Article

Name: The Petersburg myth as a ritual of the “birth” of a new history in the poem “The Twelve” by Alexander Blok

Authors: Andrey V. Sharavin, Oleg E. Voronichev, Svetlana I. Vidyushchenko

Bryansk State Academician I. G. Petrovski University, Bryansk, Russian Federation

In the section Study of literature

Abstract:

The disengagement of Alexander Blok from symbolism did not imply a dismissal of artistic strategies that renew the relationship between previous eras and the current one. The Petersburg myth of emperor-demiurges resonates in “The Twelve” through the Red Guards’ march and Katka’s murder. This homicide serves as a ritual of sacrifice, pre-determining a “cleansing” necessary for the birth of a new history and transforming the mythological into the historical, a shift toward a harsh, masculine image of power. The study analyzes the linguistic frequency of the paronyms vpered (”forward”) and vperedi (”in front of”) as indicators of the Twelve and Christ, respectively. Christ and the Red Guards coexist in divergent dimensions: the eternal and the earthly, the timeless and the temporal. While Blok suggests that Christ’s presence reflects a readiness for the atonement of the Revolution’s transgressions, the Red Guards instinctively sense Christ’s extraneity. Their rejection of Him signals a defection toward the expectation of “the Other,” a human leader modeled after Peter the Great. This motif of the “Other” and the non-recognition of Christ, merely indicated by Blok, finds full realization in Yakov Golosovker’s “Sozhzhennyy roman” (“Burned novel”). The disappearance of Most High after a gunshot allows for a reinterpretation of Blok’s vperedi as a spatial breakaway, signaling that Jesus eventually leaves the apostles of the new faith. Ultimately, the divine story transforms into a human one through the energetic opposition between Christ (light) and the guards (material), who await a Peter-type leader.

Keywords: Alexander Blok, the poem “The Twelve” St. Petersburg, history, myth, ritual, symbol

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