Blok's notation

Wed Feb 27 16:53:35 UTC 2008

Dear Andrew,

As far as I know, the mythologised version described in Mayakovsky's  
narrative should be treated as a legend. Blok's library and part of  
his estate in Shakhmatovo   were burnt in 1921, one month before  
Blok's death. It seems that  Mayakovsky's version "compresses"  
different temporal dimensions...
According to some accounts, when Blok received the news about  
Shakhmatovo in 1921 he said that it might have been  for the better  
because he didn't have any need to have any possessions...
Yet Blok's own diary entries do not depict such a wholehearted  
acceptance of the October revolution as Mayakovsky wanted to portray.
Blok's  1919 diary entries illustrate very well his response to all  
the chaos and terror he witnessed. He wrote, for example, "Chego  
nel'zia otniat' u bol'shevikov – eto ikh iskliuchitel'noi sposobnosti  
vytravlait' byt i unichtozhat' otdel'nykh liudei. Ne znaiu, plokho eto  
ili ne osobenno. Eto fakt. [...]Nikto nichego ne khochet delat'.  
Prezhde milliony iz-pod palki rabotali na tysiachi. Vot vsia razgadka.  
No pochemu millionam khotelos' rabotat'? I otkuda im ponimat'  
kommunizm inache, chem - kak grabezh i kartezh?" (11.06.1919). As for  
Mayakovsky himself, Blok criticised his nihilism in his draft of an  
essay/open letter to Mayakovsky included into his diary entry on  
30.12.1918. He wrote: "Ne men'she, chem vy, nenavizhu Zimnii dvorets i  
muzei. No razrushenie tak zhe staro, kak stroitel'stvo, i tak zhe  
traditsionno, kka ono. Razrushaia postyloe, my tak zhe skuchaem i  
zevaem, kak togda, kogda smotreli na ego postroiku. [...] Nad nami –  
bol'shee prokliat'e: my ne mozhem ne spat', my ne mozhem ne est'. Odni  
budut stroit', drugie razrushat', ibo vsemu svoe vremia pod solntsem,  
no vse budut ravami, poka ne poiavit'sia tret'ie, ravno ne pokhozhee  
na stroitel'stvo i na razrushenie". (Blok, soobranie sochinenij, vlume  
7, Moscow-Leningra, 1963, p.351).

All best,
Sasha Smith

----------------------------------------

Alexandra Smith (PhD, University of London)
Lecturer in Russian
School of European Languages and Cultures
The University of Edinburgh
David Hume Tower
George Square
Edinburgh EX8 9JX
UK

tel. +44-(0)131-6511381
fax: +44- (0)131- 650-3604
e-mail: Alexandra.Smith at ed.ac.uk

Quoting Andrew Jameson <a.jameson2 at DSL.PIPEX.COM>:

>  Re Blok and the burning of his library - I have an extract from Maiakovskii
> which bears on this. Incidentally, I seem to remember that the incident
> described here may be the origin of the title of Maiakovskii's narrative
> poem of this name - see the text immediately below.
> Блок честно и восторженно подошел к нашей великой революции, но тонким,
> изящным словам символиста не под силу было выдержать и поднять ее тяжелые
> реальнейшие, грубейшие образы. В своей знаменитой, переведенной на многие
> языки поэме "Двенадцать" Блок надорвался.
> Помню, в первые дни революции проходил я мимо худой, согнутой солдатской
> фигуры, греющейся у разложенного перед Зимним костра. Меня окликнули. Это
> был Блок. Спрашиваю: "Нравится?"  "Хорошо", - сказал Блок, а потом прибавил:
> "У меня в деревне библиотеку сожгли".
> Вот это "хорошо" и это "библиотеку сожгли" было два ощущения революции,
> фантастически связанные в его поэме "Двенадцать". Одни прочли в этой поэме
> сатиру на революцию, другие - славу ей.
> Поэмой зачитывались белые, забыв, что "хорошо", поэмой зачитывались красные,
> забыв проклятие тому, что "библиотека сгорела". Символисту надо было
> разобраться, какое из этих ощущений сильнее в нем. Славить ли это "хорошо"
> или стонать над пожарищем, - Блок в своей поэзии не выбрал.
>         В. Маяковский
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: SEELANGS: Slavic & East European Languages and Literatures list
> [mailto:SEELANGS at BAMA.UA.EDU] On Behalf Of Giampaolo Gandolfo
> Sent: Wednesday, February 27, 2008 9:51 AM
> To: SEELANGS at BAMA.UA.EDU
> Subject: [SEELANGS] Blok's notation
>
>     I cannot retrace what exactly Aleksander Blok  wrote in his journal:
> "Last week at Shakhmatovo my library was set afire"(?). I just remember il
> was something short.
> Can anyone help me?
>         Giampaolo Gandolfo
>
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