The brilliant works of Vladimir Mayakovsky evoke true admiration among millions of his admirers. He deservedly ranks among the greatest futurist poets of the 20th century. In addition, Mayakovsky proved himself to be an extraordinary playwright, satirist, film director, screenwriter, artist, and editor of several magazines. His life, multifaceted creativity, as well as personal relationships full of love and experiences remain an incompletely solved mystery today.
The talented poet was born in the small Georgian village of Bagdati (Russian Empire). His mother Alexandra Alekseevna belonged to a Cossack family from Kuban, and his father Vladimir Konstantinovich worked as a simple forester. Vladimir had two brothers - Kostya and Sasha, who died in childhood, as well as two sisters - Olya and Lyuda.
Mayakovsky knew the Georgian language very well and from 1902 he studied at the Kutaisi gymnasium. Already in his youth he was captivated by revolutionary ideas, and while studying at the gymnasium, he participated in a revolutionary demonstration.
In 1906, his father died suddenly. The cause of death was blood poisoning, which occurred as a result of a finger prick with an ordinary needle. This event shocked Mayakovsky so much that in the future he completely avoided hairpins and pins, fearing the fate of his father.
In the same 1906, Alexandra Alekseevna and her children moved to Moscow. Vladimir continued his studies at the fifth classical gymnasium, where he attended classes with the poet’s brother, Alexander. However, with the death of his father, the family's financial situation worsened significantly. As a result, in 1908, Vladimir was unable to pay for his education, and he was expelled from the fifth grade of the gymnasium.
In Moscow, a young guy began to communicate with students who were keen on revolutionary ideas. In 1908, Mayakovsky decided to become a member of the RSDLP and often propagandized among the population. During 1908-1909, Vladimir was arrested three times, but due to his minority and lack of evidence, he was forced to be released.
During the investigations, Mayakovsky could not calmly stay within four walls. Due to constant scandals, he was often transferred to different places of detention. As a result, he ended up in Butyrka prison, where he spent eleven months and began writing poetry.
In 1910, the young poet was released from prison and immediately left the party. The following year, the artist Evgenia Lang, with whom Vladimir was on friendly terms, recommended that he take up painting. While studying at the school of painting, sculpture and architecture, he met the founders of the futurist group “Gilea” and joined the Cubo-Futurists.
Mayakovsky's first work to be published was the poem “Night” (1912). At the same time, the young poet made his first public appearance in the artistic basement, which was called “Stray Dog.”
Vladimir, together with members of the Cubo-Futurist group, participated in a tour of Russia, where he gave lectures and his poems. Positive reviews about Mayakovsky soon appeared, but he was often considered outside the futurists. believed that among the futurists Mayakovsky was the only real poet.
The young poet’s first collection, “I,” was published in 1913 and consisted of only four poems. This year also marks the writing of the rebellious poem “Here!”, in which the author challenges the entire bourgeois society. The following year, Vladimir created a touching poem “Listen,” which amazed readers with its colorfulness and sensitivity.
The brilliant poet was also attracted to drama. The year 1914 was marked by the creation of the tragedy “Vladimir Mayakovsky”, presented to the public on the stage of the St. Petersburg Luna Park Theater. At the same time, Vladimir acted as its director, as well as the leading actor. The main motive of the work was the rebellion of things, which connected the tragedy with the work of the futurists.
In 1914, the young poet firmly decided to voluntarily enlist in the army, but his political unreliability frightened the authorities. He did not get to the front and, in response to neglect, wrote the poem “To You,” in which he gave his assessment of the tsarist army. In addition, Mayakovsky’s brilliant works soon appeared - “A Cloud in Pants” and “War Has Been Declared”.
The following year, a fateful meeting between Vladimir Vladimirovich Mayakovsky and the Brik family took place. From now on, his life was a single whole with Lilya and Osip. From 1915 to 1917, thanks to the patronage of M. Gorky, the poet served in an automobile school. And although he, being a soldier, did not have the right to publish, Osip Brik came to his aid. He acquired two of Vladimir's poems and soon published them.
At the same time, Mayakovsky plunged into the world of satire and in 1915 published the cycle of works “Hymns” in the “New Satyricon”. Soon two large collections of works appeared - “Simple as a Moo” (1916) and “Revolution. Poetochronika" (1917).
The great poet met the October Revolution at the headquarters of the uprising in Smolny. He immediately began to cooperate with the new government and participated in the first meetings of cultural figures. Let us note that Mayakovsky led a detachment of soldiers who arrested General P. Sekretev, who ran the automobile school, although he had previously received the medal “For Diligence” from his hands.
The years 1917-1918 were marked by the release of several works by Mayakovsky dedicated to revolutionary events (for example, “Ode to the Revolution”, “Our March”). On the first anniversary of the revolution, the play “Mystery-bouffe” was presented.
Mayakovsky was also interested in filmmaking. In 1919, three films were released, in which Vladimir acted as an actor, screenwriter and director. At the same time, the poet began collaborating with ROSTA and worked on propaganda and satirical posters. At the same time, Mayakovsky worked for the newspaper “Art of the Commune”.
In addition, in 1918, the poet created the Komfut group, the direction of which can be described as communist futurism. But already in 1923, Vladimir organized another group - the “Left Front of the Arts”, as well as the corresponding magazine “LEF”.
At this time, several bright and memorable works of the brilliant poet were created: “About This” (1923), “Sevastopol - Yalta” (1924), “Vladimir Ilyich Lenin” (1924). Let us emphasize that during the reading of the last poem at the Bolshoi Theater, I myself was present. Mayakovsky's speech was followed by a standing ovation that lasted 20 minutes. In general, it was the years of the civil war that turned out to be the best time for Vladimir, which he mentioned in the poem “Good!” (1927).
No less important and eventful was the period of frequent travel for Mayakovsky. During 1922-1924 he visited France, Latvia and Germany, to which he dedicated several works. In 1925, Vladimir went to America, visiting Mexico City, Havana and many US cities.
The beginning of the 20s was marked by heated controversy between Vladimir Mayakovsky and. The latter at that time joined the Imagists - irreconcilable opponents of the Futurists. In addition, Mayakovsky was a poet of the revolution and the city, and Yesenin extolled the countryside in his work.
However, Vladimir could not help but recognize the unconditional talent of his opponent, although he criticized him for his conservatism and addiction to alcohol. In a sense, they were kindred spirits - hot-tempered, vulnerable, in constant search and despair. They were even united by the theme of suicide, which was present in the work of both poets.
During 1926-1927, Mayakovsky created 9 film scripts. In addition, in 1927, the poet resumed the activities of the LEF magazine. But a year later he left the magazine and the corresponding organization, completely disillusioned with them. In 1929, Vladimir founded the REF group, but the following year he left it and became a member of RAPP.
At the end of the 20s, Mayakovsky again turned to drama. He is preparing two plays: “The Bedbug” (1928) and “Bathhouse” (1929), intended specifically for Meyerhold’s theater stage. They thoughtfully combine a satirical presentation of the reality of the 20s with a look into the future.
Meyerhold compared Mayakovsky's talent with the genius of Moliere, but critics greeted his new works with devastating comments. In “The Bedbug” they found only artistic shortcomings, but even accusations of an ideological nature were brought against “Bath”. Many newspapers carried extremely offensive articles, and some of them had the headlines “Down with Mayakovism!”
The fateful year of 1930 began for the greatest poet with numerous accusations from his colleagues. Mayakovsky was told that he was not a true “proletarian writer”, but only a “fellow traveler”. But, despite the criticism, in the spring of that year Vladimir decided to take stock of his activities, for which he organized an exhibition called “20 years of work.”
The exhibition reflected all of Mayakovsky's many-sided achievements, but brought complete disappointment. Neither the poet’s former colleagues at LEF nor the top party leadership visited her. It was a cruel blow, after which a deep wound remained in the poet’s soul.
In 1930, Vladimir was sick a lot and was even afraid of losing his voice, which would put an end to his performances on stage. The poet's personal life turned into an unsuccessful struggle for happiness. He was very lonely, because the Briks, his constant support and consolation, had gone abroad.
Attacks from all sides fell on Mayakovsky with a heavy moral burden, and the poet’s vulnerable soul could not stand it. On April 14, Vladimir Mayakovsky shot himself in the chest, which became the cause of his death.
Grave of Vladimir Mayakovsky After Mayakovsky's death, his works came under an unspoken ban and were almost never published. In 1936, Lilya Brik wrote a letter to I. Stalin himself asking for help in preserving the memory of the great poet. In his resolution, Stalin highly appreciated the achievements of the deceased and gave permission for the publication of Mayakovsky's works and the creation of a museum.
The love of Mayakovsky's life was Lilya Brik, whom he met in 1915. At that time, the young poet was dating her sister, Elsa Triolet, and one day the girl brought Vladimir to the Briks’ apartment. There Mayakovsky first read the poem “A Cloud in Pants”, and then solemnly dedicated it to Lila. It is not surprising, but the prototype of the heroine of this poem was the sculptor Maria Denisova, with whom the poet fell in love in 1914.
Soon, a romance broke out between Vladimir and Lilya, while Osip Brik turned a blind eye to his wife’s passion. Lilya became Mayakovsky's muse; it was to her that he dedicated almost all his poems about love. He expressed the boundless depth of his feelings for Brik in the following works: “Flute-Spine”, “Man”, “To Everything”, “Lilichka!” and etc.
The lovers participated together in the filming of the film “Chained by Film” (1918). Moreover, since 1918, Briki and the great poet began to live together, which fit well into the marriage and love concept that existed at that time. They changed their place of residence several times, but each time they settled together. Often Mayakovsky even supported the Brik family, and from all his trips abroad he always brought luxurious gifts to Lila (for example, a Renault car).
Despite the poet’s boundless affection for Lilichka, there were other lovers in his life, who even bore him children. In 1920, Mayakovsky had a close relationship with the artist Lilya Lavinskaya, who gave him a son, Gleb-Nikita (1921-1986).
The year 1926 was marked by another fateful meeting. Vladimir met Ellie Jones, an emigrant from Russia, who gave birth to his daughter Elena-Patricia (1926-2016). The poet also had fleeting relationships with Sofia Shamardina and Natalya Bryukhanenko.
In addition, in Paris, the outstanding poet met with emigrant Tatyana Yakovleva. The feelings that flared up between them gradually grew stronger and promised to turn into something serious and lasting. Mayakovsky wanted Yakovleva to come to Moscow, but she refused. Then, in 1929, Vladimir decided to go to Tatyana, but problems with obtaining a visa became an insurmountable obstacle for him.
Vladimir Mayakovsky's last love was the young and married actress Veronica Polonskaya. The poet demanded that the 21-year-old girl leave her husband, but Veronica did not dare to make such serious changes in life, because 36-year-old Mayakovsky seemed contradictory, impulsive and fickle to her.
Difficulties in his relationship with his young lover pushed Mayakovsky to take a fatal step. She was the last person Vladimir saw before his death and tearfully asked her not to go to the planned rehearsal. Before the door could close behind the girl, the fatal shot sounded. Polonskaya did not dare to come to the funeral, because the poet’s relatives considered her to be the culprit in the death of a loved one.
The famous and beloved futurist poet Vladimir Mayakovsky in Russia was born in the town of Baghdadi, which is located in the Kutaisi province, on July 19, 1893. He is widely known as an excellent playwright, a talented journalist, a wonderful screenwriter and director, and an excellent artist. Mayakovsky's creative biography made him a symbol of his era. Vladimir Vladimirovich is one of the most famous artists of the Soviet period.
Brief biography of Mayakovsky
The poet comes from a noble family. His father served as a forester in the Transcaucasian Erivan province. In 1902, Vladimir was sent to study at the city gymnasium. However, four years later, the poet’s father suddenly dies. After this tragic event, the family moved to live in Moscow.
In the capital, Mayakovsky, having passed the exams, becomes a student at the fifth classical gymnasium. But already in 1908 he was expelled from the educational institution due to non-payment.
Even in the Caucasus, Vladimir takes part in student demonstrations. After he ended up in Moscow, fate brings him together with young people involved in the dissemination of revolutionary ideas. He becomes one of the members of the RSDLP and conducts propaganda work among the workers, for which he is arrested several times.
Mayakovsky's biography indicates that it was this circumstance that influenced the formation of the poet as a revolutionary. During 1908-09, Vladimir Vladimirovich managed to go to jail three times and was released due to lack of evidence. However, he had to remain in custody for eleven months. It was during this time that the first poems that Mayakovsky wrote appeared.
The biography and creativity of Vladimir Vladimirovich are closely interconnected. His stay in prison marked the beginning of his development as a poet.
After being released from prison, Mayakovsky entered a preparatory class where he studied with artists S. Zhukov and P. Kelin. After some time, the young poet’s poems are already published in almanacs. But soon he was expelled from this educational institution for participating in unauthorized futurists.
In 1912, in one of the almanacs of the Gileya group, a manifesto was published under the authorship of V. Mayakovsky and V. Khlebnikov, and others. It stated the importance of creating a new literary language that corresponds to the modern era, and is not subordinate to traditional literary canons. The embodiment of these ideas was the production of the tragedy “Vladimir Mayakovsky” in St. Petersburg in 1913, where the author acted as the leading actor and director. At the same time, a collection of poems entitled “I” was published.
During the First World War, he created works exposing the senselessness and cruelty of military operations. One of them is "Cloud in Pants", which predicts the coming revolution.
Mayakovsky's biography indicates the poet's active social activities. In 1918, he created the Komfut association, which translated means communist futurism, published in the weekly Art of the Commune.
In 1920, Vladimir Vladimirovich joined the creative association LEF, where he met S. Tretyakov and B. Pasternak and other figures from various fields of art.
In the twenties, Mayakovsky worked simultaneously in several directions. He is a correspondent for a number of Soviet newspapers. In order to promote new values, he writes ditties, poetry and topical satire. During this period, the poems “Good!” were created. and "Vladimir Ilyich Lenin".
The poet often visits foreign countries, where he gets ideas for creating “anti-bourgeois” poems. He travels a lot around the country, reading his best works from the stage. Vladimir Vladimirovich’s speeches, intended for a simple listener, were accompanied by jokes and improvisations.
Mayakovsky's biography indicates that the 30s were a turning point in the poet's life. In addition to failures in his personal life and constant conflict with the outside world, he is in danger of losing his voice. The last straw was the disastrous production of the play “Bathhouse”. These and other factors provoked Mayakovsky to commit suicide.
After the death of the poet, his works fell under the ban, which was lifted by I. Stalin only in 1939, at the request of L. Brik.
VLADIMIR VLADIMIROVICH MAYAKOVSKY (1893 – 1930)
Vladimir Vladimirovich Mayakovsky was born on July 7, 1893 in the village of Baghdad, Kutaisi province of Georgia. His father, Vladimir Konstantinovich, served as a forester in the Caucasus. Mother - Alexandra Alekseevna. Sisters – Lyuda and Olya.
Mayakovsky had an excellent memory since childhood. He recalls: “My father boasted about my memory. For every name day, he forces me to memorize poetry.”
From the age of seven, his father began to take him on horseback riding tours of the forestry. There Mayakovsky learns more about nature and its habits.
Learning was difficult for him, especially arithmetic, but he learned to read with pleasure. Soon the whole family moved from Baghdad to Kutaisi.
Mayakovsky takes the gymnasium exam, but passes it with difficulty. During the exam, the priest who took the exam asked young Mayakovsky what an “eye” was. He replied: “Three pounds” (in Georgian). They explained to him that “oko” is “eye” in Church Slavonic. Because of this, he almost failed the exam. Therefore, I immediately hated everything ancient, everything ecclesiastical and everything Slavic. It is possible that this is where his futurism, atheism and internationalism came from.
While studying in the second preparatory class, he gets straight A's. The ability of an artist began to be discovered in him. The number of newspapers and magazines at home has increased. Mayakovsky reads everything.
In 1905, demonstrations and rallies began in Georgia, in which Mayakovsky also took part. A vivid picture of what he saw remained in my memory: “Anarchists in black, Socialist-Revolutionaries in red, Social Democrats in blue, federalists in other colors.” He has no time for studying. Let's go deuces. I moved to fourth grade only by pure chance.
In 1906, Mayakovsky's father dies. I pricked my finger with a needle while stitching papers, blood poisoning. Since then he cannot tolerate pins and hairpins. After the father's funeral, the family leaves for Moscow, where there were no acquaintances and without any means of subsistence (except for three rubles in their pocket).
In Moscow we rented an apartment on Bronnaya. The food was bad. Pension – 10 rubles per month. Mom had to rent out rooms. Mayakovsky begins to earn money by burning and painting. He paints Easter eggs, after which he hates Russian style and handicrafts.
Transferred to the fourth grade of the Fifth Gymnasium. He studies very poorly, but his love for reading does not decrease. He was interested in the philosophy of Marxism. Mayakovsky published the first half of the poem in the illegal magazine “Rush”, published by the Third Gymnasium. The result was an incredibly revolutionary and equally ugly work.
In 1908 he joined the Bolshevik Party of the RSDLP. He was a propagandist in the commercial and industrial subdistrict. At the city conference he was elected to the Local Committee. Pseudonym: “Comrade Konstantin.” On March 29, 1908, he ran into an ambush and was arrested. He didn’t stay in jail for long - he was released on bail. A year later he was arrested again. And again a short-term detention - they took me with a revolver. He was saved by his father's friend Mahmudbekov.
The third time they were arrested for the release of female convicts. He didn’t like being in prison, he caused trouble, and therefore he was often transferred from unit to unit - Basmannaya, Meshchanskaya, Myasnitskaya, etc. – and finally – Butyrki. Here he spent 11 months in solitary confinement No. 103.
In prison, Mayakovsky began writing poetry again, but was dissatisfied with what he wrote. In his memoirs, he writes: “It turned out stilted and tearful. Something like:
The forests dressed in gold and purple,
The sun played on the heads of the churches.
I waited: but the days were lost in the months,
Hundreds of tedious days.
I filled a whole notebook with this. Thanks to the guards - they took me away when I left. Otherwise I would have printed it again!”
In order to write better than his contemporaries, Mayakovsky needed to learn the skill. And he decides to leave the ranks of the party in order to be in an illegal position.
Soon Mayakovsky reads his poem to Burliuk. He liked this verse and said: “Yes, you wrote this yourself! You’re a brilliant poet!” After this, Mayakovsky completely went into poetry.
The first professional poem, “Crimson and White,” is published, followed by others.
Burliuk became Mayakovsky's best friend. He awakened the poet in him, got books for him, didn’t let him go a step further, and gave him 50 kopecks every day so he could write without starving.
Various newspapers and magazines are filled with futurism thanks to the furious speeches of Mayakovsky and Burliuk. The tone was not very polite. The director of the school proposed to stop criticism and agitation, but Mayakovsky and Burliuk refused. After which the council of “artists” expelled them from the school. Publishers did not buy a single line from Mayakovsky.
In 1914, Mayakovsky was thinking about “A Cloud in Pants.” War. The verse “War has been declared” comes out. In August, Mayakovsky goes to sign up as a volunteer. But he was not allowed - he was not politically reliable. Winter. I lost interest in art.
In May he wins 65 rubles and leaves for Finland, the city of Kuokkala. There he writes "Cloud". In Finland, he goes to M. Gorky in the city of Mustamäki. And reads parts from "The Cloud". Gorky praises him.
Those 65 rubles “passed” for him easily and without pain. He begins to write in the humorous magazine “New Satyricon”.
In July 1915 he met L.Yu. and O.M. Bricks. Mayakovsky is called to the front. Now he doesn’t want to go to the front. Pretended to be a draftsman. Soldiers are not allowed to print. Brick saves him, buys all his poems for 50 kopecks and publishes them. Printed "Spine Flute" and "Cloud".
In January 1917 he moved to St. Petersburg, and on February 26 he wrote the Poetochronicle of the “Revolution”. In August 1917, he decided to write “Mystery Bouffe”, and on October 25, 1918 he finished it.
Since 1919, Mayakovsky has worked for ROSTA (Russian Telegraph Agency).
In 1920 he finished writing “150 Million”.
In 1922, Mayakovsky organized the publishing house MAF (Moscow Association of Futurists), which published several of his books. In 1923, under the editorship of Mayakovsky, the magazine “LEF” (“Left Front of the Arts”) was published. He wrote “About This” and began to think about writing the poem “Lenin,” which he completed in 1924.
1925 He wrote the propaganda poem “The Flying Proletarian” and the collection of poems “Walk the Sky Yourself.” Goes on a journey around the earth. The trip resulted in works written in prose, journalism and poetry. They wrote: “My Discovery of America” and poems – “Spain”, “Atlantic Ocean”, “Havana”, “Mexico” and “America”.
1926 He works hard - travels around cities, reads poetry, writes for the newspapers Izvestia, Trud, Rabochaya Moskva, Zarya Vostoka, etc.
In 1928 he wrote the poem “Bad”, but it was not written. He begins to write his personal biography, “I Myself.” And within a year, the poems “The Maid”, “Gossip”, “Slicker”, “Pompadour” and others were written. From October 8 to December 8 - a trip abroad, along the route Berlin - Paris. Volumes I and II of the collected works are published in November. December 30 reading of the play “The Bedbug”.
1926 In January, the poem “Letter to Comrade Kostrov from Paris about the essence of love” was published and “Letter to Tatyana Yakovleva” was written. On February 13, the premiere of the play “The Bedbug” took place. From February 14 to May 12 – trip abroad (Prague, Berlin, Paris, Nice, Monte Carlo). In mid-September, “Bath” was completed - “a drama in six acts with a circus and fireworks.” Throughout this year, poems were written: “Parisian Woman”, “Monte Carlo”, “Beauties”, “Americans Are Surprised”, “Poems about the Soviet Passport”.
1930 The last major thing Mayakovsky worked on was a poem about the Five Year Plan. In January he wrote the first speech to the poem, which he published separately under the title “At the top of his voice.” On February 1, the “20 Years of Work” exhibition opened at the Writers’ Club, dedicated to the anniversary of his creative activity. February 6 – speech at the conference of the Moscow branch of RAPP with an application to join this organization, read “At the top of my voice.” March 16 – premiere of “Bath” at the Meyerhold Theater.
On April 14, at 10:15 a.m., in his workroom on Lubyansky Proezd, Mayakovsky committed suicide with a revolver shot, leaving a letter addressed to “Everyone.” On April 15, 16, 17, 150 thousand people passed through the hall of the Writers' Club, where the coffin with the poet's body was displayed. April 17 – mourning meeting and funeral.
Vladimir Mayakovsky was an unusual person. Since childhood, he has seen a lot and hated a lot. He suffered the death of his father when he was 13 years old. Perhaps that is why he became more emotional and decisive. He devoted most of his life to the party and the revolution. It was because of his commitment to the cause of the revolution that he often had to spend time in prison.
Mayakovsky sincerely believed that the revolutionary path was the only one leading to a bright future. But he understood that a revolution is not a quiet and imperceptible replacement of one government by another, but a struggle that is sometimes cruel and bloody.
Having taken upon himself this thankless duty, alien to the poet, Mayakovsky for several years constantly wrote poems on the topic of the day for Komsomolskaya Pravda and Izvestia, playing the role of a propagandist and agitator. Cleaning out dirt in the name of a bright future with the “rough language of a poster,” Mayakovsky ridicules the image of a “pure” poet singing “roses and dreams.” Polemically sharpening his thought, he writes in the poem “Home”:
so that I, like a flower from the meadows,
after the hardships of work.
so that the State Planning Committee sweats in the debates,
giving me
assignments for the year.
so that the commissar is above the thought of times
loomed with orders...
so that at the end of work the manager
locked my lips with a lock.
In the context of the poem, especially in the context of the poet’s entire work, there is nothing prescient in this image; it does not cast a shadow on Mayakovsky. But over the years, with the movement of history, this image acquired a terrible meaning. The image of a poet with a lock on his lips turned out to be not only symbolic, but also prophetic, highlighting the tragic fate of Soviet poets in subsequent decades, in the era of camp violence, censorship bans, and closed mouths. Ten years after this poem was written, many found themselves behind barbed wire in the Gulag for poetry, for free speech. Such are the tragic fates of O. Mandelstam, B. Kornilov, N. Klyuev, P. Vasilyev, Y. Smelyakov. And in later times, such a fate awaited N. Korzhavin, I. Brodsky and many other poets.
Mayakovsky was by nature a tragic poet; he wrote about death and suicide starting from his youth. The motive of suicide, completely alien to the futuristic and Lef themes, constantly returns in Mayakovsky’s work. He tries on suicide options... The unprecedented pain of the present time is nurtured in the poet’s soul. His poems are deeply lyrical, uninhibited, in them he truly talks “about time and about himself.”
Mayakovsky's fate was tragic, like Yesenin and Tsvetaeva, he committed suicide. The fate of his poems was also tragic. They were not understood. After 17, when a turning point came in his work, Mayakovsky was not allowed to publish. This was, in fact, his second death.
In the 30s, the poet was driven, depressed and confused. This affected his relationship with Veronica Polonskaya (the poet's last love). News comes that T. Yakovleva is getting married (Mayakovsky did not lose hope with Yakovleva, but this message had a negative effect on his health).
On April 13, Mayakovsky demanded that Veronica Polonskaya stay with him from that very moment, leave the theater and her husband...
On April 14, at 10:15 a.m., in his work room on Lubyansky Proezd, he committed suicide with a revolver shot, leaving a letter to “Everyone”:
“Don’t blame anyone for the fact that I’m dying and please don’t gossip. The deceased did not like this terribly.
Mom, sisters and comrades, this is not the way (I don’t recommend it to others), but I have no choice.
Lilya - love me.
Comrade government, my family is Lilya Brik, mother, sisters and Veronica Vitoldovna Polonskaya.
If you give them a tolerable life, thank you.
Give the poems you started to the Briks, they will figure it out.
As they say -
"the incident is ruined"
love boat
crashed into everyday life.
I'm even with life
and there is no need for a list
mutual pain,
Happy stay.
Mayakovsky, more than anyone else, was characteristic of his time and difficult to understand from another era.
The beginning of Mayakovsky's poetic activity coincided with the global ideological crisis of the first decade of the 20th century, with its collapse of ethical ideals and concepts. Of all the modernist movements that arose on this basis, Mayakovsky was attracted to futurism with its anarchic rebellion, the overthrow of old idols and the desire for innovation in form.
Mayakovsky's early work has an anti-bourgeois orientation. The poet is disgusted by humility, satiety, and philistinism. Not accepting the contemporary world, Mayakovsky transfers his feelings to humans. His vision is selective: the future proletarian poet does not pay attention to either the workers or the peasants. For him, the truth is that there is some kind of bourgeois average type - “two arshins of faceless pinkish dough”,
Only the light folds of shiny cheeks falling onto the shoulders sway.
Mayakovsky satirically portrays the average man, who for him is a symbol of the entire old world (“Here!”, “To you!”).
In Mayakovsky's pre-revolutionary poems there is neither sympathy nor compassion for the “little” man. The flabby man in the street has only a big body - a carcass, and everything else: little soul, passions, loves - small. Mayakovsky’s utopian imagination sees only a “new”, “ideal” person in the future. The poet hopes that
He, the free man I’m screaming about, is a man - he will come, believe me, believe me!This person will re-create a world in which everything will be different: nature, cities, art, morality. Mayakovsky connected the concept of a new world with the image of a titanic man, free from the past.
In the early period of his creativity, Mayakovsky was able to express pain and suffering, to convey these, then still alive, feelings to others. In the tragedy “Vladimir Mayakovsky” he writes about “himself, my beloved”, therefore the emotion is not declarative, sincerity is not feigned. The image of a suffering person finds poetic completion in the poems “Man” and “Cloud in Pants.” The source of the poet’s suffering is not only the disorder of the world, but also love (“Listen!”, “Spine Flute”, “I Love”):
And only my pain is sharper - I stand, surrounded by fire, on the unburning fire of unimaginable love.
The First World War deepened Mayakovsky's understanding of the failure of the bourgeois world. The motive of human suffering acquires a universal scale, the problem of “man and the Universe” finds concrete expression in the problem of “war and peace” (the poem “War and Peace”).
For Mayakovsky, the revolution became an opportunity to realize all his desires and utopias: the destruction of the bourgeois world, the overthrow of the old art, the old morality:
Citizens! Today the thousand-year-old “Before” is collapsing. Today the basis of the world is being revised. Today, down to the last button on our clothes, we will remake Life again!
Accepting the ideals of the revolution, Mayakovsky saw at the same time its two-facedness and inconsistency (“Ode to the Revolution”), and then a distortion of the ideals of freedom, humanity, and democracy. In his work, two lines begin to develop in parallel: an affirmative-optimistic one, glorifying the revolution and the socialist transformation of life (“Good!”, “Vladimir Ilyich Lenin”, “Komsomolskoe”, “150000000”, “At the top of my voice”), and satirically -accusatory, directed against bureaucracy, Soviet bureaucracy, against Soviet philistinism and philistinism, which turned out to be no better than the bourgeois.
I allow poetry only one form: brevity, precision of mathematical formulas.
If we proceed from the axiom that poetry is the voice of the soul, then it is unlikely that the soul speaks in formulas. Mayakovsky remains less and less a poet, more and more turning into a brilliant designer and speaker, who needs intelligence, keen vision, but not necessarily a soul. Mayakovsky is disingenuous when he says that he “stepped on the throat of his own song.” His tragedy was that the Song disappeared, its place was taken by a poster, a slogan, and a public recitation. His desire to keep up with the times resulted in a response to every event in the country (ore mining, cleanup work, construction of a new factory or city).
The poet understood that his personality and his work would still cause controversy decades later, and that it would hardly be possible to unambiguously evaluate everything he wrote:
From the pulpit there will be a big-faced idiot praising something about the devil. The crowd will bow, fawning, vain. You won’t even know - I’m not me: she will paint her bald head with horns or radiance.
The result was divine - a huge talent that resulted in brilliant lines. There was also a devilish desire to serve a big, but false idea that deprived these lines of soul.
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