Twelve. A Poema in a new translation

Abstract

Aleksandr Blok’s (1880-1921) Twelve is a major literary document of Russia’s Bolshevik Revolution of October 1917. More powerfully than any historical text, Blok’s work captures the social chaos, the cultural fragmentation, the aspirations, the fears, the ambiguity, and the ambivalence of this cataclysmic event for the Russian psyche. Maria Carlson prepared this new translation of Blok’s Twelve for the outreach site “Russia’s Great War and Revolution” <www.russiasgreatwar.org/ >. The site contains not only this translation, but also extensive annotations to the work, illustrations, and her short essay about the poem.