Brief information about the life and work of V. V. Mayakovsky

Vladimir Mayakovsky is one of the most prominent poets of the early 20th century. The meaning and essence of an entire era is associated with his name and work - the Russian revolution of the 20th century. His talent manifested itself both in poems written only in his own poetic style, and in dramatic works. He accompanied his literary creations with his own illustrations, so without exaggeration it can be said that Vladimir Mayakovsky also had artistic talent. A lot is known about this great poet of the Silver Age, but at the same time practically nothing can be said clearly about him. He was and will remain a mystery even to the most sincere admirers of his work. As for his biography, there are practically no “white spots” in it, but his spiritual world, which influenced his creativity and the vicissitudes of fate, is still a mystery.

Vladimir Vladimirovich Mayakovsky was born on July 7, 1893 in the Kutaisi province, in the small Georgian village of Baghdadi. Both parents were direct descendants of Zaporozhye Cossacks. The father of the great poet, Vladimir Konstantinovich, was a hereditary nobleman and worked as a forester. Mother, Pavlenko A.A., was involved in raising children; besides Vladimir, there were two more children in the family.

The events of his childhood and youth largely determined his future life path. In the period from 1902 to 1906, the future poet studied at the Kutaisi gymnasium, where he probably managed to get acquainted with the liberal democratic intelligentsia. In 1905, he even took part in a major demonstration of Russian and Georgian youth. His father actually died from a needle stick that resulted in blood poisoning. As a result of the death of his father, Mayakovsky developed a phobia of contracting any disease, so he always had a soap dish with him and constantly washed his hands.

After the unexpected death of his father, the family moved to Moscow in 1906. In the capital, he entered the fifth classical gymnasium. In the fourth grade, his classmate was Shura Pasternak, the brother of the great Russian writer and poet. The financial situation was quite difficult, so in 1908 Vladimir Mayakovsky was expelled from the Moscow gymnasium because his mother did not have the funds to further pay for his studies. Nevertheless, thanks to his talent for fine arts, he was accepted to study at the Stroganov School. But here, too, the future poet’s studies did not go smoothly because of his political views.

In his younger years, he was arrested three times. In 1908, Mayakovsky went to prison because of his political beliefs. The arrest of the poet was caused by the revolutionary agitation that he carried out among representatives of the working class and in connection with suspicion of the activities of an underground printing house. He was released as a minor under the supervision of his parents. The second arrest was due to suspicions of collaboration with anarchists. The third arrest was participation in organizing the escape of female political prisoners from prison. Then he spent 11 months in prisons, including the famous Butyrka. He was then released due to insufficient evidence.

After the next imprisonment in Butyrka prison ended, Mayakovsky stopped taking an active part in the work of the party.

He began writing his first poems in his youth, while in prison; they were later selected by prison officials. But according to the poet himself, the poems turned out bad. “Night” is the first published lyrical work of the young poet. It was written under the influence of the futuristic ideas of the Gilea poetic circle, which included Vladimir Mayakovsky.

With Lilya Brik

In 1915, the author of the famous poem “A Cloud in Pants” met a married couple, Lilya and Osip Maksimovich Brik. This meeting turned out to be fatal in the poet’s fate. An inexplicable passion for Lila forced him to ignore all the conventions of society and move into their apartment. Lilya Brik became his muse, his lover, his icon. Mayakovsky confessed his love to her, presenting her with a ring with engraved initials - “LOVE”, which also implied the word “love”. She had an ambivalent attitude towards him: on the one hand, she accepted his advances, sought to be his muse, and on the other, she mocked him. She said more than once that there was no difference between Vladimir and the cab driver. They both manage something. Only one - with a horse, and the other - with a word. Mayakovsky and Lilya Brik, whose relationship was complex to the extreme, were, in essence, an excellent tandem of creator and muse. The Swedish Brik family with Mayakovsky created favorable conditions not only for communication with Lilya.

With the Brick family

Osip Brik personally took part in the poet’s life. He corrected the punctuation and spelling of the poems of the brilliant creator. These three people had such a strange relationship. In 1927, the film “Love for Three,” directed by Abram Rom and screenwriter Viktor Shklovsky, tried to reveal the secret of the relationship between Mayakovsky and Brikov.

Mayakovsky never married. He had a peculiar relationship with his beloved women, not typical of the morality of that time. Mayakovsky's personal life was turbulent, but it all ultimately came down to one thing, or rather, to one thing - Lilya Brik. Of course, the attraction to her was unnatural, and even somehow painful. And Mayakovsky understood this. He looked for ways to break off this relationship: he started affairs on the side. The poet’s relationship with the Russian emigrant Elizaveta Siebert even gave birth to a daughter, Patricia Thompson.

Tatiana Yakovleva

Mayakovsky often toured abroad. Once in Paris, the poet fell passionately in love with the Russian emigrant Tatyana Yakovleva, who, unfortunately for the lover, did not reciprocate his feelings. Therefore, Tatyana Yakovleva is another unhappy love in the poet’s life. But she played an important role in Mayakovsky’s life. Although it has not been proven that the poet and Yakovleva had a romantic relationship, he still dedicated more than one poem to her. After all, Mayakovsky’s character did not allow him to give up even when there was no hope. Just before leaving for his homeland, the poet gave the fee he received for public performances in Paris to a flower company with the only condition - Mademoiselle Yakovleva was to receive a beautiful bouquet once a week with a note “From Mayakovsky.” The company fulfilled all agreements, and Tatyana received flowers for many years, and even after the tragic death of the poet. And during the fascist occupation, these bouquets saved her from starvation: she sold them on the street.

Elizaveta Lavinskaya

Vladimir Mayakovsky was the biological father of the sculptor-monumentalist Gleb-Nikita Lavinsky. The poet became closely acquainted with his mother, married Elizaveta Lavinskaya, in 1920, when they worked together at ROSTA's Windows of Satire, and a year later a son was born into the Lavlinsky family. The poet's paternity was revealed in the documentary television project "The Third Wheel", shown on Channel One in 2013.

With Veronica Polonskaya

The poet's last beloved woman was Veronica Polonskaya, an actress of the Moscow Academic Theater. However, the poet did not dedicate his last poem to her, and she was not his main heir. Lilya Brik continued to play the main role even after the poet’s death.

Mayakovsky committed suicide on April 14, 1930 with a pistol shot. Veronica Polonskaya witnessed his tragic death. Two days before the tragic incident, he left a suicide note in which he asked not to blame anyone for his death.

Mayakovsky, as a multi-talented personality, during his short life was able to realize himself in various types of art. This is clearly evidenced by his creative heritage. His directorial and acting works also speak about the versatility of this creative personality. In the dramatic genre, Mayakovsky’s archive contains five plays, four of which were staged at the Meyerhold Theater.

Interesting facts from the life of Mayakovsky

1 .Mayakovsky had a contradictory character. In his youth, while in prison, he became withdrawn. In addition, he was very sensitive and, as a result, prone to extremes in thinking and action.

2. The extremes in behavior are clearly demonstrated by the story told by the famous artist Repin. He liked the poet's curly brown hair and offered to paint his portrait. Soon Mayakovsky came to pose for the artist, shaving his head bald.

3 .The poet was very kind and generous to older people. He often found old people in need himself, gave them money and never said his name.

4 Mayakovsky loved dogs very much, which speaks of his kind character. In many photographs he is captured with his beloved dogs and looks happy from communicating with them.

5. Vladimir Mayakovsky was an avid gambler. Gambling, especially billiards and cards, was his irresistible passion. There is even a version that his suicide is connected with losing at Russian roulette. However, the exact causes and circumstances of the death of the famous poet still remain unexplored.

Son of the poet Gleb-Nikita Lavinsky

6. Mayakovsky worked diligently to find the most suitable, ideal rhyme that would fit into the poem in all respects. He could walk 15-20 km until he found exactly what he needed.

7. “The Poetic Ladder” is the calling card of the great Russian poet, which was admired by many. This was an obvious trick on the part of the writer, since at that time poets were paid for the number of lines in written poems, and the “ladder” led to the fact that he received 2-3 times more than his colleagues in the workshop.

8. His first filming was the film “Chained by Film,” where he starred with Liliya Brik. This film has not survived; only photographs and posters depicting the main character remain.

9. The film “The Young Lady and the Hooligan” has survived to this day, the screenwriter and main character of which was Mayakovsky himself.

Mayakovsky's daughter Patricia Thompson

10. The poet's daughter Patricia Thompson was born in America in 1925, lived in Upper Manhattan and taught at New York University. Outwardly, she was very similar to her father. The secret of her birth was told to her by her mother when the girl was 9 years old. The poet’s daughter died on April 1, 2016.

photo from the Internet

The fatal shot, which the poet’s last affection, Veronica Polonskaya, heard while leaving her room on Lubyanka, sounded on April 14, 1930...

The death of Mayakovsky in the thirty-seventh year of his life raised many questions among his contemporaries. Why did the genius, beloved by the people and the Soviet government, the “singer of the revolution”, voluntarily pass away?

There is no doubt that it was suicide. The results of an examination carried out by criminologists 60 years after the death of the poet confirmed that Mayakovsky shot himself. established the authenticity of what was written two days earlier. The very fact that the note was drawn up in advance speaks in favor of the thoughtfulness of this act.

When Yesenin passed away three years earlier, Mayakovsky writes: “It is not difficult to die in this life.
Make life much more difficult." With these lines, he puts a bitter assessment on escaping reality through suicide. About his own death, he writes: “... this is not the way... but I have no choice.”

We will never know the exact answer to the question of what broke the poet so much. But Mayakovsky's voluntary death can be partly explained by the events preceding his death. In part, the poet’s choice reveals his work. The famous lines from the poem “Man”, written in 1917: “And the heart is longing for a shot, and the throat is raving with a razor...” speak for themselves.

In general, Mayakovsky’s poetry is a mirror of his nervous, contradictory nature. His poems are full of either almost teenage delight and enthusiasm, or bile and bitterness of disappointment. This is how Vladimir Mayakovsky was described by his contemporaries. The same main witness to the poet’s suicide writes in her memoirs: “In general, he always had extremes. I don’t remember Mayakovsky... calm...".

The poet had many reasons to draw the final line. Married Lilya Brik, Mayakovsky's main love and muse, spent her entire life moving closer and further away from him, but never belonged to him entirely. Long before the tragedy, the poet had already flirted with his fate twice, and the reason for this was his all-encompassing passion for this woman. But then Mayakovsky, whose death still worries minds, remained alive - the weapon misfired.

The onset of serious health problems due to overwork and severe flu, the deafening failure of the play “Bathhouse” in March 1930, the separation from which the poet asked to become his wife... All these life collisions, indeed, blow by blow, seemed to be preparing Mayakovsky’s death. Kneeling in front of Veronica Polonskaya, persuading her to stay with him, the poet clung to the relationship with her like a saving straw. But the actress was not ready for such a decisive step as divorcing her husband... When the door closed behind her, a revolver with a single bullet in the clip put an end to the life of one of the greatest poets.

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In Ladimir, Mayakovsky did not immediately start writing poetry - at first he was going to become an artist and even studied painting. The poet's fame came to him after meeting avant-garde artists, when David Burliuk greeted the young author's first works with delight. Futurist group, “Today's Lubok”, “Left Front of the Arts”, advertising “Windows of GROWTH” - 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, and later the family moved to Kutaisi. Here the future poet studied at the gymnasium and took drawing lessons: the only Kutaisi artist, Sergei Krasnukha, taught 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, those who definitely sympathized with it and those 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 collapsible basin with him when traveling, carried cologne with him for rubbing and carefully monitored hygiene.

After the death of the father, the family found itself in a difficult situation. Mayakovsky recalled: “After my father’s funeral, we have 3 rubles. Instinctively, feverishly, we sold out of tables and chairs. We moved to Moscow. For what? There weren’t even any acquaintances”. 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 and 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 confinement in solitary confinement “11 Butyrka months.” He wrote poetry, but the notebook with lyrical experiments - “stilted and tearful,” as the author assessed them - was taken away by the guards.

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

David has the anger of a master who has surpassed his contemporaries, I have the pathos of a socialist who knows the inevitability of the collapse of old things. Russian futurism was born.

Vladimir Mayakovsky, excerpt from his 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, a famous futurist tour took place: the creative group toured Russian cities with performances.

Burliuk traveled and promoted futurism. But he loved Mayakovsky, stood at the cradle of his poetry, knew his biography to the smallest detail, knew how to read his things - and therefore, through David Davidovich’s butads, Mayakovsky’s appearance appeared so material that one wanted to touch him with his hands.
<...>
Upon arrival in the city, Burliuk first organized an exhibition of futuristic paintings and manuscripts, and in the evening gave a report.

Futurist poet Pyotr Neznamov

Vladimir Mayakovsky, Vsevolod Meyerhold, Alexander Rodchenko and Dmitry 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 play “Bathhouse”. 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”, staged it on stage and played the main role. In the same year, the poet became interested in cinema - he began writing scripts, and a year later he starred for the first time in the film “Drama in the Futurist Cabaret No. 13” (the picture has not survived). 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 - painted patriotic postcards for the front, inspired by traditional popular print. Simple colorful pictures were created for them and short poems were written in which they ridiculed the enemy.

In 1915, Mayakovsky met Osip and Lilya Brik. The poet later noted this event in his autobiography with 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 breaking up he continued to declare his love. In 1918, they starred together in the film Chained by Film - both in leading roles.

In November of the same year, the premiere of Mayakovsky’s play “Mystery Bouffe” 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 knowledgeable in very subtle theatrical, technological things that we, directors, know, which we usually study for a very long time in different schools, practically in the theater, etc. Mayakovsky always guessed every right and wrong stage decision, precisely as a director.”. The “revolutionary folk play,” as translator Rita Wright called it, was staged several more times.

A year later, the intense era of “GROWTH Windows” 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 the “left” in the name was replaced by “revolutionary”), and soon the magazine of the creative association of the same name. Its pages published prose and poetry, photographs by avant-garde photographers, bold architectural projects and news of “leftist” 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 translator Ellie Jones, and a short but stormy romance broke out between them. In the fall, the poet returned to the USSR, and in America he soon had a daughter, Helen-Patricia. After returning from the USA, Vladimir Mayakovsky wrote the cycle “Poems about America” and worked on scripts for Soviet films.

Vladimir Mayakovsky. Photo: goteatr.com

Vladimir Mayakovsky and Lilya Brik. Photo: mayakovskij.ru

Vladimir Mayakovsky. Photo: piter.my

In 1928–1929, Mayakovsky wrote the satirical plays “The Bedbug” and “Bathhouse”. Both premieres took place at the Meyerhold Theater. The poet was the second director, he oversaw the design of the performance and worked with the actors: he read fragments of the play, creating the necessary intonations and placing semantic accents.

Vladimir Vladimirovich was very interested in all kinds of work. He threw himself into his work. Before the premiere of “Bath” he was completely exhausted. He spent all his time in the theater. He wrote poems and inscriptions for the auditorium for the production of “Baths”. I supervised their hanging myself. Then he joked that he was hired at the Meyerhold Theater not only as an author and director (he worked a lot with the actors on the text), but also as a painter and carpenter, since he himself painted and nailed down something. As a very rare author, he was so passionate and passionate about 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 Veronica Polonskaya

Both plays caused a stir. Some viewers and critics saw the works as a satire on bureaucracy, while others saw them as criticism of the Soviet system. “Bathhouse” was staged only a few times, and then it was banned until 1953.

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

On the opening day, the guest hall was packed. However, as Bromberg recalled, no representatives of literary organizations came to the opening. And there were no official congratulations to the poet on his twentieth anniversary of work either.

I will never forget how, in the House of Press, at Vladimir Vladimirovich’s exhibition “Twenty Years of Work,” which for some reason was almost boycotted by the “big” writers, we, several people from Smena, literally stood around the stands for days, physically suffering because of how sad and stern A large, tall man walked face down through the empty halls, with his hands behind his back, walking back and forth, as if expecting someone very dear and becoming more and more convinced that this dear person would not come.

Poet Olga Berggolts

The lack of recognition was aggravated 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 would create scenes, then calm down, then again begin 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 “comrade government” not to leave his family: “My family is Lilya Brik, mother, sisters and Veronica Vitoldovna Polonskaya. If you give them a tolerable life, thank you.”.

After Mayakovsky's death, the entire archive of the poet went to Brik. 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 streets and squares of the Soviet Union were named after him.

Vulgarity, without challenging it in life, challenged it in death. But living, excited Moscow, alien to petty literary disputes, stood in line at his coffin, without anyone organizing 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 living, excited Moscow did not believe his death. He still doesn’t believe it.

Mayakovsky Vladimir Vladimirovich (1893-1930) - Russian poet, playwright and satirist, screenwriter and editor of several magazines, film director and actor. He is one of the greatest futurist poets of the twentieth century.

Birth and family

Vladimir was born on July 19, 1893 in Georgia in the village of Bagdati. Then it was the Kutaisi province, in Soviet times the village was called Mayakovsky, now Baghdati has become a city in the Imereti region in western Georgia.

Father, Vladimir Konstantinovich Mayakovsky, born in 1857, was from the Erivan province, where he served as a forester and had the third rank in this profession. Having moved to Bagdati in 1889, he got a job in the local forestry department. My father was an agile and tall man with broad shoulders. He had a very expressive and tanned face; jet black beard and hair combed to one side. He had a powerful chest bass, which was completely passed on to his son.

He was an impressionable person, cheerful and very friendly, however, his father’s mood could change sharply and very often. He knew a lot of witticisms and jokes, anecdotes and proverbs, various funny incidents from life; was fluent in Russian, Tatar, Georgian and Armenian languages.

Mother, Pavlenko Alexandra Alekseevna, born in 1867, came from Cossacks, was born in the Kuban village of Ternovskaya. Her father, Alexey Ivanovich Pavlenko, was a captain of the Kuban infantry regiment, participated in the Russian-Turkish war, had medals and many military awards. A beautiful woman, serious, with brown eyes and brown hair, always combed back smoothly.

Volodya's son was very similar in face to his mother, and in manners he looked exactly like his father. In total, five children were born into the family, but two boys died young: Sasha in infancy, and Kostya, when he was three years old, from scarlet fever. Vladimir had two older sisters - Lyuda (born in 1884) and Olya (born in 1890).

Childhood

Volodya recalled picturesque beautiful places from his Georgian childhood. The Khanis-Tskhali river flowed in the village, there was a bridge across it, next to which the Mayakovsky family rented three rooms in the house of local resident Kostya Kuchukhidze. The forestry office was located in one of these rooms.

Mayakovsky remembered how his father subscribed to the magazine Rodina, which had a humorous supplement. In winter, the family gathered in the room, looked at a magazine and laughed.

Already at the age of four, the boy really liked to be told something before going to bed, especially poetry. Mom read Russian poets to him - Nekrasov and Krylov, Pushkin and Lermontov. And when his mother was busy and could not read a book to him, little Volodya began to cry. If he liked a verse, he memorized it and then recited it loudly in a clear, childish voice.

As he grew a little older, the boy discovered that if he climbed into a large clay vessel for wine (in Georgia they were called churiami) and read poetry there, it would become very echoing and loud.

Volodya's birthday coincided with his father's birthday. They always had a lot of guests on July 19th. In 1898, little Mayakovsky specially for this day memorized Lermontov’s poem “Dispute” and read it in front of the guests. Then the parents bought a camera, and the five-year-old boy composed his first poetic lines: “Mom is glad, dad is glad that we bought the device”.

By the age of six, Volodya already knew how to read; he learned on his own, without outside help. True, the boy did not like the first book he read in its entirety, “The Poultry Keeper Agafya,” written by children’s writer Klavdiya Lukashevich. However, she did not discourage him from reading; he did it with gusto.

In the summer, Volodya filled his pockets full of fruit, grabbed something edible for his dog friends, took a book and headed out to the garden. There he sat under a tree, lay on his stomach and could read in this position all day. And next to him, two or three dogs lovingly guarded him. When it got dark, he would roll over on his back and could spend hours looking at the starry sky.

From an early age, in addition to his love of reading, the boy tried to make his first visual sketches, and also showed resourcefulness and wit, which his father greatly encouraged.

Studies

In the summer of 1900, his mother took seven-year-old Mayakovsky to Kutais to prepare him for entering the gymnasium. His mother’s friend studied with him, and the boy studied with great enthusiasm.

In the fall of 1902, he entered the Kutaisi classical gymnasium. While studying, Volodya tried to write his first poems. When they got to his class teacher, he noted the child’s unique style.

But poetry at that time attracted Mayakovsky less than art. He drew everything he saw around him, and he was especially good at illustrations of the works he read and caricatures of family life. Sister Lyuda was just preparing to enter the Stroganov School in Moscow and studied with the only artist in Kutais, S. Krasnukha, who graduated from the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts. When she asked Rubella to look at her brother’s drawings, he ordered the boy to be brought and began teaching him for free. The Mayakovskys had already assumed that Volodya would become an artist.

And in February 1906, the family suffered a terrible tragedy. At first there was joy, my father was appointed chief forester in Kutais and everyone was happy that now they would live as a family in the same house (after all, Volodya and sister Olenka were studying at the gymnasium there at that time). Dad in Baghdati was preparing to hand over his cases and was filing some documents. He pricked his finger with a needle, but did not pay any attention to this trifle and left for the forestry. My hand began to hurt and break out. My father died quickly and abruptly from blood poisoning; it was no longer possible to save him. A loving family man, a caring father and a good husband are gone.

Dad was 49 years old, he was filled with energy and strength, he had never been sick before, which is why the tragedy was so unexpected and difficult. On top of that, the family had no savings. My father was one year short of retirement. So the Mayakovskys had to sell off their furniture in order to buy food. The eldest daughter Lyudmila, who studied in Moscow, insisted that her mother and the younger ones move in with her. The Mayakovskys borrowed two hundred rubles from good friends for the journey and left their native Kutais forever.

Moscow

This city struck the young Mayakovsky on the spot. The boy, who grew up in the wilderness, was shocked by the size, crowds and noise. He was amazed by the two-story horse cars, the lighting and elevators, the shops and cars.

Mom, with the help of friends, got Volodya into the Fifth Classical Gymnasium. In the evenings and Sundays he attended art courses at the Stroganov School. And the young man was literally sick of cinema; he could go to three shows at once in one evening.

Soon, at the gymnasium, Mayakovsky began to attend a Social Democratic circle. In 1907, members of the circle published the illegal magazine “Proryv”, for which Mayakovsky composed two poetic works.

And already at the beginning of 1908, Volodya confronted his relatives with the fact that he had left the gymnasium and joined the Social Democratic Labor Party of the Bolsheviks.

He became a propagandist; Mayakovsky was arrested three times, but was released because he was a minor. He was placed under police surveillance, and the guards gave him the nickname “Tall.”

While in prison, Vladimir again began to write poetry, and not just a few, but large and many. He wrote a thick notebook, which he later recognized as the beginning of his poetic activity.

At the beginning of 1910, Vladimir was released, he left the party and entered the preparatory course at the Stroganov School. In 1911 he began studying at the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture. Here he soon became a member of the poetry club, joining the futurists.

Creation

In 1912, Mayakovsky’s poem “Night” was published in the collection of futurist poetry “A Slap in the Face of Public Taste.”

In the literary and artistic basement “Stray Dog” on November 30, 1912, Mayakovsky made his first public appearance, he recited his poems. And the next year, 1913, was marked by the release of his first collection of poetry entitled “I”.

With members of the Futurist Club, Vladimir went on a tour of Russia, where he read his poems and lectures.

Soon they started talking about Mayakovsky, and there was a reason for this, one after another he created his such different works:

• rebellious poem “Here!”;
• the colorful, touching and empathetic verse “Listen”;
• tragedy "Vladimir Mayakovsky";
• verse-disdain “To you”;
• anti-war “Me and Napoleon”, “Mom and the evening killed by the Germans”.

The poet met the October Revolution at the headquarters of the uprising in Smolny. From the very first days, he began to actively cooperate with the new government:

• In 1918 he became the organizer of the group of communist futurists “Comfut”.
• From 1919 to 1921 he worked as a poet and artist at the Russian Telegraph Agency (ROSTA), and participated in the design of satirical propaganda posters.
• In 1922 he became the organizer of the Moscow Futurist Association (MAF).
• Since 1923, he was the ideological inspirer of the Left Front of the Arts (LEF) group and worked as editor-in-chief of the LEF magazine.

He dedicated many of his works to revolutionary events:

• "Ode to the Revolution";
• "Our March";
• “To the workers of Kursk...”;
• "150,000,000";
• "Vladimir Ilyich Lenin";
• "Mystery-buff."

After the revolution, Vladimir became increasingly attracted to cinema. Only in 1919, three films were made, in which he acted as a screenwriter, actor and director.

From 1922 to 1924, Vladimir traveled abroad, after which he wrote a series of poems based on his impressions of Latvia, France, and Germany.

In 1925, he made an extended American tour, visiting Mexico and Havana and writing the essay “My Discovery of America.”

Returning to his homeland, he traveled throughout the Soviet Union, speaking to various audiences. Collaborated with many newspapers and magazines:

• "News";
• "Krasnaya Niva";
• "TVNZ";
• "Crocodile";
• "New world";
• "Spark";
• "Young guard".

In two years (1926-1927), the poet created nine film scripts. Meyerhold staged two satirical plays by Mayakovsky, “Bathhouse” and “The Bedbug.”

Personal life

In 1915, Mayakovsky met Lilya and Osip Brik. He became friends with this family. But soon the relationship grew from friendship into something more serious; Vladimir became so carried away by Lily that for a long time the three of them lived together. After the revolution, such relations did not surprise anyone. Osip was not an opponent of a family of three and, due to health problems, lost his wife to a younger and stronger man. Moreover, Mayakovsky supported the Briks financially after the revolution and almost until his death.

Lilya became his muse, he dedicated every poem to this woman, but she was not the only one.

In 1920, Vladimir met the artist Lilya Lavinskaya; this love relationship ended with the birth of Lavinsky’s son, Gleb-Nikita, who later became a famous Soviet sculptor.

After a short relationship with Russian emigrant Elizaveta Siebert, a girl, Helen-Patricia (Elena Vladimirovna Mayakovskaya), was born. Vladimir saw his daughter only once in Nice in 1928, when she was only two years old. Helen became a famous American writer and philosopher and died in 2016.

Mayakovsky's last love was the beautiful young actress Veronica Polonskaya.

Death

By 1930, many began to say that Mayakovsky had written himself out. None of the state leaders or prominent writers came to his exhibition “20 Years of Work”. He wanted to go abroad, but was denied a visa. Diseases were added to everything. Mayakovsky was depressed and could not stand such a depressing state.

On April 14, 1930, he committed suicide by shooting himself with a revolver. For three days an endless stream of people came to the House of Writers, where farewell to Mayakovsky took place. He was buried at the New Donskoy Cemetery, and in 1952, at the request of his older sister Lyudmila, the ashes were reburied at the Novodevichy Cemetery.