“I am a poet. This is what makes me interesting” (What attracts me to Mayakovsky’s work) (Mayakovsky V

Mayakovsky's work remains to this day an outstanding artistic achievement of early Russian poetry. XX century His works are not devoid of ideological distortions and propaganda rhetoric, but they cannot erase the objective significance and scale of Mayakovsky’s artistic talent, the reformist essence of his poetic experiments, which for his contemporaries, and even for the poet’s descendants, were associated with a revolution in art.

Mayakovsky was born in Georgia, where he spent his childhood. After the death of his father in 1906, the family moved to Moscow, where Mayakovsky entered the 4th grade of the Fifth Moscow Gymnasium. In 1908, he was expelled from there, and a month later Mayakovsky was arrested by the police in the underground printing house of the Moscow Committee of the RSDLP. Over the next year he was arrested twice more. In 1910-1911, Mayakovsky studied in the studio of the artist P. Kelin, and then studied at the School of Painting, met the artist and poet D. Burliuk, under whose influence Mayakovsky’s avant-garde aesthetic tastes were formed.

Mayakovsky wrote his first poems in 1909 in prison, to which he came through connections with underground revolutionary organizations. The debut poet's poems were written in a rather traditional manner, which imitated the poetry of Russian symbolists, and M. himself immediately abandoned them. A real poetic baptism for M. was his acquaintance in 1911 with the futurist poets. In 1912, M., together with other futurists, issued the almanac “A Slap in the Face of Public Taste” (“A Slap in the Face of Public Taste”), signed by D. Burliuk, O. Kruchenykh and V. Mayakovsky. With Mayakovsky's poems "Noch" ("Night") and "Utro" ("Morning"), in which in a shockingly daring manner he proclaimed a break with the traditions of Russian classics, he called for the creation of a new language and literature, one that would meet the spirit of modern " machines" of civilization and the tasks of revolutionary transformation of the world. The practical embodiment of the futuristic theses declared by Mayakovsky in the almanac was the constant production at the St. Petersburg Luna Park Theater in 1913 of his poetic tragedy “Vladimir M.” (“Vladimir M.”). The author personally acted as director and performer of the main role - a poet who suffers in a modern city that he hates, which cripples the souls of people who, although they elect the poet as their prince, are not able to appreciate the sacrifice he made. In 1913, Mayakovsky, together with other futurists, carried out a large tour of the cities of the USSR: Simferopol, Sevastopol, Kerch, Odessa, Chisinau, Nikolaev, Kiev, Minsk, Kazan, Penza, Rostov, Saratov, Tiflis, Baku. The futurists did not limit themselves to the artistic interpretation of the program of new art and tried to introduce their slogans into life practically, in particular even through clothing and behavior. Their poetic performances, visits to coffee shops, or even an ordinary walk around the city were often accompanied by scandals, brawls, and police intervention.

Under the sign of passion for the futuristic slogans of the restructuring of the world and art is the entire work of M. of the pre-revolutionary period; it is characterized by the pathos of objections to bourgeois reality, which, according to the poet, morally cripples a person, awareness of the tragedy of human existence in the world of profit, calls for a revolutionary renewal of the world: poems “ The Hell of the City" ("Hell of the City", 1913), "Here!" (“Nate!”, 1913), collection “I” (1913), poems “Cloud in Pants” (“Cloud in Pants”, 1915), “Flute-Spine” (“Flute-Spine”, 1915), “War and peace" ("War and Peace", 1916), "Man" ("Man", 1916), etc. The poet sharply objected to the First World War, which he characterized as a senseless bloodbath: the article "Civil Shrapnel" (State Shrapnel, 1914), the verse “War has been declared” (“War has been declared”, 1914), (“Mom and the evening killed by the Germans”, 1914), etc. With sarcastic irony, the poet refers to the hypocritical world of bureaucrats, careerists who discredit honest work, a clear conscience and high art: (“Hymn to the Judge”, 1915), “Hymn to the Scientist” (“Hymn to the Scientist”, 1915), “Hymn to the Habar” (“Hymn to the Bribe”, 1915), etc.

The pinnacle of Mayakovsky’s pre-revolutionary creativity is the poem “A Cloud in Pants,” which became a kind of programmatic work of the poet, in which he most clearly and expressively outlined his ideological and aesthetic principles. In the poem, which the poet himself called “the catechism of modern art,” four slogans are proclaimed and concretized in figurative form: “Away with your love,” “away with your order,” “away with your art,” “away with your religion” - “four cries of four parts." The cross-cutting leitmotif running through the entire poem is the image of a man who suffers from the incompleteness and hypocrisy of the existence that surrounds him, who protests and strives for real human happiness. The initial title of the poem - “The Thirteenth Apostle” - was crossed out by censorship, but it is precisely this that more deeply and accurately conveys the main pathos of this work and all of Mayakovsky’s early work. The Apostle is the teachings of Christ, called upon to implement his teachings in life, but in M. this image quickly approaches the one that will later appear in O. Blok’s famous poem “The Twelve.” Twelve is the traditional number of Christ’s closest disciples, and the appearance in this series of the thirteenth, “superfluous” apostle to the biblical canons, is perceived as a challenge to the traditional universe, as an alternative model of a new worldview. Mayakovsky's thirteenth apostle is both a symbol of the revolutionary renewal of life that the poet strived for, and at the same time a metaphor capable of conveying the true scale of the poetic phenomenon of the speaker of the new world - Mayakovsky.

Mayakovsky's poetry of that time gives rise not just to individual problems and shortcomings of modern society, it gives rise to the very possibility of its existence, the fundamental, fundamental principles of its existence, acquires the scale of a cosmic rebellion in which the poet feels himself equal to God. Therefore, in their desires, the anti-traditionality of Mayakovsky’s lyrical hero was emphasized. It reached the maximum level of shocking, so much so that they seemed to give a “slap in the face to public taste”, demanded that the hairdresser “comb his ear” (“I didn’t understand anything...”), squat down and bark like a dog (“That’s how I am.” became a dog... ") and defiantly declares: “I love watching children die...” (“I”), throws at the audience during the performance: “I will laugh and joyfully spit, I will spit in your face.. .” (“Here!”). Together with Mayakovsky’s tall stature and loud voice, all this created a unique image of a poet-fighter, an apostle-harbinger of a new world. “The poetics of early Mayakovsky,” writes O. Myasnikov, “is the poetics of the grandiose.

In his poetry of those years, everything is extremely tense. His lyrical hero feels capable and obligated to solve not only the problems of rebuilding his own soul, but also of all humanity, the task is not only earthly, but also cosmic. Hyperbolization and complex metaphorization are characteristic features of the early Mayakovsky style. The lyrical hero of early Mayakovsky feels extremely uncomfortable in the bourgeois-philistine environment. He hates and disdains everyone who prevents the Capital Letter Man from living like a human being. The problem of humanism is one of the central problems of early Mayakovsky.

There are poets who seem to be open to love, and all their work is literally permeated with this wonderful feeling. These are Pushkin, Akhmatova, Blok, Tsvetaeva and many others. And there are those whom it is difficult to imagine falling in love. And first of all, Vladimir Mayakovsky comes to mind. Poems about love in his work, at first glance, seem completely inappropriate, since he is usually perceived as a singer of the revolution. Let's try to find out if this is so by taking a closer look at the poet.

Mayakovsky - the beginning of his creative journey

The poet's homeland is Georgia. The parents came from a noble family, although the father served as a simple forester. The sudden death of the breadwinner forces the family to move to Moscow. There Mayakovsky entered the gymnasium, but two years later he was expelled for non-payment of tuition, and took up revolutionary activities. He was arrested several times and spent almost a year in a cell. This happened in 1909. Then for the first time he began to try to write poetry, absolutely terrible, according to him. However, it was this year that Mayakovsky, whose famous poems were still ahead, considered the beginning of his poetic career.

Poet of the Revolution

It cannot be said that the work of Vladimir Mayakovsky was entirely devoted to the revolution. Everything is far from so clear. The poet unconditionally accepted her, was an active participant in those events, and many of his works were actually dedicated to him. He practically deified her, believed in the ideals that she carried, and defended her. Undoubtedly, he was the mouthpiece of the revolution, and his poems were a kind of propaganda.

Love in the life of Mayakovsky

Deep emotionality is inherent in all creative people. Vladimir Mayakovsky was no exception. The theme runs through all of his work. Outwardly rude, in fact the poet was a very vulnerable person, a hero of a rather lyrical nature. And love was not the last place in Mayakovsky’s life and work. He, broad-minded, knew how to instantly fall in love, and not for a short time, but for a long time. But the poet was unlucky in love. All relationships ended tragically, and the last love in his life led to suicide.

Addressees of Mayakovsky's love lyrics

In the poet's life there were four women whom he loved unconditionally and deeply. Mayakovsky's love lyrics are primarily connected with them. Who are they, the poet’s muses, to whom he dedicated his poems?

Maria Denisova is the first person with whom Mayakovsky's love lyrics are associated. He fell in love with her in Odessa in 1914, and dedicated the poem “Cloud in Pants” to the girl. This was also the poet’s first strong feeling. That’s why the poem turned out to be so painfully honest. This is the real cry of a lover who has been waiting for several painful hours for his beloved girl, and she comes only to announce that she is marrying a wealthier man.

Tatyana Alekseevna Yakovleva. The poet met her in October 1928 in Paris. The meeting ended with them instantly falling in love with each other. The young emigrant and the tall Mayakovsky, two meters tall, were a wonderful couple. He dedicated two of his poems to her - “Letter to Comrade Kostrov...” and “Letter to Tatyana Yakovleva.”

In December, the poet left for Moscow, but already in February 1929 he returned to France again. His feelings for Yakovleva were so strong and serious that he proposed to her, but received neither refusal nor consent.

The relationship with Tatyana ended tragically. Planning to come again in the fall, Mayakovsky was unable to do so due to problems with his visa. In addition, he suddenly finds out that his love is getting married in Paris. The poet was so shocked by this news that he said that if he never saw Tatyana again, he would shoot himself.

And then the search for that one true love began again. The poet began to seek solace from other women.

Mayakovsky's last love

Veronica Vitoldovna Polonskaya is a theater actress. Mayakovsky met her in 1929 through Osip Brik. This was not done by chance, in the hope that the charming girl would interest the poet and distract him from the tragic events associated with Yakovleva. The calculation turned out to be correct. Mayakovsky became seriously interested in Polonskaya, so much so that he began to demand that she break up with her husband. And she, loving the poet, could not start a conversation with her husband, realizing what a blow it would be for him. And Polonskaya’s husband believed in his wife’s fidelity to the end.

It was painful love for both. Mayakovsky became more and more nervous every day, and she kept putting off the explanation with her husband. On April 14, 1930, they saw each other for the last time. Polonskaya claims that there was no conversation about the breakup; the poet once again asked her to leave her husband and leave the theater. A minute after she left, already on the stairs, Polonskaya heard a shot. Returning to the poet's apartment, she found him dying. This is how the last love and life of Vladimir Mayakovsky ended tragically.

Lilya Brik

This woman, without exaggeration, occupied the main place in the poet’s heart. She is his strongest and most “sick” love. Almost all of Mayakovsky's love lyrics after 1915 are dedicated to her.

The meeting with her took place a year after the break in relations with Denisova. Mayakovsky was initially attracted to his younger sister Lily, and at the first meeting he mistook her for his beloved’s governess. Later, Lily officially met the poet. They were amazed by his poems, and he instantly fell in love with this extraordinary woman.

Their relationship was strange and incomprehensible to others. Lily's husband had an affair and did not feel physical attraction to his wife, but in his own way he loved her very much. Lilya adored her husband, and when she was once asked who she would choose, Mayakovsky or Brik, she answered without hesitation that her husband. But the poet was also extremely dear to her. This strange relationship lasted 15 years, until Mayakovsky’s death.

Features of Mayakovsky's love lyrics

The features of the poet’s lyrics are most clearly visible in his poem “I Love,” dedicated to Lilya Brik.

Love for Mayakovsky is deep personal experiences, and not an established opinion about it. Every person has this feeling from birth, but ordinary people who value comfort and prosperity more in life quickly lose love. With them, according to the poet, it “shrinks.”

A feature of the poet's love lyrics is his conviction that if a person loves someone, he must completely follow the chosen one, always and in everything, even if the loved one is wrong. According to Mayakovsky, love is selfless, it is not afraid of disagreements and distance.

The poet is a maximalist in everything, so his love knows no halftones. She knows no peace, and the author writes about this in his last poem “Unfinished”: “...I hope, I believe, shameful prudence will not come to me forever.”

Poems about love

Mayakovsky's love lyrics are represented by a small number of poems. But each of them is a small piece of the poet’s life with its sorrows and joys, despair and pain. “Love”, “Cloud in Pants”, “Unfinished”, “About This”, “Letter to Tatyana Yakovleva”, “Letter to Comrade Kostrov...”, “Spine Flute”, “Lilichka!” - this is a short list of works by Vladimir Mayakovsky about love.

I am a poet. This is what makes it interesting. This is what I am writing about.

About the rest - only if it is stated in words.

V.V. Mayakovsky

The Silver Age gave the world many talented writers and poets. However, among such great people as Yesenin, Blok, Akhmatova, Bunin and others, Vladimir Mayakovsky made a special impression on me.

His originality and power of words helped to gain many readers, both of his time and of our time. In this, in my opinion, he has no equal.

Mayakovsky's early work was distinguished by its expressiveness and expression of spiritual meeting. Take, for example, the poem “The Violin and a Little Nervously”: Mayakovsky clearly conveys his feeling of loneliness, because, while still young, he understands that he is not like others. People are not able to understand the world the way the poet himself understands it:

“You know what, violin?

We are awfully similar:

me too

but I can’t prove anything!”

He opens up to people with his soul, but, realizing that no one is able to understand him, he gradually fences himself off from him, watching everything from the side. That is why he sees in the violin a kindred soul, rejected and not fully understood.

As a follower of the cubo-futurism movement, he sought to create something new in literature and art. Disregarding classical literary rules, he created new literary rhythms, and also used his own styles in writing poetry (Mayakovsky’s famous “ladder”, which he began to use in 1923). The poet fully followed the slogan of the futurists “throw Pushkin, Dostoevsky, Tolstoy and other classics from the ship of modernity,” since, in his opinion, adhering to the old classical artistic means, it is impossible to reflect the rapidly progressing modernity.

Mayakovsky’s lyrical hero, like most poets, reflects the psychological “I” of the author himself. That is why his lyrical hero has many faces and is constantly changing. The constant change of image speaks not so much about the author’s state of mind as about his position in relation to the world: in each of his poems he challenges world literary norms. The revolutionary character in relation to traditions is manifested in the extraordinary diversity and change in the character of the hero: either a shocking maximalist demanding reforms from “A Cloud in Pants,” or a man with a subtle and vulnerable soul from “Listen!”

It is impossible not to mention the revolution in the poet’s life. The very idea of ​​changing the system in the country was close to the nature of Mayakovsky’s work. Merciless towards everything that does not correspond to his ideals, he openly despises and hates the pre-revolutionary state of the country:

Wet, as if she had been licked,

The sour air smells of mold.

is it possible

what's newer?

“Ode to the Revolution”, “Left March” and many other poems clearly express Mayakovsky’s position in relation to the revolution even with their titles. He deeply believes in the prosperity and bright future of his Motherland and is ready to contribute to this with all his might.

Five years after Mayakovsky’s death, in response to Liliya Brik’s complaint, Joseph Stalin writes about Mayakovsky like this: “Mayakovsky has always been and remains the best and most talented poet of our Soviet era. I consider an indifferent attitude towards his memory and work a crime.” Perhaps the ideals of communism that he worshiped turned out to be distorted. However, Mayakovsky did his job in full and therefore deserves the respect of his many readers.

Vladimir Vladimirovich Mayakovsky began his autobiographical narrative this way: “ I myself": "I am a poet. This is what makes it interesting. This is what I am writing about.” His poetic word has always been focused on creative experimentation, innovation, and aspirations for the future world and future art. He always wanted to be heard, so he had to force his voice very much, as if shouting at the top of his lungs; in this sense, the title of the unfinished poem is “ In a loud voice"can characterize the entire work of Mayakovsky.

His aspiration for the future was expressed at the very beginning of his journey: in 1912, together with the poets D. Burliuk, V. Khlebnikov and A. Kruchenykh, he signed the manifesto “A Slap in the Face of Public Opinion.” The futuristic worldview remained with him throughout his life: this includes the deification of the future, its immense idealization and the idea that it is much more valuable than the present and the past; this is also “aspiration towards the extreme, the ultimate,” as N. Berdyaev characterized such a worldview; this is a radical negation of modern principles of life, which are conceived as bourgeois, shocking as the most important goal of the poetic word. The programmatic works of this period of Mayakovsky’s work are the tragedy of the twenty-year-old poet “ Vladimir Mayakovsky", staged in St. Petersburg and failed, the poem " Could you?" and the poem " A cloud in pants"(1915). Its leitmotif turns out to be the word “down,” expressing a trait that is organic to the poet’s personality: extreme revolutionaryism and the need for a radical reorganization of the world order as a whole - a trait that led Mayakovsky to futurism in poetry and to the Bolsheviks in politics. In the same year the poem “ Flute-spine" Its plot was the beginning of a dramatic and even tragic relationship with a woman who went through Mayakovsky’s entire life and played a very ambiguous role in it - Liliya Brik.

After the revolution, Mayakovsky feels like its poet, accepts it completely and uncompromisingly. The task of art is to serve it, to bring practical benefit. Practicalism and even utilitarianism of the poetic word is one of the fundamental axioms of futurism, and then of LEF, a literary group that accepted all the fundamental futurist ideas for practical development. It is precisely with this utilitarian attitude towards poetry that Mayakovsky’s propaganda work in ROSTA is connected, which published “Windows of Satire” - topical leaflets and posters with rhyming lines for them. The basic principles of futuristic aesthetics were reflected in the poet’s post-revolutionary program poems: “ Our march" (1917), " Left march" And " Order for the Army of Arts"(1918). The theme of love - the poem " I love"(1922); " About it"(1923), although here too the gigantism and excessive hyperbolization characteristic of the lyrical hero’s worldview, the desire to present exceptional and impossible demands to himself and the object of his love, are manifested.

In the second half of the 20s, Mayakovsky increasingly felt like an official poet, a plenipotentiary representative not only of Russian poetry, but also of the Soviet state - both at home and abroad. A peculiar lyrical plot of his poetry is the situation of traveling abroad and clashing with representatives of an alien, bourgeois world (“ Poems about the Soviet passport", 1929; cycle " Poems about America", 1925). His lines can be considered a kind of motto of the “plenipotentiary representative of poetry”: “The Soviets / have their own pride: / we look down on the bourgeoisie.”

At the same time, in the second half of the 20s, a note of disappointment in revolutionary ideals, or rather, in the real embodiment they found in Soviet reality, began to sound in Mayakovsky’s work. This somewhat changes the problematic of his lyrics. The volume of satire is increasing, its object is changing: it is no longer a counter-revolution, but the party’s own, home-grown bureaucracy, the “philistine’s mug” crawling out from behind the back of the RSFSR. The ranks of this bureaucracy are filled with people who went through the civil war, experienced in battle, reliable party members, who did not find the strength to resist the temptations of nomenklatura life, the delights of the NEP, who experienced the so-called degeneration. Similar motives can be heard not only in lyrics, but also in drama (comedy " Bug", 1928, and " Bath", 1929). The ideal that is put forward is no longer a wonderful socialist future, but a revolutionary past, the goals and meaning of which are distorted by the present. It is precisely this understanding of the past that characterizes the poem “ Vladimir Ilyich Lenin"(1924) and the October poem " Fine"(1927), written for the tenth anniversary of the revolution and addressed to the ideals of October.

So, we examined Mayakovsky’s work briefly. The poet passed away on April 14, 1930. The cause of his tragic death, suicide, was probably a whole complex of insoluble contradictions, both creative and deeply personal.

Vladimir Mayakovsky is the flame of the twentieth century. His poems are inseparable from his life. However, behind the cheerful Soviet slogans of Mayakovsky the revolutionary, one can discern another Mayakovsky - a romantic knight, a theurgist, a crazy genius in love.

Below is a short biography of Vladimir Vladimirovich Mayakovsky.

Introduction

In 1893, the future great futurist, Vladimir Mayakovsky, was born in the village of Bagdati in Georgia. They said about him: a genius. They shouted about him: a charlatan. But no one could deny that he had an incredible influence on Russian poetry. He created a new style that was inseparable from the spirit of Soviet times, from the hopes of that era, from the people living, loving and suffering in the USSR.

He was a man of contradiction. They will say about him:

This is a complete mockery of beauty, tenderness and God.

They will say about him:

Mayakovsky has always been and remains the best and most talented poet of our Soviet era.

By the way, this beautiful photo is fake. Mayakovsky, unfortunately, never met Frida Kahlo, but the idea of ​​their meeting is wonderful - they are both like riot and fire.

One thing is certain: whether a genius or a charlatan, Mayakovsky will forever remain in the hearts of the Russian people. Some like him for the glibness and impudence of his lines, others - for the tenderness and desperate love that hides in the depths of his style. His broken, crazy style, breaking from the shackles of writing, which is so similar to real life.

Life is a struggle

Mayakovsky's life was a struggle from beginning to end: in politics, in art and in love. His first poem is the result of struggle, the consequence of suffering: it was written in prison (1909), where he was sent for his Social Democratic beliefs. He began his creative journey, admiring the ideals of the revolution, and ended it, mortally disappointed in everything: everything in him is a tangle of contradictions, struggle.

He ran like a red thread through history and art and left his mark in subsequent works. It is impossible to write a modernist poem without referring to Mayakovsky.

The poet Vladimir Mayakovsky is, in his own words:

But there is something else behind this rough, militant façade.

short biography

When he was only 15 years old, he joined the RSDLP(b), and was enthusiastically engaged in propaganda.

Since 1911, he studied at the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture.

Major Poems (1915): "Cloud in Pants", "Spine Flute" and "War and Peace". These works are full of delight for the coming, and then the coming revolution. The poet is full of optimism.

1918-1919 - revolution, he actively participates. Produces posters "Windows of Satire ROSTA".

In 1923, he became the founder of the creative association LEF (Left Front of the Arts).

Mayakovsky’s later works “The Bedbug” (1928) and “Bathhouse” (1929) are a sharp satire on Soviet reality. Mayakovsky is disappointed. Perhaps this was one of the reasons for his tragic suicide.

In 1930, Mayakovsky committed suicide: he shot himself, leaving a suicide note in which he asked not to blame anyone. He is buried at the Novodevichy cemetery.

Art

Irina Odoevtseva wrote about Mayakovsky:

Huge, with a round, short-cropped head, he looked more like a strong hooker than a poet. He read poetry completely differently than was customary among us. Rather like an actor, although - which the actors never did - not only observing, but also emphasizing the rhythm. His voice - the voice of a meeting tribune - either thundered so loudly that the windows rattled, or cooed like a dove and babbled like a forest stream. Stretching out his huge hands to the stunned listeners in a theatrical gesture, he passionately suggested to them:

Do you want me to go mad from meat?

And, like the sky, changing colors,

Do you want me to become inexpressibly tender, -

Not a man, but a cloud in his pants?..

These lines show Mayakovsky’s character: he is first of all a citizen, not a poet. He is first and foremost a tribune, an activist at rallies. He is an actor. His early poetry is, accordingly, not a description, but a call to action, not a statement, but a performative. Not so much art as real life. This applies at least to his social poems. They are expressive and metaphorical. Mayakovsky himself admitted that he was impressed by Andrei Bely’s poem “He launched a pineapple into the sky”:

low bass.

launched a pineapple.

And, having described the arc,

illuminating the surroundings,

the pineapple was falling,

beaming into the unknown.

But there is also a second Mayakovsky, who wrote without being impressed by either Bely or the revolution - he wrote from the inside, desperately in love, unhappy, tired - not the warrior Mayakovsky, but the gentle knight Mayakovsky, an admirer of Lilichka Brik. And the poetry of this second Mayakovsky is strikingly different from the first. The poems of Vladimir Mayakovsky are full of piercing, desperate tenderness, rather than healthy optimism. They are sharp and sad, in contrast to the positive cheerfulness of his Soviet poetic appeals.

Mayakovsky the warrior proclaimed:

Read! Envy! I am a citizen! Soviet Union!

Mayakovsky the knight rang with shackles and sword, vaguely reminiscent of the theurgist Blok, drowning in his purple worlds:

The fence of reason is broken by confusion,

I pile up despair, burning feverishly...

How did two such different people get along in one Mayakovsky? It is difficult to imagine and impossible not to imagine. If it were not for this internal struggle in him, there would not have been such a genius.

Love

These two Mayakovskys got along probably because they were both driven by passion: for one it was a passion for Justice, and for the second for a femme fatale.

Perhaps it is worth dividing the life of Vladimir Mayakovsky into two main periods: before and after Lilichka Brik. This happened in 1915.

She seemed like a monster to me.

This is how the famous poet Andrei Voznesensky wrote about her.

But Mayakovsky loved this one. With a whip...

He loved her - fatal, strong, “with a whip,” and she said about him that when she made love with Osya, she locked Volodya in the kitchen, and he “was eager, wanted to come to us, scratched at the door and cried...”

Only such madness, incredible, even perverted suffering could give rise to such powerful poetic lines:

Don’t do this, dear, good, let’s say goodbye now!

So the three of them lived, and eternal suffering spurred the poet on to new lines of genius. Besides this, there was, of course, something else. There were trips to Europe (1922-24) and America (1925), as a result of which the poet had a daughter, but Lilichka always remained the same, the only one, until April 14, 1930, when, having written “Lilya, love me,” the poet shot himself, leaving a ring with LOVE engraved on it - Liliya Yuryevna Brik. If you twirled the ring, you got the eternal “lovelovelove.” He shot himself in defiance of his own lines, his eternal declaration of love, which made him immortal:

And I won’t throw myself into the air, and I won’t drink poison, and I won’t be able to pull the trigger above my temple...

Creative heritage

The work of Vladimir Mayakovsky is not limited to his dual poetic heritage. He left behind slogans, posters, plays, performances and film scripts. He actually stood at the origins of advertising - Mayakovsky made it what it is now. Mayakovsky came up with a new poetic meter - the ladder - although some argue that this meter was generated by the desire for money: editors paid for poems line by line. One way or another, it was an innovative step in art. Vladimir Mayakovsky was also an actor. He himself directed the film “The Young Lady and the Hooligan” and played the main role there.

However, in recent years he has been plagued by failure. His plays "The Bedbug" and "The Bathhouse" failed and he slowly fell into depression. An adept of cheerfulness, fortitude, and struggle, he scandalized, quarreled, and gave in to despair. And at the beginning of April 1930, the magazine “Print and Revolution” removed the greeting to the “Great Proletarian Poet” from print, and rumors spread: he had written himself off. This was one of the last blows. Mayakovsky took his failure hard.

Memory

Many streets in Russia, as well as metro stations, are named after Mayakovsky. There are Mayakovskaya metro stations in St. Petersburg and Moscow. In addition, theaters and cinemas are named after him. One of the largest libraries in St. Petersburg also bears his name. Also, a minor planet discovered in 1969 was named in his honor.

The biography of Vladimir Mayakovsky did not end after his death.