1889 he was sent to the second grade of the Vvedenskaya gymnasium, from which he graduated in 1898. Then he was educated at St. Petersburg University, where he studied first at the Faculty of Law, and then at the Faculty of History and Philology. By the way, the rector of the university was his grandfather A.N. Beketov.

Creation

In Blok's biography, the first poems were written at the age of five.
At the age of 16, Alexander Blok was engaged in acting, trying to conquer the stage.

In 1903, Blok married the daughter of the famous scientist D.I. Mendeleev - L. D. Mendeleeva. Andrey Bely was also very in love with her, on this basis they had a conflict with Alexander Blok.

The following year, Blok's poems were published for the first time, published in a collection called Poems about a Beautiful Lady.

In 1909, Blok and his wife went to rest in Italy and Germany. For the work of that period, Alexander Alexandrovich Blok was accepted into the Academy society. Which already consisted of Valery Bryusov, Mikhail Kuzmin, Vyacheslav Ivanov, Innokenty Annensky.

In short, Blok's work contains several directions. Symbolism is characteristic of his early works. Blok's further verses consider the social position of the people. He deeply experiences the tragic fate of mankind ("The Rose and the Cross", 1912), then comes to the idea of ​​obligatory retribution (the cycle "Retribution" 1907-1913, the cycle "Yamba" 1907-1914).

One of Blok's most famous poems is "Night, street, lamp, pharmacy."

Blok also had an interest in children's literature, wrote many poems, some of which were included in the collections for children "All the Year Round" and "Tales" (both - 1913)

Last years of life and death

During the revolution, Blok did not emigrate, he began to work in the publishing house of the city of Petrograd. The revolutionary events in St. Petersburg were reflected in the biography of Alexander Blok in poems, poems ("The Twelve", 1918), and articles.

Before his death, the poet was often ill. The Politburo of the Central Committee of the RCP(b) refused the request to leave the country for treatment and the subsequent petition of Maxim Gorky. After such a decision, Blok refused to take food and medicine, and destroyed his notes.

Living in Petrograd amid poverty, Alexander Blok died of heart disease on August 7, 1921.

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Blok Alexander Alexandrovich Blok Alexander Alexandrovich

(1880-1921), Russian poet. The representative of Russian symbolism ("Poems about the Beautiful Lady", 1904). The crisis of the symbolist worldview is reflected in the drama "Balaganchik" (1906). His lyrics, in their "spontaneity" close to music, were formed largely under the influence of the romance. Through the deepening of social trends (the cycle "City", 1904-08), the comprehension of the "terrible world" (the cycle of the same name, 1908-16), the awareness of the tragedy of modern man (the play "Rose and Cross", 1912-13) came to the idea of ​​inevitability " retribution" (cycle of the same name, 1907-13; cycle "Yamba", 1907-14; poem "Retribution", 1910-21). The main themes of poetry were resolved in the Motherland cycle (1907-16). The October Revolution sought to comprehend in the poem "The Twelve" (1918), journalism. Disappointment in the revolution and the experience of the fate of Russia was accompanied by a deep creative crisis and depression.

BLOCK Alexander Alexandrovich

Blok Alexander Alexandrovich, Russian poet.
Started in the spirit of symbolism (cm. SYMBOLISM)(“Poems about the Beautiful Lady”, 1904), the feeling of the crisis of which was proclaimed in the drama “Puppet Show” (1906). Blok's lyrics, close to music in their "spontaneity", were formed under the influence of the romance. Through the deepening of social trends (the cycle "City", 1904-1908), the comprehension of the "terrible world" (the cycle of the same name 1908-1916), the awareness of the tragedy of modern man (the play "Rose and Cross", 1912-1913) came to the idea of ​​the inevitability of "retribution "(the cycle of the same name 1907-1913; the cycle "Yamba", 1907-1914; the poem "Retribution", 1910-1921). The main themes of poetry were resolved in the Motherland cycle (1907-1916). He tried to comprehend the October Revolution in the poem "The Twelve" (1918), journalism.
The rethinking of the revolutionary events and the fate of Russia was accompanied by a deep creative crisis and depression.
A family. Childhood and education
Father, Alexander Lvovich Blok, - lawyer, professor of law at Warsaw University, mother, Alexandra Andreevna, nee Beketova (in her second marriage, Kublitskaya-Piottukh) - translator, daughter of the rector of St. Petersburg University A. N. Beketov (cm. BEKETOV Andrey Nikolaevich) and translator E. N. Beketova.
Blok's early years were spent in his grandfather's house. Among the most vivid childhood and adolescent impressions are the annual summer months in the Beketovs' Shakhmatovo estate near Moscow. (cm. SHAKHMATOVO). In 1897, during a trip to the resort of Bad Nauheim (Germany), he experienced the first youthful passion of K. M. Sadovskaya, to whom he devoted a number of poems, which were then included in the Ante Lucem cycle (1898-1900) and in the collection Beyond the Past Days (1920 ), as well as the cycle "After twelve years" (1909-14). After graduating from the Vvedensky gymnasium in St. Petersburg, in 1898 he entered the law faculty of St. Petersburg University, but in 1901 he transferred to the historical and philological faculty (he graduated in 1906 in the Slavic-Russian department). Among the professors under whom Blok studied are F. F. Zelinsky, A. I. Sobolevsky, I. A. Shlyapkin, S. F. Platonov, A. I. Vvedensky, V. K. Ernshtedt, B. V. Warneke . In 1903 he married the daughter of D. I. Mendeleev (cm. MENDELEEV Dmitry Ivanovich) Lyubov Dmitrievna.
Creative debut
He began writing poetry at the age of 5, but conscious adherence to his vocation begins in 1900-01. The most important literary and philosophical traditions that influenced the formation of a creative individuality are the teachings of Plato, the lyrics and philosophy of V. S. Solovyov, and the poetry of A. A. Fet. In March 1902, he met Z. N. Gippius and D. S. Merezhkovsky, who had an enormous influence on him; in their journal "New Way" (1903, No. 3), Blok made his creative debut - a poet and critic. In January 1903 he entered into correspondence, in 1904 he personally met A. Bely, who became the poet closest to him from the younger symbolists. In 1903, the Literary and Artistic Collection: Poems of Students of the Imperial St. Petersburg University was published, in which three of Blok's poems were published; in the same year, Blok's cycle "Poems about the Beautiful Lady" was published (the title was proposed by V. Ya. Bryusov) in the 3rd book of the almanac "Northern Flowers" (cm. NORTHERN FLOWERS). In March 1904, he began work on the book "Poems about the Beautiful Lady" (1904, on the title page - 1905). The traditional romantic theme of love-service received in "Poems about the Beautiful Lady" that new content that was introduced into it by the ideas of Vl. Solovyov about merging with the Eternal Feminine in the Divine All-Unity, about overcoming the alienation of the individual from the world whole through a love feeling. The myth of Sophia, becoming the theme of lyrical poems, transforms beyond recognition in the inner world of the cycle the traditional natural, and in particular, the "lunar" symbolism and paraphernalia (the heroine appears above, in the evening sky, she is white, a source of light, scatters pearls, emerges, disappears after sunrise, etc.).
Participation in the literary process 1905-09
"Poems about the Beautiful Lady" revealed the tragic impracticability of "Soloviev's" life harmony (the motives of "blasphemous" doubts about one's own "calling" and about her beloved, who is able to "change her appearance"), putting the poet before the need to search for other, more direct relationships with the world. The events of the 1905-07 revolution played a special role in shaping Blok's worldview, exposing the spontaneous, catastrophic nature of life. The theme of “elements” penetrates into the lyrics of this time and becomes the leading one (images of a snowstorm, blizzards, motifs of freemen, vagrancy). The image of the central heroine changes dramatically: the Beautiful Lady is replaced by the demonic Stranger, the Snow Mask, the schismatic gypsy Faina. Blok is actively involved in literary everyday life, published in all symbolist journals (“Questions of Life”, “Scales” (cm. SCALES (magazine)), "Pass", "Golden Fleece" (cm. GOLDEN FLEECE (magazine))), almanacs, newspapers (“Word”, “Speech”, “Hour”, etc.), acts not only as a poet, but also as a playwright and literary critic (since 1907 he has been leading the critical department in the Golden Fleece), unexpectedly for brothers in symbolism, showing interest and closeness to the traditions of democratic literature.
Contacts in the literary and theatrical environment are becoming more and more diverse: Blok visits the “Club of the Young”, which united writers close to the “new art” (V.V. Gippius, S.M. Gorodetsky, E.P. Ivanov, L.D. Semenov, A. A. Kondratiev and others). Since 1905, he has been visiting "Wednesdays" on the "tower" of Vyach. I. Ivanov, since 1906 - "Saturdays" in the theater of V. F. Komissarzhevskaya, where V. E. Meyerhold staged his first play "Puppet Show" (1906). The actress of this theater N. N. Volokhova becomes the subject of his stormy passion, the book of poems "Snow Mask" (1907), the cycle "Faina" (1906-08) are dedicated to her; her features - a "tall beauty" in "elastic black silks" with "shining eyes" - determine the appearance of "natural" heroines in the lyrics of this period, in "The Tale of the One Who Would Not Understand Her" (1907), in the plays "The Stranger" , "The King in the Square" (both 1906), "The Song of Destiny" (1908). Collections of poems (Unexpected Joy, 1907; Earth in the Snow, 1908), plays (Lyric Dramas, 1908) are published.
Blok publishes critical articles, makes presentations at the St. Petersburg Religious and Philosophical Society ("Russia and the Intelligentsia", 1908, "Elements and Culture", 1909). The problem of “the people and the intelligentsia”, which is key to the work of this period, determines the sound of all the topics developed in his articles and poems: the crisis of individualism, the place of the artist in the modern world, etc. His poems about Russia, in particular the cycle “On the Kulikovo Field” ( 1908), combine the images of the motherland and the beloved (Wife, Bride), imparting a special intimate intonation to patriotic motives. The controversy around articles about Russia and the intelligentsia, their generally negative assessment in criticism and journalism, the increasing realization by Blok himself that a direct appeal to a wide democratic audience did not take place, leads him in 1909 to a gradual disappointment in the results of journalistic activity.
The crisis of symbolism and creativity 1910-17
The period of “revaluation of values” becomes for Blok a trip to Italy in the spring and summer of 1909. Against the backdrop of political reaction in Russia and the atmosphere of complacent European philistinism, high classical art becomes the only saving value, which, as he later recalled, “burnt” him on an Italian trip. This set of moods is reflected not only in the Italian Poems cycle (1909) and the unfinished book of prose essays The Lightning of Art (1909-20), but also in the report On the Current State of Russian Symbolism (April 1910). Drawing a line under the history of the development of symbolism as a strictly defined school, Blok stated the end and exhaustion of a huge stage of his own creative and life path and the need for a “spiritual diet”, “courageous apprenticeship” and “self-deepening”.
The receipt of an inheritance after the death of his father at the end of 1909 freed Blok for a long time from worries about literary earnings and made it possible to concentrate on a few major artistic ideas. Having distanced himself from active publicistic activity and participation in the life of literary and theatrical bohemia, from 1910 he began to work on the great epic poem "Retribution" (which was not completed). In 1912-13 he wrote the play The Rose and the Cross. After the publication of the collection Night Hours in 1911, Blok revised his five books of poetry into a three-volume collection of poems (vols. 1-3, 1911-12). Since that time, Blok's poetry exists in the reader's mind as a single "lyrical trilogy", a unique "novel in verse", creating a "myth about the path". During the life of the poet, the three-volume edition was reprinted in 1916 and in 1918-21. In 1921, Blok began preparing a new edition, but managed to finish only the 1st volume. Each subsequent edition includes everything significant that was created between editions: the cycle "Carmen" (1914), dedicated to the singer L. A. Andreeva-Delmas, the poem "The Nightingale Garden" (1915), poems from the collections "Yamba" (1919) , "Gray Morning" (1920).
Since the autumn of 1914, Blok has been working on the publication of Apollon Grigoriev's Poems (1916) as a compiler, author of an introductory article, and commentator. On July 7, 1916, he was drafted into the army, served as a timekeeper in the 13th engineering and construction squad of the Zemsky and City Unions near Pinsk. After the February Revolution of 1917, Blok returned to Petrograd and became a member of the Extraordinary Investigative Commission to investigate the crimes of the tsarist government as an editor of verbatim records. The materials of the investigation were summarized by him in the book The Last Days of Imperial Power (1921, published posthumously).
Philosophy of culture and poetic creativity in 1917-21
After the October Revolution, Blok unambiguously declared his position by answering the questionnaire “Can the intelligentsia work with the Bolsheviks” - “Can and must”, publishing in January 1918 in the Left Socialist-Revolutionary newspaper “Znamya Truda” a series of articles “Russia and the intelligentsia”, which opened with the article “ Intelligentsia and Revolution”, and a month later - the poem “The Twelve” and the poem “Scythians”. Blok's position provoked a sharp rebuke from Z. N. Gippius, D. S. Merezhkovsky, F. Sologub, Vyach. Ivanov, G. I. Chulkov, V. Piast, A. A. Akhmatova, M. M. Prishvin, Yu. I. Aikhenvald, I. G. Ehrenburg and others. , with noticeable caution spoke about the alienness of the poem to the Bolshevik ideas about the revolution (L. D. Trotsky, A. V. Lunacharsky, V. M. Friche). The greatest bewilderment was caused by the figure of Christ in the finale of the poem "The Twelve". However, contemporary criticism of Blok did not notice the rhythmic parallelism and the echo of motives with Pushkin's "Demons" and did not appreciate the role of the national myth of demonism for understanding the meaning of the poem.
After The Twelve and The Scythians, Blok wrote comic poems “just in case”, preparing the last edition of the “lyrical trilogy”, but did not create new original poems until 1921. At the same time, from 1918, a new upsurge in prose creativity began. The poet makes cultural-philosophical reports at meetings of Volfila - the Free Philosophical Association ("The collapse of humanism" - 1919, "Vladimir Solovyov and our days" - 1920), at the School of Journalism ("Katilina" - 1918), writes lyrical fragments ("Neither dreams, nor Reality”, “Confessions of a Pagan”), feuilletons (“Russian Dandies”, “Compatriots”, “Answer to the Question about the Red Seal”). A huge amount of what was written is connected with Blok's service activities: after the revolution, for the first time in his life, he was forced to look not only for literary earnings, but also for public service. In September 1917 he became a member of the Theater and Literature Commission, from the beginning of 1918 he collaborated with the Theater Department of the People's Commissariat for Education, in April 1919 he transferred to the Bolshoi Drama Theater. At the same time, he becomes a member of the editorial board of the publishing house "World Literature" (cm. WORLD LITERATURE) under the leadership of M. Gorky, since 1920 - chairman of the Petrograd branch of the Union of Poets.
Initially, Blok's participation in cultural and educational institutions was motivated by convictions about the duty of the intelligentsia to the people. However, the sharp discrepancy between the poet's ideas about the "cleansing revolutionary element" and the bloody everyday life of the advancing totalitarian bureaucratic regime led to increasing disappointment in what was happening and forced the poet to seek spiritual support again. In his articles and diary entries, the motive of the catacomb existence of culture appears. Blok's thoughts about the indestructibility of true culture and about the "secret freedom" of the artist, resisting the attempts of the "new mob" to encroach on it, were expressed in the speech "On the Appointment of the Poet" at the evening in memory of A. S. Pushkin and in the poem "Pushkin House" (February 1921), which became his artistic and human testament.
In April 1921, the growing depression turns into a mental disorder, accompanied by heart disease. On August 7, Blok died. In obituaries and posthumous memoirs, his words from a speech dedicated to Pushkin about the “lack of air” that kills poets were constantly repeated.

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