10 interesting facts about Mayakovsky – a real revolutionary in poetry

Vladimir Vladimirovich Mayakovsky is known as a poet, publicist and playwright. His works are classics of Russian literature, they are admired and studied in schools. Most often, he worked in such a direction as Russian futurism. Many of the poems became famous and brought him fame during his lifetime.

Mayakovsky lived only 36 years, but in his years he managed to see and do a lot himself. He was born in the Russian Empire and died in the USSR, so he had a lot of events. Vladimir’s life was exciting, so learning about it is no less exciting than reading the works of this author.

In this article, we will look at 10 interesting facts about Mayakovsky: biography and stories from the life of a revolutionary in poetry.

10 Fear of germs and infections

Mayakovsky was born in 1893 in the village of Bagdati, his mother was Ukrainian, and his father was a Cossack. The first language that the future poet learned was Georgian.

So the boy grew up at the junction of three cultures. At the age of 12, he lost his father. He died due to a small accident – he was sewing papers and inadvertently injured himself with a needle. Blood poisoning and death followed.

Mayakovsky witnessed that incident, so he acquired a phobia for the rest of his life. He was never able to get rid of the fear of germs and infections..

9. Invented “Ladder”

Mayakovsky’s “Ladder” is a method of writing poems when the author breaks them at a certain word and starts from a new line. The poet believed that only thanks to this style, it is possible to show the rhythm laid down in the poem by its creator.

He argued that only punctuation marks are not enough for this. However, evil tongues spoke even during his lifetime and are still discussing that Mayakovsky allegedly wrote this way on purpose in order to increase his profits.

Some publishers paid not for characters, but for the number of lines, so it was beneficial for him to additionally separate his poems. The poet always denied these rumors, and outlined all his reasons and ideas in the book How to Make Poems.

8. Enthusiastic about the revolution

After the death of his father, the family moved from Georgia to Moscow. There, the young poet began to study at the gymnasium, but he was quickly expelled from there for non-payment. Still, the family was then poor.

It was in Moscow that he met the revolutionaries. Although at that time they were just revolutionary students. He publishes his first poem in an illegal magazine, although he himself considers it ugly, but extremely revolutionary. Thanks to such acquaintances, he became interested in Marxist literature.

And in 1908, at the age of 15, he was already a member of the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party.

7. Was arrested three times

Mayakovsky begins to engage in propaganda activities. During 1908 and 1909 he was arrested three times. The first time was in the case of an underground printing house, but there were no serious sanctions.

He was released into the care of his parents because he was considered a minor and a confused boy. The second time he was involved on suspicion in connection with anarchist expropriators. He was only released due to lack of evidence.

For the same reason, he escaped serious punishment for the third time, when he was arrested on suspicion of complicity in the escape of female political convicts. However, he spent about six months in prison.

During this time, Vladimir wrote a whole notebook of poems, which was taken away from him upon leaving. Mayakovsky himself speaks negatively about these poems, but he himself considers them to be the beginning of his career and creativity.

6. Editor of the magazines “LEF” and “New LEF”

In 1923, Mayakovsky created the LEF group.. The abbreviation stands for “left front of the arts”. Several more authors were included, for example, N. Aseev, B. Pasternak and others. This group promoted their ideas and visions of art.

Members of the group denied some traditional types of fiction, including fiction in works. They were based on the “literature of fact”, which is always based on the document.

Mayakovsky publishes a journal dedicated to the ideas and theories of this group. But in 1925 he decides to dissolve it and stop the release of essays.

Again he returns to this idea two years later, but even then he does not remain a part of it for long, as he quickly became disillusioned with the group and left it.

5. Was a gambling man

Not everyone knows that Mayakovsky simply adored gambling in all its manifestations.. It was hard for him to deny himself this.

Billiards, cards and even Russian roulette – they all attracted the poet, excited the blood. It is because of this that some are inclined to the version that it was gambling that ruined Mayakovsky’s life.

4. Wrote screenplays and acted in films

Mayakovsky is known as a poet, but these are not all areas of his activity. He was also associated with cinema, which had just begun to emerge in Russia.

The poet was the scriptwriter. It is authentically known that in 1926-1927 he created about nine scenarios. Vladimir not only wrote, but also tried himself as an actor.

To date, there are only a few fragments of films where you can see Mayakovsky. One of these is “The Young Lady and the Hooligan”.

3. The main muse and love of life – Lilya Brik

There were rumors about Mayakovsky and Lily Brik during the life of the poet. It is believed that it was she who was his lifelong muse..

They met in 1915, Mayakovsky was already known, Lilya was already married. But that didn’t stop them from starting an affair. Then the poet began to visit the Briks’ house, each time moving closer to their apartment.

And in 1918 they began to live together. Then the theory about the absence of love was just popular, and the institution of marriage was not in the first place. After meeting, Mayakovsky devoted almost all the poems only to Lila Brik. But such a close relationship did not limit him in any way.

2. Was unrequitedly in love with Yakovlev

Despite his love for Lila, Mayakovsky had many short novels. From two he even has children. Lilya Brik even had friendly relations with many of his women. But it stands apart – Tatyana Yakovlevna. Mayakovsky met her in Paris.

He dedicated two poems to this Russian emigrant: “Letter to Comrade Kostrov from Paris about the essence of love” and “Letter to Tatyana Yakovleva”. However, his feelings were not mutual, Tatyana refused to return to Russia under any pretext..

1. There is still controversy over the writer’s death.

1930 was the most difficult year for the poet. Failure followed him everywhere: exhibitions, plays, performances and poems. It was said in literary circles that he had “written his pen”. All this greatly hurt Mayakovsky.

April 14, 1930 Vladimir shot himself in the apartment. The last woman to see him was the author’s last woman, Veronika Polonskaya. She herself said that that morning the poet behaved very emotionally and strangely, and when she left, she almost immediately heard a shot. They didn’t get to help him.

There is still no exact version of what happened, but the theory of suicide is the most common.. They found his posthumous note, which he wrote two days earlier. This means that the author was well prepared for his death.

In a note, he asked not to blame anyone, and also transferred almost all of his property to Lila Brik. People went to his grave for three days, but Veronika Polonskaya never came.