Alexander Blok was born in St. Petersburg on November 16/28, 1880. The joint life of the parents of little Sasha did not work out, his mother Alexandra Andreevna left her husband Alexander Lvovich.
Sasha spent his childhood in St. Petersburg, and every summer he went to his grandfather (on his mother's side) to the Shakhmatovo estate, which is located in the Moscow region. The boy's grandfather was a famous scientist, rector of St. Petersburg University, and his name was Andrei Nikolaevich Beketov.
Sasha started writing poetry early, he was 5 years old. I went to high school at the age of 9. He read a lot and enthusiastically, published children's handwritten magazines. In his youth, he staged amateur performances with friends. After graduating from the gymnasium, he entered the St. Petersburg University at the Faculty of Law (1898).
Three years later he transferred to the Faculty of History and Philology. In his student years, Alexander was far from politics, his passion was ancient philosophy.
In 1903 he married a daughter, Lyubov Dmitrievna. He dedicated his first collection of poems, Poems about a Beautiful Lady, to her. At the beginning of the creative path, a passion for philosophy makes itself felt. His poems are about eternal femininity, about the soul. Alexander Blok is a romantic and symbolist.
And the revolution in Russia is changing the themes of Blok's poems. He saw destruction in the revolution, but expressed sympathy for the insurgent people. He began to write poems about nature, poems about the war sound tragic.
In 1909, after burying his father, the poet began work on the poem "Retribution". He wrote the poem until the end of his life, but did not complete it. Poverty, poverty and trouble, all this worried Blok, he was worried about society. He believed that everything in Russia would be fine, the future would be wonderful.
In 1916, he was drafted into the army. He served as a timekeeper in the construction of roads, and did not take part in hostilities. In March 17 he returned home. In 1918, the poem "The Twelve", the poem "Scythians" and the article "Intelligentsia and Revolution" will be published. These works created the glory of the Bolshevik Blok. Well, he himself thought that the revolution would bring fair new relations to life, he believed in it. And when it started, I was very disappointed and felt a great responsibility for my works of the 18th year.
In the last years of his life, he almost did not write poetry, he acted as a critic and publicist. Alexander Blok died on August 7, 1921.
Alexander Alexandrovich Blok was born on November 28, 1880 in St. Petersburg. His father was a lawyer, in addition to this, he was a teacher at the University of Warsaw. Mother - Alexandra Beketova, was the daughter of the rector of one of the St. Petersburg universities. Soon after the birth of Alexander, the parents broke off their relationship and the son began to live with his mother. Soon, the mother remarried officer F.F. Kublitsky-Piottukh, the family began to live in the guards barracks.
Since 1889 he began to study at the Vvedensky gymnasium. When he went abroad in 1897 to one of the German resort towns, he experienced his first love for Xenia Sadovskaya. A year later, after graduating from high school, he fell in love with Lyubov Mendeleeva, who later became his wife. Blok entered the Faculty of Law, but later changed his mind and began studying at the Faculty of History and Philology, from which he graduated in 1906.
The literary path of the poet began from childhood. At the age of 10, the young Blok began publishing his own handwritten magazines. From the age of 16 he attended a theater group, but he was practically not given roles. In 1901, he published his first collection of poems, "Poems about a Beautiful Lady", which was written in the genre of symbolism. Over the years, his work evolved, and he began to raise such topics as the social life of a person (“City” 1904-1908), religiosity (“Snow Mask” 1907), philosophy of life (“Terrible World” 1908-1916), patriotism (“Motherland ” 1907-1916)
After graduating, Alexander Blok traveled abroad extensively, sometimes living there for months. It is characteristic that he spoke negatively about France and other European countries. The poet did not like the culture and customs of these countries.
The February and October revolutions had a significant impact on Blok's work and life. He had ambiguous thoughts about these events, but unlike other artists, he not only did not oppose the new government, but also supported it in every way, although later it seemed to him a mistake. The difficult financial situation and constant exhaustion negatively affected Blok's health and he began to get sick. The new government, represented by the Politburo, refused to give permission to travel to Finland in order to begin treatment there. On August 7, 1921, Alexander Blok died of prolonged inflammation of the heart. Many well-known personalities in Petrograd attended his funeral. In 1941, his ashes were again buried at the Literary Bridges at the Volkovskoye cemetery.
Biography and creativity
In 1880, on November 28 (16), a son was born in a cultural St. Petersburg family of noblemen Alexander Blok and Alexandra Beketova. The boy was named Sasha. Family happiness did not last long, the parents soon broke up. Sasha's mother remarried and Blok grew up with his stepfather.
The family of the future poet spent the winter in his native St. Petersburg, and went to Shakhmatovo for the summer. The estate of Andrei Nikolaevich Beketov, Blok's maternal grandfather, became for Sasha a window into the wonderful world of Russian nature.
The boy rode horseback, disappeared for hours in the garden and happily fiddled with various domestic animals. So from early childhood, Sasha learned to feel and love his native land.
The first experience of versification took place at the age of five. And at the age of nine, Blok entered the gymnasium. From an early age, Sasha, who was not indifferent to reading, became interested in publishing himself. The ten-year-old Blok published a couple of issues of the handwritten magazine "Ship", and at the age of 14, together with his brothers, he published the "Bulletin".
In 1898, after studying at the gymnasium, Alexander decides to devote his life to the study of law. But, after studying law for three years at St. Petersburg University, he became interested in ancient philosophy, and moved to the Faculty of History and Philology.
At the beginning of the 20th century, Blok met in the creative circle of bright writers of our time. Fet, Solovyov, Merezhkovsky, Gippius, Bryusov accepted the twenty-year-old talented young man into the arms of cultural Petersburg.
Blok was passionately carried away by Russian symbolism. The first poems were published by the Novy Put publishing house, later the poet's works were published by the almanac Northern Flowers.
The Beketovs' neighbors were the Mendeleevs. The daughter of the great scientist-chemist, Lyubov Dmitrievna, became for the poet not only a beloved girl, but also a muse. In 1903, Mendeleeva became his wife.
Block at the very beginning of his amazing work. In the same year, his poetic cycle "Poems about the Beautiful Lady" was released, dedicated to his wife. The poet, filled with love, presents a woman as a wonderful source of light and purity, admires the great power of true love that can unite the whole world in one person.
The events of 1905-1907 and the First World War pressed the poet's lyrical mood. Blok thought about the problems of society, he is concerned about the embodiment of the theme of the creator against the background of the existing reality. The motherland in the poet's work is like a loving wife, from which patriotism acquired individuality and depth.
The year 1909 was tragic for the Blok family. The father and newborn child of Alexander Alexandrovich and Lyubov Dmitrievna died. At the same time, the poet conceived the poem "Retribution", the work on which was never completed.
What was happening in Russia gloomily echoed the personal experiences of the poet, but Blok sincerely believed in the bright future of his native country.
1916 was the year of military service for the poet. He did not take part in hostilities, he served as a timekeeper.
Blok met the revolution of 1917 with the hope of a change for the better. The inspiration lasted for a year, giving the public in 1918 the controversial poem "The Twelve", the article "Intelligentsia and Revolution" and the poem "Scythians".
With these works, the poet showed that he accepted Bolshevik Russia and was ready to live and work in a renewed country.
This allowed the new government to fully exploit the name of the famous poet. The poet no longer belonged to himself.
Heartaches, asthma, nervous disorders became constant companions of the poet loaded with everyday hardships, financial problems and constant work.
Blok tried to get permission to travel to Finland in order to rest and improve his health, especially since in 1920 he fell ill with scurvy.
Gorky, Lunacharsky and Kamenev asked for the poet. But the petition was approved too late. On August 7, 1921, Alexander Blok died.
Very short dates
On November 16, 1880, a writer was born in the city of St. Petersburg. Born into a cultured family of a professor and a writer.
In 1889 he was sent to the gymnasium, graduated from it in 1898.
Blok also graduated from the Institute of Law and the Faculty of History and Philology.
Blok began writing his first poems from the age of five. As a teenager, he was engaged in acting.
At the age of 23, he married the daughter of the scientist Mendeleev, L.D. Mendeleeva. There was a quarrel with Andrei Bely because of Mrs. Mendeleeva.
In 1904, a collection of poems by Alexander Blok was born and it was called "poems about a beautiful lady."
Blok and his wife, a few years later, managed to relax in Spain and Germany.
During the period of his creative activity, he was adopted by the "academy" society. Where were the wealthy, in the future well-known creative figures.
Blok's most famous work is "night, street, lantern, pharmacy."
The writer's dawn came in 1912-1914. Block basically did not travel. This time he worked in a publishing house.
The block was very sick. He was not released for treatment abroad. So in the end, in poverty and hunger, the writer died in 1921 from heart disease.
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philological faculty of St. Petersburg University early contributed to the development of his literary abilities.
Blok's early work
The future poet entered life, according to his confession, far from reality, with complete ignorance and inability to communicate with it. This isolation from real life determined the nature of his early lyrics. His first poems, written in 1898-1900, are characterized by motifs of loneliness, melancholy, traditional romantic sadness:
Let the moon shine - the night is dark.
Let life bring happiness to people -
Spring in my soul of love
Will not change the stormy bad weather.
The lyrical hero of such works is a proud loner, consciously declaring his isolation from the world:
Dragged into the abyss of death of the heart,
I am indifferent, gray unsociable.
The crowd screams - I'm cold endlessly
The crowd is calling - I'm dumb and motionless.
Here, the future talent is already timidly visible. But in expressing feelings, he is still a student of Zhukovsky, Fet, Lermontov.
"Poems about a Beautiful Lady"
His own, Blok's, was clearly manifested in the poet's cycle of poems of 1901 - 1902 - "Poems about the Beautiful Lady", written under the influence of the ideas of Vl. Solovyov in accordance with the requirements of the philosophy and aesthetics of the Young Symbolists.
The Beautiful Lady of Blok is the embodiment of Eternal Femininity, the eternal ideal of Beauty, designed to save the World. And although the central image of the cycle arose in the mind of the poet as a result of falling in love with L. D. Mendeleev, the main thing here is vague, ghostly visions.
Love in this cycle is depicted not as a real, earthly feeling, but as a religious service, worship of a mystical being, an unearthly shrine. The image of the beloved is incorporeal, devoid of concreteness. She does not have a real appearance, but appears as the embodiment of the divine principle. Only symbols, allegorical signs flash by - the Virgin, the Lady, the Kupina - replacing a living person, and the verses themselves often look like solemn prayers:
Oh Holy One, how sweet are the candles.
How pleasing are Your features!
I can't hear sighs or words.
But I believe: Honey - You.
("I enter dark temples")
Only in some verses of the cycle does the real female image appear through the veil of secrecy:
We met at sunset
You cut the bay with an oar.
I loved your white dress
Having fallen out of love with the refinement of dreams.
("We met you at sunset")
"Poems about the Beautiful Lady" is evidence of the undoubted creative originality of their author, inspired by Solovyov's idea of the coming descent to Earth of Eternal Femininity and the synthesis of heavenly and earthly.
The motive of romantic worship of the mystical Lady is combined in them with a feeling of love-passion, the personal, intimate is transformed into the universal, into the idea of transforming the world with Beauty. At the same time, this book absorbed the world (Dante. Petrarch) and domestic (Zhukovsky, Pushkin) tradition of knightly worship of a woman.
In the early 900s, the poet discovers many contradictions of reality. And although mystical images and moods are encountered here, the pictures of the surrounding real world more and more persistently invade his lyrics. It is no coincidence that Blok called his next cycle "Crossroads" (1902-1904), which included the poems "Factory" (1903), "From the Newspapers" (1903), depicting social contrasts.
Blok and the Revolution of 1905
The revolution of 1905 caused an optimistic mood in Blok the poet. He has a need to reflect it in his poems. Blok’s famous poem “Oh, spring, without end and without edge ...” (1907) sounds like an enthusiastic hymn to life, to everything earthly:
Oh, spring, without end and without edge -
Endless and endless dream!
I recognize you, life! I accept!
And I greet with the sound of the shield!
The emotional and romantic response of the events of the revolution was found in Blok's poems "Fed", "Her Arrival", "Rally", "Went to attack", etc. The main thing in them is a sense of optimism, a decisive renewal of life, the desire to joyfully welcome everything new, unknown:
Open the heavy gates!
Fragrant wind in the windows,
The songs are so funny
Blok's biography
Alexander Blok, the greatest Russian poet and playwright, one of the most prominent representatives of Russian Symbolism, a literary movement that had a profound influence on all subsequent Russian and world literature.
A. Blok was born on November 28 (16), 1880 in the family of a professor of law and the daughter of the rector of the University of St. Petersburg. Since the parents separated, from the age of three, Blok lived and was brought up by his father's parents, who belonged to the "cream" of the St. Petersburg intelligentsia. The constant rotation in the bohemian environment formed Blok's special worldview, which manifested itself in the future in his literature. Blok began composing at the age of five (!) years, so it is not surprising that poetic expression became the norm of his life.
In 1903, Blok married Lyubov Mendeleeva, daughter of the great Russian chemist D.I. Mendeleev. In the same year, the poet's first collection of poems was published, written under the impression of first love and the first months of a happy family life. The initial stage of Blok's work was greatly influenced by Pushkin and Vl. Solovyov. Blok experimented at that time with poetic rhythm, inventing more and more new forms. For him, the sound and music of the verse were paramount in poetry.
The first collection of Blok's poems " Poems about a beautiful lady", 1904, represented the poet's Platonic idealism, the realization of divine wisdom in the image of the world soul in a female guise.
In the following poetry collections of Blok, " City", 1908, and " snow mask", 1907, the author concentrated on a religious theme, and his muse of their mystical lady turned into an unfamiliar courtesan.
Blok's later poems are a mixture of the author's hopes and despair about the future of Russia. In the unfinished" retribution", 1910-1921, the collapse of the author's illusions about the new Bolshevik regime was manifested. It is worth noting that Blok was optimistic about the October Revolution of 1917, placing great hopes on the new government. However, the subsequent actions of the Bolsheviks were so contrary to what Blok assumed and that they themselves promised that the poet could not help but despair from his own self-deception. Nevertheless, he continued to believe in the exceptional role of Russia in the history of mankind. This opinion was confirmed by the work " Motherland" and " Scythians". In "Scythians" Blok used gypsy folklore, jumps of rhythms, sharp transitions from the intensity of passions to quiet melancholy. He, as it were, warns the West that if he takes up arms against Russia, then in the future this will lead to a response from Russia, united with the militant East that it will lead to Chaos.
Blok's last work was his most controversial and enigmatic poem "Twelve", 1920, in which the author used polyphony of rhythms, harsh, even rude language, so that the reader could imagine what is written on paper: a detachment of 12 Red Army soldiers is walking through the city, sweeping away everything in its path and carrying Christ in front of it.
Alexander Blok died August 7, 1921 in St. Petersburg, abandoned by many friends of his youth and deprived of the last illusions about the new government.
And Alexander Blok wrote his first poems even before the gymnasium. At the age of 14, he published the handwritten journal Vestnik, at 17 he staged plays on the stage of the home theater and played in them, at 22 he published his poems in Valery Bryusov's almanac Northern Flowers. The creator of the poetic and mysterious image of the Beautiful Lady, the author of critical articles, Blok became one of the most famous poets of the Silver Age.
Young publisher and playwright
Alexander Blok was born on November 28, 1880 in St. Petersburg. His father, Alexander Blok, the eldest, was a nobleman and privat-docent at the Department of State Law at Warsaw University, and his mother, Alexander, was the daughter of Andrei Beketov, rector of St. Petersburg University. After the birth of their son, Blok's parents broke up. In 1883–1884 Alexander Blok lived abroad, in Italy, with his mother, aunt and grandmother. Officially, the marriage of Blok's parents was annulled by the Synod in 1889. Then the mother remarried - to an officer of the guard Franz Kublitsky-Piottuch.
Mother of the poet Alexander Blok. 1880. Warsaw. Photo: wikipedia.org
Alexander Blok with his mother and stepfather. 1895. Petersburg. Photo: liveinternet.ru
Alexander Blok in childhood. Photo: poradu.pp.ua
In 1891, Alexander Blok was sent immediately to the second grade of the Vvedensky gymnasium. By that time, the boy had already tried to compose - both prose and poetry. In 1894, Blok began publishing the Vestnik magazine, and the whole family participated in his literary game. The editors included two cousins, a second cousin and a mother. Grandmother Elizaveta Beketova wrote stories, grandfather Andrey Beketov illustrated materials. A total of 37 issues of the Bulletin were published. In addition to poems and articles, Alexander Blok wrote a novel for him in the style of Mine Reed: it was published in the first eight issues of the magazine.
In 1897, Blok went with his mother to Germany, to the spa town of Bad Nauheim. Here, for the first time, he truly fell in love - with the wife of a state councilor, Xenia Sadovskaya. Blok at that time was 17 years old, his beloved - 37. The poet dedicated the poem to Sadovskaya “Night has come down to earth. You and I are alone”, which became the first autobiographical work in his lyrics.
Their meetings were rare: Blok's mother was categorically against her son's communication with an adult married lady. However, the passion of the young poet did not leave in St. Petersburg, where he met several times with his lady of the heart.
In 1898, Alexander Blok graduated from the gymnasium, and in August of the same year he entered the law faculty of St. Petersburg University. However, the jurisprudence of the young poet did not attract. He became interested in theater. Blok spent almost every vacation at his grandfather's estate, Shakhmatovo. In the neighboring estate of Boblovo in the summer of 1899, he staged performances - "Boris Godunov", "Hamlet", "The Stone Guest". And he himself played them.
Poems about a beautiful lady
Alexander Blok and his wife Lyubov Mendeleeva. Photo: radiodacha.ru
Andrei Bely. Photo: life.gr
Three years later, Blok transferred to the Faculty of History and Philology. He began to get acquainted with the St. Petersburg literary elite. In 1902 he became friends with Zinaida Gippius and Dmitry Merezhkovsky. Valery Bryusov placed the poems of Alexander Blok in the anthology "Northern Flowers".
In 1903, Blok married Lyubov Mendeleeva, the Beautiful Lady of Blok's love lyrics. They had known each other for eight years at that time, for about five years Blok was in love. Soon in the "Northern Flowers" the cycle "Poems about the Beautiful Lady" was published - the name for it was suggested by Bryusov.
In 1904, in Moscow, Blok met Andrei Bely (Boris Bugaev), who became his "sworn friend": Bely was in love with Lyubov Mendeleeva. Blok idolized and extolled his wife, was proud of their spiritual kinship. However, this did not prevent him from regularly starting novels - with actress Natalya Volokhova, opera singer Lyubov Andreeva-Delmas. With Andrei Bely, the poet either quarreled, then reconciled again. They criticized each other, mutually admired creativity and challenged each other to a duel.
In 1905 Russia was shaken by the first revolution. It was reflected in the work of Alexander Blok. New motifs appeared in his lyrics - blizzards, snowstorms, elements. In 1907, the poet completed the Snow Mask cycle, the dramas The Stranger and The Puppet Show. Blok was published in the publications of the symbolists - "Questions of Life", "Scales", "Pass". In the magazine "Golden Fleece" in 1907, the poet began to conduct a critical department. A year later, Blok's third collection, "Earth in Poetry", was released.
Society of Zealots of the Artistic Word
Alexander Blok as Hamlet. 1898. Boblovo. Photo: drug-gorod.ru
Lyubov Mendeleeva as Ophelia. 1898. Boblovo. Photo: liveinternet.ru
Alexander Blok as King Claudius and Lyubov Mendeleev as Ophelia in the home performance of Hamlet. 1898. Boblovo. Photo: liveinternet.ru
In 1909, Alexander Blok's father and adopted son died - Lyubov Mendeleeva gave birth to him from the actor Davidovsky. To recover from the shocks, the poet and his wife went on a trip to Italy and Germany. Based on impressions from the trip, Alexander Blok wrote the cycle “Italian Poems”.
After the publication of the cycle, Blok was admitted to the "Academy of Verse", which is also the "Society of Zealots of the Artistic Word". It was organized by the Apollo magazine Vyacheslav Ivanov, also included Innokenty Annensky, Valery Bryusov.
In 1911, Blok again went on a trip abroad - this time France, Belgium and the Netherlands. In France, the poet did not like it.
“The integral quality of the French (and the Bretons, it seems, par excellence) is the impenetrable dirt, first of all, physical, and then spiritual. It is better not to describe the first dirt; in short, a person who is somewhat squeamish will not agree to settle in France.
Alexander Blok
In the same year, his next poetry collection, "Night Hours", was published. A year later, Alexander Blok completed the play "The Rose and the Cross" and compiled a three-volume collection of poems from his five collections. Even during the lifetime of the poet, it was reprinted twice. Blok wrote literary and critical articles, made presentations, and lectured.
At the end of 1912, Alexander Blok undertook to rewrite The Rose and the Cross. He finished it in January 1913, in April he read at the Society of Poets and personally to Stanislavsky. In August, the drama was published in the Sirin almanac. However, the play was not staged soon - only a few years later at the Moscow Art Theater.
In December 1913, Blok personally met Anna Akhmatova - she came to visit him, bringing Blok's three-volume book with her. The poet signed the first two volumes "Akhmatova - Blok", in the third he entered a previously prepared madrigal, which was later included in all collections of his poems - "Beauty is terrible - they will tell you".
In 1916, Blok was called to serve as a timekeeper in the engineering part of the All-Russian Union. The troops were based in Belarus.
“I went berserk, half a day with a horse through the forests, fields and swamps I drive around, almost unwashed; then - we drink samovars for tea, scold the authorities, doze off or fall asleep, write in the office, sometimes we sit on the mound and look at the pigs and geese.
"Art and Revolution"
Alexander Blok, Fedor Sologub and Georgy Chulkov. 1908. Photo: wikipedia.org
Alexander Blok (second from right) as a member of the Extraordinary Investigative Commission of the Provisional Government. 1917. Photo: arzamas.academy
Blok's attitude to the revolution changed over time. At first he accepted her with enthusiasm, he refused to emigrate. Blok was taken to work in "An Extraordinary Commission of Inquiry to investigate the illegal actions of former ministers, chief executives and other senior officials of both civil and military and maritime departments"- as an editor. At the beginning of 1918, the poet wrote the poem "The Twelve" and "Scythians". His articles were published in a separate collection - "Art and Revolution". Blok made presentations at the Free Philosophical Association, prepared his trilogy for reprint, was a member of the Theatrical and Literary Commission and the editorial board of the World Literature publishing house.
In February 1919, Blok was arrested on charges of having links with the Left SRs. However, two days later they were released - through the efforts of Anatoly Lunacharsky. In August of the same year, a new collection of poems, Yamby, was released, and Blok was appointed a member of the collegium of the Literary Department of the People's Commissariat for Education. He worked hard and was very tired. In one of his letters, the poet wrote: “For almost a year I have not belonged to myself, I have forgotten how to write poetry and think about poetry ...” Blok's health was deteriorating. However, he continued to write and perform, in 1920 he prepared a collection of lyrics "Gray Morning". On February 5, 1921, the poem "To Pushkin's House" appeared, and on February 11, at the House of Writers, at an evening dedicated to Pushkin, Blok delivered the famous speech "On the Appointment of the Poet."
In the spring of 1921, Alexander Blok asked for a visa for treatment abroad, but he was refused. Then a drama was played out with a huge number of characters, in the center of which was a terminally ill poet. On May 29, Maxim Gorky wrote a letter to Lunacharsky about the need to release Blok to Finland for treatment. On June 18, Blok destroyed part of the archives, on July 3 - several notebooks. Lunacharsky and Kamenev obtained permission to leave on 23 July. But Blok's condition worsened, and on July 29 Gorky again wrote a petition - so that Blok's wife would be allowed to accompany him. On August 1, the documents were signed, but Gorky found out about this only five days later. It was late: on the morning of August 7, Alexander Blok died in his apartment in Petrograd. The poet was buried at the Smolensk cemetery.
