What hurt the block before death. The mystery of the death of Alexander Blok: "The poet dies because he has nothing more to breathe" (?)
At the age of 16, Blok became interested in theater. In February 1921, at an evening in memory of Alexander Pushkin at the House of Writers, Blok delivered his famous speech "On the Appointment of a Poet." In 1909, his father dies - and for the first time, Blok begins to have heart problems. On July 7, 1916, Blok was called to serve in the engineering unit of the All-Russian Zemsky Union. The poet served in Belarus. Alexander Blok. Gray Morning. Poems. I say: "Alexander Blok ...".
Then he took to his bed and tried to work while sitting in bed. Blok took away and destroyed some of his notebooks in front of the guest. Aleksandrovich breathes heavily, lies with his eyes closed, must have dozed off. I never saw a living Blok again.” Ionov*. Block was already unconscious. Blok, patiently repeated that all were destroyed, not a single one was left.
Dmitry Bykov
Mad Block
He died fully conscious. Blok and his other contemporaries. There were no events in his life. Block suffocated, took it from here. In 1897, having found himself abroad with his mother, in the German resort town of Bad Nauheim, the 16-year-old Blok experienced his first strong youthful love for the 37-year-old Xenia Sadovskaya.
In 1897, at a funeral in St. Petersburg, he met with Vladimir Solovyov. Blok wrote his first poems at the age of five. At the age of 10, Alexander Blok wrote two issues of the Ship magazine. Since childhood, Alexander Blok spent every summer in the estate of his grandfather Shakhmatovo near Moscow. On this basis, Blok had a conflict with Andrei Bely, described in the play "Balaganchik".
For Italian poetry, Blok was accepted into a society called the Academy. In the summer of 1911 Blok traveled abroad again, this time to France, Belgium and the Netherlands. By his own admission in a letter to his mother, during the war his main interests were "food and horses."
The ever-increasing volume of work undermined the strength of the poet. Fatigue began to accumulate - Blok described his condition of that period with the words "I was drunk." In the spring of 1921, Alexander Blok, together with Fyodor Sologub, asked for exit visas. The issue was considered by the Politburo of the Central Committee of the RCP(b).
Today, March 15 in history:
Lunacharsky noted: “We literally tortured him without releasing the poet and at the same time without giving him the necessary satisfactory conditions.” Until recent years, Alexander Blok's second cousin, Ksenia Vladimirovna Beketova, lived in St. Petersburg. Among Blok's relatives is Vladimir Yenisherlov, editor-in-chief of Our Heritage magazine. Particularly characteristic in this regard is the classic juxtaposition of the foggy silhouette of the “Stranger” and “drunkards with rabbit eyes,” which has become a textbook.
In 1917-18, Blok was undoubtedly captured by the spontaneous side of the revolution. Blok openly joined the Bolsheviks. I published an article that Kogan admires (P.S.). The song is generally simple, and Blok is a stupid person. Blok tried to comprehend the October Revolution not only in journalism, but also, which is especially significant, in his poem The Twelve (1918), unlike all previous works.
The language style of the poem "The Twelve" was perceived by contemporaries not only as deeply new, but also as the only one possible at that moment. In February 1919 Blok was arrested by the Petrograd Extraordinary Commission.
Honored Artist of Russia died in St. Petersburg
The rethinking of the revolutionary events and the fate of Russia was accompanied by a deep creative crisis for Blok, depression and a progressive illness. Apparently, Blok wrote a story about Mogilev, but did not have time to publish it.
1234k. and. n. Shepelev, V, Lyubimov, V. "He will write poetry against us." The truth about the illness and death of Alexander Blok (Russian) // Source. Nikolai Punin and Alexander Blok // Crossroads of Arts Russia-West (Proceedings of the Faculty of History of the St. Petersburg state university No. 25). SPb., 2016. S. 177-184. Alexander Blok (1880-1921) was born into the family of the daughter of the rector of St. Petersburg University and a Warsaw lawyer.
The book of his poems "Poems about a Beautiful Lady" is dedicated to her. In 1909, Blok experienced a strong emotional shock: his father died, then his child. It is likely that his love for everything Russian led to the fact that in 1917 the poet refused to emigrate, as he believed that he should be with Russia in difficult times.
(1880 - 1921) Russian poet
Blok practically stopped writing poetry, as revolutionary deeds “drunk” him. According to relatives, Blok did not have a bad heredity and he rarely went to doctors. Here is the history of his illness: in April 1921 he felt unwell.
I announce: “Alexander Blok…”
He was constantly visited by Dr. Pekelis, who was his friend, and did not find anything dangerous in his condition. Chukovsky notes that Blok has changed dramatically, has become "hard, gnawed, with empty eyes, as if covered with cobwebs."
When Blok read an excerpt from his poem, someone from the crowd shouted out that his poems were dead. After this incident, Blok completely lost heart and, when he arrived at home, he did not even smile at his wife. At night Blok slept very badly, he had nightmares. On May 17, a chill appeared: the whole body ached, especially the arms and legs. Alexander was put to bed, and in the evening the doctor came. The temperature was 39, but the poet complained only of general weakness and heaviness in his head.
Despite the fact that the symptoms were more than strange, the doctor expressed the only possible suggestion that Blok could have acute endocarditis as a complication of the flu. At the beginning of June, Dr. Pekelis, after consulting with other doctors, filed a petition for the need to send the sick Blok to Finland.
But they no longer helped - on that day Blok died, leaving relatives, friends and doctors in confusion. As for Mayakovsky, Chukovsky, Solovyov and his other literary friends, they were convinced that the poet had been poisoned by the special services. By the way, later Ionov, who tried to investigate the causes of Blok's death, was sentenced to death.
Alexander Blok on his deathbed. Photo by Moses Nappelbaum. In our posts, we have already touched on the issues of diagnosis and the causes of death of our great poets. But with the death of another great poet, who died in a very difficult year for everyone in 1921, everything is not so simple. What else do we know about Blok's childhood illnesses? At the age of 12 - otitis, at 13 - measles with prolonged bronchitis.
Of course, all these assumptions require proof. Alexander Blok left at 41 very young
What is really bad is that the boy was the only one in the family, and they always shook over him, and exaggerated all his illnesses. Yes, and all my friends talk about Blok's radiant health. However, after five years the problems begin.
The great poet Alexander Blok died of an unknown illness at the age of 41. His death was complete surprise both for relatives and doctors. Alexander Blok himself, shortly before his death, said: "The poet dies because he has nothing more to breathe." Blok is now very difficult.
Even during his lifetime, Alexander Alexandrovich was recognized as a poet of national significance. The talent of this man was versatile. Along with poems and poems, he created a number of remarkable dramatic works, was engaged in translations and journalism. In 1917, he publicly declared his readiness to cooperate with the Soviet government, and a little later he called on all the creative intelligentsia not to sabotage the decisions of the Bolsheviks. And the authorities, actively defended by Blok, use the poet to the maximum. In 1918–1920 he was elected or appointed to the State Commission for the publication of the classics of Russian literature; lecturer at the School of Journalism; a member of the Union of Workers of Fiction; member of the council of the House of Arts; Chairman of the Petrograd branch of the All-Russian Union of Poets ...
There was so much work that the poet began to experience severe physical fatigue. On this occasion, he even remarked: "I was drunk." Probably, this can explain his creative silence after the poems "The Twelve" and "Scythians" (1918). In a letter to N.A. Nolle-Kogan dated January 3, 1919. Blok pointed out: “Almost a year since I didn’t belong to myself, I forgot how to write poetry and think about poetry,” and then continued indignantly: “Let a person be torn away from his beloved work, for which he exists ( in this case me from writing what I might perhaps still write), but it is cruel to remind a person what he was and tell him “you are a poet” when he is turned into a recorder, involved in politics and etc.”
Probably, all this led to a serious illness.
The great Russian poet, according to the official version, died at 10:30 on August 7, 1921 in Petrograd from scurvy, hunger and nervous exhaustion. The Soviet government allegedly did everything to save the talented master of the word. It was planned to send him for treatment abroad, but the travel documents were issued too late.
Meanwhile, according to the unofficial version, which was widely circulated during the years of perestroika, Alexander Blok became a victim of ... syphilis. Doctors treated him with mercury preparations, as a result of which the body was poisoned, and the poet went to another world, experiencing severe torment.
So how was it really?
Documents found at the Russian Center for the Storage and Study of Documents recent history(RTSKHIDNI) and the Archive of the President Russian Federation(APRF), reveal the true picture of the tragedy.
But everything is in order. In 1921, on May 3, Gorky sent a letter to Lunacharsky, People's Commissar of Education. “Dear Anatoly Vasilyevich! Alexander Alexandrovich Blok has scurvy, in addition, recently he has been in such an increased nervous state that doctors and his relatives are afraid of a serious mental illness. And also asthma attacks, which Blok has been suffering for a long time, have become more frequent.
Therefore, can you arrange for Blok - in a hurry - to travel to Finland, where I could help him get settled in one of the best sanatoriums? Do everything possible for you, I beg you! Shake your hand. A. Peshkov.
Somewhat later, on July 11, A.V. Lunacharsky sends the following message to Lenin, Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars:
“The poet Alexander Blok, who during all these four years was completely loyal to the Soviet government and wrote a number of works that were considered abroad as clearly sympathetic October revolution, is now seriously ill with a nervous breakdown. According to doctors and friends, the only way to improve it is a temporary vacation in Finland. I personally and Comrade Gorky are petitioning for this. The papers are in the Special Section, we ask the Central Committee to influence Comrade Menzhinsky in a way favorable to Blok. People's Commissar of Education A. Lunacharsky.
Lenin asks Menzhinsky, a member of the Presidium of the Cheka, to write a response to the letter. And Vyacheslav Rudolfovich did this on July 11, 1921.
“Dear comrade! Not only Lunacharsky, but also Bukharin vouched for Balmont. Blok nature is poetic; some story will make a bad impression on him, and he will quite naturally write poetry against us. In my opinion, it is not worth letting him out, but to arrange good conditions for Blok somewhere in a sanatorium. With communist greetings, V. Menzhinsky.”
The next day, July 12, 1921, at a meeting of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the RCP(b), Blok's fate was decided as follows. It was decided to reject the petition of Gorky and Lunacharsky.
By the way, the poet expected such a turn of events. He destroyed several of his notebooks, refused food and medication, often said that he wanted to burn the famous poem "The Twelve".
Despite this verdict, on July 16, 1921, Lunacharsky again wrote a letter to the Central Committee of the RCP (b). “The decisions of the Central Committee of the Russian Communist Party concerning Blok and Sologub, communicated to me, seem to me the fruit of an obvious misunderstanding. It is difficult to imagine a decision whose irrationality would be so striking to the eye. Who is Sologub? An old writer who no longer excites any hopes, in the most malicious and venomous way against the Soviet Republic, carrying with him abroad a vicious satire called "The Republic of China of equals." And this man, whom I never insisted on, for whom I, as People's Commissar of Education, never vouched for (and it would be shameless), about whom I only said that I was put in a difficult position, because the Cheka would not let him go , and Narkomprod and Narkomfin do not give me the means to support him, you release this person. Who is Block? The poet is young, arousing great hopes, along with Bryusov and Gorky, the main decoration of all our literature, so to speak, of yesterday. A man about whom The Times recently wrote a long article calling him Russia's most outstanding poet and pointing out that he recognizes and praises the October Revolution.
While Sologub was simply starving, having, however, a large income, Blok fell ill with severe hypochondria, and his departure abroad was recognized by doctors. the only means save him from death. But you don't let him go. At the same time, on the eve of receiving your decision, I spoke about this fact with V.I. Lenin, who asked me to send a corresponding request to the Central Committee, and a copy to him, promising to support Blok's vacation in Finland in every possible way.
But the Central Committee does not at all consider it necessary to ask People's Commissar on enlightenment of his motives, considers these questions from behind the eyes and, of course, commits a gross mistake. I can tell you in advance the result that will result from your decision. The highly gifted Blok will die in two weeks, and Fyodor Kuzmich Sologub will write a desperate article on this subject, full of abuse and curses, against which we will be defenseless, because. the basis of this article, i.e., the fact that we killed the most talented poet of Russia, will not be subject to any doubt and any refutation.
I am sending a copy of this letter to V.I. Lenin, who became interested in the fate of Blok, comrade. Gorky, so that the best writers of Russia know that I am not at all guilty of this (let the Central Committee forgive me this expression) frivolous decision. People's Commissar for Education A. Lunacharsky. Secretary A. Flaxerman.
Only on July 23, 1921, did the Politburo finally decide to allow Blok to travel abroad. But it was already too late.
The question arises, what was the famous poet ill with and could he be saved? The medical opinion of a council of doctors on the state of the poet's health and the need for his treatment, drawn up on June 18, 1921, answers the first question very clearly. "We, the undersigned,
having examined the state of health of Alexander Aleksandrovich Blok on 18/VI, 1921, we find that he suffers from chronic heart disease with an exacerbation of endocarditis and a subjective feeling of angina pectoris (Subocarditis chron. Exacerbata). From the side nervous system there are phenomena of neurasthenia, pronounced.
A.A. The block needs long-term treatment, and in the near future it is necessary to be placed in one of the well-equipped sanatoriums with a special method for treating heart patients. Professor of the [military] Medical] Academy and the Medical Institute] P. Troitsky. Head of the Nervous Department of the Men's Obukhov Hospital, Doctor of Medicine E. Giza. Doctor of Medicine Pekelis.”
From this it is clear that the rumors that A. Blok was ill with lues and was mentally abnormal do not stand up to criticism. The poet left our world in full consciousness. But could he be saved? The answer to it will be negative. At that level of development of medicine, it was impossible to save Blok.
But despite this, the guilt of party leaders is obvious. They were afraid to let a dying man out of the country because he would suddenly write something unpleasant about the Soviet Republic. But the authorities feared in vain: the poet dreamed of only one thing - to be left alone.
(1880-1921)
The article serves as an addition to the chapter "The Fall of the Herald" ("Rose of the World", book X, ch. 5):
« The spiritual darkness of these last years defies description. The psyche could no longer stand it, there were signs of its decay.(Daniil Andreev)
Dmitry Bykov
Mad Block
Most researchers and memoirists shyly avoided answering the question of why Blok died. Talk about last days Alexander Blok would inevitably have been touched by his disillusionment with the revolution
He died from lack of air, like Pushkin (a wording from Blok's last public speech, written on the anniversary of Pushkin's death in January 1921). He died along with the era. It was as if Blok had prepared these formulas in advance to help the "boring historians" of the future that he hated.
A week before the death of the poet, Nadezhda Pavlovich, his Moscow admirer, ran up to Korney Chukovsky in tears and stormily, quickly, incoherently started talking about the fact that everything was over for Blok. Chukovsky expressed himself in the sense that, hopefully, not everything is lost... Pavlovich whispered in his ear.
Don't tell anyone... it's been a few days now... he's gone crazy!
However, Chukovsky himself noticed signs of Blok, if not insanity, then the gradual disintegration of his personality. It is from his memoirs that we know how Blok, at the end of his life, could pass by an old and good acquaintance without noticing him and without bowing; he could go to the same institution twice in a row or go to his own evening the next day after having lectured on this evening his ever-dwindling, burdensome program ...
These oddities, obviously clinical, should not be confused with the innocent and even charming traits of his character in comparatively prosperous years. So, in the eighteenth, when Blok was still “heard sounds”, felt the influences of the elements, Gorky saw on the stairs in World Literature how he let someone pass in front of him, bowing politely and pointing with his hand to the upper flight of stairs. However, there was no one there.
In addition, the block last years conceived two plays at once - one about Christ, the other about the petty nobility - and could rehearse the mise-en-scène and act out dialogues for hours. But it's one thing to play with an imaginary double, another thing is Blok's disconnection from life and growing autism. He ceased to recognize not only acquaintances, but also close friends - perhaps consciously.
Alexander Etkind, a researcher of Blok's poetics, claims that syphilis was the cause of Blok's death. However, the philologist resorts to a euphemism: the disease from which his beloved Nietzsche and Vrubel died and which so terribly embodies the connection between love and death.
In recent years, people have been talking more and more insistently about Blok's syphilis. The point here is not only a painful interest in the intimate life of the great, but also the loss of the key to Blok's poems. Their magic fades with time. It is now very difficult to restore the subtext of Blok's verses. After all, we live, in fact, in a completely different world. And only a complete misunderstanding of Blok's fate and work can lead to such a rude, boring and positivist conclusion: they say, he died of syphilis...
Be that as it may, the causes of Blok's death are much deeper than any physical illness. By the way, the symptoms of the poet's near-death illness do not confirm the "venereal" version. The assumption of rheumatic heart disease or angina pectoris looks more reasonable: shortness of breath, joint and muscle pain, memory disorders, rapid fatigue, fits of anger ...
There were many versions, but it almost never occurred to anyone that Blok's illness did not begin immediately and that his case was special. The line between mental health and madness in the poet is more than conditional. Since 1913, he wrote poetry less and less, and after a short burst of activity, he practically fell silent at the beginning of 1915. Before The Twelve, Blok almost did not write, he was depressed. What in his youth he called melancholy, melancholy or sadness, over time transformed into persistent fatigue and suddenly breaking through anger.
Blok belonged to those few who from birth were given an absolute ear for any historical changes, a miracle of involuntary, without any effort and pathos, identification with the Motherland. Block barely knew Russian life but felt it unmistakably. There are a number of inaccuracies and arbitrary interpretations in his philosophical works and in historical dramaturgy - but intuition is higher than knowledge, and here things are perfect for him.
Blok saw “secret signs” in everything, about which he wrote a lot and vaguely, but his contemporaries understood him perfectly. It is difficult to explain this by a general exaltation or a fashion for the occult. There are periods in history when this or that country becomes the arena of mystery: forces begin to operate there, the presence of which is clear even to the most insensitive layman. Something huge ends, something terrible begins - this was how not only Blok and his entourage felt, but also those who went to cinemas and read exclusively the Satyricon. In their sense of the era, people as different as Bunin and Blok, Cherny and Bely, Yesenin and Mandelstam coincided. Blok's sensitivity - both to historical cataclysms, and to his own well-being, and even to the mood of his interlocutor - is generally phenomenal.
His painful sensitivity does not go well with the image of a healthy, stately - blood and milk - handsome man, which we meet in many memoirs. Tall, with a beautiful complexion (it darkened over the years, as if some kind of fire had burned it), Blok was actually never distinguished by good health. From his mother he inherited nervousness and impressionability, from his father - hypochondria, love of loneliness and those same fits of misanthropy that so suddenly rolled over both of them.
Blok was prone to migraines and bouts of weakness, and almost every page of his diary testifies to melancholy and despondency. Best of all, he felt in moments of social upsurge - no matter, creative or destructive.
At the height of the events of 1905, he lived in his estate Shakhmatovo, almost never went to Moscow and St. Petersburg. However, he experienced persistent nervous trembling, strong excitement and wrote his the best poems- including "", a masterpiece, equal to which, in my opinion, he did not create either before or after.
That is the reason for Blok's illness, that his spiritual life mystically coincided with the fate of Russia. When the spiritual life of Russia was truly intense and turbulent, Blok - without any external connections with real events - felt an upsurge and interest in life. According to the peaks of his creative activity, one can write a true Russian history, from which it will become clear that 1901-1902, 1905, 1907-1908, the first half of 1914 and 1918 were the years of the greatest concentration of spiritual life. Each such rise was replaced by a drowsy decline. So the war of 1914 was, perhaps, not the beginning of a large historical stage, but the end of it, the release of the tension that had been building up for so long. It is no coincidence that in 1914 Blok wrote, and in 1915 published The Nightingale Garden, a poem about a dream, about falling out of reality. The true story for him is the alternation of sleep and reality. AND real facts- only a reflection of the mystical life of Russia. Talk about Russian mysticism has recently become commonplace, but what to do - history is primarily a mystical category.
Blok's illness just begins in 1915, when the sounds around him begin to gradually fade, fade away. And in 1919, he said to Chukovsky: "Don't you hear that all sounds have stopped?" By sounds and signs, he understood signs of the higher, musical meaning of history, unique evidence of it. But in 1917 the course of history was forcibly turned by people who were far from this mystical music, and Russia ceased to be an arena of mystery, becoming a place of disaster.
However, one does not interfere with the other up to a certain point, but there are meaningful and meaningless disasters, high and low. The ruins became a garbage dump - and this was the beginning of the end not only for Blok, but for all the sensitive people of his generation. Imagine a person who has been listening to the music of other spheres all his life, as if basking in a beam that was directed to a certain part of the land - but now the beam has moved, and instead of a great renewal, a great glaciation has come, a terrible reduction of everything and everything, reduction of the scale - to one note . This is how the suddenly deafened Blok felt: life no longer sounded like a whole. The sounds crumbled. The meaning has been lost. This was confirmed by the reality of the then Petersburg: grass on the pavements and countless literary studios in dilapidated buildings...
One day Blok's mother was waiting for him from one of the meetings of World Literature. Suddenly she jumped up with a cry: "Sashenka, Sashenka, what is happening to you!" Ten minutes later Blok came in - exhausted and frightened as he was rarely seen. Alas, it was neither delirium nor a nightmare.
His life was shortened - in the complete absence of "musical" tension - by the terrible tension of all domestic, family ties: Lyubov Dmitrievna in recent years was much further from him than her mother - both did not understand each other ... But in Blok's life everything was not just like that, everything had a mystical meaning - he could not decide in any way in his attitude to the Motherland. Which image was closer to him: Russia-mother or Russia-wife? More precisely and bitterly than anyone about this eternal duality, about this too intimate attitude to the country of residence, our contemporary, the poet Alexander Kushner, said:
Taken separately, the country is barely alive.
Wife and mother in the same apartment is bad.
Block is dead. Terrible words survived:
Mother-in-law, sister-in-law, blood, daughter-in-law, era.
What was most terrible of all was precisely the growing anger: Blok had never before known such fits of rage. But, having lost contact with those spheres in which his life was the only possible one, having lost the idea of mystical Rus', sinking deeper and deeper into chaos, into the funnel of a new Russian history- he could not help being angry, and this "black malice, holy malice" was still the only living thing in him. It is she, and not expectations, hopes, or consciousness of the greatness of the moment - dictated by "The Twelve" and "Scythians". This malice is more than understandable if we compare Blok's Russia - "The clouds are walking, the dawns are reddening, // Let the cranes fly" - with what surrounded the poet in the post-revolutionary years. The feeling is that eternal winter reigned, and not yet severe, but slushy, chilly, typically St. Petersburg: the world looks so dank and colorless in all Blok’s records after 1918. It seems that he did not go anywhere except to the disgusting service and for the publisher's ration. But there were work in the theater, and Pushkin's speech, and the last novel - with E.F. Knipovich, an eighteen-year-old black-eyed beauty, but everyone who reads the late Blok has the feeling that the weather around him did not change either. Everything is grey, icy, deserted.
One of his most tormenting records is about how, going to one of the countless and unnecessary meetings of World Literature, he “pushed a little boy” without any reason. “Forgive me, Lord,” he writes. There is something to ask for forgiveness: there is no longer just malice, but a complete inability to live on. An exit is required - there is no exit. He is looking for a culprit in his torments, in the need to be present at the service every day, to receive rations, to chop firewood, to be on duty at the entrance, to ruin himself as a day laborer - and he does not find the culprit, because he himself called, cooked, called all this! So it seems to him. Only in 1921, in the last completed poem, did he say clearly and distinctly:
But not these days we called
And the coming ages.
But then, in the nineteenth, - he was choking with anger. Words came out that had not been there before, which would have frightened him before. "I'm stuffy, I'm vomiting, get away from me Satan." And who is it about? About the unfortunate man who lived behind the wall, and about his daughter singing romances... “When will she finally foal?!” Blok's fits of irritability are remembered by all who knew him; besides, he suddenly began to switch off from the conversation, stopped listening to his interlocutor and only muttered:
Why is this... why is this all...
Destroyed life destroyed consciousness. He could not think clearly, let alone write, when he did not see either the Purpose or the meaning of what was happening.
Here is one of the attacks of anger, which his wife recalled with horror. In Blok's office, where he had been lying for the last months, stood a bust of Apollo Belvedere. One day, a terrible noise was heard from the office. Lyubov Dmitrievna, running in, saw Blok with a poker over a pile of fragments. “I wanted to see how this impudent face will fly,” he said.
The same anger made him throw vials of medicine at the wall. Or maybe he just took out his hatred - otherwise, what good, he could hit someone close to him, as he hit that boy ... Who did this boy become? How was his life? That's what we'll never know, but everything is important for the biography of the mystic Blok...
Before his death, he tries to continue " Retribution" - and in the last sketches, the old music seemed to sound:
And the ringing balcony door
Opened in lindens and lilacs,
And into the blue dome of the sky,
And in the laziness of the surrounding villages ...
But even here - inertia, stringing of sounds, painful self-winding; he cannot write more than four lines.
His appearance changed terribly: his face was absolutely dark, like a dry tree; eyes as if covered with cobwebs; lameness...
It was not he who went crazy - it was the vector of Russian fate that disappeared, and everything that happened next was just the galvanization of a corpse. Now we have a new understanding of his then state. And that is why, perhaps, today Blok is so intelligible, Blok embittered: “Neither dreams nor reality”, “Russian dandies”, “Compatriots”, “The collapse of humanism”, diaries and notebooks ...
"I am Hamlet. The blood is getting colder...”, Blok wrote in one of his early poems. This Hamletian feeling of the broken connection of times does not leave Russia today.
November marks the 130th anniversary of the birth of Alexander Blok. He was born in St. Petersburg and died in Petrograd, as the city was renamed in connection with the start of the war with Germany. But he no longer had to live in Leningrad. The death of the great Russian poet was terrible and painful. He was examined the best doctors, but could not determine the causes of the disease that changed Blok beyond recognition. He rapidly faded before our eyes and soon died. There was a lot of controversy about the causes of his death, which does not subside to this day.
After Pushkin, it is difficult to find in Russia another such poet as Blok, who dedicated so many poems to love. Most famous cycle- “Poems about the Beautiful Lady”, the heroine of which was Lyubov Mendeleeva, the daughter of the great chemist, the creator of the Periodic Table of the Elements. Acquaintance with her was not accidental, Blok's mother was the daughter of the Vice-Rector of St. Petersburg University. And besides, their country estates in Shakhmatovo were not far from each other.
In his youth, Blok was slender, handsome, with big bright eyes - a real prince! He appeared to his future wife, like a prince - on a white horse in the most literal sense of the word. He came to the estate to the neighbors on a horse. As a result, in 1903 Lyubov Mendeleev became his wife.
But, alas, the poet's muse was fickle. Block often fell in love. Among his hobbies were both actresses and opera singers. Yes, this is not surprising. Blok was an extremely sensitive person to all impressions, to the people he met. It was said that he was "without skin." However, his life before the revolution was generally happy: marriage to his beloved woman, the huge success of his poems, a lot of admirers and admirers from all over Russia. But then the war with Germany broke out, and then the terrible year of 1917 ...
world fire
The romantic-minded Blok at first perceived the revolution with enthusiasm and enthusiastically called: "With all your body, with all your heart, with all your consciousness - listen to the music of the revolution!" The poet's personal response to the events was his famous poem "The Twelve". But almost no one understood her then. And those who categorically did not accept the October Revolution, and those who participated in it. And for the "revolutionary masses" his image of Christ in a "white halo of roses" seemed strange in general. It is no coincidence that these lines were altered: “A sailor walks ahead in a white halo of roses!”.
The nightmare of the first months after the seizure of power by the Bolsheviks, night searches, robberies, executions, violence, the onset of famine and devastation quickly sobered the poet. At first he read "The Twelve" at all his public appearances, and then he stopped. In February 1919, he was arrested by the Cheka, which suspected Blok of participating in an anti-Soviet conspiracy. He did not stay in prison for long, he was released at the request of Lunacharsky. However, the Chekist dungeon finally broke the poet. He fell into depression, stopped writing poetry, and his mental breakdown began. At home, Blok smashed furniture in a rage, tore paintings off the walls, and broke medicine bottles. The family had already fallen into poverty, Lyubov Dmitrievna sold everything, only an iron bed remained in the room.
"I'm suffocating!"
Blok already hated the revolution with every fiber of his soul. "I'm suffocating, suffocating, suffocating! We are suffocating, we are all suffocating!” he exclaimed furiously. The poet was examined by the best doctors, but they did not find any signs of illness. Romance "without skin" was not able to endure the "lead abominations" of the revolution.
In February 1921, he came to an evening dedicated to the memory of Pushkin. It was February, the houses were not heated, steam was coming from the mouths of the performers on the stage. Block with difficulty - his leg was already being taken away - climbed onto the stage. The poet was unrecognizable. Her hair turned ash gray, her features sharpened. As the pathologists said, it was no longer a face, but a "mask of death."
There is no happiness in the world, no,
But there is peace and freedom...
During the years of perestroika, someone published a version that Blok died of syphilis. Doctors de treated him with mercury preparations, as a result, the body was poisoned, from which the death of the poet was so terrible and painful.
"Don't release..."
However, documents found in the archives show that this was not the case. On May 3, 1921, Gorky sent a letter to Lunacharsky, People's Commissar of Education, in which he said that Block had scurvy, asthma attacks became more frequent, he was in a nervous state, and asked that the poet be urgently allowed to travel abroad for treatment.
However, the communist bureaucracy was clearly in no hurry. Lunacharsky writes to Lenin only on 11 July. Lenin, in turn, as if not knowing who Blok was, asked the Cheka to give a review of the great poet. The leader is answered by Menzhinsky, who believes that the release of the poet "is not worth it", because there are fears that "he will write against us." The Politburo then meets and decides to reject Gorky and Lunacharsky's request.
However, Lunacharsky does not give up. On July 16, he again writes to the Central Committee, explaining that treatment abroad is, according to doctors, the only way to save the poet from death. But the Central Committee is again in no hurry. Only on July 23 did the Politburo finally decide to allow Blok to travel abroad. But it's' too late. The poet can no longer be saved, and on August 7 he dies.
Causes of death
But why did the great Russian poet die in Petrograd? Before his death, he suffered greatly, screaming terribly. Georgy Ivanov, his contemporary, wrote that the doctors who treated Blok could not determine what, in fact, he was ill with. At first they tried to reinforce his strength, which was rapidly falling for no apparent reason, then, when he began to suffer unbearably from some unknown reason, they injected him with morphine ... But still, what did he die of? "The poet dies because he has nothing left to breathe." These words, spoken by Blok at the Pushkin evening, shortly before his death, may be the only correct diagnosis of his illness, many thought so.
The archives contain a medical report from a council of doctors who examined him on June 18, shortly before his death. It says that Blok suffers from chronic heart disease and severe neurasthenia. There is nothing in the conclusion that he allegedly suffered from lues and was mentally abnormal, about which rumors began to spread later.
Therefore, it is not difficult to assume that if the emaciated and exhausted genius "without skin" were given the opportunity to go to a sanatorium abroad, he, of course, could be saved. Therefore, the answer to the question of what killed Blok is, after all, perhaps one: he was killed by the horrors of the revolution that he sang, and vigilant comrades from the Cheka, who did not want to let the terminally ill patient go for treatment.
However, some researchers believe that the poet was killed by the authorities not in a figurative, but in the literal sense. As if his entourage: Merezhkovsky, Gippius, Chukovsky, Solovyov were sure that Blok was poisoned by the special services. This version was allegedly confirmed by the following fact: the director of Petrogoslitizdat, Ionov, who tried to investigate the causes of the poet's death and was the last one to visit the dying man, was later sentenced to death. However, no direct evidence of such a version has yet been found.
Content
Alexander Alexandrovich Blok is one of the great representatives of classical literature of the twentieth century. A descendant of the nobles, who enthusiastically accepted the revolution, did not want to emigrate, but remained in his homeland in the most troubled times. Endowed with rich talent and versatile abilities, Alexander Blok was intensively used by the youngthe Soviet authorities, which appointed him to various positions, which ultimately had a negative impact on his work and health. Sudden illness, and then death of Alexander Blok stirred up the entire intelligentsia of Russia and was a mystery for many generations for a long time.
Milestones of life and creativity
Alexander Blok was born in Russian Empire in November 1880 in the city of St. Petersburg in the family of a nobleman. His father, Alexander Lvovich, was a professor at the University of Warsaw, engaged in jurisprudence, and his paternal uncle was engaged in public affairs. The mother of the future poet, Alexandra Andreevna, was also from an intelligent family, the daughter of the famous scientist A.N. Beketov, rector of the University in St. Petersburg. However, in marriage, Block's parents did not live long. After the divorce, the mother remarried and took her son with her, but left him the name of his own father. stepfather wasGuards officer and the family settled in the Bolshaya Nevka area, in a remote area of the northern capital.
In 1889, the young man entered the Vvedensky gymnasium, which he successfully completed after 9 years. Then he studied for 8 years at St. Petersburg University, first at the Faculty of Law, and then comprehended Slavic-Russian history and philology.
Little Sasha wrote his first poems at the age of five, and at the age of ten he had already prepared two issues of the magazine "Ship" and until 1897 with his own hand, together with his brothers, wrote 37 issues of the magazines "Vestnik". At the age of 16, bright heartfelt feelings of love for Ksenia Sadovskaya, who was 21 years older than him, spilled over into a number of lyrical works. The hobby at this age for the theater was very successful, but short-lived.
In 1903, Alexander entered into an official marriage with the daughter of the famous scientist D.I. Mendeleev - Love. She became the Muse and the heroine of his first collection of poems, called "Poems about beautiful lady". Despite passionate love, the couple sometimes allowed themselves to communicate with fans on the side, because of which small scandals broke out from time to time, but over time they subsided and family life entered the path of peace.
The year 1909 brought two tragedies to the Blok family: Alexander's father and a child from Lyubov Dmitrievna died. For the first time, Blok has heart problems. To get away from stress, the couple go to Europe on vacation, visiting Germany and Italy. Poems written in Italy and approved by the society of writers "Academy", opened up the opportunity for him to become a member of this community.
In the summer of 1911 and 1913, Blok again visits Europe, but brings back negative impressions of French customs from there. The dramatic play “The Rose and the Cross”, which came out from the pen of the author, was approved by Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko, but for some reason it was not staged in the theater.
Revolution in the life of a poet
Alexander Blok enthusiastically met the revolution in October, did not want to emigrate, believing that he could benefit Russia in difficult times. He began working in one of the commissions of inquiry to investigate the crimes of officials as an editor. After the death of his stepfather, in 1920, Alexander moved his mother to his place, although it cannot be said that they found mutual language and understanding. Blok was one of the active representatives of the arts who agreed to collaborate with Soviet authorities. But, unfortunately, this negatively affected Alexander's health. The authorities tried to use his authority and name. For five years, the poet was appointed to all sorts of positions in various commissions, committees and organizations.
Illness and death of Alexander Blok
An endless large amount of work was beyond the power of an already not too healthy young man. In addition, constant dampness and cold, malnutrition and depression undermined Blok's health and strength. By early 1920, the poet was suffering from asthma, scurvy and mental disorders. Dr. Pekelis, who lived with him in the same house, did not find anything particularly dangerous in his condition, but recommended that he undergo a full examination and undergo serious treatment. For a full-fledged treatment, Blok had to go to Finland.
Blok applied to the Politburo of the party for the issuance of exit visas for him and his accompanying friend in the spring of 1921. But they were refused. Some historians argue that Menzhinsky and Lenin played a very negative, and possibly fatal, role in the fate of Alexander Blok, preventing him from leaving for treatment on time, when it was still possible to restore strength and cure ailments. Maxim Gorky, Lunacharsky, Kamenev and others petitioned for Blok statesmen, considering this issue at several meetings of the Politburo of the party. Finally, on July 23, the permission was signed, but by that time the poet's condition had deteriorated greatly, and Maxim Gorky asked to give permission for a visa to Blok's wife so that she could accompany him. The coordination was delayed, but despite the fact that the permission was signed by Molotov on August 1, Lunacharsky announced this only 5 days later. But it couldn't save a life famous poet. August 7 at the age of 41 Alexander Blok died in his Petrograd apartment.
According to the official version, the cause of death of Alexander Blok became inflammation of the heart valves and heart failure. For a long time he could not be diagnosed correctly, because the symptoms were very vague and multilateral. Blok literally in two months turned from a relatively healthy person into a disabled person who was tormented by terrible pain. To numb the condition a little, he was given opium, but this did not help for long. However, a doctor at the Kremlin hospital, who examined the patient back in April, came to the conclusion that he had anemia, malnutrition, and severe neurasthenia. She saw scorbutic tumors, but found no organic lesions, advised to lie more and gave preparations of strychnine and arsenic (which could cause toxic poisoning).
On June 7, Blok's attending physician gathered a council of several specialists with professorial degrees, and they concluded that the patient was suffering from psychasthenia and endocarditis, a heart disease that occurs due to inflammatory processes on the inside of the myocardium. The doctors understood that it was incurable, and that the days of the poet were numbered.
After the death of Alexander Blok, there were many different rumors about his causes of death, some reached the point of absurdity, and some were simply obscene. For many decades, the public did not know the exact diagnosis, and various versions were put forward. Some modern medical scientists, having collected all available materials and memories of the poet's close contemporaries about the time of his illness, came to the conclusion that Alexander hadsubacute septic endocarditis, which was provoked by chronic tonsillitis. This disease begins imperceptibly and goes through several stages, masquerading as various symptoms similar to other ailments. And it was almost impossible to cure the poet in those conditions, because antibiotics were not yet known. In contact with
