Which Russian poet is famous for the poem 'The Twelve'?

Alexander Blok wrote the poem The Twelve. Written in early 1918, this long and controversial poem responds directly to the upheaval of the Russian Revolution and follows twelve Red Guards moving through a snowstorm in Petrograd.

The number twelve evokes the Twelve Apostles, although Blok's revolutionary figures are rough, violent, and morally unsettled. Their march combines political imagery, street language, religious symbolism, and the disorienting atmosphere of a city transformed by revolution.

The poem divided Blok's readers. Some admirers were shocked by its apparent engagement with Bolshevik revolutionary energy, while others focused on its ambiguity and spiritual imagery. The ending, in which Christ appears before the marching guards, remains one of the poem's most debated features. A common mistake is assigning The Twelve to Anna Akhmatova, Vladimir Mayakovsky, or Boris Pasternak, all major Russian poets but not its author.