Asterisk denotes entries on real places.
*Petrograd.
The poem reaches a climax by having an apparition of Jesus Christ appear in front of the twelve. Blok himself was not sure why Christ appears. Is he leading or confronting them? If he is leading them, why is he facing them and why are they shooting at him? Despite many rejections of this symbol on the part of the critics and readers and despite Blok’s own misgivings, there is no question that, by using clear symbols such as the number twelve (perhaps representing Christ’s twelve Apostles), Blok wanted to express his acceptance of the revolution as necessary, hoping that it would bring about badly needed reforms. He would soon change his mind just before he died in 1921, but The Twelve remains artistically the best-known literary work about the Bolshevik Revolution.