The famous symbolist poet of the Silver Age, who amazed everyone with his irrepressible faith in the future of Russia and people. Loving and suffering to embrace the immense, a man with a wide soul and a tragic life. The life and work of the Block deserves attention for its fullness and touchingness.
The biography of the poet
Block Alexander Alexandrovich, year of birth 1880, November 28. Place of birth - Petersburg. His parents: father - A.L. Blok, worked as a lawyer at the University of Warsaw, mother - A.A. Beketova, daughter of the famous scientist-botanist.
The boyās parents divorced before his birth, so he did not succeed in growing up in a complete family. However, the maternal grandfather A.N. Beketov, in whose family Alexander grew up, surrounded the child with proper care and attention. He gave him a good education and a start in life. Sam A.N. Beketov was the rector of the university in St. Petersburg. The highly moral and cultural atmosphere of the environment left its mark on the formation of worldviews and the education of the Bloc.
From childhood, he laid in love for the classics of Russian literature. Pushkin, Apukhtin, Zhukovsky, Fet, Grigoriev - these are the names on whose works little Blok grew up and joined the world of literature and poetry.
Poet training
The first stage in obtaining education for the Bloc was the gymnasium in St. Petersburg. After graduating in 1898, he enters the University of St. Petersburg at the Department of Lawyers. He ends his legal studies in 1901 and changes direction to historical and philological.
It was at the university that he finally made the decision to delve into the world of literature. This desire is also supported by a beautiful and picturesque nature, among which is located the estate of his grandfather. Growing up in such an environment, Alexander forever absorbed the sensitivity and subtlety of worldview, and reflected this in his poems. Since then, the work of the Block begins.
Blok maintains a very warm relationship with his mother, his love and reverence for her is unlimited. Until the death of his mother, he constantly sent her his works.
Appearance
M.A. wrote about his appearance . Voloshin. He called the face of Alexander Blok clear and cold, very calm, compared with a marble Greek mask. He pointed to the correctness and severity of facial features, to a thinly outlined forehead, a curvature of the mouth. He dignified the poetās beautiful curly hair.
Andrei Bely very similarly describes the appearance of the Block, also focusing on a healthy complexion, beautiful and thick hair, a spectacular and stately figure, strong and attractive. He also emphasizes naivety and spontaneity in Blokās look, his unusual and bright eyes. Often his appearance in his youth was compared with the image of Apollo. In adulthood - with Dante.
Family life
By virtue of his ardent nature, striving for ideal, for beauty, Blok was in constant search for a beautiful woman who could manage to become for him a reflection of all the strength and thoughts of love. For which he could write his works, which would be his muse.
And in 1898 he found one. His only wife in his entire life and his first strong love is the daughter of the chemist Mendeleev, Lyubov Dmitrievna Mendeleev (Blok).
Their marriage took place in 1903. Family life was mixed and complicated. Mendeleev was waiting for great love, as in novels. The block offered moderation and peace of life. The result was the wifeās fascination with his friend and like-minded person, Andrei Bely, a symbolist poet who played an important role in the work of Blok himself.
Work throughout life
The life and work of the Bloc evolved in such a way that, in addition to literature, he took part in completely everyday affairs. For example:
He was an active participant in dramatic productions in the theater and even saw himself as an actor, but the literary field attracted him more;
two years in a row (1905-1906), the poet is a direct witness and participant in revolutionary rallies and demonstrations;
leads his literature review column in the Golden Fleece newspaper;
from 1916-1917 repays debt to the motherland, serving under Pinsk (civil engineering team);
part of the leadership of the Bolshoi Drama Theater ;
upon arrival from the army, he gets a job in the Investigative Commission of an extraordinary nature for the affairs of the kingās ministers. He works there as an editor of the verbatim report until 1921.
Blok's early work
Little Sasha wrote his first verse as early as five years old. Even then, the inclinations of talent that needed to be developed were read in it. What Block did.
Love and Russia are two favorite themes of creativity. Blok wrote a lot about both of them. However, at the initial stage of development and realization of his talent, love attracted him the most. The image of a beautiful lady, who he was looking everywhere, captured his whole being. And he found the earthly embodiment of his ideas in Lyubov Mendeleeva.
The theme of love in the work of the Bloc is revealed so fully, clearly and beautifully, that it is difficult to challenge. Therefore, it is not surprising that his first brainchild - a collection of poems - is called "Poems about the Beautiful Lady", and he is dedicated to his wife. A great influence when writing this collection of verses on Blok was exerted by the poetry of Soloviev, whose student and follower he is considered to be.
In all poems there is a feeling of Eternal femininity, beauty, naturalness. However, all expressions and turns used in writing are allegorical, unrealistic in nature. The bloc is carried away in a creative impulse to āother worldsā.
Gradually, the theme of love in the work of Blok gives way to more real and pressing problems surrounding the poet.
The beginning of disappointment
The revolutionary events, the discord in family relations, and the miserably failed dreams of a clean and bright future for Russia make Blokās creative work undergo obvious changes. His next collection is called "Unexpected joy" (1906).
More and more, he makes fun of symbolists, to which he no longer relates himself, more and more cynically refers to hopes for the best ahead. He is a participant in revolutionary events, who is completely on the side of the Bolsheviks, considering their cause to be right.
During this period (1906) his trilogy dramas comes out. First, āBalanceā, after some time, āKing in the Squareā, and this trio āStrangerā completes. The bloc is bitterly disappointed by the imperfection of the world, from its deceived hopes. In the same period, he is fond of actress N.N. Volokhova. However, he does not receive reciprocity, which adds to his verses bitterness, irony and skepticism.
Andrei Bely and other previously like-minded people in poetry do not accept the changes in Blok and criticize his current work. Block Alexander remains adamant. He is disappointed and deeply saddened.
"Trilogy of Incarnation"
In 1909, a father dies with Blok, with whom he does not have time to say goodbye. This leaves an even bigger imprint on his state of mind, and he decides to combine his most vivid works in his opinion into one poetic trilogy, which gives the name "Trilogy of Incarnation".
So the work of the Blok in 1911-1912 was marked by the appearance of three collections of poems that bear poetic names:
"Poems about the Beautiful Lady";
"Unexpected joy";
"Snowy night."
A year later, he released a cycle of love poems "Carmen", wrote the poem "The Nightingale Garden", dedicated to his new hobby - singer L.A. Delmas.
Homeland in the work of Blok
Since 1908, the poet has positioned himself no longer as a lyric poet, but as a chant of his homeland. During this period, he writes such poems as:
"Autumn wave";
"Autumn love";
"Russia";
"On the Kulikovo field."
All these works are saturated with love for the Motherland, for their country. The poet at the same time shows two sides of life in Russia: poverty and hunger, piety, but at the same time savagery, unbridledness and liberty.
The theme of Russia in the work of Blok, the theme of the homeland is one of the most fundamental in all his poetic life. For him, the Motherland is something alive, breathing and feeling. Therefore, it is too hard, prohibitively difficult, given the events of the October Revolution.
Theme of Russia in the work of the Bloc
After revolutionary trends capture his whole spirit, the poet almost completely loses lyrics and love in his works. Now the whole meaning of his works is directed to Russia, his homeland.
Blok personifies his country in verses with a woman; he makes her practically tangible, real, as if humanizing. The homeland in the work of Blok assumes such a large-scale significance that he never writes more about love.
Believing in the Bolsheviks and their truth, he feels a cruel, almost murderous disappointment for him when he sees the results of the revolution. Starvation, poverty, rout, mass extermination of the intelligentsia - all this forms in Blokās mind a sharp hostile attitude towards the Symbolists, to the lyrics and from now on makes works only with a satirical, poisonous mockery of faith in the future.
However, at the same time, his love for Russia is so great that he continues to believe in the strength of his country. In the fact that she will rise, shake herself off and be able to show her power and glory. The creativity of Blok, Mayakovsky, Yesenin is similar in this.
In 1918, Blok wrote the poem The Twelve, the most scandalous and loud of all his works, which caused a lot of rumors and talk about it. But the poet is indifferent to the critic, the incipient depression begins to absorb his whole being.
Poem "The Twelve"
The author began writing his work The Twelve in early January. On the first day of work, he did not even take a break. His notes say, āInside, trembling.ā Then the writing of the poem stopped, and the poet managed to finish it only on January 28.
After the publication of this work, Blok's work changed dramatically. It can be briefly described as follows: the poet lost himself, a creative crisis ensued , stagnation.
The main idea of āāthe poem was recognized by everyone differently. Someone saw in it the support of the revolution, a mockery of symbolist views. Someone, on the contrary, is a satirical bias and a mockery of revolutionary orders. However, when creating the poem, Blok himself had in mind both of them. She is contradictory, like his mood at that time.
After the publication of the Twelve, all already weak ties with the Symbolists were severed. Almost all close friends turned their backs on the Bloc: Merezhkovsky, Vyach, Prishchvin, Sologub, Piast, Akhmatova and others.
In Balmont, by that time he was disappointed himself. Thus, the block remains almost alone.
Post-Revolutionary Creativity
Only three works were written by the author after the revolution:
"Scythians";
"Homeland";
"Retribution," which he never finished writing.
The revolution has passed, and the bitterness of the disappointment of Bolshevik politics has grown and intensified. This cut between what was promised and what was done as a result of the revolution became unbearable for Blok. You can characterize the work of the Bloc briefly during this period: nothing is written.
As they will later write about the death of the poet, "he was killed by the Bolsheviks." And indeed it is. Blok was unable to overcome in himself and accept such a discrepancy between the word and the deed of the new government. I could not forgive myself the support of the Bolsheviks, my blindness and shortsightedness.
The bloc is experiencing a very strong discord within itself, completely withdrawing into its inner experiences and torment. The consequence of this is the disease. From April 1921 to early August, the disease did not let the poet go, tormenting him more and more. Only occasionally leaving half-forgotten, he tries to console his wife, Lyubov Mendeleev (Block). On August 7, Blok passed away.
Where did the poet live and work?
Today, the biography and work of the Block captivate and inspire many. And the place where he lived and composed his poems and poems turned into a museum. From photographs we can judge the situation in which the poet worked.
The appearance of the estate in which the poet spent time, you can see in the photo on the left.
The room in which the poet spent the last bitter and difficult minutes of his life (photo below).
Today, the poetās work is loved and studied, admired, recognized its depth and integrity, unusualness and brightness. Russia in the work of the Bloc is studied in school, on this topic they write essays. This gives every right to call the author a great poet. In the past, as a symbolist, then a revolutionary, and at sunset, he was simply deeply disappointed in life and power by an unfortunate person with a bitter, hard fate.
A monument has been erected in St. Petersburg, perpetuating the authorās name in history and giving due respect to his undeniable talent.