The image of the "old world" in the poem by A.A. Block "Twelve. The old and the new world in A. Blok's poem "Twelve. The image of the old world in the poem twelve

Blok's poem "The Twelve" reflects in its entirety the poet's attitude to the 1917 revolution. In this work, in the best traditions of symbolism, he describes his, in many respects objective, vision of the revolutionary era, represented by two opposing worlds - the old and the new. And the new world must invariably win.

The poet introduces us to the old world in the first chapter of the poem, which is a kind of prologue. The block brings on the stage an old woman who scolds the Bolsheviks. In her opinion, they spent a huge amount of fabric, from which many footcloths for the undressed and unflagged, would have come out on a worthless poster: "All power to the constituent assembly!" And why does she need this poster with the slogan, because she still won't understand it.
Further, following the old woman, there appears a "bourgeois at the crossroads", hiding his nose in the collar from the frost. Then we hear someone "speak in an undertone":

- Traitors!
- Russia is lost!

Then comes the "comrade priest", for some reason "unhappy". Then the "lady in karakul", talking to another, prostitutes, discussing at their meeting how much to take from whom ... And, finally, a vagrant asking for bread. In fact, this is where the description of the old world ends, but only outwardly, since behind a simple listing of heroes, firstly, a deep ideological meaning is hidden, and secondly, echoes of the same old world will be heard throughout the entire poem.

So, the poet does not give us an extensive, lengthy description of the old world and its representatives due to the limited scope of the narrative due to the poetic genre. But, at the same time, the extreme conciseness of images allows him to emphasize the main idea - the old world no longer exists as a single whole, its time has passed, only some of its representatives are located on the “debris of civilization”, and even those are not the brightest. The poet highlights this idea with the author's remarks: "And who is this?", "And here is the long-awaited one ..."

The block introduces into the narrative about the representatives of the old world features of irony, using reduced vernacular vocabulary: "belly", "bam - stretched out", "chicken". The poet laughs at a society that is rotten to the ground, because he is sure that there is no future for it. The symbol of the old world in the prologue is black, which is opposed to white - a symbol of the new world.

Already in the second chapter of the poem, there is a mention of Katka and Vanka - two more representatives of the old world. Moreover, the girl was not originally. Katka was the beloved of the Red Army soldier Petrukha, but, succumbing to the temptations of bourgeois society, she became a fallen woman. We learn about this from the fifth chapter, when Petruha, jealous and angry, talks about her fornication with officers, cadets, and then with ordinary soldiers.

The soldier Vanka is a representative of a dying bourgeois society, a tempter devil for Katka. But again, this is not the best representative of the old world. His physiognomy (not even a face) is "stupid", he is "broad-shouldered" and "spoken", and this indicates his development. Petrukha understands this, and therefore his resentment against Katka because she did not see this leads to a tragic denouement of the story's love line.

So, we can conclude that the old world in the poem, despite the fact that it is dying away, brings people striving for a better life, enormous suffering. And although these people do not yet see where to strive, they realize quite clearly that first the old world must be overcome. This idea of ​​the struggle between the new and the old is constantly traced in the refrain:

Revolutionary keep pace!
Restless enemy does not sleep!

Holy Russia is an image of an outdated old society. The following lines are executed with calls to fight him:

Comrade, hold the rifle, don't be afraid!
Let's fire a bullet into Holy Russia -
Into the condo,
To the hut,
Into the fat ass!

And again here the poet uses reduced vocabulary to emphasize the fall of the former authority of "Holy Russia".
In the ninth chapter, the final debunking of the image of the old world takes place:

The bourgeois stands like a hungry dog,
It stands as silent as a question
And the old world, like a rootless dog,
Stands behind him, tail between his legs.

If in the first chapter the old society was represented by human images, now the image of the bourgeois is completely replaced by the image of a rootless, beaten dog, which, as we will see in the twelfth chapter - the epilogue, weaves behind twelve Red Army men - representatives of the new world. Such a denouement, according to Blok, was inevitable, because in front of the apostles of the new world Jesus Christ appeared "in a white crown of roses" - a symbol of harmony, purity, renewal. This is an image of that bright life to which, even if only subconsciously, people strive. That is why the old world will inevitably sooner or later become obsolete as a "hungry dog".

A.A. Blok was one of the few poets who enthusiastically reacted to the 1917 revolution. In the events that shook Russia, the poet saw an echo of the "cosmic revolution", so he responded vividly to the revolutionary events and tried to understand their meaning and consequences. In his article "Intellectuals and Revolution" Blok considered the revolution from an epoch-making point of view, wrote that it could not but happen. He urged everyone to “listen to the revolution” before condemning it unequivocally.

The poem "The Twelve" became the creative result of the poet's reflections on the revolution. This work consists of twelve chapters, different in style, rhythm, intonation. The prancing, uneven rhythm of the poem conveys the chaos and confusion that reigned on the streets of post-revolutionary Petrograd. Social changes in Russia in those years occurred spontaneously, uncontrollably; the revelry of the historical, revolutionary element is symbolized by the revelry of the natural elements: a blizzard is playing out, "the snow has taken up a funnel", in the side streets "the blizzard is dusting".

Against the background of a frightening, raging revolutionary era, the "heroes" of the old world look ridiculous, confused: the bourgeois, the priest, the poet-"vitia", the lady. Their position in the new world is precarious, unstable: from the strong wind "a man does not stand on his feet"; on the ice "every walker / Slides -ah, poor thing!", "bam - stretched out" a lady in astrakhan. Snow covered the road, interfering with traffic: "The old woman is like a chicken, / Somehow she rewound over a snowdrift."

In the depiction of characters from the “old world” there is a lot of comic: from humor (“And the bourgeois at the crossroads / He hid his nose in his collar”) the author goes on to irony (“And who is this? - Long hair / And speaks in an undertone ... I must be writer - / Vitia ... ") and, finally, to the sarcasm with which the" comrade pop "is described:

Do you remember how it used to be

I walked forward with my belly,

And shone with a cross

Belly for the people? ..

There is a feeling that the characters of the “old world” are already shown in the first chapter from the point of view of the twelve sentinels. The revolutionary detachment of twelve appears in the poem in the second chapter and is the pivotal image of the poem. For the Red Guards, the characters of the “old world” are bourgeois, on whose mountain it is necessary to fan a “revolutionary fire”. But the bourgeoisie are not real, but caricatured enemies, over which the sentinels laugh: "You fly, bourgeois, like a sparrow!"

Nevertheless, in the poem "The Twelve", when depicting the "old world", the comic is combined with the tragic. Behind the ridiculous confusion of the old woman who saw the poster "All power to the Constituent Assembly!" (“The old woman is killing herself - crying, / She won’t understand what it means, / Why such a poster”), there is the tragedy of general poverty, hunger, cold: “No matter how many footcloths come out for the guys, / And everyone is undressed, unclothed ... “The revolution brought with it chaos and confusion, transformed Russia, changed the destinies of many people. This tragedy is embodied in the image of the bourgeois, which appears again in the ninth chapter of the poem. The ninth chapter is written in the classic iambic tetrameter (this size can also be considered a sign of the "old world"), permeated with sadness. The image of a hungry bourgeois standing silently "like a question" expresses the confusion of the old society, its helplessness before the revolutionary elements. Despite the fact that the bourgeois stands at the crossroads, he cannot choose the road himself. The blizzard of revolution swept all the paths, the possibility of choice turns out to be imaginary. Only the revolutionary patrol is moving forward, with a "sovereign step", while the "old world" is static, there is no development in it.

The bloc welcomed the revolutionary changes in Russia. The poet was sure that the former Russia would no longer exist, just as Rome was gone, he wrote about this in an unsent letter to Z.N. Gippius.

Former Russia is shown in the poem not only in caricatures of a bourgeois, a writer, a lady, but also in the image of the "walking" Katka. The image of Katka is associated with a love affair and the main storyline of the poem - the murder of Katka by the sentinels. Katka embodies all the vices of the old world. "Fool" and "cholera" Katka is treacherous:

I wore gray leggings,

Minion ate chocolate

I went for a walk with the cadets -

Have you gone with the soldier now?

The motive of debauchery and unrighteous wealth is associated with the image of Katka:

And Vanka and Katka are in a tavern ...

She has kerens in a stocking!

For the sentinels, the murder of Katka is justified by the fact that such as Katka and Vanka have no place in the new world. The murder is perceived as revolutionary retaliation, immediately after the murder scene follows the refrain: “Revolutionary keep your step! / The restless enemy does not sleep! "

In fact, the detachment of twelve itself preaches “freedom without a cross”: “Lock the floors, / Today there will be robberies! / Open the cellars - / Nowadays there is a bunch of people walking around! "

The portrayal of the "old world" in the poem is contradictory. On the one hand, this is Katka's debauchery, on the other, the tragedy of confused, hungry people. The symbol of the "old world" in the poem is the image of a homeless mangy dog ​​that appeared in the poem along with the bourgeois:

The bourgeois stands like a hungry dog,

Stands silent as a question.

And the old world, like a rootless dog,

Stands behind him, tail between his legs.

In "The Twelve," a hungry dog, "tail between his legs", leaves the bourgeois and gets tied to the revolutionary detachment. The dog does not lag behind, despite the threats of the Red Guards: "The old world, like a lousy dog, / Fail - I will beat!" The beggar dog senses that the detachment of twelve under the "bloody flag" is moving forward, bringing change and renewal with it, one is trying to resist the blizzard that has cleared its way.

It is both a pity and ridiculous to look at a cowardly mangy dog. As in the entire poem, this image combines contradictory features, just as contradictory are the emotions that it evokes in the reader. It seems that the author himself does not know the answer to the question: what will happen to the "old world" and how to relate to its change, destruction?

On the one hand, Blok looked at social changes with hope, proclaiming the revolution in Russia as an echo of the "cosmic revolution." At the same time, he had a negative attitude towards the defeated "old government", considered it immoral, not responsible to the people. On the other hand, in society in the revolutionary era, all the moral foundations were turned upside down, power was in the hands of the "idle", and the bourgeois, among whom was a large part of the Russian intelligentsia, the best minds of Russia, found themselves in the position of a rootless dog.

In the poem "The Twelve" the "old world" is devoid of integrity, is in an unstable position, its "heroes" are confused, depressed, "somehow" they cope with the rampant elements. The author of the poem, using contradictory, illogical images, shows that revolutionary chaos has no fixed outcome. In the finale of the poem, the "old world" in the form of a rootless dog follows the detachment of twelve, but the fate of the detachment is also not determined, like the fate of the hungry dog, these images are opposed and at the same time similar to each other. But the “old world” still “hobbles behind”: Blok considered the revolution to be a transformative beginning and believed that there would be no return to the old.

Poem by A.A. Blok Twelve can be seen as the culmination of all of his work. The motive of the author's irony in relation to the modern "uterine" world and its "inhabitants" permeates the entire work. The modern bourgeois, whose interests are concentrated only around profit, was so hated by Blok that, by his own admission, he reached "some pathological disgust." And in the revolution, the poet saw a cleansing force capable of giving the world a new breath, freeing it from the power of people far from spiritual aspirations, from the ideals of justice and humanity, living only by a thirst for material wealth and being guided by their petty passions. This attitude directly echoes the Gospel parable of the rich man who cannot enter the Kingdom of Heaven.

The first chapter is an exposition of the poem, which shows the background of the city, its motley population. Blok, in the spirit of a popular joke, describes the inhabitants of Petrograd who do not understand what is happening:

The old lady is like a chicken

Somehow I rewound over the snowdrift.

- Oh, Mother Intercessor!

- Oh, the Bolsheviks will drive you into the coffin!

The fact that the figures of the "old world" have not human, but animal characteristics, gives rise not only to the heroes of the poem, but also to the readers of an attitude of pity.

The wind is whipping!

The frost is not far behind!

And the bourgeois at the crossroads

He hid his nose in the collar.

With an October whirlwind, a mask has been torn from the eloquent writer, and the author, without recognizing it, asks: "And who is this?" The image of the "formidable denouncer" is pathetic, he mutters threats that cause not horror, but laughter. The sublime "vitia" turns into an angry, contemptuous, derogatory nickname. All who, behind empty chatter, tried to hide their empty life, disgust in relation to the people's sorrows, are branded with precise, biting words.

And there is the long-skirted one -

Side by side - a snowdrift ...

What is sad today

Comrade pop?

Do you remember how it used to be

I walked forward with my belly,

And shone with a cross

Belly for the people? ..

There is a lady in karakul

I turned up to another:

- We cried, cried ...

Slipped

And - bam - stretched out!

The author's sounding mockingly sympathetically after an almost popular, cheerful picture:

Pull, lift!

Along with the satire on the "old world" caused by its insolvency, narrowness and primitiveness of the outlook of its representatives, the author presents a more serious accusation of cruelty to this world. Petka's beloved was taken away by the "terrible world", and he takes revenge for this. If you look objectively at the actions of the twelve Red Guards, then, apart from the murder of Katka, they do not perform any other actions during the entire time of the poem. Nowhere is it said about any lofty goal that would move them. Gradually, the author's intention is revealed: love is a concept that is more understandable and close to a person than any political idea. Therefore, the whole horror of the "old world" consists in the fact that love is being killed in it, it is worth nothing here.

It is even more terrible that the symbol of the “old world” for the heroes-“comrades” is “Holy Russia”, endowed with “bodily” attributes (“fat ass”). The "old world" in the poem is also likened to a "beggar", "hungry" and "cold" dog. Sometimes researchers point to the image of the "dog" in the poem as the personification of the forces of evil (remember the Goethe poodle-Mephistopheles). But why is the "beggar", "hungry" and "rootless" dog for the revolutionary "hungry" in the neighborhood with the rejected class alien "bourgeois"? Perhaps because he, like the "old world" that is not yet ready to surrender, is a threat:

... grins his teeth - the wolf is hungry -

The tail is between his legs - does not lag behind -

A cold dog is a rootless dog ...

- Hey, answer, who's coming?

Already in the first chapter, before the mention of "twelve" against the background of caricatured figures of an old woman, a bourgeois, a writer-witch, the priest sounds the call: "Comrade! Look / Both! " In the second chapter, for the first time, the image of the "restless enemy" appears ("The restless enemy does not sleep!"), And the appeal to the "comrade" is again heard: "Hold the rifle, do not be afraid!" In the sixth chapter the formula "The restless enemy does not sleep" is repeated, and in the tenth it sounds threatening: "The restless enemy is near!" The motive of anxiety and fear is most strongly manifested in the eleventh chapter of the poem. In a blizzard, the Red Army men are blind, the red flag obscures their eyes, the image of the "enemy" is mentioned twice:

Their rifles are steel

On the invisible enemy ...

Into the back alleys,

Where one blizzard is dusting ...

Yes, in downy snowdrifts -

You won't drag your boot ...

Beats in the eyes

Red flag.

And although snatches of revolutionary songs, the anthem of "Varshavyanka" are heard, the expectation of danger does not leave the heroes:

Is distributed

Measured step.

Here - will wake up

Fierce enemy ...

And the blizzard is dusting in their eyes

Days and nights

All the way ...

Go-go,

Working people!

However, do heroes really see their enemy in the "old world"? The fear of the Red Army men in front of this unknown enemy grows during the course of the poem. But at the same time, the heroes are shown full of courage, they have “anger boiling in their chests”, they are ready to mock the “old world” (“Eh, eh! / It’s not a sin to have fun!”). And the characters of the "old world" are represented by the victims ("Already I will use a knife / Strip, strip"). That is, it is obvious that they cannot act as an enemy. On the contrary, retribution for the "terrible world" comes from those whom he himself gave birth to.

The bloc accepted the revolution, but not from a Marxist position (as a struggle between oppressors and oppressed), but from a religious and philosophical one, believing that the world is mired in sin and deserves retribution. The main revolution, according to Blok, should take place not outside, but inside people. “World fire in blood” is a symbol of spiritual rebirth. From this point of view, the revolution is the Apocalypse, the Last Judgment, accompanied by the second coming of Christ. And the dirty work of the "twelve", their revenge on the bourgeoisie, the settling of personal scores is an instrument in the hands of Divine justice. And they themselves will be buried under the rubble of this "old world".

"Cursed days" - this is how I.A. Bunin. Alexander Blok had a different opinion. In the revolution, he saw a turning point in his life Russian Federation, which entails the collapse of the old moral foundations and the birth of a new worldview.

Absorbed by the idea of ​​becoming a new, better life in the country, Blok in January 1918 describes one of her most striking works is the poem "The Twelve", which embodied the irrepressible power of the revolution, sweeping away the remnants of a former life on its way.

The depiction of the old and the new world in the poem was created by the author in some special form, full of hidden philosophical meaning. Each image in the poem that appears before the reader symbolizes the social face of a particular social class or the ideological coloring of an ongoing historical event.

The old world is symbolized by several images shown in a mockingly contemptuous light. The image of a bourgeois at the crossroads, hiding his nose in a collar, symbolizes the once mighty, and Currently the bourgeoisie helpless in the face of the new force.

The image of the writer hides a creative intelligentsia that did not accept the revolution. "Russia is lost!" - says the writer, and his words reflected the views of many representatives of this social group, who saw the death of their country in the events taking place.

The church, which has lost its former power, is also symbolically shown. The author provides our gaze with the image of a priest walking stealthily, "with his side behind a snowdrift", which in former times "went forward with his belly, and his belly shone with a cross at the people." Now the “comrade priest” has neither the cross nor the former arrogance.

The lady in karakul is a symbol of the secular noble society. She tells the other that they “cried, cried,” slipped and fell. This moment, in my opinion, expressed the opinion of Blok about the weak character and unsuitability of the pampered aristocracy in the new life.

As in AA Blok's poem "The Twelve". is the brokenness of the old world revealed?

Contemporaries of the poet Alexander Alexandrovich Blok and later researchers of his work, again and again referring to the poem "The Twelve", asked the invariable rhetorical question: eradicates traditions? " Such bewilderment is quite understandable, because during the revolution and after it, the creative intelligentsia was universally perceived as an artistic conductor of the ideas of “bourgeois and kulaks”. And the revolution itself, as conceived by its theoreticians and practitioners, in its “minimum program” was supposed to lead to the establishment of the dictatorship of the proletariat, which implied a completely unambiguous attitude towards all other strata of the population. So why did the symbolist poet Alexander Blok glorify this revolution in his poem? In fact, Blok laid the answer to this question in the poem "The Twelve" itself. The music of the revolution, which the poet hears, he tries to convey to the reader through poetry. Blok said: "With all your body, with all your heart, with all your consciousness - listen to the Revolution." The revolution, according to Blok, is wonderful! Despite the horror and chaos that gripped the country, all this is the essence of purification, through which Russia simply needs to go. And if you look at the poem through the prism of such a perception of events, it will no longer seem strange that Blok so enthusiastically described the brokenness of the old world in The Twelve. The symbol of the triumph of the new world is given to the reader immediately, without any preliminary preparation: A rope is stretched from building to building.

On the rope - a poster: "All power to the Constituent Assembly!"

This celebration is a fait accompli. He is no longer questioned by an ironic intonation or any ridiculous epithet. And already to him, to this fact, firmly standing on the feet of proletarian freedom - not the one that “ends where the freedom of another begins,” but permissive and anarchic, - the silhouettes of the old world, beating in her dying convulsions, are opposed: An old woman is like a hen, Somehow she jumped over a snowdrift.

Oh, Mother Intercessor! - Oh, the Bolsheviks will drive you into the coffin! ..

Who's that? -Long hair And says in an undertone: - Traitors! Russia is lost! -

The writer must be Vitia ...

There is a lady in astrakhan. She turned up to another: We were crying, crying ...

Slipped And - bam - stretched out! ..

Human images symbolizing the old world breaking down before our eyes are absurd and comical. They, like dolls from the “Theater of the Absurd”, which are unceremoniously pulled by the strings, forcing them to perform various body movements and utter nonsense in distorted voices, fill the emptiness of a soap bubble, and their faces reflected on the iridescent convex surface cause only a bitter smile: Aside - behind a snowdrift ...

What's gloomy today, Comrade Pop? Do you remember how it used to go forward with the Belly And the Belly shone with a cross on the people? ..

Alexander Blok, as a true genius of symbolism, demonstrated with one simple phrase the bottomless abyss that opened between the opposing worlds. It is “comrade priest” that is a symbol of the antagonism of the old and the new, their complete incompatibility and the most severe ugliness in random combinations, which does not cause a single drop of pity.

The totality of social and moral values ​​in the souls and minds of the Red Guards, through whose mouths Blok voices the mood of the new world, corresponds to the idea of ​​the relationship between the goal and the means to achieve it. If we are to destroy the old world, then it is cruel, blasphemous and to the core: Keep the revolutionary step! Restless enemy does not sleep! Comrade, hold the rifle, don't be afraid! Let's fire a bullet into Holy Russia - Into the condo, Into the hut, Into the fat ass! ..

The murder of "fat-faced Katka", who has "Kerenki in a stocking" and who knows what is busy in a tavern with Vanyusha, is perceived not as a crime, but on the contrary, as an act aimed at strengthening the new world. Some moral hesitation of Petrusha, who doubted the righteousness of what he had done, soon, thanks to the exhortations of the other eleven, goes into a phase of absolute confidence in the loyalty of the path that they have chosen for themselves. There is no turning back: Eh, eh! Having fun is not a sin! Lock the floors, there will be robberies today! Unlock the cellars - Now it’s empty! ..

The ending of the poem puts the final and fat point in the conflict between the old and the new. The appearance of Jesus Christ under the bloody banner of revolution, leading the slender march of the twelve revolutionary apostles, was the last nail in the coffin of the old world, the final and unconditional breakdown of which was symbolically depicted in his poem by Alexander Blok.

Of course, only History can provide an objective assessment of any socio-political events. Too much water must leak before it becomes finally clear which of the two warring parties was closest to the truth, which of the two evils was the least for the country. Almost a century has passed since the revolution took place, but there has never been a consensus on this matter and there is no one to this day. Moreover, it is impossible to find an answer to the question: "Who is right?" in the poem "The Twelve". The bloc did not set itself the task of stigmatizing the "bourgeois" and erecting a literary monument to the proletarians of all countries, united in a single and passionate impulse. He outlined the most difficult for him and his contemporaries, and for all who lived before him and will live after, the problem of choice: either rot along with the decaying remains of the old bourgeois society, or burn out like a spark in the merciless fire of the revolution.

Bibliography

For the preparation of this work were used materials from the site coolsoch.ru/