The Twelve Analysis

Vanka

Vanka, one of the revolutionaries marching through the streets of Petrograd. At the time the marchers are depicted in the poem, he is seen only in the distance, prancing with Katka, the girlfriend of another revolutionary, Petrukha. By eloping with Katka, he betrays not only his friend but also the revolutionary cause. His former comrades accuse him of defecting to the enemy and becoming a bourgeois, a soldier in the enemy camp, and an enemy to the Red revolutionaries. He clearly possesses, in his speech, qualities of a seducer that others lack. His army coat symbolizes his betrayal in comparison with the ragtag and even prison garb of his former comrades. He has somehow gained superiority over them, as illustrated by his miraculous escape from Petka’s avenging bullet.

Katka

Katka, or Katya, a pretty girl involved with the only two named revolutionaries, Vanka and Petka. By abandoning Petka in favor of a more dashing and richer Vanka, she shows that she is interested primarily in pleasures and a better life. She dances and frolics in the evening snow and flashes Vanka a pearly smile, indicating that the two of them complement each other. She shows no remorse for betraying Petka because she is not generally faithful, as indicated by the knife scars on her neck and under her breasts received during another, most likely equally faithless, affair. She owns lacy attire and has plenty of money, received for her...

The Twelve is a ballad, offering a variety of poetic and prosodic features. Almost each canto is different in form from the preceding one. Free verse is followed by couplets and a quatrain by five-or six-verse stanzas or by a combination of all of these. Blok also uses imitations of folk and factory songs and popular jingles in cantos dealing with the revolutionaries, to indicate their folklike character. The prosodic variety serves two purposes: to underscore the dramatic quality of the poem and to enhance the rhythm of the march as one of the most telling features of the poem.

The most striking device in the poem is symbolism. A leading symbolist in Russian poetry in the first decade of the twentieth century, Blok relies heavily on symbols even though he had ceased to be regarded a symbolist when The Twelve was written. Symbolism is evident even in the title of the poem. Because both groups had a mission, the twelve revolutionaries are likened to the twelve apostles of Christ. The number of cantos (twelve) follows the same symbolism. The black night of the first verse symbolizes the darkness at that moment in Russia’s history, while the white snow stands for the purifying force of the revolution. The wind and blizzard stand for the revolution itself. Thus, in the first three verses the poet has poignantly set the stage for the dramatic events to follow.

The onlookers on the sidewalks are all symbols: For example, the old woman represents the older generation afraid of sudden and unpredictable changes. She cannot grasp the meaning of the slogan on the canvas, complaining that it could be used for a much more practical purpose, such as leggings. The bourgeois is standing on the corner, symbolically at a crossing, not knowing which way to turn. Similarly, a writer is equally confused. Long-haired and unshaven, he speaks in a half-voice, revealing his cowardice.

It is interesting that Blok depicts a member of his own...

On a cold, snowy night, twelve revolutionaries march together down a Petrograd street at the beginning of the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia. A blizzard is blowing at full strength, but it does not slow their advance. As the revolutionaries march in the middle of the street, several bystanders on sidewalks look on with fear and incomprehension etched on their faces. An old woman trembles, afraid of the marchers; she declares that the Bolsheviks will be the death of her and people like her. Looking at the revolutionaries’ poster made of canvas, which declares “All the Power to the Constituent Assembly,” she complains about waste, noting that all that material could have been used to supply children with foot-clouts. Also watching the marchers are a bourgeois, standing alone with his face buried in the collar of his coat, and a long-haired writer, who curses at the traitors and laments that Russia is dead. A fat “comrade priest” comes slinking through the snow in a black and bulky cassock, with a pendant cross on his belly. A woman wrapped in a Persian fur, confiding to a companion that she has cried and cried, falls flat on her back on the slippery ice. A group of prostitutes at the scene, plying their trade, also look at the canvas poster and declare that they, too, have an assembly that debates how much to charge for their services. All these onlookers are horrified by the uncertainty of the future and by the ferocious looks and behavior of the marching...