What century did Mayakovsky live in? Mayakovsky's death: the poet's tragic finale

The famous and beloved in Russia futurist poet Vladimir Mayakovsky was born in the town of Baghdadi, which is located in the Kutaisi province, on July 19, 1893. He is widely known as a great 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 of the fifth classical gymnasium. But already in 1908 he was expelled from the educational institution due to non-payment.

Even in the Caucasus, Vladimir participates 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 be in custody for eleven months. It was during that time that the first poems written by Mayakovsky appeared.

The biography and work of Vladimir Vladimirovich are closely interconnected. Staying in prison was the beginning of his formation as a poet.

After leaving prison, Mayakovsky entered the preparatory class where he studied with the artists S. Zhukov and P. Kelin. Some time later, the poems of the young poet are already published in almanacs. But soon he was expelled from this educational institution for participation in unauthorized futurists.

In 1912, in one of the almanacs of the Gilea 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 meets the modern era, not subject to traditional literary canons. The embodiment of these ideas was the staging of the tragedy "Vladimir Mayakovsky" in St. Petersburg in 1913, where the author acts as the leading actor and director. At the same time, a collection of poems called "I" was published.

During the First World War, he created works denouncing the senselessness and cruelty of hostilities. One of them is "Cloud in pants", predicting the coming revolution.

Mayakovsky's biography indicates the active social activity of the poet. In 1918, he created the Komfut association, which in translation means communist futurism, is published in the weekly Art of the Commune.

In 1920, Vladimir Vladimirovich joined the LEF creative association, where he met S. Tretyakov and B. Pasternak and other figures in 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 value orientations, he writes ditties, poems for and topical satire. During this period, the poems "Good!" and Vladimir Ilyich Lenin.

The poet often visits foreign countries, where he draws ideas for creating "anti-bourgeois" poems. He travels a lot around the country, reading his best works from the stage. Vladimir Vladimirovich's speeches, designed for a simple listener, were accompanied by jokes and improvisations.

Mayakovsky's biography indicates that the 1930s 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 threatened by the loss of his voice. The last straw was the failed production of the play "Bath". These and other factors provoked Mayakovsky to commit suicide.

After the death of the poet, his works are banned, which was lifted by I. Stalin only in 1939 at the request of L. Brik.

In Vladimir Mayakovsky, he did not immediately begin to write poetry - at first he was going to become an artist and even studied painting. The fame of the poet came to him after meeting the avant-garde artists, when the first works of the young author were enthusiastically greeted by David Burliuk. Futuristic group, "Today's Lubok", "Left Front of Arts", advertising "ROSTA Windows" - Vladimir Mayakovsky worked in many creative associations. He also wrote for newspapers, published a magazine, made films, created plays and staged performances based on them.

Vladimir Mayakovsky with his sister Lyudmila. Photo: vladimir-mayakovsky.ru

Vladimir Mayakovsky with his family. Photo: vladimir-mayakovsky.ru

Vladimir Mayakovsky in childhood. Photo: rewizor.ru

Vladimir Mayakovsky was born in Georgia in 1893. His father served as a forester in the village of Baghdadi, later the family moved to Kutaisi. Here, the future poet studied at the gymnasium and took drawing lessons: the only Kutaisi artist Sergei Krasnukha worked with him for free. When the wave of the first Russian revolution reached Georgia, Mayakovsky - as a child - participated in rallies for the first time. His sister Lyudmila Mayakovskaya recalled: “The revolutionary struggle of the masses also influenced Volodya and Olya. The Caucasus experienced the revolution especially acutely. There, everyone was involved in the struggle, and everyone was divided into those who participated in the revolution, who definitely sympathized with it and who were hostile..

In 1906, when Vladimir Mayakovsky was 13 years old, his father died from blood poisoning: he injured his finger with a needle while stitching papers. Until the end of his life, the poet was afraid of bacteria: he always carried soap with him, took a folding basin on his travels, carried cologne for rubbing with him, and carefully monitored hygiene.

After the death of his father, the family was in a difficult situation. Mayakovsky recalled: “After the funeral of my father, we have 3 rubles. Instinctively, feverishly, we sold out tables and chairs. Moved to Moscow. What for? Didn't even have friends.". In a Moscow gymnasium, the young poet wrote his first "incredibly revolutionary and equally ugly" poem and published it in an illegal school magazine. In 1909-1910, Mayakovsky was arrested several times: he joined the Bolshevik Party, worked in an underground printing house. At first, the young revolutionary was given "on bail" to his mother, and for the third time he was sent to prison. Mayakovsky later called the conclusion in solitary confinement "11 Butyr months." He wrote poetry, but the notebook with lyrical experiments - "stilted and tearful", as their author assessed - was taken away by the guards.

In conclusion, Mayakovsky read many books. He dreamed of a new art, a new aesthetic that would be fundamentally different from the classical one. Mayakovsky decided to study painting - he changed several teachers and a year later entered the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture. Here the young artist met David Burliuk, and later - with Velimir Khlebnikov and Alexei Kruchenykh. Mayakovsky again wrote poetry, from which his new comrades were delighted. Avant-garde authors decided to unite against the "aesthetics of junk", and soon a manifesto of a new creative group appeared - "A slap in the face of public taste."

David has the wrath of a master who has overtaken his contemporaries, while I have the pathos of a socialist who knows the inevitability of the collapse of junk. Russian futurism was born.

Vladimir Mayakovsky, excerpt from the autobiography "I myself"

Futurists spoke at meetings - read poems and lectures on new poetry. For public speaking, Vladimir Mayakovsky was expelled from the school. In 1913–1914, the well-known tour of the Futurists took place: a creative group with performances toured Russian cities.

Burliuk rode and promoted futurism. But he loved Mayakovsky, stood at the cradle of his verse, knew his biography to the smallest detail, knew how to read his things - and therefore, through the butads of David Davidovich, the appearance of Mayakovsky arose so material that he wanted to be touched with his hands.
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Upon arrival in the city, Burliuk first of all organized an exhibition of futuristic paintings and manuscripts, and in the evening he made a report.

Futurist poet Pyotr Neznamov

Vladimir Mayakovsky, Vsevolod Meyerhold, Alexander Rodchenko and Dmitri Shostakovich at the rehearsal of the play "The Bedbug". 1929. Photo: subscribe.ru

Vladimir Mayakovsky and Lilya Brik in the film Chained by Film. 1918. Photo: geometria.by

Vladimir Mayakovsky (third from left) and Vsevolod Meyerhold (second from left) at the rehearsal of the performance "Banya". 1930. Photo: bse.sci-lib.com

Vladimir Mayakovsky was interested not only in poetry and painting. In 1913, he made his debut in the theater: he himself wrote the tragedy "Vladimir Mayakovsky", he himself staged it on stage and played the main role. In the same year, the poet became interested in cinema - he began to write scripts, and a year later he starred in the film “Drama in the Futurist Cabaret No. 13” for the first time (the picture has not been preserved). During the First World War, Vladimir Mayakovsky was a member of the avant-garde association "Today's Lubok". Its participants - Kazimir Malevich, David Burliuk, Ilya Mashkov and others - drew patriotic postcards for the front, inspired by the traditional popular popular print. They created simple colorful pictures for them and wrote short poems in which they ridiculed the enemy.

In 1915, Mayakovsky met Osip and Lilya Brik. This event in his autobiography, the poet later noted the subtitle "the most joyful date." Lilya Brik became Mayakovsky's lover and muse for many years, he dedicated poems and poems to her, and even after parting continued to declare his love. In 1918, they starred together for the film Chained by Film - both in the lead roles.

In November of the same year, the premiere of Mayakovsky's play Mystery Buff took place. It was staged at the Musical Drama Theater by Vsevolod Meyerhold, and designed in the best traditions of the avant-garde by Kazimir Malevich. Meyerhold recalled working with the poet: “Mayakovsky was well versed in very subtle theatrical, technological things that we, directors, usually learn for a very long time in different schools, practically at the theater, etc. Mayakovsky always guessed every right and wrong stage decision, precisely as a director”. The “revolutionary folk spectacle,” as the translator Rita Wright called it, was staged several more times.

A year later, the tense era of "Windows of GROWTH" began: artists and poets collected hot topics and produced propaganda posters - they are often called the first Soviet social advertising. The work was intense: both Mayakovsky and his colleagues more than once had to stay late or work at night in order to release the batch on time.

In 1922, Vladimir Mayakovsky headed the literary group "Left Front of the Arts" (later "left" in the title changed to "revolutionary"), and soon the eponymous magazine of the creative association. On its pages published prose and poetry, pictures of avant-garde photographers, bold architectural projects and news of the "left" art.

In 1925, the poet finally broke up with Lilya Brik. He went on tour to France, then went to Spain, Cuba and the USA. There, Mayakovsky met the translator Ellie Jones, a short but stormy romance broke out between them. In autumn, the poet returned to the USSR, and in America his daughter, Helen-Patricia, was soon born. After returning from the United States, Vladimir Mayakovsky wrote the cycle "Poems about America", worked on scripts for Soviet films.

Vladimir Mayakovsky. Photo: goteatr.com

Vladimir Mayakovsky and Lilya Brik. Photo: mayakovskij.ru

Vladimir Mayakovsky. Photo: peter.my

In 1928–1929, Mayakovsky wrote the satirical plays Bedbug and Bathhouse. Both premieres were held at the Meyerhold Theatre. The poet was the second director, he followed the design of the performance and worked with the actors: he recited fragments of the play, creating the necessary intonations and placing semantic accents.

Vladimir Vladimirovich was very fond of any kind of work. He went to work with his head. Before the premiere of "The Bath" he was completely exhausted. He spent all his time in the theatre. He wrote poems, inscriptions for the auditorium for the production of "Baths". He himself supervised their hanging. Then he joked that he was hired at the Meyerhold Theater not only as an author and director (he worked a lot with actors on the text), but also as a painter and carpenter, since he himself painted and nailed something. As a very rare author, he was so burned and sick of the performance that he participated in the smallest details of the production, which, of course, was not at all part of his authorial functions.

Actress Veronika Polonskaya

Both plays caused a stir. Some viewers and critics saw satire on the bureaucracy in the works, while others saw criticism of the Soviet system. "Banya" was staged only a few times, and then banned - until 1953.

The loyal attitude of the authorities to the "main Soviet poet" was replaced by coolness. In 1930, for the first time, he was not approved to travel abroad. Official criticism began to fiercely attack the poet. He was reproached for satire in relation to phenomena allegedly defeated, for example, the same bureaucracy, and bureaucratic delays. Mayakovsky decided to hold the exhibition "20 Years of Work" and present the results of his many years of work. He himself selected newspaper articles and drawings, arranged books, hung posters on the walls. The poet was assisted by Lilya Brik, his new beloved actress Veronika Polonskaya and an employee of the State Literary Museum Artemy Bromberg.

On the day of the opening, the hall for guests was packed. However, as Bromberg recalled, none of the representatives of literary organizations came to the opening. And there were no official congratulations of the poet on the twentieth anniversary of his work either.

I will never forget how in the House of Press at the exhibition of Vladimir Vladimirovich "Twenty Years of Work", which for some reason was almost boycotted by "big" writers, we, several Smenovites, were literally on duty for days near the stands, physically suffering from how sad and strict A large, tall man, with his hands behind his back, walked up and down the empty halls, walking back and forth, as if waiting for someone very dear and becoming more and more convinced that this dear person would not come.

Poet Olga Bergholz

Non-recognition was exacerbated by personal drama. Vladimir Mayakovsky, in love with Polonskaya, demanded that she leave her husband, leave the theater and live with him in a new apartment. As the actress recalled, the poet either made scenes, then calmed down, then again began to be jealous and demand an immediate solution. One of these explanations became fatal. After Polonskaya left, Mayakovsky committed suicide. In his suicide letter, he asked the "comrade government" not to leave his family: “My family is Lilya Brik, mother, sisters and Veronika Vitoldovna Polonskaya. If you give them a decent life, thank you.”.

After the death of Mayakovsky, the entire archive of the poet went to the Briks. Lilya Brik tried to preserve the memory of his work, wanted to create a memorial room, but constantly ran into bureaucratic obstacles. The poet was almost never published. Then Brik wrote a letter to Joseph Stalin. In his resolution, Stalin called Mayakovsky "the best and most talented poet of the Soviet era." The resolution was published in Pravda, Mayakovsky's works began to be published in huge editions, and the streets and squares of the Soviet Union were named after him.

Vulgarity, not contesting it in life, challenged it in death. But lively, agitated Moscow, alien to petty literary disputes, stood in line at his coffin, not organized by anyone in this line, spontaneously, by itself recognizing the unusualness of this life and this death. And lively, excited Moscow filled the streets on the way to the crematorium. And lively, agitated Moscow did not believe his death. Still does not believe.

1893 , July 7 (19) - was born in the village of Baghdadi, near Kutaisi (now the village of Mayakovsky in Georgia), in the family of forester Vladimir Konstantinovich Mayakovsky. He lived in Baghdadi until 1902.

1902 - enters the Kutaisi gymnasium.

1905 - gets acquainted with underground revolutionary literature, takes part in demonstrations, rallies, and a gymnasium strike.

1906 - the death of his father, the family moved to Moscow. In August, he enters the fourth grade of the Fifth Moscow Gymnasium.

1907 - gets acquainted with Marxist literature, participates in the Social Democratic circle of the Third Gymnasium. First verses.

1908 - joins the RSDLP (Bolsheviks). Works as a propagandist. Leaves high school in March. Arrested during a search in the underground printing house of the Moscow Committee of the RSDLP (Bolsheviks).

1909 - the second and third (in the case of organizing the escape of thirteen political convicts from the Moscow Novinsky prison) arrests of Mayakovsky.

1910 , January - released from custody as a minor and placed under police supervision.

1911 - Admitted to the figure class of the School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture.

1912 - D. Burliuk introduces Mayakovsky to the futurists. In the fall, Mayakovsky's first poem "Crimson and White" is published.
December. Release of the collection of futurists "Slap in the face of public taste" with the first printed poems by Mayakovsky "Night" and "Morning".

1913 - the release of the first collection of poems - "I!"
Spring - acquaintance with N. Aseev. Staging of the tragedy "Vladimir Mayakovsky" in the theater "Luna-Park" in St. Petersburg.

1914 - Mayakovsky's trip to the cities of Russia with lectures and poetry reading (Simferopol, Sevastopol, Kerch, Odessa, Chisinau, Nikolaev, Kyiv). Expelled from the School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture in connection with public performances.
March-April - the tragedy "Vladimir Mayakovsky" was published.

1915 - moves to Petrograd, which became his permanent place of residence until the beginning of 1919. Reading the poem "To you!" (which caused outrage among the bourgeois public) in the artistic cellar "Stray Dog".
February - the beginning of cooperation in the journal "New Satyricon". On February 26, the poem "Hymn to the Judge" was published (under the title "Judge").
The second half of February - the almanac "Sagittarius" (No. 1) is published with excerpts from the prologue and the fourth part of the poem "A Cloud in Pants".

1916 - completed the poem "War and Peace"; the third part of the poem was accepted by the Gorky magazine Chronicle, but banned from publication by military censors.
February - the poem "Flute-spine" was published as a separate edition.

1917 - completed the poem "Man". The poem "War and Peace" was published as a separate edition.

1918 - came out as a separate edition of the poem "Man" and "Cloud in Pants" (second, uncensored edition). Premiere of the play "Mystery-Buff".

1919 - in the newspaper "Art of the Commune" printed "Left March". The collection "All Composed by Vladimir Mayakovsky" was released. The beginning of Mayakovsky's work as an artist and poet at the Russian Telegraph Agency (ROSTA). Works without interruption until February 1922.

1920 - completed the poem "150,000,000". Speech at the First All-Russian Congress of ROSTA workers.
June-August - lives in a dacha near Moscow (Pushkino). The poem "An Extraordinary Adventure" was written ... ".

1922 - The poem "I Love" was written. In "Izvestiya" the poem "Prosessed" is published. The collection "Mayakovsky mocks" was released. Trip to Berlin and Paris.

1923 - finished the poem "About it". No. 1 of the magazine "Lef" was published under the editorship of Mayakovsky; with his articles and the poem "About it".

1925 trip to Berlin and Paris. Trip to Cuba and America. Gives lectures and poetry readings in New York, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Chicago. In New York, the Spartak magazine (No. 1) dedicated to Mayakovsky was published.

1926 - the poem "To Comrade Netta - the steamer and the man" was written.

1927 - the release of the first issue of the magazine "New Lef" edited by Mayakovsky, with his leading article.

1929 - premiere of the play "The Bedbug".
February-April - trip abroad: Berlin, Prague, Paris, Nice.
Premiere of the play "The Bedbug" in Leningrad at the branch of the Bolshoi Drama Theater in the presence of Mayakovsky.

1930 , February 1 - Mayakovsky's exhibition "20 Years of Work" opened at the Moscow Writers' Club. Reads the introduction to the poem "Out loud".
April 14 - committed suicide in Moscow.

Mayakovsky, Vladimir Vladimirovich - Russian poet, playwright (July 19, 1893, Baghdadi village near Kutaisi - April 14, 1930, Moscow). Father - from the impoverished nobles - was a forester in the Caucasus. Since 1906, Mayakovsky lived in Moscow, for some time he was engaged in revolutionary activities: already in 1908 he joined the RSDLP, in 1908-1909 he was arrested three times. From 1911 he studied at the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture. He published his early poems in 1912 in the futurist almanac A Slap in the Face of Public Taste. Mayakovsky belonged to the Cubo-Futurist group, which was characterized by a defiant rejection of all previous art and the search for new, non-bourgeois forms. The first collection of Mayakovsky's poems - I(1913), first poem - A cloud in pants (1915).

Vladimir Mayakovsky - I am a poet... Documentary film

From 1915 to 1930, Mayakovsky shared an apartment in Moscow with his spouses Lilya and Osip Brik. He was connected with Lilya by great love, and Osip (who was in years civil war worker Cheka) openly condoned his wife's romance with a famous writer who financially supported all three. Enthusiastic about the Bolshevik Revolution, Mayakovsky saw the Futurists as the vanguard of communist culture, seeing himself as "the drummer of the new life". In declamatory verses, for example, Left march(1918), he addresses the masses. Mystery buff(1918, 2nd ed. - 1921) - an allegorical theatrical work about revolutionary events, which Meyerhold set in Petrograd.

In 1919, Mayakovsky began working for the central Soviet press agency, ROSTA, and wrote a lot of texts for posters and campaign poems on the topic of current events. Along with this, larger political and propaganda works by Mayakovsky, poems 150 000 000 (1920) and Vladimir Ilyich Lenin(1924), which pushed aside a personal lyrical theme (for example - I love, 1922) to the background.

In 1923-25, Mayakovsky headed the futurist journal LEF. In 1927, he restored this magazine under the name "New LEF", but left it a year later. Speaking with his poems, Mayakovsky traveled a lot around the country, and since 1922 he has been abroad nine times (Latvia, Germany, France, USA, Czechoslovakia, Poland). The gradual consolidation of the new system, which required a crudely straightforward "proletarian art" and was hostile to all sorts of artistic experiments, led to an increase in attacks on Mayakovsky, especially from the RAPP. In comedies Bug(1928) and Bath(1929) Mayakovsky's satire is directed against the rejection of revolutionary ideals and the philistinism of Soviet leaders.

In the process of the country's transition to the Stalinist regime, Mayakovsky himself joined the RAPP in 1930, which his friends perceived as a betrayal. However, RAPP functionaries continued to fight him as an alien element. Comedy Bath, also staged at the theater by Meyerhold, was withdrawn from the repertoire, Mayakovsky was denied a foreign visa, his exhibition "20 Years of Work" was boycotted. Shaken also by unhappy love in Paris for an emigrant Tatyana Yakovleva, Mayakovsky committed suicide.

Osip Brik wrote over 200 articles, fighting to restore Mayakovsky's poetic reputation. After the letter of the Brik spouses to Stalin, the poet's official assessments suddenly changed: Stalin declared in 1935 that Mayakovsky "was and remains the best, most talented poet of our Soviet era." Despite this, the critical works of Mayakovsky, especially Bug and Bath, did not receive a move until the death of Stalin. Almost all correspondence and some works from the Mayakovsky archive turned out to be inaccessible to Soviet readers and researchers, so that even an objective picture of his work was impossible for them to compile. In the Soviet series "Literary Heritage" appeared in 1958 some materials that expand and correct this picture (for example, part of the correspondence with Lilya Brik). B. Jangfeldt fully published this correspondence between Mayakovsky and Brik in 1982 in Sweden.

Mayakovsky. Last love, last shot

Mayakovsky had a great poetic and dramatic talent; under the influence of Futurism, he strove for a new art, freed from the "old traditions" and conquering them. This creative craving brought him closer to the Bolsheviks.

Mayakovsky's declamatory verses fused his own aspirations and political attitudes, colloquial language bordering on jargon and rhetorical pathos, lyrical subtlety and poetic journalism, loneliness, passionate longing, internal fragmentation and boundless egocentrism, expressed in the desire to be a leader, in self-praise, despising humility.

Innovations in Russian verse: the use of free verse, the rhythm of which rests only on stresses, which is emphasized by the arrangement of the verse with a ladder, orienting to pronunciation aloud; elliptic syntax; great freedom in rhyming, often limited to assonance, - established themselves thanks to Mayakovsky.

The unrealistic elements of Mayakovsky's defiant figurative language also find a parallel in his plays - in the pseudo-biblical symbolism of the scenes. Mystery buff depicting the death of capitalism and the communist paradise, as well as in satirical exaggerations when showing modernity in comedies Bug and Bath. Mayakovsky characterized his style as tendentious realism. He longed to invade reality with his more powerful than deep creativity. When this opportunity was taken away from him, he passed away.

  Vladimir Vladimirovich Mayakovsky was born in the family of a forester. In 1906, after the death of his father, the family moved to Moscow. Mayakovsky studied at the Moscow gymnasium. Communicated with Bolshevik students, joined the party, co-opted into the Moscow Committee of the RSDLP (b) (1908). He was arrested three times, in 1909 he was imprisoned in solitary confinement in the Butyrka prison. After leaving prison, where he began to write poetry, Mayakovsky decides to "make socialist art": "I interrupted party work. I sat down to study." In 1911 Mayakovsky entered the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture. By 1912, the first poetic experiments related to the theory and practice of the Cubo-Futurist group, which attracted him with a protest against the foundations of bourgeois society, belong. But if the anti-aestheticism of the futurists manifested itself mainly in the field of "pure" form, then Mayakovsky perceived it in his own way, as an approach to solving the problem - to create a new democratic poetic language. He will say about this in the revolutionary poem "A Cloud in Pants" (1915): "... The street is writhing without a language - it has nothing to shout and talk with."

  Mayakovsky's work in its social sound did not fit into the framework of futurism, which was especially evident in the tragedy "Vladimir Mayakovsky" (staged in 1913). The pathos of the tragedy is in protest against the institutions of bourgeois society, against the power of "soulless things." Tragedy ultimately goes back to the mood of the masses, outraged by the injustice of the world, but not yet aware of their strength. The pathos of the denial of bourgeois reality is also palpable in the poet's early poems ("Hell of the city", "Nate!"). Mayakovsky was expelled from the school (1914) for participating in public literary performances by the Futurists. The beginning of World War I 1914-18 was reflected in his work in a non-uniform way: in the article "Civilian Shrapnel" (November 1914) he wrote that "today hymns are needed ...", but in the poems "War is declared" (July 1914 d.) and "Mother and the Evening Killed by the Germans" (November 1914) showed his disgust for the war, for its bloody nonsense. In poems published in the journal "New Satyricon" ("Hymn to the Judge", "Hymn to the Scientist", "Hymn to the Bribe"), Mayakovsky gives sarcastic "praise" to the abominations of life, in which honest work, a pure conscience and high art become the subject of blasphemy.

  A new stage was the poem "A cloud in pants". "Down with your love", "Down with your art", "Down with your system", "Down with your religion" - four cries of the four parts, - this is how the poet himself characterized the main social and aesthetic orientation of "Clouds". The poem reflected the growing strength of millions spontaneously rising up against capitalism and realizing their path in the struggle. The main pathos of Mayakovsky's pre-October poems - "Flute-Spine" (1916), "War and Peace" (separate edition - 1917), "Man" (1916-17, published in 1918) - was a protest against bourgeois relations that crippled the true nature of Man. This brought the poet closer to M. Gorky, who, singling out the futurists from among the futurists, attracted him to participate in the Chronicle magazine.

  Joyfully meeting the October Revolution, Mayakovsky defined his position: "My revolution. I went to Smolny. I worked. Everything I had." The poet sought to aesthetically comprehend the "amazing facts" of the new socialist reality. Until October, Mayakovsky did not have a clear social perspective. Some dogmas of the futuristic group left their mark on the peculiarities of the form of his poems and on the system of social and aesthetic views. After October, Mayakovsky's work acquires a new socio-aesthetic coloring, due to the struggle for the ideals of communism (both positively and satirically). This was already evident in the play "Mystery Buff" (1918, 2nd version, 1921) - "... a heroic, epic and satirical depiction of our era", the first Soviet play on a modern theme. Asserting the greatness and heroism of ordinary people, Mayakovsky exposed the creative impotence of the bourgeoisie; only the "impure" with their moral purity and class solidarity can build the "ark" of the new world. In "Left March" (1918), a kind of hymn to proletarian power and purposefulness, the poet called for a fight against the enemies of the revolution. But Mayakovsky's aesthetic palette was multicolored: in the poem "A Good Attitude towards Horses" (1918), he advocated the richness of the emotions of a new person, who should have access to sympathy for everything living, everything defenseless.

  The humanistic orientation of Mayakovsky's poetry acquired a new social quality. The poem "150,000,000" (1919-20, 1st edition without an author's name, 1921) affirmed the leading role of the Russian people as a herald of the socialist revolution. V. I. Lenin negatively perceived the poem, seeing in it an example of futurism, which he treated negatively. During these years, Mayakovsky began to pave the way for a truly democratic art, in tune with the mood of the masses. Having moved to Moscow in March 1919, he worked at the "Windows of ROSTA" - he draws posters with poetic texts of an agitational nature (about 1,100 "windows" were created in 3 years). In these posters, as well as in Mayakovsky's industrial and book graphics of the 1920s, his talent and experience as an artist, his catchy and laconic manner were especially clearly manifested (Mayakovsky turned to fine art starting from the 10s; his numerous portrait sketches, sketches Lubkov, theatrical works). This activity of the "worker poet", who gave his pen and brush to the needs of the revolution, was deeply organic for Mayakovsky, corresponded to his aesthetic concept of the invasion of art into reality.

  In Mayakovsky's poetry of the 1920s, a lyrical hero of a new type appears: he does not separate his intimate world from the big world of social storms, he does not think the intimate outside the social - "I Love" (1922), "About This" (1923) , "Letter to Tatyana Yakovleva" (1928) and others. As a result of Mayakovsky's trips to capitalist countries (USA, Germany, France, Cuba and others), the cycles of poems "Paris" (1924-25) and "Poems about America" ​​(1925-26) appeared. Mayakovsky acted as the plenipotentiary of the young socialist state, challenging the bourgeois system

  The pathos of namelessness ("I sing to millions") in the poet's work gave way to a more harmonious concept of personality. Like M. Gorky, Mayakovsky stands at the origins of Soviet Leniniana. In the poem "Vladimir Ilyich Lenin" (1924), the activities of the leader of the proletarian revolution are artistically recreated against a broad historical background. Mayakovsky realized the enormous significance of Lenin's personality - "the most humane person", "the organizer of the victory" of the proletariat. The poem was a hymn to the "attacking class" - the proletariat and its party. Feeling himself "... a soldier in the ranks of a billion people" (ibid., vol. 7, 1958, p. 166), Mayakovsky considered the striving for a communist future as a criterion for all creative activity, including poetry. "... A great feeling named class" was the main driving force behind Mayakovsky's work in the Soviet era. The poem "Good!" (1927) A. V. Lunacharsky called "The October Revolution, cast in bronze"; Mayakovsky sang here the "spring of mankind" - his socialist fatherland. Along with Gorky, Mayakovsky became the founder of socialist realism in Soviet literature.

  During these years, Mayakovsky created such lyrical masterpieces as "To Comrade Netta, a steamboat and a man", "To Sergei Yesenin" (both 1926), "Poems about a Soviet passport" (1929) and others.

  Mayakovsky's lyricism is comprehensive - it expressed the unprecedented spiritual growth of a man of a new society. Mayakovsky is a lyricist, tribune, satirist - a poet of a huge, "solid heart". Faith in the triumph of communist ideals is combined in his poems with intransigence towards everything that prevents "rushing into tomorrow, forward." Mayakovsky's speech against bureaucracy and the hustle and bustle of the meetings in the poem "Seated" (1922) caused great "pleasure" of Lenin. Inspired by the approval of the leader of the revolution, Mayakovsky later smashed all sorts of "pompadours" who clung to the party and covered up their selfish petty-bourgeois insides with their party card ("Pompadour", 1928, "Conversation with Comrade Lenin", 1929). In the poems of the late 1920s, in the plays Bedbug (1928, staged in 1929) and Bathhouse (1929, staged in 1930), a whole gallery of types appeared, dangerous for their social mimicry and empty demagogy. Mayakovsky's satirical plays, innovative both in content and form, played an important role in the development of Soviet drama.

  Mayakovsky created an innovative poetic system that largely determined the development of both Soviet and world poetry; Nazim Hikmet, Louis Aragon, Pablo Neruda, I. Becher and others experienced its impact. Proceeding from his ideological and artistic task, Mayakovsky significantly reformed Russian verse. A new type of lyrical hero with his revolutionary attitude to reality contributed to the formation of a new poetics of maximum expressiveness: the entire system of the poet's artistic means is aimed at the most dramatic verbal expression of the thoughts and feelings of the lyrical hero. This affects the system of graphic notation: increased expressiveness is transmitted both through changes in the traditional spelling and punctuation, and the introduction of new methods of graphic fixation of the text - "column", and since 1923 - "ladder", reflecting pausing. The desire for maximum expressiveness of the verse runs along different lines: vocabulary and phraseology, rhythm, intonation, rhyme.

  Mayakovsky headed the literary group LEF (Left Front of the Arts) and later - REF (Revolutionary Front of the Arts); edited the magazine "LEF" (1923-25) and "New LEF" (1927-28), but came to the conclusion that closed groupings impede the normal creative communication of Soviet writers, and in February 1930 joined the RAPP, which he considered as a mass literary organization. The difficult situation of the last years of his personal life and literary struggle led Mayakovsky to depression and suicide. The poem "Out loud" (1930) is perceived as Mayakovsky's poetic testament, full of deep inner faith in the triumph of communism. Mayakovsky's work is widely studied both in the USSR, where a number of major monographic studies have been created, and abroad. However, his poetry was the object of a subjectivist interpretation by the so-called Sovietologists, who are trying to distort the poetic image of Mayakovsky, to emasculate the revolutionary content of his poetry. Mayakovsky's works have been translated into all the major languages ​​of the peoples of the Soviet Union and foreign countries.

  In 1937, the Mayakovsky Library-Museum was opened in Moscow (former Gendrikov Lane, now Mayakovsky Lane); in January 1974, the State Mayakovsky Museum was opened in Moscow. In 1941, the Mayakovsky Museum was opened in the village of Mayakovsky (formerly the village of Baghdadi) of the Georgian SSR.