Russian Bolshevik soldiers demonstrating in Petrograd.
Първиятъ реводюционенъ отрядъ въ начадото на реводюцията.
"IIIThe lads have all gone to the warsto serve in the Red Guard—to serve in the Red Guard—and risk their hot heads for the cause.Hell and damnation,life is such funwith a ragged greatcoatand a Jerry gun!To smoke the nobs out of their holeswe'll light a fire through all the world,a bloody fire through all the world—Lord, bless our souls!"
Section III of "The Twelve" by Russian poet Alexander Blok. The Twelve are Red Guards patrolling Petrograd in a furious snowstorm. They encounter an old woman despairing at the sight of an enormous banner that would have clothed many children, a cleric, a bourgeois, a tramp, and a couple living it up as they patrol to keep at bay the enemies of the Revolution. A carriage races past, but is stopped, the driver and male passenger fleeing, escaping the patrol's rifle fire. Only the female passenger is hit, killed by one of the Twelve who had been her lover. In the final section XII, they are lured on by a mysterious figure they fire on, but who continues ahead of them waving a blood-red flag. The poem is dated January, 1918 (mid-January to mid-February New Style), as the negotiations between the Russians and the Central Powers were collapsing. Translation by Jon Stallworthy and Peter France.
The Twelve and Other Poems by Alexander Blok, page 147, copyright © 1970 by Jon Stallworthy & Peter France, publisher: Oxford University Press, publication date: 1970
1918-02-12, 1918, February, Red Army, The Twelve, Alexander Blok, Blok
