Biography and work of Blok

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

The famous symbolist poet of the Silver Age, who amazed everyone with his indefatigable faith in the future of Russia and people. Loving and suffering to embrace the immensity, a man with a broad soul and a tragic life. Blok's life and work deserve attention for its fullness and touchingness.

Poet biography

Alexander Alexandrovich Blok, born 1880, November 28. Place of birth - Petersburg. His parents: father - A. L. Blok, worked as a lawyer at the University in Warsaw, mother - A. A. Beketova, daughter of the famous botanist.

The boy's parents divorced before he was born, so he failed to grow up in a complete family. However, maternal grandfather A. N. Beketov, in whose family Alexander grew up, surrounded the child with due care and attention. He gave him a good education and a start in life. 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 education of Blok.

From childhood, he has a love for the classics of Russian literature. Pushkin, Apukhtin, Zhukovsky, Fet, Grigoriev - these are the names on whose works a smallBlok grew up and joined the world of literature and poetry.

Teaching a Poet

The first stage of education for Blok was the gymnasium in St. Petersburg. After graduating in 1898, he entered St. Petersburg University in the department of lawyers. Finishes legal studies in 1901 and changes direction to historical and philological.

It is at the university that he finally decides to delve into the world of literature. Also, this desire is reinforced by the beautiful and picturesque nature, among which the estate of his grandfather is located. Growing up in such an environment, Alexander forever absorbed the sensitivity and subtlety of the worldview, and reflected this in his poems. Since then, Blok's work begins.

Blok maintains a very warm relationship with his mother, his love and respect for her is boundless. 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 defined forehead, the curve of the mouth. Appreciated the beautiful curly hair of the poet.

Andrey Bely describes Blok's appearance very similarly, also focusing on a he althy complexion, beautiful and thick hair, a spectacular and stately figure, strong and attractive. He also emphasizes the naivety and spontaneity in Blok's gaze, his unusual and bright eyes. Often his appearance in his youth was compared with the image of Apollo. ATmature years - with Dante.

Family life

Due to his ardent nature, striving for the ideal, for the beautiful, Blok was in constant search for a beautiful woman who could become for him a reflection of all the strength and thought of love. For whom he could write his works, who 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 Mendeleeva (Block).

Their marriage took place in 1903. Family life was ambiguous and difficult. Mendeleev was waiting for great love, as in novels. Blok offered moderation and tranquility of life. The result was his wife's infatuation with his friend and like-minded person, Andrei Bely, a symbolist poet who played an important role in the work of Blok himself.

Lifetime work

The life and work of Blok developed in such a way that, in addition to literature, he took part in quite everyday affairs. So for example:

• was an active participant in drama 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 pays back to the Motherland, serving near Pinsk (engineering and construction team);
• part of the leadership of the Bolshoi Drama Theatre;
• upon arrival from the army gets a job at the Investigative Commission of an emergency nature on the affairs of the tsarist ministers. Worked there as a verbatim report editor until 1921.

Blok's early work

Little Sasha wrote his first verse at the age of five. Even then, the makings of a talent that needed to be developed were read in him. What Blok did.

Love and Russia are two favorite themes of creativity. Blok wrote a lot about both. However, at the initial stage of development and realization of his talent, love attracted him most of all. The image of a beautiful lady, which he was looking for everywhere, captured his whole being. And he found the earthly embodiment of his ideas in Lyubov Mendeleeva.

The theme of love in Blok's work is revealed so fully, clearly and beautifully that it is difficult to dispute it. Therefore, it is not surprising that his first offspring - a collection of poems - is called "Poems about the Beautiful Lady", and it is dedicated to his wife. When writing this collection of poems, Blok was greatly influenced by the poetry of Solovyov, whose student and follower he is considered to be.

In all the poems there is a feeling of Eternal femininity, beauty, naturalness. However, all expressions and turns used in writing are allegorical, unrealistic. The block is carried away in a creative impulse to "other worlds".

Gradually, the theme of love in Blok's work gives way to more real and pressing problems,around the poet.

Start of disappointment

Revolutionary events, discord in family relations, dreams of a clean and bright future for Russia that fail miserably make Blok's work undergo obvious changes. His next collection is called "Unexpected Joy" (1906).

More and more he makes fun of the symbolists, to which he no longer considers himself, more and more cynical about the 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 of dramas comes out. First, "Balaganchik", after some time, "King in the Square", and completes this trio "Stranger". Blok is bitterly disappointed by the imperfection of the world, by his deceived hopes. In the same period, he is fond of actress N. N. Volokhova. However, he does not receive reciprocity, which adds bitterness, irony and skepticism to his poems.

Andrey 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.

Incarnation Trilogy

In 1909, Blok's father dies, to whom he does not have time to say goodbye. This leaves an even greater imprint on his state of mind, and he decides to combine his brightest works in his opinion into one poetic trilogy, which he gives the name "Incarnation Trilogy".

So Blok's work in 1911-1912was marked by the appearance of three collections of poems that bear poetic names:

1. "Poems about a Beautiful Lady";
2. "Unexpected Joy";
3. "Snowy night".

A year later, he releases a cycle of love poems "Carmen", writes the poem "The Nightingale Garden", dedicated to his new passion - the singer L. A. Delmas.

Motherland in Blok's work

Starting from 1908, the poet no longer positions himself as a lyricist, but as a singer of his Motherland. During this period, he writes such poems as:

• "Autumn wave";
• "Autumn Love";
• "Russia";
• "On the Kulikovo field".

All these works are imbued with love for the Motherland, for their country. The poet simultaneously shows two aspects of life in Russia: poverty and hunger, piety, but at the same time wildness, unbridledness and liberty.

The theme of Russia in Blok's work, the theme of the motherland, is one of the most fundamental in his entire poetic life. For him, the Motherland is something living, breathing and feeling. Therefore, the ongoing events of the October Revolution are too hard for him, unreasonably hard.

The theme of Russia in Blok's work

After the revolutionary trends capture all his spirit, the poet almost completely loses the lyrics and love in his works. Now the whole meaning of his works is directed to Russia, hishome.

Blok personifies his country in verse with a woman, he makes her almost tangible, real, as if humanizing. The homeland in Blok's work takes on such a large-scale significance that he never writes about love anymore.

Believing in the Bolsheviks and their truth, he experiences a cruel, almost fatal disappointment for him when he sees the results of the revolution. Hunger, poverty, defeat, mass extermination of the intelligentsia - all this forms in Blok's mind a sharp hostile attitude towards the symbolists, towards the lyrics and forces from now on to create works only with a satirical, poisonous mockery of faith in the future.

However, his love for Russia is so great that he continues to believe in the strength of his country. That she will rise, shake herself off and be able to show her power and glory. The work of Blok, Mayakovsky, Yesenin is similar in this.

In 1918, Blok wrote the poem "The Twelve", the most scandalous and loudest of all his works, which caused a lot of rumors and talk about it. But criticism leaves the poet indifferent, the emerging depression begins to absorb his entire being.

Poem "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. In his notes it says: "I'm trembling inside." Then the writing of the poem was suspended, 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 lostyourself, there was a creative crisis, stagnation.

The main idea of the poem was recognized differently by everyone. Someone saw in her support for the revolution, a mockery of symbolic views. Someone, on the contrary, is a satirical bias and a mockery of the revolutionary order. However, Blok himself, when creating the poem, had both in mind. She is controversial, as is his mood at the time.

After the publication of "The Twelve" all the already weak ties with the Symbolists were severed. Almost all close friends turned their backs on Blok: Merezhkovsky, Vyach, Prishchvin, Sologub, Piast, Akhmatova and others.

In Balmont by that time he is disappointed himself. Thus, Blok is practically alone.

Post-revolutionary creativity

Only three works were written by the author after the revolution:

1. "Scythians";
2. "Motherland";
3. "Retribution", which he never finished writing.

The revolution has passed, and the bitterness from the disappointment of the Bolshevik policy has grown and intensified. Such a gap between what was promised and what was being done as a result of the revolution became unbearable for Blok. One can briefly characterize Blok's work 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 deed of the new government. He could not forgive himself for the support of the Bolsheviks, his blindness andshortsightedness.

Block is experiencing the strongest discord within himself, completely withdraws into his inner feelings and torment. The consequence of this is illness. From April 1921 to the beginning of August, the poet's illness did not let go, tormenting him more and more. Only occasionally coming out of semi-forgetfulness, he tries to console his wife, Lyubov Mendeleeva (Blok). Blok passed away on August 7.

Where the poet lived and worked

Today, Blok's biography and work captivate and inspire many. And the place where he lived and composed his poems and poems turned into a museum. From the photographs, we can judge the environment in which the poet worked.

You can see the appearance of the estate where the poet spent time 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 poet's work is loved and studied, admired, its depth and integrity, unusualness and brightness are recognized. Russia in the work of Blok is studied at school, essays are written on this topic. This gives every right to call the author a great poet. In the past, a symbolist, then a revolutionary, and at sunset just a deeply disillusioned with life and power, an unfortunate person with a bitter, hard fate.

A monument has been erected in St. Petersburg, perpetuating the name of the author in history and paying due respect to his undeniable talent.