He belonged to those idealists clean water, which our time almost does not know. Actually, we no longer understand the peculiar and often anecdotal stories about such noblemen of the sixties as Saltykov-Shchedrin or my grandfather, about their attitude towards Emperor Alexander II, about the meetings of the Literary Fund, about Borel’s dinners, about good French and Russian language, about students youth of the late seventies. This entire era of Russian history has passed away irrevocably, its pathos has been lost, and the rhythm itself would seem to us extremely leisurely.

In his village Shakhmatovo (Klin district, Moscow province), my grandfather went out to the peasants on the porch, shaking his handkerchief; for exactly the same reason why I. S. Turgenev, talking with his serfs, embarrassedly picked off pieces of paint from the entrance, promising to give whatever they asked, if only they would get rid of it.

When meeting a guy he knew, my grandfather took him by the shoulder and began his speech with the words: “Eh bien, mon petit...” [“Well, dear...” (French).].

Sometimes the conversation ended there. My favorite interlocutors were notorious swindlers and rogues that I remember: old Jacob Fidele [Jacob Verny (French).], who plundered half of our household utensils, and the robber Fyodor Kuranov (nicknamed Kuran), who, they say, had murder in his soul; his face was always blue-purple - from vodka, and sometimes - in blood; he died in a "fist fight". Both were really smart and very nice people; I, like my grandfather, loved them, and they both felt sympathy for me until their death.

One day my grandfather, seeing a man carrying a birch tree from the forest on his shoulder, said to him: “You’re tired, let me help you.” At the same time, it did not even occur to him that the obvious fact that the birch tree had been cut down in our forest. My own memories of my grandfather are very good; We wandered with him for hours through meadows, swamps and wilds; sometimes they walked dozens of miles, getting lost in the forest; they dug up herbs and cereals with their roots for a botanical collection; at the same time, he named the plants and, identifying them, taught me the rudiments of botany, so that I still remember many botanical names. I remember how happy we were when we found a special early pear flower, a species unknown to the Moscow flora, and a tiny, low-growing fern; I still look for this fern every year on that same mountain, but I never find it - obviously, it was sown by accident and then degenerated.

All this refers to the dark times that came after the events of March 1, 1881. My grandfather continued to teach a course in botany at St. Petersburg University until his illness; in the summer of 1897 he was struck by paralysis, he lived another five years without speaking, he was carried in a chair. He died on July 1, 1902 in Shakhmatovo. They brought him to St. Petersburg to bury him; Among those who met the body at the station was Dmitry Ivanovich Mendeleev.

Dmitry Ivanovich played very big role in the Becket family. Both my grandfather and grandmother were friends with him. Mendeleev and my grandfather, soon after the liberation of the peasants, traveled together to the Moscow province and bought two estates in the Klin district - in the neighborhood: Mendeleev's Boblovo lies seven miles from Shakhmatovo, I was there as a child, and in my youth I began to visit there often. Dmitry Ivanovich Mendeleev’s eldest daughter from his second marriage, Lyubov Dmitrievna, became my bride. In 1903, we got married in the church in the village of Tarakanova, which is located between Shakhmatovo and Boblov.

My grandfather’s wife, my grandmother, Elizaveta Grigorievna, is the daughter of a famous traveler and explorer Central Asia, Grigory Silych Korelin. All her life she worked on compilations and translations of scientific and works of art; the list of her works is enormous; in recent years she has made up to 200 printed sheets per year; she was very well read and spoke several languages; her worldview was surprisingly lively and original, her style was figurative, her language was precise and bold, exposing the Cossack breed. Some of her many translations remain the best to this day.

Her translated poems were published in Sovremennik, under the pseudonym “E.B.”, and in Gerbel’s “English Poets”, without a name. She translated many works by Buckle, Bram, Darwin, Huxley, Moore (the poem "Lalla Rook"), Beecher Stowe, Goldsmith, Stanley, Thackeray, Dickens, W. Scott, Brat Harte, Georges Sand, Balzac, V. Hugo, Flaubert, Maupassant, Rousseau, Lesage. This list of authors is far from complete. The wages were always negligible. Now these hundreds of thousands of volumes have been sold in cheap editions, and anyone familiar with antique prices knows how expensive even now are the so-called “144 volumes” (ed. G. Panteleev), which contain many translations of E. G. Beketova and her daughters. A characteristic page in the history of Russian enlightenment.

My grandmother was less successful in the abstract and “refined”; her language was too lapidary, there was a lot of everyday life in it. An unusually distinct character was combined in her with a clear thought, like the summer village mornings on which she sat down to work until light. For many years I remember vaguely, as I remember everything childish, her voice, the hoop on which bright woolen flowers grow with extraordinary speed, colorful patchwork blankets sewn from scraps no one needs and carefully collected - and in all this - some kind of irrevocable health and the fun that left our family with her. She knew how to enjoy just the sun, just good weather, even in her very last years, when she was tormented by illnesses and doctors, known and unknown, who performed painful and meaningless experiments on her. All this did not kill her indomitable vitality.

This vitality and vitality penetrated into literary tastes; with all the subtlety of her artistic understanding, she said that “Goethe’s secret adviser wrote the second part of Faust to surprise the thoughtful Germans.” She also hated Tolstoy's moral sermons. All this was connected with fiery romance, sometimes turning into ancient sentimentality. She loved music and poetry, wrote me half-joking poems, which, however, sometimes sounded sad notes:

So, awake in the hours of the night
And loving my young grandson,
This is not the first time that the old woman
I composed stanzas for you.

She skillfully read aloud the scenes of Sleptsov and Ostrovsky, the motley stories of Chekhov. One of her last works was the translation of two stories by Chekhov into French(for "Revue des deux Mondes"). Chekhov sent her a sweet thank-you note.

Unfortunately, my grandmother never wrote her memoirs. I only have a short outline of her notes; she knew many of our writers personally, met Gogol, the Dostoevsky brothers, Ap. Grigoriev, Tolstoy, Polonsky, Maykov. I am saving the copy of the English novel that F. M. Dostoevsky personally gave her for translation. This translation was published in Vremya.

My grandmother died exactly three months after my grandfather - on October 1, 1902. From their grandfathers they inherited a love of literature and an untainted understanding of it. high value their daughters are my mother and her two sisters. All three were translated from foreign languages. The eldest, Ekaterina Andreevna (by her husband, Krasnova), enjoyed fame. She owns two independent books, “Stories” and “Poems,” published after her death (May 4, 1892) (the latter book was awarded an honorary review by the Academy of Sciences). Her original story “Not Fate” was published in “Bulletin of Europe”. She translated from French (Montesquieu, Bernardin de Saint-Pierre), Spanish (Espronceda, Baker, Perez Galdos, article about Pardo Basan), and reworked English stories for children (Stevenson, Haggart; published by Suvorin in the Cheap Library).

My mother, Alexandra Andreevna (Kublitskaya-Piottukh by her second husband), translated and is translating from French - poetry and prose (Balzac, V. Hugo, Flaubert, Zola, Musset, Erckman-Chatrian, Daudet, Baudeler, Verlaine, Richpin). In her youth, she wrote poetry, but published only children’s poetry.

Maria Andreevna Beketova translated and is translating from Polish (Sienkevich and many others), German (Hoffmann), French (Balzac, Musset). She owns popular adaptations (Jules Verne, Silvio Pellico), biographies (Andersen), monographs for the people (Holland, History of England, etc.). Musset's "Carmosine" was recently presented in her translation at the workers' theater.

In my father's family, literature played a small role. My grandfather is a Lutheran, a descendant of the doctor of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, a native of Mecklenburg (my ancestor, life surgeon Ivan Blok, was elevated to the Russian nobility under Paul I). My grandfather was married to the daughter of the Novgorod governor, Ariadna Aleksandrovna Cherkasova.

My father, Alexander Lvovich Blok, was a professor at the University of Warsaw in the department of public law; he died on December 1, 1909. Special scholarship far from exhausts his activities, as well as his aspirations, which may be less scientific than artistic. His fate is full of complex contradictions, quite unusual and gloomy. During his entire life, he published only two small books (not counting lithographed lectures) and for the last twenty years he worked on an essay devoted to the classification of sciences. An outstanding musician, a connoisseur of fine literature and a subtle stylist, my father considered himself a student of Flaubert. The latter was main reason the fact that he wrote so little and did not complete the main work of his life: he was unable to fit his constantly developing ideas into the compressed forms that he was looking for; in this search for compressed forms there was something convulsive and terrible, as in his entire mental and physical appearance. I met him a little, but I remember him dearly.

My childhood was spent in my mother's family. It was here that the word was loved and understood; In general, ancient concepts about literary values ​​and ideals dominated in the family. Speaking vulgarly, in Verlaine's style, eloquence [eloquence (French)] predominated here; Only my mother was characterized by constant rebellion and anxiety about new things, and my aspirations for musique [music - French] found support from her. However, no one in the family ever persecuted me, everyone only loved and spoiled me. To the dear old eloquence, I owe it to my grave that literature began for me not with Verlaine and not with decadence in general. My first inspiration was Zhukovsky. WITH early childhood I remember the lyrical waves constantly rushing over me, barely associated with anyone else’s name. I only remember Polonsky’s name and the first impression of his stanzas:

I dream: I am fresh and young,
I'm in love. Dreams are boiling.
Luxurious cold from dawn
Infiltrates the garden.

There were no life experiences for a long time. I vaguely remember large St. Petersburg apartments with a lot of people, with a nanny, toys and Christmas trees - and the fragrant wilderness of our small estate. Only about 15 years old were the first definite dreams of love born, and next to them were attacks of despair and irony, which found their way out many years later - in my first dramatic experience, "Balaganchik", I began to "compose" lyrical scenes almost from the age of five. Much later, my cousins ​​and I founded the magazine "Vestnik", in one copy. ; there I was an editor and an active employee for three years.

Serious writing began when I was about 18 years old. For three or four years I showed my writings only to my mother and aunt. All of these were lyrical poems, and by the time my first book, “Poems about To the beautiful lady“They accumulated up to 800, not counting the adolescent ones. Only about 100 of them were included in the book. Afterwards I printed and still print some of the old ones in magazines and newspapers.

Family traditions and my secluded life contributed to the fact that I did not know a single line of the so-called “new poetry” until my first years at university. Here, in connection with acute mystical and romantic experiences, the poetry of Vladimir Solovyov took possession of my entire being. Until now the mysticism with which the air was saturated recent years old and the first years of the new century, was incomprehensible to me; I was alarmed by the signs that I saw in nature, but I considered all this “subjective” and carefully protected it from everyone. Externally I was then preparing to become an actor, enthusiastically recited Maykov, Fet, Polonsky, Apukhtin, played at amateur performances, in the house of my future bride, Hamlet, Chatsky, the Miserly Knight and... vaudeville. Sober and healthy people, which surrounded me then, it seems, saved me then from the infection of mystical quackery, which a few years later became fashionable in some literary circles. Fortunately and unfortunately together, such a “fashion” came, as always happens, precisely when everything was internally determined; when the elements that raged underground poured out, there was a crowd of lovers of easy mystical profit.

Subsequently, I paid tribute to this new blasphemous “trend”; but all this already goes beyond the scope of “autobiography”. I can refer those interested to my poems and to the article “About current state Russian symbolism" (Apollo magazine, 1910). Now I’ll go back.

Out of complete ignorance and inability to communicate with the world, an anecdote happened to me, which I remember with pleasure and gratitude: once on a rainy autumn day (if I’m not mistaken, 1900) I went with poetry to an old friend of our family, Viktor Petrovich Ostrogorsky , now deceased. He was then editing God's World. Without saying who sent me to him, I excitedly gave him two small poems inspired by Sirin, Alkonost and Gamayun by V. Vasnetsov. After running through the poems, he said: “Shame on you, young man, to do this when God knows what’s going on at the university!” - and sent me out with ferocious good nature. It was offensive then, but now it is more pleasant to remember it than many later praises.

After this incident, I did not go anywhere for a long time, until in 1902 I was sent to V. Nikolsky, who was then editing a student collection together with Repin. A year after that, I began to publish “seriously.” The first who paid attention to my poems from the outside were Mikhail Sergeevich and Olga Mikhailovna Solovyov (my mother’s cousin). My first things appeared in 1903 in the magazine " New way" and, almost simultaneously, in the almanac "Northern Flowers".

I lived seventeen years of my life in the barracks of the Life Guards. Grenadier Regiment (when I was nine years old, my mother married F.F. Kublitsky-Piottukh, who served in the regiment, for the second time). After completing the course in St. Petersburg. Vvedenskaya (now Emperor Peter the Great) Gymnasium, I entered the law faculty of St. Petersburg University quite unconsciously, and only after moving to the third year did I realize that I was completely alien legal science. In 1901, which was extremely important for me and decided my fate, I transferred to the Faculty of Philology, the course of which I passed, passing state exam in the spring of 1906 (for the Slavic-Russian department).

University did not play a special role in my life important role, But higher education In any case, it gave me some mental discipline and certain skills that greatly help me in historical and literary experiments, in my own critical experiments, and even in artistic work (materials for the drama “Rose and Cross”). Over the years, I appreciate more and more what the university gave me in the person of my respected professors - A. I. Sobolevsky, I. A. Shlyapkin, S. F. Platonov, A. I. Vvedensky and F. F. Zelinsky. If I manage to collect a book of my works and articles, which are scattered in considerable quantities in different publications, but need extensive revision, I will owe the share of scientific knowledge that is contained in them to the university.

In essence, only after finishing the “university” course did my “independent” life begin. Continuing to write lyric poems, which all, since 1897, can be considered as a diary, it was in the year of finishing my course at the university that I wrote my first plays in dramatic form; the main topics of my articles (except for purely literary ones) were and remain topics about “the intelligentsia and the people”, about theater and about Russian symbolism (not in the sense of the literary school only).

Every year of my adult life is sharply colored for me with its own special color. Of the events, phenomena and trends that especially strongly influenced me in one way or another, I must mention: a meeting with Vl. Solovyov, whom I saw only from afar; acquaintance with M. S. and O. M. Solovyov, Z. N. and D. S. Merezhkovsky and A. Bely; events of 1904 – 1905; acquaintance with the theatrical environment, which began in the theater of the late V.F. Komissarzhevskaya; the extreme decline in literary morals and the beginning of “factory” literature associated with the events of 1905; acquaintance with the works of the late August Strindberg (initially through the poet Vl. Piast); three trips abroad: I was in Italy - northern (Venice, Ravenna, Milan) and middle (Florence, Pisa, Perugia and many other cities and towns of Umbria), in France (in the north of Brittany, in the Pyrenees - in the vicinity of Biarritz; several times lived in Paris), Belgium and Holland; In addition, for some reason I had to return to Bad Nauheim (Hessen-Nassau) every six years of my life, with which I have special memories.

This spring (1915) I would have to return there for the fourth time; but the general and higher mysticism of war interfered with the personal and lower mysticism of my trips to Bad Nauheim.

A chronological table of Blok’s life, as well as his work, is presented in this article.

Chronological table of Alexander Blok

Alexander Alexandrovich Blok- Russian poet, writer, publicist, playwright, translator, literary critic. A classic of Russian literature of the 20th century, one of the largest representatives of Russian symbolism.

November 6 (28), 1880— Born in St. Petersburg in the family of professor Alexander Lvovich Blok and writer Alexandra Andreevna.

1891-1898 — Study at Vvedenskaya gymnasium.

1898-1906 — Studying at the Faculty of Law of St. Petersburg University; then - on historical and philological.

1903 — First publications of the cycle of poems “From Dedications” in the magazines “New Path” and “Northern Flowers”. The wedding of Blok and L.D. Mendeleeva.

1904 — The cycle “Poems about a Beautiful Lady,” dedicated to L.D., is being published as a separate publication. Mendeleeva. 1905-1910 The poems “Stranger”, “Russia”, “On the Kulikovo Field”, “On railway" The collections “Snow Mask”, “Earth in the Snow”, “Lyrical Dramas” were published.

1907 - collections poems « Unexpected joy", "Snow Mask"

1908 - “Earth in the Snow”, collection “Lyrical Dramas”. Blok’s great drama “Song of Fate” has been written

1909 — a trip to Italy and Germany, the result of which was the cycle “Italian Poems”.

1911 — Blok traveled throughout Europe (Paris, Brittany, Belgium, Holland, Berlin). “Collected Poems” is published in three volumes.

1914 — Meeting the singer L.A. Delmas, to whom the poet dedicates the cycle “Carmen”.

1915 — The collection “Poems about Russia” and the poem “The Nightingale Garden” are published.

1916-1917 — During the First World War he was drafted into the army.

1917-1920 — Collaborates with the publishing house "World Literature" and with the Theater Department of the People's Commissariat for Education, giving speeches and reading poetry.

1918 — The poem “The Twelve”, the poem “Scythians” and the article “Intelligentsia and Revolution” were written.

1921 — Poem "To the Pushkin House". In Moscow and Petrograd he gives a speech “On the appointment of a poet”, dedicated to the memory of.

August 7, 1921- dies in Petrograd. He was buried at the Smolensk cemetery. In 1944, the poet’s ashes were transferred to the Literary Bridge of the Volkov Cemetery.

Brief chronological table of the Block

1880 - born in St. Petersburg into the family of a professor.
1898-1906 - graduated from high school. He studied law, then at the philological faculty of St. Petersburg University.
1904- Poems about a beautiful lady
1902-1904 - cycle of poems of Crossroads
1905-1907 - Well-fed, cycle of poems Unexpected joy, Snow mask."
1908 - cycle of poems Earth in the Snow, Lyrical dramas
1907-1916 - cycle On the Kulikovo field, Motherland
1910-1921 - unfinished poem Retribution
1918 - poems Twelve, Scythians, articles Intelligentsia and Revolution, The Collapse of Humanism
August 7, 1921 - died in Petrograd.

Alexander Alexandrovich Blok was born in 1880 on November 16, old style. By origin, family and kinship ties, friendly relations the poet, who himself called himself in the third person “the triumph of freedom,” belonged to the circle of the old Russian intelligentsia, who from generation to generation sacredly served science and literature.

In 1889, Blok’s mother remarried – to a guards officer. Nine-year-old Blok settled with his mother and stepfather in the Grenadrian barracks, located on the outskirts of St. Petersburg, on the banks of the Bolshaya Nevka.

At the same time, Blok was sent to a gymnasium.

In 1897, finding himself with his mother abroad, in the German resort town of Bad Nauheim, Blok experienced his first, but very strong, youthful love. She left a deep mark on his poetry.

In 1898, he graduated from the gymnasium, and Blok “rather unconsciously” entered the law faculty of St. Petersburg University. Three years later, convinced that he was completely alien to legal science, he transferred to the Slavic-Russian department of the Faculty of History and Philology, which he graduated in 1906.

But in 1901, theatrical interests gave way to literary interests. By that time, Blok had already written many poems. This is the lyrics of love and nature, full of vague forebodings, mysterious hints and allegories. Young Blok is immersed in the study of idealistic philosophy, in particular the works of the ancient Greek philosopher Plato, who taught that, in addition to real world, there is also a certain “super-real”, higher “world of ideas”.

Beginning in 1898, Blok experienced an unusually strong and deep feeling for a girl (Lyubov Dmitrievna Mendeleeva), who later became his wife.

In November 1902, a decisive explanation took place between the young people, and they got married in August 1903. At this time, Blok had already entered literature, joining the Symbolists. His debut took place in the spring of 1903 - almost simultaneously in the St. Petersburg magazine “New Way” and in the Moscow almanac “Northern Flowers”. He establishes connections in the symbolist circle both in St. Petersburg (with D. Merezhkovsky and Z. Gippius) and in Moscow (with V. Bryusov). But what turned out to be especially close to Blok was the circle of young admirers and followers of Vl that formed in Moscow at that time. Solovyova, main role among whom played the aspiring poet, prose writer, and theorist Andrei Bely. In this circle, Blok's poems met with enthusiastic recognition.

At the end of 1904, Blok’s first book, “Poems about a Beautiful Lady,” was published by the symbolist publishing house “Grif.”

The poem "Factory", written at the end of 1903, can be considered as important point turn to creative path Blok.

The revolution of 1905 made a huge impression on him and greatly clarified his ideological and artistic vision. He saw the activity of the people, their will to fight for freedom and happiness, discovered a “citizen” in himself, for the first time felt the feeling of blood connection with the people inherent in every true and honest artist and the consciousness of public responsibility for his writing.

Blok's previous indifference to socio-political events was replaced in 1905 by a greedy interest in what was happening. He took part in revolutionary demonstrations and once carried a red banner at the head of one of them. The events of that time were reflected in a number of Blok’s works.

The years 1906-1908 were a time of Blok's literary growth and success. He becomes a professional writer, his name is already becoming quite widely known.

Blok’s books were published one after another - collections of poems “Unexpected Joy” (1907), “Snow Mask” (1907), “Earth in the Snow” (1908), and the collection “Lyrical Dramas” (1908).

In 1907–1908, his deep discord with almost all his symbolist literature was determined. The further, the more persistently Blok goes his own way. From his thoughts, doubts and worries, he drew decisive and final conclusions.

In 1909 he committed interesting trip on Italy and Germany, the result of which was the cycle “Italian Poems” - the best that there is in Russian poetry about Italy.

In 1911 he traveled around Europe again (Paris, Brittany, Belgium, Holland, Berlin), in 1913 - for the third time (Paris and the Biscay coast of the Atlantic Ocean).

In the summer of 1916, he was drafted into the active army and served in an engineering and construction squad that built field fortifications in the front line, in the Pinsk swamps. Here the news of the overthrow of the autocracy found him. In May 1917, Blok was recruited to work in the Extraordinary Commission of Inquiry, which was established to investigate the activities of the tsarist ministers and dignitaries. This work captivated Blok and revealed to him the “giant trash heap” of autocracy. Based on the materials of interrogations and testimony, he wrote a documentary book “ Last days imperial power."

In the winter, spring and summer of 1921, Blok’s last triumphant performances took place - with an inspired speech about Pushkin and reading his poems (in Petrograd and Moscow).

In May, Blok felt unwell, which soon turned into a serious illness.

Alexander Blok lived and worked at the border of two worlds - in the era of preparation and implementation October Revolution. He was the last great poet of old, pre-October Russia, who completed the poetic quest of the entire 19th century in his work. And at the same time, his name opens the first, title page of the history of Russian Soviet poetry.

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1. In Blok’s biography, the first poems were written at the age of five. At the age of 16, Alexander Blok studied acting skills trying to conquer...

ALEXANDER ALEKSANDROVICH BLOK

(chronological table)

Alexander Alexandrovich Blok was born in 1880 on November 16, old style. By origin, family and family ties, and friendships, the poet, who called himself in the third person “the triumph of freedom,” belonged to the circle of the old Russian intelligentsia, who from generation to generation sacredly served science and literature.

In 1889, Blok's mother remarried - to a guards officer. Nine-year-old Blok settled with his mother and stepfather in the Grenad barracks, located on the outskirts of St. Petersburg, on the banks of the Bolshaya Nevka.

At the same time, Blok was sent to a gymnasium.

In 1897, finding himself with his mother abroad, in the German resort town of Bad Nauheim, Blok experienced his first, but very strong, youthful love. She left a deep mark on his poetry.

In 1898, he graduated from the gymnasium, and Blok “rather unconsciously” entered the law faculty of St. Petersburg University. Three years later, convinced that he was completely alien to legal science, he transferred to the Slavic-Russian department of the historical and philological faculty, from which he graduated in 1906.

But in 1901, theatrical interests gave way to literary interests. By that time, Blok had already written many poems. This is the lyrics of love and nature, full of unclear forebodings, mysterious hints and allegories. Young Blok is immersed in the study of idealistic philosophy, in particular the works of the ancient Greek philosopher Plato, who taught that, in addition to the real world, there is also a certain “superreal”, higher “world of ideas”.

Beginning in 1898, Blok experienced an unusually strong and deep feeling for the girl (Lyubov Dmitrievna Mendeleeva), who later became his wife.

In November 1902, a decisive explanation took place between the young people, and they got married, in August 1903

At this time, Blok had already entered literature, joining the Symbolists. His debut took place in the spring of 1903 - almost simultaneously in the St. Petersburg magazine “New Way” and in the Moscow almanac “Northern Flowers”. He establishes connections in the symbolist circle both in St. Petersburg (with D. Merezhkovsky and Z. Gippius) and in Moscow (with V. Bryusov). But the circle of young admirers and followers of Vl. that was then formed in Moscow turned out to be especially close to Blok. Solovyov, the main role among which was played by the aspiring poet, prose writer, and theorist Andrei Bely. In this circle, Blok's poems met with enthusiastic recognition.

At the end of 1904, Blok’s first book, “Poems about a Beautiful Lady,” was published by the symbolist publishing house “Grif.”

The poem "Factory", written at the end of 1903, can be considered as an important turning point in Blok's creative path.

The revolution of 1905 made a huge impression on him and greatly clarified his ideological and artistic vision. He saw the activity of the people, their will to fight for freedom and happiness, discovered a “citizen” in himself, and for the first time felt the feeling of blood connection with the people inherent in every true and honest artist and the consciousness of public responsibility for his writing.

Blok's previous indifference to socio-political events was replaced in 1905 by a greedy interest in what was happening. He took part in revolutionary demonstrations and once carried a red banner at the head of one of them. The events of that time were reflected in a number of Blok’s works.

The years 1906-1908 were a time of Blok's literary growth and success. He becomes a professional writer, his name is already becoming quite widely known.

Blok’s books came out one after another - collections of poems “Unexpected Joy” (1907), “Snow Mask” (1907), “Earth in the Snow” (1908), the collection “Lyrical Dramas” (1908).

In 1907 - 1908, his deep discord with almost his own symbolist literature was determined. The further, the more persistently Blok goes his own way. From his thoughts, doubts and anxieties, he drew decisive and final conclusions.

In 1909, he made an interesting journey through Italy and Germany, the result of which was the cycle “Italian Poems” - the best that there is in Russian poetry about Italy.

in 1913 - for the third time (Paris and the Biscay coast of the Atlantic Ocean).

In the summer of 1916, he was drafted into the active army and served in an engineering and construction squad that built field fortifications in the front line, in the area of ​​the Pinsk swamps. This is where his news of the overthrow of the modern world arrived

In May 1917, Blok was recruited to work on the Extraordinary Investigative Commission, which was established to investigate the activities of tsarist ministers and dignitaries. This work captivated Blok and revealed to him the “giant garbage dump” of the autocracy. Based on materials from interrogations and testimony, he wrote a documentary book, “The Last Days of Imperial Power.”

In the winter, spring and summer of 1921, Blok’s last triumphal performances took place - with an inspired speech about Pushkin and reading his poems (in Petrograd and Moscow).

In May, Blok felt unwell, which soon turned into a serious illness.

Alexander Blok lived and worked at the border of two worlds - in the era of preparation and implementation of the October Revolution. He was the last great poet of old, pre-October Russia, who completed the poetic quest of the entire 19th century in his work. And at the same time, his name opens the first, title page of the history of Russian Soviet poetry.

Alexander Alexandrovich Blok was born in 1880 on November 16, old style. By origin, family and kinship ties, and friendships, the poet, who himself called himself in the third person “the triumph of freedom,” belonged to the circle of the old Russian intelligentsia, who from generation to generation sacredly served science and literature.

In 1889, Blok's mother remarried - to a guards officer. Nine-year-old Blok settled with his mother and stepfather in the Grenadrian barracks, located on the outskirts of St. Petersburg, on the banks of the Bolshaya Nevka.

At the same time, Blok was sent to a gymnasium.

In 1897, finding himself with his mother abroad, in the German resort town of Bad Nauheim, Blok experienced his first, but very strong, youthful love. She left a deep mark on his poetry.

In 1898, he graduated from the gymnasium, and Blok “rather unconsciously” entered the law faculty of St. Petersburg University. Three years later, convinced that he was completely alien to legal science, he transferred to the Slavic-Russian department of the Faculty of History and Philology, which he graduated in 1906.

But in 1901, theatrical interests gave way to literary interests. By that time, Blok had already written many poems. This is the lyrics of love and nature, full of vague forebodings, mysterious hints and allegories. Young Blok is immersed in the study of idealistic philosophy, in particular the works of the ancient Greek philosopher Plato, who taught that, in addition to the real world, there is also a certain “superreal”, higher “world of ideas”.

Beginning in 1898, Blok experienced an unusually strong and deep feeling for the girl (Lyubov Dmitrievna Mendeleeva), who later became his wife.

In November 1902, a decisive explanation took place between the young people, and they got married in August 1903. At this time, Blok had already entered literature, joining the Symbolists. His debut took place in the spring of 1903 - almost simultaneously in the St. Petersburg magazine “New Way” and in the Moscow almanac “Northern Flowers”. He establishes connections in the symbolist circle both in St. Petersburg (with D. Merezhkovsky and Z. Gippius) and in Moscow (with V. Bryusov). But what turned out to be especially close to Blok was the circle of young admirers and followers of Vl that formed in Moscow at that time. Solovyov, the main role among whom was played by the aspiring poet, prose writer, and theorist Andrei Bely. In this circle, Blok's poems met with enthusiastic recognition.

At the end of 1904, Blok’s first book, “Poems about a Beautiful Lady,” was published by the symbolist publishing house “Grif.”

The poem “Factory,” written at the end of 1903, can be considered an important turning point in Blok’s creative path.

The revolution of 1905 made a huge impression on him and greatly clarified his ideological and artistic vision. He saw the activity of the people, their will to fight for freedom and happiness, discovered a “citizen” in himself, for the first time felt the feeling of blood connection with the people inherent in every true and honest artist and the consciousness of public responsibility for his writing.

Blok's previous indifference to socio-political events was replaced in 1905 by a greedy interest in what was happening. He took part in revolutionary demonstrations and once carried a red banner at the head of one of them. The events of that time were reflected in a number of Blok’s works.

The years 1906-1908 were a time of Blok's literary growth and success. He becomes a professional writer, his name is already becoming quite widely known.

Blok’s books were published one after another - collections of poems “Unexpected Joy” (1907), “Snow Mask” (1907), “Earth in the Snow” (1908), the collection “Lyrical Dramas” (1908).

In 1907 - 1908, his deep discord with almost all his symbolist literature was determined. The further, the more persistently Blok goes his own way. From his thoughts, doubts and worries, he drew decisive and final conclusions.

In 1909, he made an interesting trip to Italy and Germany, the result of which was the cycle “Italian Poems” - the best that there is in Russian poetry about Italy.

In 1911 he traveled around Europe again (Paris, Brittany, Belgium, Holland, Berlin), in 1913 - for the third time (Paris and the Biscay coast of the Atlantic Ocean).

In the summer of 1916, he was drafted into the active army and served in an engineering and construction squad that built field fortifications in the front line, in the Pinsk swamps. Here the news of the overthrow of the autocracy found him. In May 1917, Blok was recruited to work in the Extraordinary Commission of Inquiry, which was established to investigate the activities of the tsarist ministers and dignitaries. This work captivated Blok and revealed to him the “giant trash heap” of autocracy. Based on the materials of interrogations and testimony, he wrote a documentary book “The Last Days of Imperial Power”.

In the winter, spring and summer of 1921, Blok’s last triumphant performances took place - with an inspired speech about Pushkin and reading his poems (in Petrograd and Moscow).

In May, Blok felt unwell, which soon turned into a serious illness.

Alexander Blok lived and worked at the border of two worlds - during the era of preparation and implementation of the October Revolution. He was the last great poet of old, pre-October Russia, who completed the poetic quest of the entire 19th century in his work. And at the same time, his name opens the first, title page of the history of Russian Soviet poetry.