How a snowstorm inspired Alexander Blok

According to the plot, a patrol of twelve members of the people’s militia is marching through Petrograd, which is gripped by a snowstorm. The poet himself recalled that he loved wandering through the city at night in winter's bad weather, “when the wind tears and lashes everything around, when snowflakes blind the eyes”. It was during one of these walks that the idea for the poem came to him.

“The wind sways the heavy hanging lanterns with such force that it seems they are about to tear loose and shatter into pieces. And the snow whirls ever more fiercely, flooding the snowy columns. The snowstorm has nowhere to go in the narrow streets; it rushes in all directions, gathering strength to burst into an open space. But there is no open space. The snowstorm spins, forming a white veil through which everything around loses its outlines and seems to blur.”

At that moment, Blok noticed a kind of spot in one of the alleyways — perhaps a flag or a poster caught by the wind. “The bright spot grows quickly, becomes enormous and, suddenly, takes on an indistinct shape, turning into the silhouette of something walking or floating through the air.”

As if mesmerized, he watched it, unable to tear his eyes away: “Behind that immense shape, I imagined the Twelve and Christ,” the poet later admitted.