BLOK Alexander Alexanderovich (1880, St. Petersburg - 1921, Petrograd), poet. He was born in the house of his grandfather A.N. Beketov (9 Universitetskaya Embankment, the Rector's Building; memorial plaque). In 1891-98 he studied at Vvedensky Gymnasium, then at the Law Gymnasium, and from 1901, at the Faculty of History and Philology of Petersburg University (graduated from it in 1906). He was published for the first time in Novy Put Petersburg journal in 1903. In the 1900s he became a permanent visitor of Merezhkovsky's Salon, Ivanov's Wednesdays, Sologub's Salon, etc. His works include Snow Mask (1907), Verses on Russia (1915), Gray Morning (1920) and many other collections of verses were published in St. Petersburg (Petrograd). Russian symbolism took the most distinct shape in Blok's poetry as a literature trend. The poet saw in objects and phenomena allusions to another, more perfect world. However, in spite of his poetry being based on symbols and parables, many concrete landscapes of St. Petersburg and its environs - Strelna, Lakhta, Shuvalovo, Ozerky and other sites with exact topographic label, were reflected in Blok's verses (Stranger, In a Restaurant, On the Islands, etc.). Many details of the city were fixed in Blok's dairies and notebooks. F.M. Dostoevsky's prose (cf. poem The Double), as well as that of N.V. Gogol and A.A. Grigoryev had a great influence on Blok's image of St. Petersburg. The city attracts Blok's lyric hero and rejects, scares him at the same time. Blok aspired for his creativity to be treated as a unified novel in verses, and the city is one of the main heroes of this novel (verse cycles: The City, 1904-08; Retribution, 1908-13; Iambs 1907-14). Blok depicted the death of old St. Petersburg and the birth of new Petrograd in poems The Twelve (1918), Retribution (1910-21, was not completed) and a number of Blok's verses. The last verse of Blok, Pushkin's House (1921), reflected realities and landscapes of Petrograd. In 1918 Blok became the Head of the repertory Committee of the Theatre Department of People's Commissariat of Education, participated in work of Universal Literature publishing house, in 1919 he headed the Stage Director Department of the Bolshoy Drama Theatre; he was a member of the Free Philosophic Association (from 1919), the Literary Writers Union (from 1919), Head of Petrograd Department of All-Russian Poets Union (from 1920). He died after serious illness connected to a nervous breakdown; for contemporaries his death was regarded as marking an epoch in the history of Russian culture. He was buried at Smolenskoe Cemetery (in 1944 he was reburied at Literatorskie Mostki). In 1939 the former Zavodskaya Street was named after Blok, as well as a library at 20 Nevsky Prospect (a musical-artistical office of Mayakovsky Central City Public Library). There is Blok's monument in the courtyard of the Philological Faculty of St. Petersburg State University (11 Universitetskaya Embankment; 2002, sculptor E.I. Ratanov). Blok changed addresses ten times in St. Petersburg. The main address was 44 Petrogradskaya Embankment (1889-1906; memorial plaque); 3 Lakhtinskaya Street (1906-07), 41 Galernaya Street (1907-10); 9 Malaya Monetnaya Street (1910-12); 57 Ofitserskaya Street (today Dekabristov Street), (1912-21; from 1980 - A.A. Blok's museum appartment).

References: Орлов В. Н. Поэт и город: А. Блок и Петербург. Л., 1980; Александров А. А. Блок в Петербурге - Петрограде. Л., 1987; Минц З. Г. Поэтика Александра Блока. СПб., 1999.

D. N. Akhapkin.

January. In Tsarskoye Selo, the Town Duma, Zemstvo and Menshevik Soviet were dissolved. N.I. Tatarintsev became the head of the new Bolshevik Soviet, this Soviet was declared as the only power in Tsarskoye Selo.

15 January. The commission, as a part of Tsarskoye Selo Soviet of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies, was organized which registered all dwellers appartments with furnishings and then this commission distributed appartments among the workers families. The Palace Hospital, casualty ward of the Red Cross, private pharmacy of Deringer were nationalized.

23 February. V.I. Lenin, the chairman of the Council of People's Commissars, ordered "to transfer officially the Tsarskoye Selo radio station to the new power…, that our radiogram was transmitted urgently and with absolute guarantee" in connection with the necessity of the communication with the Soviet delegation for the peace agreement with Germany .

3 March. The Tsarskoye Selo organizaton of RSDWP(b), despite the opposition of Trotskysts, passed the Lenin peace resolution "The Gemany peace conditions are unacceptable for the Russian Republic but taking into account the all-country tiredness and the necessity to arrange the disbalanced economy, the Tsarskoye Selo Soviet decided that the Council of People's Commissars reached the right decision about the peace agreement".

13 April. The first train arrived to Tsarskoye Selo from Petrograd with children-orphans for the "Model Health-Improving Children Colony" organized on the basis of the Tsarskoye Selo nationalized mansions according to the initiative of People's Commiassariat of Education; People's Commissar A.V. Lunacharsky regarded that this colony was the laboratory for the education of the future builders of communist society. Meetings and debates on attracting the teachers to work in the new schools were held in the Manege building in Sadovaya Street (it was renamed Komsomolskaya Street). Here, commissars A.V. Lunacharky and A.M. Kollontai made speeches devoted to the propaganda of ideas about the separation of religion from the state, general literacy, great duty of teachers before working people. The intelligentsia of Tsarskoye Selo protested against these ideas but gradually teachers began to come into schools. In 1918 in spring, 180 primary schools worked in the Tsarskoye Selo uyezd and 20 children colonies worked in 1919.

9 June. The Catherine Palace was opened as a museum. On the first day, 244 men visited the museum. The architect V.I. Yakovlev was appointed as the first head of the museum.

15 July. The museum was opened on the basis of the palace of Princess Palei. At first Princess Olga Valeryanovna was a guide, the description of the museum collection was made by E.F. Gollerbach. 18 July the poet Vladimir Palei, a son of Princess Palei and Grand Duke Pavel Aleksandrovich, was executed near Alapayevsk.

23 July. The Uyezd Committee of VKP(b) (All-Union Communist Party, Bolshevik) and its newspaper "The Tsarskoye Selo Truth" were organized at the 2nd Tsarskoye Selo uyezg conference.

October. The Tsarskoye Selo commission for the protection of culture heritage was organized. Art historians and artists F.G. Bernstam, S.M. Korovin, E.F. Gollerbach, G.K. Lukomsky, M.I. Roslavlev were included in this commission and G.K. Lukomsky was the head of the commission. A.N. Benois, P.N. Neradovsky, D.A. Schmidt were invited as experts.

7 November. Soviet of Commissars of the Union of Communes of the North region published decree about the renaming of Tsarskoye Selo "... Henceforth former Tsarskoye Selo threw aside its disgraceful name and become Detskoye (Children) Selo named after Uritsky".

Buildings of Cossacks Barracks were transferred to the Petrograd Agronomic Institute. The building of the Martial Chamber was accommodated for the student club in 1920. V.V. Mayakovsky, N.K. Cherkasov, S.A. Esenin, citizens of Tsarskoye Selo A.N. Tolstoy, V.Y. Shishkov, L.R. Kogan and others performed here at the hall having 400 seats during the 1920s - the 1930s. Benois Alexander Nikolaevich
Cherkasov Nikolay Konstantinovich
Esenin Sergey Alexandrovich
Hollerbach Erich Fedorovich
Kogan Lev Rudolfovich
Kollontay Alexandra Mikhailovna
Lenin (real name Ulyanov) Vladimir Ilyich
Lukomsky Georgy Kreskentievich
Lunacharsky Anatoly Vasilievich
Mayakovsky Vladimir Vladimirovich
Neradovsky Peter Nikolaevich
Paley Olga Valentinovna, Duchess
Paley, Vladimir Pavlovich
Schmidt D.A.
Shishkov Alexander Semenovich
Tatarintsev, Nikolay Ivanovich
Tolstoy Alexey Nikolaevich
Yakovlev Vsevolod Ivanovich