At the age of 16, Blok became interested in theater. In February 1921, at an evening in memory of Alexander Pushkin in 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 up to serve in the engineering department of the All-Russian Zemsky Union. The poet served in Belarus. Alexander Blok. Grizzly Morning. Poems. I say: "Alexander Blok ...".
Then he took to his bed and tried to work while sitting in bed. Blok, in front of the guest's eyes, took away and destroyed some of his notebooks. Alexandrovich is breathing heavily, lies with his eyes closed, must have dozed off. I never saw Blok alive again. " Ionov *. The block was already unconscious. Blok, patiently repeated that all were destroyed, not a single one remained.
Dmitry Bykov
Mad Block
He died in full consciousness. Blok and his other contemporaries. There were no events in his life. Block suffocated, took it from here. In 1897, finding himself with his mother abroad, in the German resort town of Bad Nauheim, 16-year-old Blok experienced the first strong youthful crush on 37-year-old Ksenia 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 admitted to a society called the Academy. In the summer of 1911, Blok again went abroad, 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 horse".
The ever-increasing volume of work undermined the poet's strength. Fatigue began to accumulate - Blok described his state of that period with the words “they drank me”. In the spring of 1921, Alexander Blok, together with Fyodor Sologub, asked for exit visas. The question was considered by the Politburo of the Central Committee of the RCP (b).
Today, March 15th in history:
Lunacharsky noted: "We literally did not let the poet go and did not give him the necessary satisfactory conditions, we tortured him." Before recent years In St. Petersburg lived Alexander Blok's second cousin - Ksenia Vladimirovna Beketova. Among the Blok's relatives is the editor-in-chief of the magazine "Our Heritage" - Vladimir Yenisherlov. Particularly characteristic in this regard is the classic comparison of the foggy silhouette of the "Stranger" and "drunkards with the eyes of rabbits" which has become a textbook.
In 1917-18, Blok was undoubtedly captured by the spontaneous side of the revolution. The bloc openly joined the Bolsheviks. Published an article admired by Kogan (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), which is not similar to all his previous works.
The language style of the poem "The Twelve" was perceived by contemporaries not only as deeply new, but also as the only possible one at that moment. In February 1919, Blok was arrested by the Petrograd Extraordinary Commission.
Honored Artist of Russia dies in St. Petersburg
The rethinking of revolutionary events and the fate of Russia was accompanied for Blok by a deep creative crisis, depression and progressive illness. Apparently, Blok wrote the story about Mogilev, but did not manage 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, 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 experiences a strong mental shock: his father dies, then the 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 the revolutionary deeds "drank" him. According to the testimony of relatives, Blok did not have a bad heredity and he rarely turned to doctors. Here is the history of his illness: in April 1921, he felt unwell.
I declare: "Alexander Blok ..."
Doctor Pekelis, who was his friend, constantly came to him, and did not find anything dangerous in his condition. Chukovsky notes that Blok has changed dramatically, he has become "tough, gnawed, with empty eyes, as if covered with cobwebs."
When Blok read a passage of his poem, someone from the crowd will shout out that his poems are dead. Blok after this incident 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. They put Alexander to bed, and in the evening the doctor came. The temperature was 39, but the poet only complained of general weakness and heaviness in his head.
Despite the fact that the symptoms were more than strange, the doctor made the only possible suggestion that Blok might have acute endocarditis as a complication after the flu. In early June, after consultation with other doctors, Dr. Pekelis filed a petition to send the sick Blok to Finland.
But they did not help anymore - on that day Blok died, leaving his family, 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 upon the issues of diagnosing 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 12 years old - otitis media, at 13 - measles with prolonged bronchitis.
Of course, all these assumptions require proof. Alexander Blok left at 41 very young
What's really bad is that the boy was the only one in the family, and they always shook over him, and all his illnesses were exaggerated. And all the acquaintances talk about Blok's splendid health. However, after five years, problems begin.
The great poet Alexander Blok died of an unknown illness at the age of 41. His death was a complete surprise to both his family and doctors. Alexander Blok himself, shortly before his death, said: "The poet is dying, because he has nothing else to breathe." Blok is now very difficult.
Alexander Blok on his deathbed. Photo by Moses Nappelbaum.
On August 7, 1921, the poet Alexander Blok died at 10.30. The controversy over why he died continues to this day. At the time of his death, Blok is 40 years old. Status is the main poet of the era. All reading Russia knows his name. One of the few representatives of the Russian intelligentsia who accepted the October Revolution. At the beginning of 1918 he wrote the poems "The Twelve" and "Scythians" - deeply revolutionary in their essence and form. After that, he practically stops talking. Recent years have passed in severe depression. Before death, a mental disorder becomes apparent.
On the perception of Blok's death by his contemporaries, and through them, and by later researchers of the poet's biography, the very time of death left a huge imprint. What was that time?
The Bolsheviks have been in power for the fourth year. The country is in ruins. Goes civil War... A new economic policy has just been announced as a recognition by the authorities of the impossibility of continuing to exist under the conditions of war communism. It was very easy to die in Petrograd in the first post-revolutionary years. There was no everyday life. Hungry. Cold. Tightness and dirt. Any disease without proper treatment, with a paucity of nutrition, in unsanitary conditions, easily led to death. In addition, they killed a lot - they just killed elementary. For example, three days before Blok's death, another poet, Nikolai Gumilyov, was arrested and a few weeks later executed. But Blok was not killed. He died himself. In my bed. And this is the only thing that we know for certain about his death.
The cause of death was not indicated in the obituaries of official Soviet newspapers, such as Izvestia. No name of the disease, no medical report. You might think that they tried to hide the truth, and something is unclean here, but no - they simply did not perform an autopsy, and during his lifetime, Blok was never clinically examined. There are no official documents.
It is clear that this gap was subsequently filled. Until today, all encyclopedias and reference books have reported that Blok died of heart disease, specifically, inflammation of the heart valves or, as it was later specified, septic endocarditis. By the way, this is a completely plausible version.
"Why write for a hundred years that Blok died of hunger-asthma-flu-overwork-heart attack when he died of syphilis, which gave a complication to the brain. There are treatment notes in his surviving notebooks. Blok began to disintegrate and aggressive delirium, everyone saw it, the symptoms were textbook, so why break Vanka?
The great Baudelaire died of syphilis, but in France it never occurred to anyone for a HUNDRED YEARS to lie that he died of sore throat or hemorrhoids. And of course no one in France would have appointed the "accursed poet" secretary of the commission to investigate cabinet abuses. "
Alexander Etkind, a researcher of Blok's poetics, claims that syphilis became 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, they have been talking more and more insistently about Blok's syphilis. The point here is not only a morbid interest in the intimate life of the greats, but also the loss of the key to Blok's poems. Their magic fades with time. It is very difficult to restore the subtext of Blok's poems now. After all, we live, in fact, in a completely different world. And only a complete misunderstanding of the fate and work of Blok 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 "venereal" version is not confirmed by the symptoms of the poet's dying illness. More reasonable seems to be the assumption of rheumatic heart disease or angina pectoris: shortness of breath, joint and muscle pains, memory disorders, rapid fatigue, fits of anger ...
Block on his deathbed. Sketch by Yuri Annenkov
In the Soviet Union, this version was hushed up. Syphilis was considered a shameful disease, and the national classic, like Caesar's wife, should be above suspicion. Meanwhile, syphilis is as much a scourge in the 19th century as AIDS at the end of the 20th. Verlaine, Nietzsche, Maupassant, Toulouse Lautrec, Vrubel died of syphilis.
The most authoritative supporter of the version of Blok's death from syphilis is Avril Payman - almost the largest specialist in Russian poetry in the west of the early 20th century, Ph.D., a member of the British Academy. Her book “Angel and Stone. The Life of Alexander Blok ”was translated in 2005. Payman thoroughly argues in his book about Blok the version of syphilis. Her book is a serious study. She is not looking for cheap sensations. This is a monograph about Blok, not about Blok's syphilis.
In Blok's diary, there is a mention of a medical examination for syphilis, which was carried out by doctors back in 1911. Syphilis was very common at the beginning of the 20th century. With a certain lifestyle, it was not difficult to get infected with it in St. Petersburg. The peculiarities of Blok's sexual behavior are also known. Stormy, although not numerous, novels, frequent contacts with prostitutes. I was not an ascetic. Could get infected.
Before the discovery of antibiotics, syphilis was treated with mercury. The causative agent of the disease - treponema pale - was identified only in 1905, and in 1906 August Wasserman developed an accurate method for diagnosing syphilis. There are three stages of the disease. Chronic third stage affects a variety of organs, including the nervous, respiratory and cardiovascular systems.
Blok whole year examined by the Wasserman method. The doctors said that syphilis was not detected, but persistently continued the tests. They were supposedly treated for a rare disease with yeast cells, but they used mercury and salvarsan, which were then used against syphilis.
Perhaps the doctors were reinsured. Without making an accurate diagnosis, they proceeded from the possibility of the two most common infectious diseases in Petersburg at that time: tuberculosis and syphilis. Blok was excluded from tuberculosis, syphilis was not.
The only confirmation of syphilis is a diary describing the treatment. Block with early years felt ashamed because he suspected he had a sexually transmitted disease. It can be assumed, of course, that he deliberately drove the thought of syphilis away from himself, but still there are no compelling facts.
Avril Payman points out that the symptoms of the disease from which Blok died are similar to tertiary syphilis: constant complaints of chills, aches throughout the body, limbs, pain in the heart. About six months before death - terrible pain in the legs, shortness of breath. Scurvy swellings on the legs. Anemia. Feverish jumps in temperature. Terribly emaciated. A month before death - swelling, vomiting, pain in the stomach. The swelling is constantly growing. Obvious mental abnormality, aggression.
It can be assumed that Blok really was dying of syphilis, the doctors knew this, but in order not to stain the poet's name, they made a fake conclusion about heart disease for posterity. Well, after his death, when Blok gradually entered the official anthology, it was no longer possible to dot the i's in this story. They knew about such suspicions. But they didn’t write. Sexually transmitted diseases were considered shameful, characteristic of the social bottom. No wonder that during the time of total censorship, a ban was imposed on the version about Blok's death from syphilis.
By the way, except for Avril Payman, no one insists on this version of Blok's deadly illness. Dr. Alexander Pekelis is a fully qualified doctor, doctor of medicine, worked at the Military Medical Academy. I watched the patient from the very beginning of the illness until the last days. When there was a sharp deterioration, he convened a consultation of the famous St. Petersburg doctors: P.V. Troitsky and E.A. Gize. The latter was the head of the neurological department of the Obukhov hospital. There was no reason to lie to the doctors, they saw the views. But Blok's last illness was indeed strange. Most of his contemporaries, and the poet himself, were inclined to believe that "lack of air" killed him.
Blok Alexander Alexandrovich was born in St. Petersburg on November 28, 1880. His father was Alexander Lvovich Blok, who worked as a professor at the University of Warsaw, and his mother was the translator Alexandra Andreevna Beketova, whose father was the rector of St. Petersburg University.
For her first wife, the mother of the future poet married at the age of eighteen, and soon after the birth of the boy, she decided to break all ties with her unloved husband. Subsequently, the poet's parents practically did not communicate with each other.
At that time, divorces were rare and condemned by society, but in 1889 the self-sufficient and purposeful Alexandra Blok made sure that the Holy Governing Synod officially dissolved her marriage to Alexander Lvovich. Soon after this, the daughter of the famous Russian botanist remarried for real love: for the officer of the Guard Kublitsky-Piottukh. Alexandra Andreevna did not change her son's last name to her own or to the intricate name of her stepfather, and the future poet remained Blok.
Sasha spent his childhood at his grandfather's house. In the summer, he left for Shakhmatovo for a long time and throughout his life carried warm memories of the time spent there. Moreover, Alexander Blok lived with his mother and her new husband on the outskirts of St. Petersburg.
There was always an incomprehensible spiritual connection between the future poet and his mother. It was she who opened the works of Baudelaire, Polonsky, Verlaine, Fet and other famous poets to Sasha. Alexandra Andreevna and her young son studied new trends in philosophy and poetry together, had enthusiastic conversations about latest news politics and culture. Subsequently, it was to his mother that Alexander Blok first of all read his works and it was from her that he sought consolation, understanding and support.
In 1889, the boy began to study at the Vvedenskaya gymnasium. Some time later, when Sasha was already 16 years old, he went with his mother on a trip abroad and spent some time in the city of Bad Nauheim - a popular German resort of those times. Despite his young age, on vacation, he selflessly fell in love with Ksenia Sadovskaya, who at that time was 37 years old. Naturally, there was no question of any relationship between a teenager and an adult woman. However, the charming Ksenia Sadovskaya, her image captured in the memory of Blok, later became an inspiration for him when writing many works.
In 1898, Alexander completed his studies at the gymnasium and successfully passed the entrance exams at St. Petersburg University, choosing jurisprudence for his career. Three years after that, he nevertheless transferred to the historical and philological department, choosing for himself the Slavic-Russian direction. The poet completed his studies at the university in 1906. While receiving higher education, he met Alexei Remizov, Sergei Gorodetsky, and also became friends with Sergei Solovyov, who was his second cousin.
The beginning of creativity
Blok's family, especially on the maternal side, continued a highly cultured family, which could not but affect Alexandra. From a young age, he avidly read numerous books, was fond of theater and even attended a corresponding circle in St. Petersburg, and also tried his hand at poetry. The boy wrote his first uncomplicated works at the age of five, and as a teenager, he was enthusiastically engaged in writing a handwritten magazine in the company of his brothers.
An important event in the early 1900s for Alexander Alexandrovich was the marriage to Lyubov Mendeleeva, who was the daughter of an eminent Russian scientist. The relationship between the young spouses was complex and peculiar, but filled with love and passion. Lyubov Dmitrievna also became a source of inspiration and a prototype for a number of characters in the poet's works.
Talk about full creative career The block is available from 1900-1901. At that time, Alexander Alexandrovich became an even more devoted admirer of the work of Afanasy Fet, as well as the lyrics and even the teachings of Plato. In addition, fate brought him together with Dmitry Merezhkovsky and Zinaida Gippius, in whose magazine called "New Way" Blok took his first steps as a poet and critic.
At an early stage of his creative development, Alexander Alexandrovich realized that symbolism was a direction close to his liking in literature. This movement, which penetrated all varieties of culture, was distinguished by innovation, a desire for experiments, a love of mystery and understatement. In St. Petersburg, symbolists close to him in spirit were the aforementioned Gippius and Merezhkovsky, and in Moscow - Valery Bryusov. It is noteworthy that around the time Blok began to publish in the St. Petersburg "New Way", his works began to print and the Moscow almanac called "Northern Flowers".
A special place in the heart of Alexander Blok was occupied by a circle of young admirers and followers of Vladimir Solovyov, organized in Moscow. The role of a kind of leader of this circle was assumed by Andrei Bely, at that time an aspiring prose writer and poet. Andrei became a close friend of Alexander Alexandrovich, and the members of the literary circle were among the most devoted and enthusiastic admirers of his work.
In 1903 in the almanac "Northern Flowers" was published a cycle of works by Blok entitled "Poems about the Beautiful Lady". At the same time, three poems of the young rhymer were included in a collection of works by students of the Imperial St. Petersburg University. In his first known cycle, Blok presents a woman as a natural source of light and purity, and raises the question of how a real love feeling brings an individual closer to the world whole.
Revolution of 1905-1907
For Alexander Alexandrovich, revolutionary events became the personification of the spontaneous, disordered nature of life and quite significantly influenced his creative views. The beautiful Lady in his thoughts and poems was replaced by images of a blizzard, blizzard and vagrancy, bold and ambiguous Faina, Snow Mask and Stranger. Poems about love faded into the background.
The poet was also fascinated by drama and interaction with the theater at this time. The first play, written by Alexander Alexandrovich, was called "Balaganchik" and was composed by Vsevolod Meyerhold in the theater of Vera Komissarzhevskaya in 1906.
At the same time, Blok, who, idolizing his wife, did not refuse the opportunity to harbor tender feelings for other women, flared up with passion for N.N. Volokhova, theater actress Vera Komissarzhevskaya. The image of the beautiful Volokhova soon filled Blok's philosophical verses: the poet dedicated the Faina cycle and the Snow Mask book to her, copied the heroines of the plays Song of Fate and The King in the Square from her.
In the late 1900s, the main theme of Blok's work was the problem of the relationship between the common people and the intelligentsia in the domestic society. In the verses of this period, one can trace a vivid crisis of individualism and attempts to determine the place of the creator in the conditions the real world... At the same time, Alexander Alexandrovich associated the Motherland with the image of his beloved wife, which is why his patriotic poems acquired a special, deeply personal individuality.
Rejection of symbolism
1909 was a very difficult year for Alexander Blok: that year his father died, with whom he nevertheless maintained rather warm relations, as well as the newborn child of the poet and his wife Lyudmila. Nevertheless, the impressive legacy that Alexander Blok Sr. left to his son allowed him to forget about financial difficulties and focus on large creative projects.
In the same year, the poet visited Italy, and the atmosphere abroad pushed him even more to re-evaluate the previously established values. The cycle "Italian Poems", as well as prose sketches from the book "Lightning of Art", tells about this inner struggle. In the end, Blok came to the conclusion that symbolism, as a school with strictly defined rules, had exhausted itself for him, and henceforth he felt the need for self-deepening and a "spiritual diet."
Concentrating on large literary works, Alexander Alexandrovich gradually began to devote less and less time to publicistic work and the appearance at various events that were in vogue among the poetic bohemians of those times.
In 1910, the author began to compose an epic poem entitled "Retribution", which he was not destined to finish. In the period from 1912 to 1913 he wrote the famous play "The Rose and the Cross". And in 1911, Blok, taking as a basis his five books with poetry, compiled a collection of works in three volumes, which was reprinted several times.
October Revolution
Soviet power did not evoke such a negative attitude from Alexander Blok as from many other poets of the "Silver Age". At a time when Julius Eichenwald, Dmitry Merezhkovsky and many others with might and main criticized the Bolsheviks who came to power, Blok agreed to cooperate with the new state leadership.
The name of the poet, who by that time was well known to the public, was actively used by the authorities for their own purposes. Among other things, Alexander Alexandrovich was constantly appointed to positions of no interest to him in various commissions and institutions.
It was during this period that the poem "Scythians" and the famous poem "The Twelve" were written. The last image of the "Twelve": Jesus Christ, who was at the head of the procession of twelve soldiers of the Red Army, caused a real resonance in the literary world. Although now this work is considered one of the best works of the "Silver Age" of Russian poetry, most of Blok's contemporaries spoke about the poem, especially about the image of Jesus, in an extremely negative way.
Personal life
The first and only wife of Blok is Lyubov Mendeleev, with whom he was madly in love and whom he considered his real destiny. The wife was a support and support for the writer, as well as a constant muse.
However, the poet's ideas about marriage were quite peculiar: firstly, he was categorically against physical intimacy, singing spiritual love. Secondly, until the last years of his life, Blok did not consider it shameful to fall in love with other representatives of the fair sex, although his women never had such a meaning for him as his wife. However, Lyubov Mendeleeva also allowed herself to be carried away by other men.
The children of the married couple Blokov, alas, did not appear: the child, born after one of the few joint nights of Alexander and Lyubov, was too weak and did not survive. Nevertheless, Blok still has a lot of relatives both in Russia and in Europe.
Death of poet
After the October Revolution, there were by no means only interesting Facts from the life of Alexander Alexandrovich. Loaded with an incredible amount of responsibilities, not belonging to himself, he began to get very sick. Blok developed asthma, cardiovascular disease, and mental disorders began to form. In 1920, the author fell ill with scurvy.
At the same time, the poet was going through a period of financial difficulties.
Exhausted by need and numerous illnesses, he passed away on August 7, 1921, while in his apartment in St. Petersburg. The cause of death is inflammation of the heart valves. The poet's funeral and service was performed by Archpriest Alexei Zapadalov, Blok's grave is located at the Smolensk Orthodox cemetery.
Shortly before his death, the writer tried to get permission to travel abroad for treatment, but he was refused. It is said that after that, Blok, being in a sober mind and sane mind, destroyed his records and, in principle, did not take any medicine or even food. For a long time there were also rumors that, before his death, Alexander Alexandrovich had gone mad and raved about whether all copies of his poem "The Twelve" had been destroyed. However, these rumors have not been confirmed.
Alexander Blok is considered one of the most brilliant representatives of Russian poetry. His major works, as well as small poems ("Factory", "Night street lantern pharmacy", "In a restaurant", "Old hut" and others), have become part of the cultural heritage of our people.
During his lifetime, Alexander Alexandrovich was recognized as a poet of national importance. This man's talent was versatile. Along with poems and poems, he created a number of remarkable dramatic works, was engaged in translation and journalism. In 1917, he publicly declared his readiness to cooperate with the Soviet regime, and a little later called on the entire creative intelligentsia not to sabotage the decisions of the Bolsheviks. And the authorities, actively defended by the Bloc, 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 Fiction Workers; 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: "They drank me." Probably this can explain his creative silence after the poems "The Twelve" and "Scythians" (1918). In a letter to N.A. Nolle-Kogan of January 3, 1919. Blok pointed out: “For almost a year since I don’t belong to myself, I have forgotten how to write poetry and think about poetry,” and then indignantly continued: “Let a person be torn away from the beloved business for which he exists ( in this case, me - from writing what I, perhaps, could still write), but at the same time it is cruel to remind a person what he was and tell him "you are a poet" when he is turned into a protocolman, is 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 am on August 7, 1921 in Petrograd from scurvy, hunger and nervous exhaustion. The Soviet government allegedly did everything to save the talented master of words. They planned to send him for treatment abroad, but the travel documents were issued too late.
Meanwhile, according to an 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 into another world, experiencing severe torment.
So how was it really?
The documents found in the Russian Center for the Preservation and Study of Documents of Contemporary History (RCKHIDNI) and the Archive of the President of the 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 the People's Commissar for Education Lunacharsky. “Dear Anatoly Vasilievich! Alexander Aleksandrovich 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 more frequent attacks of asthma, which Blok has been suffering from for a long time.
Therefore, can you arrange for Blok - in a hurry - to travel to Finland, where I could help him get a job in one of the best sanatoriums? Do your best for you, I beg you! Shake your hand. A. Peshkov ".
A little later, on July 11, A.V. Lunacharsky sends a message to the chairman of the Council of People's Commissars Lenin as follows:
“The poet Alexander Blok, who during all these four years was completely loyal to the Soviet regime and wrote a number of works considered abroad as clearly sympathizing with the October Revolution, is now seriously ill with a nervous breakdown. According to doctors and friends, the only way to fix him is to take a temporary vacation to Finland. I personally and Comrade Gorky are making a request for this. The papers are in the Special Section, we ask the Central Committee to influence Comrade Menzhinsky in a sense favorable to the Bloc. People's Commissar of Education A. Lunacharsky ".
Lenin asks the member of the Presidium of the Cheka Menzhinsky to write a review of the letter. And Vyacheslav Rudolfovich on July 11, 1921 does it.
“Dear comrade! Not only Lunacharsky vouched for Balmont, but also Bukharin. The nature is poetic; some story will make a bad impression on him, and he will 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 a communist pr [evet] V. Menzhinsky. "
The next day, July 12, 1921, at a meeting of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the RCP (b), the fate of the Bloc was decided as follows. 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 to eat and take medicine, 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 RCP concerning Blok and Sologub, communicated to me, seem to me the fruit of an obvious misunderstanding. It is difficult to imagine a solution, the irrationality of which would be so striking. Who is Sologub? An old writer, no longer arousing any more hopes, in the most malicious and venomous way opposed to the Soviet Republic, bringing with him abroad a malicious satire called "The Republic of China of Equals." And this person, about whom I never insisted, for whom I, as the people's commissar of education, never vouched (and it would be shameless), about whom I only said that I was put in a difficult situation, because the Cheka does not let him go , and the People's Commissariat for Food and the People's Commissariat of Finance do not give me the means to support him, you let this person go. Who is Blok? A young poet, exciting great hopes, together with Bryusov and Gorky, the main adornment of all our literature, so to speak, of yesterday. The man about whom the Times recently wrote a long article, calling him the most prominent poet in Russia and pointing out that he recognizes and praises the October Revolution.
While Sologub is simply cheating, having, however, a large salary, Blok fell ill with severe hypochondria, and his departure abroad was recognized by doctors as the only way to save him from death. But you don't let him go. At the same time [m], on the eve of receiving your decision, I spoke about this fact with V.I. Lenin, who asked me to send the corresponding request to the Central Committee, and a copy to him, promising in every way to support Blok's leave to Finland.
But the Central Committee does not at all consider it necessary to ask the People's Commissar for Education for his motives, considers these questions behind the scenes and, of course, makes a gross mistake. I can tell you in advance the result that will be obtained as a result of your decision. The highly gifted Blok will die in two weeks, and Fyodor Kuzmich Sologub will write on this occasion a desperate article full of abuse and curses, against which we will be defenseless, because the basis of this article, that is, the fact that we killed the most talented poet of Russia, will not be subject to any doubt or any refutation.
I am sending a copy of this letter to V.I. Lenin, who became interested in the fate of the Bloc, comrade. Gorky, so that the best writers in Russia know that I am in no way guilty of this (let the Central Committee forgive me this expression) frivolous decision. People's Commissar for Education A. Lunacharsky. Secretary A. Flakserman ".
Only on July 23, 1921, the Politburo finally made a decision to allow the Blok to travel abroad. But it was already too late.
The question arises, what was the famous poet sick with and was it possible to save him? The medical report of the council of doctors on the state of health of the poet and the need for his treatment, drawn up on June 18, 1921, very clearly answers the first question. "We, the undersigned,
having examined the state of health of Alexander Alexandrovich Blok on 18 / VI 1921, we find that he suffers from chronic heart disease with exacerbation of endocarditis and a subjective sensation 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] M [editsinskoy] academy and the Medical [institute] P. Troitsky. Head of the Nervous Department of the Obukhovskaya Male Hospital, d [okto] r med [icina] E. Giza. D [octo] r honey [icines] Pekelis ".
Hence, it is clear that the rumors that A. Blok was ill with Lues and was mentally abnormal do not hold water. The poet left our world in full consciousness. But could he have been 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 the party leaders is obvious. They were afraid to release the dying person over the cordon because he would suddenly write something impartial about the Soviet Republic. But the authorities were afraid in vain: the poet dreamed of only one thing - to be left alone.
