November 28, 1880 – August 7, 1921 (40 years)
4.6
Average rating: 4.6
Total ratings received: 10009.
Alexander Alexandrovich Blok (1880–1921) – the greatest poet, classic of Russian literature of the 19th–20th centuries, playwright. He began his creative career with symbolism, but after the events of the revolution of 1905–1907, social themes began to predominate in his poems. Unlike many poets, during the October Revolution he agreed to cooperate with the Soviet government.
The material was prepared jointly with the highest category teacher Lyubov Alexandrovna Koroshchup.
Experience as a teacher of Russian language and literature - 30 years.
Creation
An interesting fact in Blok’s biography is that the first poems were written by the poet at the age of five. At the age of 16, Alexander Blok studied acting, trying to conquer the stage.
In 1903, Blok married the daughter of the famous scientist D.I. Mendeleev - Lyubov Mendeleeva. Andrei Bely was also very much in love with her, and on this basis a conflict arose between him and Alexander Blok.
The following year, the author’s poems were published for the first time, published in a collection entitled “Poems about a Beautiful Lady.”
In 1909, Blok and his wife went on vacation to Italy and Germany. For his work of that period, Alexander Alexandrovich Blok was accepted into the Academy society, which already included Valery Bryusov, Mikhail Kuzmin, Vyacheslav Ivanov, Innokenty Annensky.
Briefly speaking, Blok’s work contains several directions. His early works are characterized by symbolism. Blok's further poems examine the social status of the people. He deeply experiences the tragic fate of humanity (“The Rose and the Cross”, 1912), then comes to the idea of mandatory retribution (the “Retribution” cycle, 1907–1913, the “Iambic” cycle, 1907–1914). One of Blok’s most famous poems is “Night, Street, Lantern, Pharmacy.”
Blok also had an interest in children's literature, wrote many poems, some of them were included in the collections for children “All Year Round” and “Fairy Tales” (both 1913)
Gymnasium and university
In 1889, Sasha entered the Vvedensky gymnasium to study. Studying could not be called smooth, arithmetic was the worst, and he was very fond of ancient languages. As a high school student, he was unsociable, did not like unnecessary conversations, and often wrote poetry in solitude.
Already at the age of ten he wrote two issues of the magazine “Ship”. And in his final years at the gymnasium, he and his cousins began publishing a handwritten magazine, Vestnik. Grandfather occasionally helped his grandchildren illustrate the magazine. This publication contained poetry and prose of the young Blok, puzzles and riddles, translations from French, and even a small play “A Trip to Italy.” In one of the issues a fairy tale was published, where the characters were beetles and ants. Blok mainly wrote humorous poems, but he also had a very touching poem dedicated to his mother.
Blok was not too keen on reading during his high school years, but he had favorite poets and writers:
- Zhukovsky and Pushkin;
- Jules Verne and Dickens;
- Cooper and Mine Reed.
In his senior year, Blok became interested in theater, recited Shakespeare, joined a theater club, and even had several roles in plays.
In 1897, Alexander, his mother and aunt, went to Germany, where his mother was undergoing treatment. This is where his first love happened. Ksenia Mikhailova Sadovskaya was a secular, beautiful and pampered lady of 37 years old, the mother of a family. The young man was immediately struck by her bottomless blue eyes; passion captured him and gave him poetic inspiration.
The beauty was the first to attract the inexperienced guy. Every morning he bought and gave her roses, they rode alone in a boat, and, of course, Blok dedicated to her his most touching poems that a young poet in love could write. He signed them “mysterious K. M. S.”
Returning to Russia, in 1898 Alexander graduated from high school. He immediately became a law student at St. Petersburg University. After three years of study, he transferred to the Faculty of History and Philology, choosing the Slavic-Russian department. In 1906, the poet graduated from the university.
Last years of life and death
During the revolution, Blok did not emigrate; he began working in the publishing house of the city of Petrograd. Revolutionary events in St. Petersburg are reflected in the biography of Alexander Blok, in poems, poems (“The Twelve,” 1918), and articles.
Before his death, the poet was often ill. The Politburo of the Central Committee of the RCP(b) responded with refusals to the request to leave the country for treatment and the subsequent petition of Maxim Gorky. After this decision, Blok refused to take food and medicine and destroyed his notes.
Living in Petrograd amid poverty, Alexander Blok died of heart disease on August 7, 1921.
Family life
In 1903, Alexander married Mendeleev’s daughter Lyubov.
They met a long time ago, during the summer holidays in the village where the Mendeleev estate was located next to Beketovskaya. He was 14 years old then, and Lyuba was 13, they walked and played together. Their second meeting took place when Blok had just graduated from high school; this time the young people made a completely different impression on each other.
While studying at the university, Blok often visited the Mendeleevs’ home, at which time his poems appeared, which were later included in the collection “Poems about a Beautiful Lady,” he dedicated them to his future wife Lyubov.
In the year of his marriage, another significant event took place in the poet’s life; his poems began to be published in the magazine “New Path” and in the almanac “Northern Flowers”. Blok’s creativity was quickly appreciated both in St. Petersburg and Moscow.
After the wedding, the young Blocks lived in his stepfather’s house, went to Moscow for a while, and in the summer they went to Shakhmatovo. Here they began to equip their family nest with their own hands. Alexander greatly respected physical labor, he even wrote in his poems about how he loved any work - “building a stove, writing poetry.” The blocks developed a luxurious garden, built a turf sofa in it, and often hosted guests. They were such a beautiful sunny couple among the wildflowers that they were even called the Princess and the Tsarevich.
They were each other's strongest loves of their lives. But their marriage turned out to be quite strange. Blok considered his wife the embodiment of Eternal femininity and did not admit that he could make carnal love with her. He had other women, Lyuba also had an affair with actor Konstantin Lavidovsky, from whom she became pregnant. Blok, who had been ill in his youth, could not have children, so he received the news of his wife’s pregnancy with joy that God would give them, free birds, a child. But this happiness was not destined to come true; the born boy died after living only eight days. Blok suffered this loss very hard and often visited the boy’s grave.
At the end of his life, the poet will say that there were two loves in his life - Lyuba and everyone else.
Interesting Facts
- One of Blok’s most famous poems “Night, street, lantern, pharmacy...” is depicted as a monument on the wall of a house on one of the streets of the Netherlands as part of the worldwide “Wall poems” project.
- The name Alexander Blok was given to asteroid 2540, discovered in 1971.
- There is an opinion that for some time before his death the poet was delirious or even went crazy. He was obsessed with the thought of whether all copies of the poem “The Twelve” had been destroyed. However, the poet died in a clear mind, which refutes these rumors.
All the interesting facts from the life of Blok
We have prepared an interesting quest about the life of Alexander Alexandrovich
Pass the
Biography and creativity
In 1880, on November 28 (16), a son was born into the cultured St. Petersburg family of nobles Alexander Blok and Alexandra Beketova. The boy was named Sasha. Family happiness did not last long; the parents soon separated. Sasha's mother remarried and Blok grew up with his stepfather.
The family of the future poet spent the winter in his native St. Petersburg, and went to Shakhmatovo for the summer. The estate of Andrei Nikolaevich Beketov, Blok’s maternal grandfather, became for Sasha a window into the wonderful world of Russian nature.
The boy rode horseback, spent hours in the garden and happily tinkered with various domestic animals. Thus, from early childhood, Sasha learned to feel and love his native land.
The first experience of versification took place at the age of five. And at the age of nine, Blok entered the gymnasium. From an early age, Sasha, who was partial to reading, became interested in publishing. Ten-year-old Blok published a couple of issues of the handwritten magazine “Ship”, and at the age of 14, together with his brothers, he published “Vestnik”.
In 1898, after finishing his studies at the gymnasium, Alexander decides to devote his life to the study of law. But, after studying law for three years at St. Petersburg University, he became interested in ancient philosophy and moved to the Faculty of History and Philology.
Blok met the beginning of the twentieth century in the creative circle of the brightest writers of our time. Fet, Solovyov, Merezhkovsky, Gippius, Bryusov accepted the twenty-year-old talented young man into the arms of cultural St. Petersburg.
Blok became passionately interested in Russian symbolism. The first poems were published by the publishing house “New Way”; later the poet’s works were published in the almanac “Northern Flowers”.
The Beketovs' neighbors were the Mendeleevs. The daughter of the great chemist, Lyubov Dmitrievna, became for the poet not only his beloved girl, but also his muse. In 1903, Mendeleeva became his wife.
Blok is at the very beginning of his amazing creativity. In the same year, his poetic cycle “Poems about a Beautiful Lady”, dedicated to his wife, was published. The poet, filled with love, imagines a woman as a wonderful spring of light and purity, admiring the great power of true love, capable of uniting the whole world in one person.
The events of 1905-1907 and the First World War pressed the poet’s lyrical mood. Blok thought about the problems of society; he was concerned about the embodiment of the theme of the creator against the backdrop of existing reality. In the poet’s work, the homeland is like a loving wife, which is why patriotism acquired individuality and depth.
The year 1909 became tragic for the Blok family. The father and newborn child of Alexander Alexandrovich and Lyubov Dmitrievna died. At the same time, the poet conceived the poem “Retribution,” the work on which was never completed.
What was happening in Russia gloomily echoed the poet’s personal experiences, but Blok sincerely believed in the bright future of his native country.
1916 became the year of military service for the poet. He did not take part in hostilities; he served as a timekeeper.
Blok met the 1917 revolution with hope for changes for the better. The inspiration lasted for at most a year, presenting the public in 1918 with the controversial poem “The Twelve,” the article “Intellectuals and Revolution” and the poem “Scythians.”
With these works, the poet showed that he accepted Bolshevik Russia and was ready to live and work in a renewed country.
This allowed the new government to fully exploit the name of the famous poet. The poet no longer belonged to himself.
Heart pain, asthma, and nervous disorders became constant companions of the poet, who was loaded with everyday hardships, financial problems and constant work.
Blok tried to obtain permission to travel to Finland to rest and improve his health, especially since in 1920 he fell ill with scurvy.
Gorky, Lunacharsky and Kamenev asked for the poet. But the application was approved too late. On August 7, 1921, Alexander Blok passed away.
Brief biography of Blok
Alexander Alexandrovich Blok
Alexander Alexandrovich Blok was born in 1880, on November 16 in St. Petersburg. His parents, Alexander Lvovich and Alexandra Andreevna, were considered a family of high culture.
After the birth of their son, the couple did not live together - Alexander Alexandrovich’s mother broke off relations with her husband and did not resume them after that. In 1889, she was able to obtain official permission to divorce, and after that she married the guard officer Kublitsky-Piottukh for the second time. It was decided to leave the son's surname unchanged.
Then Alexander Blok was 9 years old, and he and his mother and stepfather moved into his apartment on the outskirts of St. Petersburg, near the picturesque bank of the Bolshaya Nevka.
The education of Alexander Alexandrovich begins in 1889, when he was sent straight to the 2nd grade of the gymnasium in Vedene, where he received knowledge until 1898. After high school, Alexander Blok entered St. Petersburg University, where he received two diplomas in succession - the first from the Faculty of Law, and the second diploma in historical and philological directions.
The rector of the university where Alexander Alexandrovich studied was his grandfather Beketov.
The first poems from Blok’s pen were found at the age of five. But then writing was prohibited for him. The desire to plunge into creativity absorbed him day after day, and the sixteen-year-old Blok began to actively engage in acting, quickly wanting to conquer the big stage.
The year 1903 became the year of Blok’s personal life. He takes as his wife the daughter of the popular scientist Dmitry Mendeleev - Lyubov Dmitrievna. His close friend, A. Bely, was also in love with Lyubov, and because of the wedding they had a fight for life.
Passing the year for the family, 1904 becomes the year of A. Blok’s creativity. Blok publishes his works for the first time in a small collection called “Poems about a Beautiful Lady.”
Five years later, Blok and his wife go on vacation to cities in Italy and Germany, and his work passes into the hands of the Academy society.
His early works for children and youth appeared in the style of symbolism. Further, growing up and changing his worldview, Blok began to reflect in his poems the social position of peasants and ordinary people. He had to endure a tragic human role, which was described in the work “The Rose and the Cross”; after this period of his life, his work becomes more retributive. Alexander’s most popular work is “Night, Street, Lantern, Pharmacy.” His collections were not deprived of children's poetry.
Years of the Revolution Alexander Blok decided not to leave anywhere, and began a career in one of the publishing houses in Petrograd. The events of the revolutionary years were also reflected in Blok’s works.
For several years before his death, Alexander Alexandrovich Blok was quite often and severely ill. To his request to leave the state for treatment in a hospital, the political bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation (Bolsheviks) responded with an unequivocal refusal. A letter with such a decision greatly affected his health and mood, and Alexander completely refused medications and food, destroyed all notes, as well as records. For the last year, Alexander was delirious and asked to destroy his revolutionary poem “The Twelve.”
The last thing Alexander Alexandrovich Blok saw was Petrograd. There, on August 7, 1921, he died due to a heart attack.
