Alexander Blok illustrated in the Presidential Library’s materials

November 28, 2019 marks the 139th anniversary of the birth of Alexander Blok (1880 - 1921) - the greatest poet, classic of Russian literature of the XIX - XX centuries, the largest representative of Russian symbolism, playwright, translator, and literary critic. The Presidential Library’s collections contain electronic copies of the writer's rare lifetime editions, contemporaries' memoirs, scientific works devoted to his work as well as a video lecture.   

Nikolai Ashukin - critic, literary historian, historian of literature in the preface to the book “A. A. Blok in the memoirs of contemporaries and his letters” (1924) provides such biographical information about the poet: “Grandfather is rector of St. Petersburg University “in his best classical years”. Father Alexander Lvovich - Professor at the University of Warsaw, Department of State Law. He soon broke up with his wife, and the child was brought up in the family of a literally gifted mother. Blok’s childhood passed in St. Petersburg, in a large apartment "with a lot of people, a nanny, toys and Christmas trees", and in the summer - in the "fragrant wilderness of a small Shakhmatovo estate"”.

Blok wrote about himself: “I began to write poems almost aged five”, and from the age of 17 creative searches began. These were lyrical works corresponding to the elements of youthful love, and by the time the first collection of the poet, “Poems about the Beautiful Lady” was published, about 800 poems had accumulated. Most part of the works of this period was devoted to Lyubov Mendeleeva - the daughter of the famous chemist, who later became the wife and muse of Alexander.

Alexander Blok is a special poet, it was understood by everyone who took his books in his hands or met him. Formed in an atmosphere of early symbolism under the strong influence of poetry by Vladimir Solovyov, he, however, was able to hear real life. By the time the book “Poems about the Beautiful Lady” was published, “the heavenly purity of the poet’s first visions had already encountered the world of factory crossroads under the first glimpses of a revolution that was already underway”. After 1905, Blok felt that "the circle of lyrics for him is cramped". Deeply patriotic works have already matured in it: "Homeland", "Scythians", the poem "On the Kulikovo Field".

Alexander Blok admired the audience not only with his talented creations, but also with the manner of reading, as well as the impact of his voice on the audience, according to his contemporaries. Poet Wilhelm Sorgenfrey explains: “Simplicity is the hallmark of this reading. Simplicity - in the complete absence of any gestures, face play, ups and downs. And simplicity - as a clear sound result of an infinitely complex, bottomlessly deep life; right there, in the process of reading poetry, created and affirmed”.  

The poet believed in the exceptional role of Russia in the historical field. Comparing his homeland with the European countries in which he happened to visit, Blok was amazed at the predominance of material and pragmatic in them over the spiritual principle.

A. Blok’s poem “The Twelve” provoked the most diverse and controversial opinions.

Gumilyov looked at him with his usual arrogance: he himself was the master and even the commander of his inspirations and did not like when poets felt like limp victims of their own lyrics. But Blok’s recognition seemed invaluable to me: the poet was not so powerful in his talent that he was surprised at what he wrote, but felt that what he wrote was the highest truth, independent of desires, and respected this truth more than personal tastes and beliefs”.

Having met with optimism the October Revolution in 1917, Blok initially had high hopes for the Bolsheviks and even tried to be useful to them. From 1919 Alexander Alexandrovich served as chairman of the directing department of the Bolshoi Drama Theater, becoming, in fact, its artistic director, and also tried to comprehend the reasons and lessons of October as a publicist...

The Presidential Library’s collections contain electronic copies of Blok’s works: “About Love, Poetry and Public Service” (1920) and “The Last Days of the Imperial Power” (1921), where he expressed his attitude towards what is happening: “At the end of 1916, all members of the state body of Russia were struck by a disease that could no longer pass by itself or be cured by ordinary means, but required a complex and dangerous operation. So, at that time, all people with state meaning understood the situation; no one could doubt the need for surgery; they only argued about the degree of shock it could bring to Russia”.

At the Fontanka Theater, Alexander Blok engaged in the selection of the repertoire, spent long hours at rehearsals and took the opening remarks before the performances when there was a need for clarification for the audience. He came to the Bolshoi Drama Theater with his ideas about the revolutionary theater, based mainly on the classics, and not on the momentary fakes of market-play dramatists: “We demand Shakespeare and Goethe, Sophocles and Moliere, great tears and great laughter - not in homeopathic doses, but in real".

Blok also dreamed of a poetic theater - both high and spectacular, smartly entertaining. However, all attempts to stage the plays written by him, including the famous “Balaganchik” failed. However, he was aware of the “resistance of the material” when transferring the poetic works of the great Pushkin and Heine to the stage. “The theater is not favorable for the Poet, and the Poet is not favorable for the theater”, - stated Heinrich Heine. Blok put it mildly: “Theater is a tender monster”...

Nevertheless, it was not possible to hide from the storms and shocks of the revolution in the theater. Not declared, but real events in Soviet Russia were so contrary to the poet’s early lyrical views on the new government that to realize and accept what was happening was above all physical and moral forces. Alexander Blok died on August 7, 1921 in his apartment on Pryazhka according to the official version of heart disease.

The “Blok” collection of the Presidential Library features the book “Alexander Block. Andrei Bely" (1919), the brochure "To the Memory of A. Blok" (1922), the album Poetry of Alexander Blok in photographs of Yuri Panteleev: [set of postcards] (2006), an abstract of the dissertation on the subject "Coloring in the Lyrics of A. Blok" (2015) and other equally interesting publications.