“Twelve reflects the ambivalence and the uneasiness that educated Russians felt during the first months of the Revolution – a period that fell between Russia's failures in World War I and the horrors of Civil War that would soon follow. Twelve, which caused great poetic controversy, had no poetic unity. It consists only of flying fragments : bits and pieces from the Orthodox liturgy and revolutionary songs, from vulgar rhymes and popular ditties, from lamentations, the calls of looters, and even prostitute's solicitations. Many of these fragments shock the ear in their juxtapositions. The language of Twelve is alternately elevated and vulgar, archaic and modern, serious and mocking. It describes a whirling, topsy-turvy world caught in a cataclysm that is linguistic and historical and philosophical and meteorological. Man and nature are bound together in one crucial historical moment, in the storm of Revolution”. Maria Carlson, University of Kansas (USA).