What was Mayakovsky's illness? Who replaced Mayakovsky's revolver? Not the last mystery of the poet's death

Vladimir Vladimirovich Mayakovsky.

Love and death

Having heard about the suicide of Sergei Yesenin (other versions of what happened were not considered at that time), Vladimir Mayakovsky quite categorically condemned the poet, calling his act cowardice. Only five years passed, and Mayakovsky could not find any other way out but to commit suicide.

Many examinations were carried out and a very definite conclusion was made: it could only be suicide. But why did the poet, always speaking out against such death, write in his last note: “... this is not a way (I don’t recommend it to others), but I have no choice.”

Many consider the reason for his suicide to be unrequited love for Veronica Polonskaya, but in fact she responded to Mayakovsky’s feelings. Others cite an unsuccessful exhibition as the reason. But in reality internal conflict was much deeper than domestic or love failures.

When Yesenin died, the whole country instantly believed in his suicide. On the contrary, Mayakovsky’s suicide was not believed for a long time, and those who knew him well did not believe it. They argued that he always sharply condemned such actions, that Mayakovsky was too strong, too great for this. And what were his reasons for committing suicide?

When Lunacharsky received a call and was informed about what had happened, he, deciding that he was being played, hung up. Many, having heard that Mayakovsky had shot himself, laughed and said: “Beautiful April Fool's joke! (the tragic event actually happened on April 1, old style). After the publications in the newspapers, people began to think about what had happened, but even then no one believed in suicide. We were more likely to believe in murder, in an accident. But Mayakovsky’s suicide note left no doubt: he shot himself, and did it deliberately.

Here is the text of the note:

I don’t blame anyone for the fact that I’m dying, please don’t gossip. The deceased did not like this terribly.

Mom, sisters and comrades, I’m sorry - this is not the way (I don’t recommend it to others), but I have no choice.

Lilya, love me. Comrade government, my family is Lilya Brik, mother, sisters and Veronica Vitoldovna Polonskaya.

If you give them a tolerable life, thank you.

Give the poems you started to the Briks, they will figure it out.

As they say -

"the incident is ruined"

love boat

crashed into everyday life.

I'm even with life

and there is no need for a list

mutual pain,

Happy stay.

Vladimir Mayakovsky.

Comrades Vappovtsy, do not consider me cowardly.

Seriously - nothing can be done.

Tell Yermilov that it’s a pity that he removed the slogan, we should have a fight.

I have 2,000 rubles in my desk - add it to the tax bill.

You will receive the rest from Giza.

One could only guess what was the reason for such an act. And indeed, the most incredible assumptions soon began to be made. For example, writer and journalist Mikhail Koltsov argued: “You cannot ask a real, full-fledged Mayakovsky for committing suicide. Someone else shot, randomly, temporarily taking possession of the weakened psyche of the poet-social activist and revolutionary. We, contemporaries, friends of Mayakovsky, demand that this testimony be registered.”

The poet Nikolai Aseev wrote a year after the tragedy:

I knew that I was carrying lead to my heart,

Lifting the hundred-ton weight of the trunk,

You didn’t press the trigger yourself,

That someone else's hand was guiding you.

However, not everyone was so categorical in their judgments. For example, Lilya Brik, whom Mayakovsky loved very much and who knew the poet well, upon learning of his death, calmly said: “It’s good that he shot himself with a big pistol. Otherwise it would have turned out ugly: such a poet shoots with a small Browning.” Regarding the causes of death, she stated that the poet was neurasthenic and that he had “a kind of suicidal mania and fear of old age.”

And yet it is not easy to understand Mayakovsky’s action. In order to form a definite opinion, you need to try to understand what kind of person he was, how he lived, who he loved. And the most important question that worries everyone who loves his work: was it possible to save him?

Vladimir Vladimirovich Mayakovsky was born in 1893 in the Caucasus. Despite noble origin, his father was a forester. On my mother's side there were Kuban Cossacks in the family.

As a child, Mayakovsky was not much different from his peers: he studied at the gymnasium, and at first he did very well. Then interest in studying disappeared and the A's on the certificate were replaced by D's. Finally, the boy was expelled from the gymnasium for non-payment of tuition fees, which did not upset him at all. This happened in 1908, when he was 15 years old. After this event, he plunged headlong into adult life: met revolutionary-minded students, joined the Bolshevik Party and finally ended up in Butyrka prison, where he spent 11 months.

It was this time that Mayakovsky later called the beginning of his creative path: in prison he wrote a whole notebook of poems, which, however, was taken away from him upon release. But Mayakovsky already had a clear idea of his future: he decided to “make socialist art.” Did he think then that it would lead him to such an end?

Vladimir was always interested in literature and read a lot while still studying at the gymnasium. In addition, he was seriously interested in painting, for which he had good abilities. Therefore, in 1911 he entered the Moscow school painting, sculpture and architecture. There he met David Davidovich Burliuk, an artist and poet, a follower of the futurist movement.

Futurism (from the Latin futurum, which means “future”) is a literary and artistic movement that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in Italy and became popular in other European countries, including Russia. Its essence was the denial of artistic and moral values traditional culture. However, in Russia, the term “futurism” most often denoted all leftist movements in art of that time. The most striking expression of this trend was considered to be the work of poets and artists who were part of the Gileya group, among whom was Burliuk. They “identified the poetic word with a thing, turned it into a sign of a self-sufficient physical reality, a material capable of any transformation, of interaction with any sign system, any natural or artificial structure. Thus, they thought of the poetic word as a universal “material” means of comprehending the foundations of being and reorganizing reality” (TSB).

Mayakovsky became interested in the new movement, read Burliuk’s poems and showed him his own. Burliuk said that the young man has talent, that he is a wonderful poet. Being already famous by that time, he asked every acquaintance: “What do you think of Mayakovsky’s work? How come you haven't heard anything about him? This is a famous poet! My friend!" Mayakovsky tried to stop him, but Burliuk was unstoppable. “Brilliant, brilliant!” he shouted and said more quietly to his new friend: “Write, write more, don’t put me in a stupid position.”

From that time on, Mayakovsky abandoned painting for some time, sat and wrote. Burliuk came to him, brought books and gave him 50 kopecks a day so that his friend would not die of hunger. What Mayakovsky wrote differed significantly from his first poetic experiments during his prison period. Mayakovsky himself later said that those poems were rather weak, but still made attempts to find the selected notebook.

At the end of 1912, Mayakovsky made himself known. He received an invitation to come to St. Petersburg to participate in the exhibition of artists “Youth Union”. Among other works, it displayed a portrait by Mayakovsky. A few days later, his first public performance took place at the Stray Dog club. Three days later he performed at the Trinity Theater, where he read a report “On modern Russian poetry.” A few weeks later, in the same year, his poems “Night” and “Morning” were published in the anthology “A Slap in the Face of Public Taste.” In the same issue of the almanac, a futurist manifesto was published, which proposed to abandon the classics of Russian literature - A. Pushkin, L. Tolstoy, F. Dostoevsky and others, and also to ignore modern authors- M. Gorky, A. Kuprin, F. Sologub, A. Blok, who, in their opinion, pursued only material gain. The manifesto was signed by D. Burliuk, A. Kruchenykh, V. Khlebnikov and V. Mayakovsky.

For another two years, Mayakovsky continued to paint, but did not give up literature, and was also active in social activities. It consisted in the fact that he gave lectures on futurism, participated in discussions about modern literature, and read poetry. Often his public activities took on a scandalous hue. So, one day he, among other poets, was supposed to speak at the “Second Dispute about contemporary art" Not paying attention to the program of the debate, according to which he was supposed to speak seventh, Vladimir loudly declared to the whole hall that he was a futurist and on this basis he wanted to speak first. They tried to reason with him, to which the young man, raising his voice even more, said, addressing the audience: “Gentlemen, I ask for your protection from the tyranny of a handful smearing drool on the jelly of art.” Of course, after these words a terrible scream arose in the room. Some shouted: “Great, let him speak!”, “Down with it!” - others demanded. The noise continued for 15 minutes, the dispute was, one might say, disrupted. Finally Mayakovsky was allowed to speak first. One can imagine what his speech was like after such opening remarks. After this, the speeches of the remaining participants, of course, could not make a strong impression.

Of course, the next day all the newspapers described the scandal that broke out at the lecture on modern art. Most of the young poet’s other public appearances took place in this manner.

Due to the scandals surrounding Mayakovsky's name, he was expelled from the art school. Burliuk was expelled along with him. Vladimir (he was 21 years old at the time) said about the expulsion: “It’s the same as kicking a person out of a latrine into clean air.” Well, he didn’t turn out to be an artist, so much the better, he will be a poet! In addition, he has already published his first collection of poems, and this is just the beginning.

Indeed, Mayakovsky published his first collection in 1913, which included only four poems, which was boldly and simply entitled “I”. It happened as follows: Mayakovsky copied four poems by hand into a notebook, his friends V.N. Chekrygin and L. Shekhtel illustrated them. The collection was then lithographically reproduced. A total of 300 copies were produced, which were mainly distributed to friends. But this did not bother the young poet. The future seemed bright and cloudless to him.

The year was 1915. Mayakovsky wrote his famous poem“A Cloud in Pants” and read it wherever I could, not only at literary evenings, but also when visiting my friends. On that hot July evening, he, yielding to the persuasion of his friend Elsa Kogan, agreed to visit her sister. Elsa was an old friend of Vladimir; they had known each other for many years. The girl was madly in love with him, Mayakovsky, having become briefly infatuated with Elsa, quickly cooled down, but they still remained friends, and Elsa, in spite of everything, hoped that she could regain the favor of the famous poet. So they came to visit.

Mayakovsky introduced himself, looked around at those gathered, not fixing his gaze on anyone. Then he habitually stood in the doorway, opened the notebook and, without asking anyone’s permission, without paying attention to anyone, began to read.

Soon everyone fell silent and began to listen carefully. The poem really produced strong impression, which was even more intensified by the fact that the author himself read it. As soon as he finished, everyone began to applaud and admire. Mayakovsky raised his eyes and met the gaze of a young dark-haired woman. She looked at him defiantly and a little mockingly. Suddenly her gaze softened, admiration was evident in it.

Mayakovsky suddenly heard Elsa say: “My sister, Lilya Brik, and this is her husband, Osip,” but did not even turn his head in her direction. The whole world ceased to exist for him, he saw only Lilya. Then he moved from his place, walked up to Lila, said: “Can I dedicate this to you?” - and, without waiting for an answer, he opened the notebook, took out a pencil and carefully wrote it under the title “Lila Yuryevna Brik.” At that moment Elsa realized that the poet was forever lost to her.

About four years passed, during which things developed between Lilya and Vladimir. whirlwind romance. They met, then separated, then wrote mountains of letters to each other, then ignored each other. However, Mayakovsky was mostly ignored by Lilya, he bombarded her with notes, begging her to answer, otherwise he would die, shoot himself... The young woman did not pay any attention to this, calmly reporting in another letter that she was tired of Petersburg, that she and her husband were leaving to Japan, but will soon return and bring his Volodya a robe, and so that he does not forget it, he continues to write.

But one day, according to Lily, Mayakovsky actually almost shot himself. This happened in 1916. Early in the morning I woke up Lilya phone call. She picked up the phone and heard Mayakovsky’s voice: “I’m shooting myself. Goodbye, Lilik." The young woman was confused, but only for a second. She didn't take it as a bad joke, Lately Volodya often spoke about death. She didn't doubt for a minute that he was capable of doing this. Shouting into the phone: “Wait for me!” - She, throwing on a robe and a light coat over it, ran out of the house, took a cab and hurried to Mayakovsky’s apartment. Having reached the apartment, she began pounding on the door with her fist. Mayakovsky himself opened it to her, alive. He let her into the room and calmly said: “I shot, it misfired. The second time I didn’t dare, I was waiting for you.”

After this, Lilya began to pay more attention to Mayakovsky, because he was an extraordinary person, a famous poet.

In other words, a typical love triangle: Lilya, her husband and lover. However, the outcome was completely unexpected and far from typical. Lila was tired of such a relationship, and she invited Mayakovsky to live with them. Mayakovsky was in seventh heaven. Lily's husband also had nothing against it.

They decided to live in Moscow and found a small apartment without amenities. They hung a sign on the door: “Briki. Mayakovsky." So the three of them began to live together.

Rumors spread throughout Moscow. Everyone began to discuss this unusual “family of three.” Lilya called Mayakovsky her husband, and he called her his wife. Osip took this completely calmly. He was absolutely sure that, despite her temperament (she always had many admirers), she loved him alone. Lilya really loved him very much, or assured him that she did. So, despite her many hobbies, she remained with her first husband until his death, and when he died, she admitted: “When Mayakovsky shot himself, he died great poet. And when Osip died, I died.”

But even after the death of Osip Brik, Lily’s character and temperament did not change at all: she still had many admirers, then she again married the literary critic Vasily Abgarovich Katanyan, whom, they say, she also loved dearly, and who loved her very much, despite her advanced age.

Having settled in the same apartment with her husband and lover, Lilya in every possible way denied rumors about “threesome love.” This is how Lilya herself described such a life (she made this confession many years after Mayakovsky and Osip died): “I loved making love with Osya. We then locked Volodya in the kitchen. He rushed towards us, scratched at the door and cried.”

Mayakovsky was forced to put up with Osip's presence: he could not live without Lily. Things worked out with her husband great relationship. But when Lilya began to start new romances, Mayakovsky could not stand it and began to arrange scenes of jealousy for his beloved. Osip tried to calm him down with the words: “Lily is an element, we must take this into account. You can’t stop the rain or snow at will.” But Volodya did not want to listen to anything, he continued to demand that Lilya belong, if not to him alone, then at least to both of them. One day, in a fit of rage, he broke a chair, but Lilya did not pay any attention to his jealousy. When her friends started talking to her about her second husband, she blithely replied: “It is good for Volodya to suffer. He will suffer and write good poetry.” Lilya was not mistaken in this: she knew perfectly well Mayakovsky’s character and that love suffering are the best incentive for creativity. And indeed, Volodya wrote a lot. It was during this period that he created the poem “150,000,000” and the premiere of his “Mystery Bouffe” took place.

This couldn't go on for long. Mayakovsky was completely exhausted, but he could not leave “his Lilichka”, not imagining life without her. In addition, living with Lilya and Osya, he accepted the conditions of living together that Lilya offered him: during the day everyone has the right to do what they want, and at night all three gather in their apartment and enjoy communicating with each other.

The Briks left for Riga. Mayakovsky had no choice but to write letters. Lilya, tired of his jealousy, suggested breaking up for a while. But Mayakovsky did not agree to this. However, he had no choice: he was forced to submit to Lily’s decision to separate for exactly three months, during which time he made no attempts to see each other, did not call each other, did not write letters.

Mayakovsky sat in the room completely alone. He did not allow his friends to visit him, although they, having heard that Lilya had driven him away, came to support the poet. Despite the condition, he saw Lilya every day: he came to the entrance of the house where she lived and waited for her to go outside, but did not dare to approach her. Then he returned home and began to write her letters with assurances of eternal love, fidelity, asked him to forgive him for his jealousy. Here is an excerpt from one of these letters: “It has never been so hard for me - I must have really grown up too much. Previously, driven away by you, I believed in the meeting. Now I feel that I have been completely torn away from life and that there will never be anything more. There is no life without you. I always said this, always knew, now I feel it with all my being, everything I thought about with pleasure now has no value - disgusting.

I can't promise you anything. I know there is no promise that you would believe in. I know there is no way to see you that would not make you suffer.

And yet I am unable not to write and ask you to forgive me for everything. If you made the decision with difficulty and struggle, if you want to try the latter, you will forgive, you will answer.

But if you don’t even answer, you’re my only thought: how I loved you seven years ago, so I love you this very second, no matter what you want, no matter what you tell me, I’ll do it right now, I’ll do it with delight. How terrible it is to break up if you know what you love and it’s your own fault for the breakup.

I’m sitting in a cafe and the saleswomen are roaring and laughing at me. It’s scary to think that my whole life will continue to be like this...”

Three months passed like this. Mayakovsky ran to the station: there they agreed to meet with Lilya so that together, just the two of them, they could go to Petrograd. In his bag he carried a gift for his beloved - the poem “About This,” which he wrote in “exile.”

Seeing Lilya, he immediately forgot about all his torments and forgave her for all his betrayals. She also missed him, was glad to meet him, and after reading the poem, she forgave him everything. Peace was restored, Volodya returned to the Briks’ apartment, and everything went as before. But could this continue indefinitely?

Another seven years passed. Outwardly, his life seemed quite successful. He achieved universal recognition; he had no conflicts with the authorities. After Lenin’s death, which deeply shocked him, the poet wrote the poem “Vladimir Ilyich Lenin,” which was well received and soon published separate publication. He repeatedly gave reports that were no longer as scandalous as in his youth. His other works were also published, his plays were staged in theaters.

Mayakovsky made several trips abroad. The first trip took place in 1922, he visited Riga, Berlin, and Paris. In 1925 he traveled to Europe again and also visited Mexico and the United States. In 1928, the poet once again traveled to Berlin and Paris.

In 1930, it was decided to celebrate Mayakovsky’s unique anniversary: 20 years creative activity, or, as they wrote on the posters then, 20 years of work. The time has come to sum it up, and Mayakovsky thought: what has he done in these 20 years? This year he turned 37. He had long abandoned his futuristic views on art, which was manifested in his recognition of the works of Pushkin, Dostoevsky, Tolstoy and other classics of Russian literature.

Over the years of creative activity, he managed to do a lot, and not only in literature. On February 1, an exhibition of his works opened, and soon after this the premiere of the play “Bath” took place.

But his personal life did not bring him joy. Everyone, and especially Lilya, laughed at his desire to have a normal family and children. She assured that while he was suffering, he was a real poet, but if she gave birth to a child, he would never give birth to a single talented verse. Mayakovsky himself had long come to terms with Lilya’s betrayals. Why does he need a normal family, children, if he doesn’t live long? According to eyewitnesses, he himself repeatedly said: “I’ll shoot myself, commit suicide. 35 years is old age. I'll live to be thirty. I won’t go any further.”

And yet he tried, desperately tried to find a woman who would understand him as Lilya did, but would not cause him so much torment. But Lilya was well aware of this and was on her guard. It all started with the fact that one of his novels unexpectedly ended with the girl’s pregnancy. This happened in 1926, when Mayakovsky was traveling around America. There he met Ellie Jones.

Volodya, having learned about what had happened, was stunned. Yes, of course, he will not love anyone as much as Lilya, but the child... Of course, Mayakovsky takes full responsibility and will send money. Perhaps it would have come to marriage, but Lilya did everything so that Volodya would forget about this woman as soon as possible. She used a method that had been tried and tested more than once: she threatened to break up. This was the only thing Mayakovsky still could not fight: he could not live without Lily, for her sake he was ready to give up the whole world.

There was no more talk about marrying Ellie. Mayakovsky, like a faithful knight, continued to follow Brik everywhere, but became sadder and sadder. He realized that this couldn’t go on any longer, it was a dead end. Lilya has unlimited power over him. And he began to make attempts to free himself from this power at any cost. Soon he met the librarian Natalya Bryukhanenko and fell in love with her. After some time, the two of them went on vacation to Yalta, and Lilya was torn and torn. She sent him letters in which she never stopped asking if Volodinka still loved her? In Moscow, everyone is lying that he wants to get married, has he really stopped loving his Lilichka? Mayakovsky answered wearily: yes, he wants to marry and live with Natalya. Perhaps this time Mayakovsky would have the strength to leave Lily. In addition, Natalya was a very smart woman and perfectly understood his inner state, but she did not have enough strength to fight such an element as Lilya.

Brik came to the station to meet Volodya from Yalta. She stood on the platform cheerful and confident. Volodya was the first to leave the carriage and rushed to kiss Lilya. Then Natalya appeared... met Lilya's gaze... That was enough. She turned around and went to her apartment. Alone, without Volodya.

Mayakovsky increasingly began to talk about suicide as the only way out. He was tired of perceiving the whole world through Lily's eyes. She noticed his depression, became worried, began to organize evenings, tried to entertain him, offered to read poetry. He read, everyone clapped and admired, and Lilya loudest of all. Weeks passed, Mayakovsky became more menacing than a cloud, Lilya did not know what to do. Finally, she decided that a trip abroad would help him unwind. He went to Paris, where he soon met the beautiful Tatyana Yakovleva. The girl was really incredibly beautiful and worked as a model for Coco Chanel. She had many fans, among whom was the famous opera singer Fyodor Chaliapin.

Lilya, of course, knew about Mayakovsky’s new hobby. Moreover, it was she who planned their acquaintance: her sister Elsa lived in Paris, who helped her arrange everything. Lilya thought that a light affair would help Mayakovsky feel the taste of life again. Elsa informed her sister about Mayakovsky's every move in Paris. It also happened before, when he came to France, and Elsa usually wrote to her sister about all Volodya’s hobbies: “Empty, don’t worry.” But this time Mayakovsky, taking advantage of the fact that Lilya was far away, made another attempt to break this connection that was destroying his soul: he proposed to Tatyana.

Elsa immediately reported this to Lila, who sounded the alarm. Mayakovsky returned to Moscow calm, cheerful and got to work. With Lily he was very attentive and caring. The poet looked confidently into the future. Brik didn’t know what to do, but Tatyana was far away, in France, and Volodya was here in Moscow... Soon she showed him a letter from her sister from Paris: among other things, Elsa wrote that Mayakovsky’s friend, Tatyana Yakovleva, accepted the marriage proposal and hearts from the Viscount de Plessis.

There was a terrible noise: it was Mayakovsky who threw a glass at the wall, overturned his chair and ran out of the room. He couldn’t believe the betrayal; he assured himself that there was something else going on here. He rushed for a visa, but the Briks, who had been collaborating with the Cheka for several years, used their influence. Mayakovsky was denied travel abroad.

Mayakovsky furiously hung a piece of paper on the Briks’ door with the words: “Brick lives here - not a researcher of poetry. Brik, a Cheka investigator, lives here,” but he couldn’t do more. Another attempt to gain freedom ended in failure.

Mayakovsky was no longer happy with anything. Speeches on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of his work became torture for him. It seemed to him that they were no longer interested in his work, they weren’t going to the exhibition of his works, and the production of “Bathhouse” was unsuccessful. He has nothing left, so why live? More and more often he complained of severe headaches. He was dying slowly and he was well aware of it.

Not only the Briks, but everyone around, both Mayakovsky’s friends and strangers, began to notice this. Yes, his exhibition was boycotted by the writers he was most looking forward to. But those who came noted the condition of Mayakovsky himself. Lunacharsky, having visited the exhibition, spoke about it something like this: “Perhaps, it is becoming clear to me why I have an unpleasant aftertaste from today’s exhibition. The culprit for this, oddly enough, is Mayakovsky himself. He was somehow completely different from himself, sick, with sunken eyes, overtired, voiceless, somehow extinct. He was very attentive to me, showed me, gave explanations, but all through force. It is difficult to imagine Mayakovsky so indifferent and tired. I had to observe many times when he was out of sorts, irritated by something, when he raged, was indignant, struck right and left, and sometimes hurt “his own” in a big way. I prefer seeing him like this compared to his current mood. It had a depressing effect on me.”

The exhibition opened on February 1, but its work was extended until March 25. All this time Mayakovsky was sad and depressed. On March 16, the premiere of “Bath” took place. The play was not bad, but the production was considered unsuccessful. The audience greeted the performance rather coldly. But the saddest thing was the reviews of him that appeared in the newspapers. The first article appeared seven days before the premiere. The critic who wrote it, by his own admission, did not see the production, but still wrote a rather harsh review. The writers who boycotted Mayakovsky's exhibition also reacted to the play, launching a campaign in the newspapers to persecute the poet. The poet tried to fight back, but practically no one supported him. The conflict with the writers was serious and deep, and began a long time ago. Mayakovsky was once a poet of the revolution, but it has long since ended. Some kind of misunderstanding arose between him and other writers; they did not understand his art, and he did not understand theirs. He quarreled with many of his contemporaries, with those with whom he once worked, for example with Boris Pasternak, and with others, such as Yesenin, he never found common ground.

But now it was too late to fix all this, and no one needed it. However, he did not want to leave the attacks on “Banya” unanswered. He was especially outraged by the article by the critic Ermilov, entitled “On the mood of bourgeois “leftism” in fiction" It was she who was published a week before the premiere. In response to the article, Mayakovsky hung a slogan in the theater hall that read:

do not evaporate

swarm of bureaucrats.

Will not be enough

and no soap for you.

bureaucrats

pen helps

Critics -

Like Ermilov..."

Mayakovsky was forced to remove the slogan, and he was forced to comply. It was this incident that he mentioned in his suicide note.

Apparently, at that time he had already decided to take the fatal step, but he delayed it, put it off for a day, for a week. And yet he could not talk about anything else except his imminent death. So, on April 9, he gave a speech at the Plekhanov Institute of National Economy. Those present were amazed that he spoke of himself as a person who knows that he will soon die: “When I die, you will read my poems with tears of tenderness. And now, while I’m alive, they say a lot of nonsense about me, they scold me a lot...” (according to the memoirs of V.I. Slavinsky). The poet began to read the poem “At the top of his voice,” but he was interrupted. Then Mayakovsky suggested writing notes with questions that he would answer. The first note was handed to him, and he read loudly: “Is it true that Khlebnikov is a brilliant poet, and you, Mayakovsky, are scum in front of him?” But even here the poet showed willpower and answered politely: “I don’t compete with poets, I don’t measure poets by myself. It would be stupid." This is how the whole performance went. If at the beginning of his creative career he himself did not hesitate to stir up a scandal, now he tried to stop it, but he did not succeed, and the scandal flared up not only at the performance, but also around Mayakovsky’s entire life and work.

But could this have been a reason for suicide? The poet was always indifferent to attacks on his work; there were always people who did not understand him, but there were also many admirers of his talent. Of course, he was not afraid of the attacks; fear could not influence his decision to take his own life. The anger that little by little took possession of him could influence his state of mind. Eyewitnesses claimed that at the speeches there were people who reminded him that he had repeatedly said that he was not going to live to old age, that he would shoot himself, and asked when this would happen, how long to wait? Now is the time, he has written himself out, his work is not understandable or interesting to anyone.

Of course, this was not the case. If Mayakovsky’s poems were uninteresting, irrelevant, if they were not understood, then they would simply stop publishing him, they would simply stop going to his speeches, they would forget about his existence. He, on the contrary, was the center of attention as never before, but negative attention.

Lilya was sure that if she had been in Moscow at that time, Mayakovsky would have survived. But she was not there: she and her husband were in London.

Taking advantage of her absence, Mayakovsky made an attempt to arrange his personal life for the last time in his life, this time with actress Veronica Polonskaya. Veronica was married, but fell deeply in love with Mayakovsky. This was not enough for him, he demanded more and more proof of her love, insisted that she leave the theater for him and belong to him undividedly. In vain Veronica tried to explain that theater is her whole life.

Mayakovsky did not want to understand this. Her whole life should have been just him, the rest of the world should not exist for her.

So, without noticing it, Vladimir tried to impose on Veronica the same style of relationship that he had with Lily, only this time he played the role of Lily. Knowing how to forget about everything in the world for the sake of the woman he loved, he now demanded the same attitude from Veronica. Veronica loved Mayakovsky, but she had no intention of leaving the theater. Mayakovsky also loved her, but his love was more like an obsession, he demanded: “All or nothing!”

It was already April. Mayakovsky increasingly turned into a living corpse, he was scolded everywhere, many friends publicly renounced him, he avoided meeting people, continued to maintain relationships only with those closest to him, but he was already tired of communicating with them.

On April 12, he wrote a suicide letter. The day ended, night came, then another day. Mayakovsky did not shoot himself and did not destroy the letter. On the evening of the 13th, he went to visit Kataev, having learned that Polonskaya and her husband Yanshin would be there.

Those present made fun of Mayakovsky, sometimes quite cruelly, but he did not respond to the attacks, not paying any attention to them. He hoped to sort things out with Polonskaya and spent the entire evening throwing notes at her, which he wrote right there. Polonskaya read and answered. Both did not say a word to each other, their faces first cleared up, then became gloomy again. Kataev called this correspondence a “deadly silent duel.”

Finally, Vladimir got ready to leave. Kataev subsequently claimed that the guest looked sick, was coughing, and probably had the flu. The owner, sensing something was wrong, insisted that Volodya stay overnight with him, but the poet categorically refused, accompanied Polonskaya with Yanshin, then went home to the Brikovs’ apartment. He spent the night alone, and on the morning of April 14 he went to Polonskaya and brought her by taxi to his apartment. What happened between them next, Polonskaya told more than once, including to the investigator:

“Vladimir Vladimirovich quickly walked around the room. Almost ran. He demanded that I stay with him here, in this room, from that very moment. Waiting for an apartment is absurd, he said.

I must quit the theater immediately. I don’t need to go to rehearsal today. He himself will go into the theater and say that I won’t come again.

I replied that I loved him, I would be with him, but I couldn’t stay here now. I truly love and respect my husband and cannot do this to him.

And I will not give up the theater and could never give up... So I must and must go to the rehearsal, and I will go to the rehearsal, then go home, say everything... and in the evening I will move in with him completely.

Vladimir Vladimirovich did not agree with this. He kept insisting that everything be done immediately or nothing at all. Once again I answered that I couldn’t do that...

I said:

“Why don’t you even see me out?”

He came up to me, kissed me and said quite calmly and very affectionately:

"I'll call. Do you have money for a taxi?

He gave me 20 rubles.

“So will you call?”

I walked out and walked a few steps to the front door.

A shot rang out. My legs gave way, I screamed and rushed along the corridor. I couldn't bring myself to enter.

It seemed to me that a very long time passed before I decided to enter. But, obviously, I entered a moment later: there was still a cloud of smoke in the room from the shot. Vladimir Vladimirovich was lying on the carpet with his arms outstretched. There was a tiny bloody spot on his chest.

I remember that I rushed to him and just repeated endlessly: “What did you do? What did you do?

His eyes were open, he looked straight at me and kept trying to raise his head. It seemed that he wanted to say something, but his eyes were already lifeless...”

But even after tragic death attacks on Mayakovsky did not stop immediately. 150,000 people came to the funeral, held in Moscow, to say goodbye to the poet.

A funeral meeting took place in Leningrad. The atmosphere of scandal was maintained for some time, but after some time it completely dissipated, like night fog carried away by the morning fresh wind.

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85 years ago, on April 17, 1930, the body of the famous poet Vladimir Mayakovsky was cremated in Moscow.

On April 14, 1930, in his apartment, in house No. 3 on Lubyansky Proezd, the poet committed suicide, leaving a suicide note:

"EVERYONE
Don’t blame anyone for the fact that I’m dying and please don’t gossip. The deceased did not like this terribly.
Mom, sisters and comrades, forgive me - this is not the way (I don’t recommend it to others), but I have no choice.
Lilya - love me.
Comrade government, my family is Lilya Brik, mother, sisters and Veronica Vitoldovna Polonskaya. –
If you give them a tolerable life, thank you.
Give the poems you started to the Briks, they will figure it out.
As they say - “the incident is ruined”, the love boat crashed into everyday life
I am at peace with life and there is no need for a list of mutual pains, troubles and insults.
Happy stay
VLADIMIR MAYAKOVSKY.

12/4-30 years.

“Comrades Vappovtsy, do not consider me cowardly, seriously - nothing can be done. Hello.
Tell YERMILOV that it’s a pity he removed the slogan, we should have a fight.
V.M.
I have 2000 rubles in my table. contribute to the tax. You will get the rest from GIZ
V.M."

On April 15, 16, 17, 150,000 people passed by Mayakovsky’s coffin through the hall of the writers’ club. The photographs taken by Ilya Ilf on April 17 during the funeral have been preserved. On one of them are Valentin Kataev, Joseph Utkin, a very gloomy Mikhail Bulgakov, and a lost Yuri Olesha.

Yuri Olesha tells V. Meyerhold in a letter dated April 30, 1930: “The funeral made a tremendous impression: the entire Povarskaya from Kudrinskaya to Arbat was packed with people, there were people standing on the fences and on the roofs. About 60 thousand, if not more, followed the coffin. They shot into the air at the crematorium to make it possible to carry the coffin through the gate. There was a crush, there were trams waiting - if he had known that they loved and knew him so much, he would not have shot himself...”

In Ilf and Petrov’s sketches for the novel “ Great schemer"(1930) there is a recording: “Ostap at Mayakovsky’s funeral. The chief of police, apologizing for the chaos:

I had no experience in funerals of poets. When another one like him dies, then I will know how to bury him.

And the only thing the police chief didn’t know was that such a poet comes along once in a century.”

Vladimir Mayakovsky, one of the greatest poets of the 20th century, was among the first Russian people whose bodies were cremated. The procedure took place at the Donskoy Crematorium in Moscow, and later the ashes were transferred to the Novodevichy Cemetery.

Excerpts from newspapers:

“On April 17, at 6:30 a.m., the furnace of the Moscow crematorium will incinerate the body of the poet Mayakovsky with the heat of its thousands of degrees. It will burn the one in whose brain great and hot thoughts were nurtured and born. Perhaps as hot as the flame of the cremation furnace.” . (newspaper "Trud")

"The 942nd day of operation of the crematorium.
April 17, 1930.
Last name, first name, patronymic: Vladimir Vladimirovich Mayakovsky.
Age: 36 years old.
Time: 7 hours 35 minutes."
(crematorium registration book)

Description of an eyewitness to the farewell:
"...Mayakovsky's funeral took place on the third day after his death... The coffin with the body was lifted onto a truck lined with iron sheets. No flowers, at the coffin there was a single iron wreath of hammers, flywheels and screws with the laconic inscription "An iron wreath to the Iron Poet "...

The commission for organizing Mayakovsky's funeral determined that the poet's body would be cremated in the #crematorium of the Donskoy Monastery, which opened about three years ago and its use was still a novelty in Moscow, a kind of “avant-garde”, which corresponded to the image of the deceased...

An armored truck floats through crowd of thousands Muscovites who came to see the poet off last way. Mounted policemen are trying to restore order to this grand funeral procession, unforeseen and unorganized by anyone. Here is the crematorium of the Donskoy Monastery, from the chimney of which black smoke is pouring..."

“Lilya Yurievna and Osip Maksimovich walked the whole way with a young acquaintance, Varshavskaya-Krasnoshchekova, who later recalled: “... There were trams on Arbat, new people poured in, and we found ourselves torn away from the car with the coffin. So, with difficulty keeping at the head of the procession, we reached the crematorium. The gates were closed because the crowd had broken into the yard and there could have been a stampede, but we managed to somehow get into the yard. There was mounted police at the entrance to the crematorium. We sat down on a bench. And then Lilechka said that we would sit here until it was all over. Suddenly a mounted policeman shouts: “Brick! Where is Brick? They demand Brick!” - it turns out that the poet’s mother Alexandra Alekseevna did not want to say goodbye to her son and allow cremation without Lily Yuryevna. ...Osya and Lilya went to the crematorium..."

The last minutes of farewell... The Internationale sounds... The coffin with the poet's body is lowered into the heat of an all-consuming flame. The doors close. It's all over... A few days after the cremation, the Briks, having telephoned the Mayakovskys, went with them to the crematorium of the Donskoy Monastery. There, with them, the urn with Mayakovsky’s ashes was placed on a special raised platform in the columbarium. Here she was to remain for 22 years... Despite the fact that the urn with Mayakovsky’s ashes occupied a place of honor in the columbarium, over time it became clear that such a primitive “burial” of the famous poet did not correspond to his social status and this should be corrected somehow position.

And only on May 22, 1952, the urn with the ashes of Vladimir Mayakovsky was transferred from the columbarium of the crematorium of the Donskoy Monastery to the Novodevichy cemetery.

From the “Conclusion” of the experts:

"1. The damage on V.V. Mayakovsky’s shirt is an entrance gunshot wound, formed when fired from a “side rest” distance in the direction from front to back and slightly from right to left, almost in a horizontal plane.

2. Judging by the characteristics of the damage, a short-barreled weapon (for example, a pistol) was used and a low-power cartridge was used.

3. The small size of the blood-soaked area located around the entrance gunshot wound indicates its formation as a result of the immediate release of blood from the wound, and the absence of vertical blood streaks indicates that immediately after receiving the wound V.V. Mayakovsky was in a horizontal position, lying down on the back.

4. The shape and small size of the blood stains located below the injury, and the peculiarity of their arrangement along an arc, indicate that they arose as a result of the fall of small drops of blood from a small height onto the shirt in the process of moving down the right hand, spattered with blood, or with weapons in the same hand."

Is it possible to fake suicide so carefully? Yes, in expert practice there are cases of staging one, two, or less often five signs. But it is impossible to falsify the entire complex of signs. It was established that the drops of blood were not traces of bleeding from a wound: they fell from a small height from a hand or weapon. Even if we assume that the security officer Agranov (and he really knew his job) was a murderer and caused drops of blood after being shot, say, from a pipette, although according to the reconstructed timing of events he simply did not have time for this, it was necessary to achieve a complete coincidence of the localization of the drops blood and the location of traces of antimony. But the reaction to antimony was discovered only in 1987. It was the comparison of the location of antimony and drops of blood that became the pinnacle of this research.

Autograph of death

The specialists of the laboratory of forensic handwriting examinations also had to work, because many, even very sensitive people, doubted the authenticity of the poet’s suicide letter, written in pencil with almost no punctuation marks:

“Everyone. Don’t blame anyone for the fact that I’m dying and please don’t gossip. The deceased did not like this terribly. Mom, sisters and comrades, forgive me this is not the way (I don’t recommend it to others), but I have no choice. Lilya - love me. My family is Lilya Brik, mother, sisters and Veronica Vitoldovna Polonskaya...
The love boat\crashed in everyday life.\I'm even with life\And there's no point in listing\Mutual troubles\And grievances. Stay happy.\ Vladimir\ Mayakovsky. 12.IV.30"

From the “Conclusion” of the experts:

“The presented letter on behalf of Mayakovsky was written by Mayakovsky himself under unusual conditions, the most likely cause of which is a psychophysiological state caused by excitement.”

There was no doubt about the date - exactly April 12, two days before death - “immediately before the suicide, the signs of unusualness would have been more pronounced.” So the secret of the decision to die lies not in the 14th day of April, but in the 12th.

"Your word, Comrade Mauser"

Relatively recently, the case “On the Suicide of V.V. Mayakovsky” was transferred from the Presidential Archive to the Museum of the Poet, along with the fatal Browning, bullet and cartridge case. But the protocol for examining the scene of the incident, signed by the investigator and the medical expert, states that he shot himself with a “Mauser revolver, caliber 7.65, No. 312045.” According to his identification, the poet had two pistols - a Browning and a Bayard. And although “Krasnaya Gazeta” wrote about a shot from a revolver, eyewitness V.A. Katanyan mentions a Mauser, and N. Denisovsky, years later, a Browning, it is still difficult to imagine that a professional investigator could confuse a Browning with a Mauser.
Employees of the V.V. Mayakovsky Museum contacted the Russian federal center forensic experts with a request to conduct a study of the Browning pistol No. 268979, a bullet and a cartridge case transferred to them from the Presidential Archives, and to establish whether the poet shot himself with this weapon?

Chemical analysis of the deposits in the Browning barrel led to the conclusion that “the weapon was not fired after the last cleaning.” But the bullet once removed from Mayakovsky’s body “is indeed part of a 7.65 mm Browning cartridge of the 1900 model.” So what's the deal? The examination showed: “The caliber of the bullet, the number of marks, the width, angle of inclination and right-hand direction of the marks indicate that the bullet was fired from a Mauser model 1914 pistol.”

The results of the experimental shooting finally confirmed that “the 7.65 mm Browning cartridge bullet was fired not from Browning pistol No. 268979, but from a 7.65 mm Mauser.”

Still, it’s a Mauser. Who changed the weapon? In 1944, an NKGB officer, “talking” with the disgraced writer M.M. Zoshchenko, asked whether he considered the cause of Mayakovsky’s death clear, to which the writer responded with dignity: “It continues to remain mysterious. It is curious that the revolver with which Mayakovsky shot himself was given to him by the famous security officer Agranov.”

Could it be that Agranov himself, to whom all the investigation materials flocked, switched weapons, adding Mayakovsky’s Browning to the case? For what? Many people knew about the “gift,” and besides, the Mauser was not registered with Mayakovsky, which could have come back to haunt Agranov himself (by the way, he was later shot, but for what?). However, this is a matter of guesswork. Let’s better respect the poet’s last request: “...please don’t gossip. The dead man didn’t like it terribly.”

On April 14, 1930, in Moscow, in Lubyansky Proezd, a shot was fired in the workroom of Vladimir Mayakovsky. The debate over whether the poet died voluntarily or was killed has not subsided to this day. One of its participants talks about the masterly investigation of experts,
Professor of the Department of Forensic Medicine of the Sechenov Moscow Medical Academy Alexander Vasilievich Maslov.

Versions and facts

On April 14, 1930, Krasnaya Gazeta reported: “Today at 10:17 a.m. in his work room, Vladimir Mayakovsky committed suicide with a revolver shot to the heart area. The ambulance arrived and found him. already dead. In the last days, V.V. Mayakovsky showed no signs of mental discord and nothing foreshadowed a catastrophe.”

In the afternoon the body was transported to the poet’s apartment on Gendrikov Lane. It was taken by sculptor K. Lutsky death mask, and badly - he tore off the deceased’s face. Employees of the Brain Institute extracted Mayakovsky's brain, which weighed 1,700. On the very first day, pathologist Professor Talalay performed an autopsy at the prezector clinic of the Faculty of Medicine of Moscow State University, and on the night of April 17, a re-autopsy took place: due to rumors that the poet allegedly had a venereal disease, which were not confirmed. Then the body was cremated.

As with Yesenin, Mayakovsky’s suicide caused different reactions and many versions. One of the “targets” was 22-year-old Moscow Art Theater actress Veronika Polonskaya. It is known that Mayakovsky asked her to become his wife. She was the one last person who saw the poet alive. However, the testimony of the actress, apartment neighbors and investigative data indicate that the shot rang out immediately after Polonskaya left Mayakovsky’s room. This means she couldn't shoot.

The version that Mayakovsky is not figurative, but literally“lay his head on the barrel”, put a bullet in his head, cannot stand criticism. The poet’s brain has been preserved to this day and, as the staff of the Brain Institute rightly reported in those days, “by external examination, the brain does not present any significant deviations from the norm.”

Several years ago, in the program “Before and After Midnight,” the famous television journalist Vladimir Molchanov suggested that the post-mortem photograph on Mayakovsky’s chest clearly shows traces of TWO shots.

This dubious hypothesis was dispelled by another journalist, V. Skoryatin, who conducted a thorough investigation. There was only one shot, but he also believes that Mayakovsky was shot. Specifically, the head of the secret department of the OGPU, Agranov, with whom, by the way, the poet was friends: hiding in the back room and waiting for Polonskaya to leave, Agranov enters the office, kills the poet, leaves a suicide letter and again goes out into the street by the back door. And then he goes up to the scene as a security officer. The version is interesting and almost fits into the laws of that time. However, without knowing it, the journalist unexpectedly helped the experts. Mentioning the shirt the poet was wearing at the time of the shot, he writes: “I examined it. And even with the help of a magnifying glass I did not find any traces of a powder burn. There is nothing on her except a brown blood stain.” So the shirt was preserved!

Poet's shirt

Indeed, in the mid-50s, L.Yu. Brik, who had the poet’s shirt, gave it to State Museum V.V. Mayakovsky - the relic was kept in a box and was wrapped in paper impregnated with a special composition. On the left side of the front of the shirt there is a through wound, with dried blood visible around it. Surprisingly, this “material evidence” was not examined either in 1930 or later. And how much controversy there was around the photographs!
Having received permission to conduct the research, I, without revealing the essence of the matter, showed the shirt to a major specialist in forensic ballistics, E.G. Safronsky, who immediately made a “diagnosis”: “Entry bullet damage, most likely a point-blank shot.”

Having learned that the shot was fired more than 60 years ago, Safronsky noted that such examinations were not carried out in the USSR at that time. An agreement was reached: specialists from the Federal Center for Forensic Expertise, where the shirt was transferred, would not know that it belonged to the poet - for the purity of the experiment.

So, a beige-pink shirt made of cotton fabric is subject to research. There are 4 mother-of-pearl buttons on the front placket. The back of the shirt from the collar to the bottom is cut with scissors, as evidenced by the ledge-shaped edges of the cut and the straight ends of the threads. But it is not enough to assert that this particular shirt, bought by the poet in Paris, was on him at the time of the shot. In photographs of Mayakovsky’s body taken at the scene of the incident, the fabric pattern, texture, shape and location of the blood stain and gunshot wound are clearly visible. When the museum shirt was photographed from the same angle, magnification and photo alignment was carried out, all the details coincided.

Experts from the Federal Center had a difficult job to do - to find traces of a shot on the shirt that was more than 60 years old and to establish its distance. And there are three of them in forensic medicine and criminology: a point-blank shot, at close range and at long range. Linear cross-shaped damage characteristic of a point-blank shot was discovered (they arise from the action of gases reflected from the body at the moment the tissue is destroyed by the projectile), as well as traces of gunpowder, soot and scorching both in the damage itself and in adjacent areas of the tissue.

But it was necessary to identify a number of stable signs, for which the diffusion-contact method was used, which does not destroy the shirt. It is known: when a shot is fired, a hot cloud flies out along with the bullet, then the bullet gets ahead of it and flies away further. If they shot from a long distance, the cloud did not reach the object; if from a close distance, the gas-powder suspension should have settled on the shirt. It was necessary to investigate the complex of metals that make up the bullet shell of the proposed cartridge.

The resulting impressions showed an insignificant amount of lead in the damaged area, and practically no copper was detected. But thanks to the diffuse-contact method of determining antimony (one of the components of the capsule composition), it was possible to establish a large zone of this substance with a diameter of about 10 mm around the damage with a topography characteristic of a shot at the side. Moreover, the sectoral deposition of antimony indicated that the muzzle was pressed against the shirt at an angle. And intense metallization on the left side is a sign of a shot being fired from right to left, almost in a horizontal plane, with a slight downward inclination.

From the “Conclusion” of the experts:

2. Judging by the characteristics of the damage, a short-barreled weapon (for example, a pistol) was used and a low-power cartridge was used.

Autograph of death

From the “Conclusion” of the experts:

“The presented letter on behalf of Mayakovsky was written by Mayakovsky himself under unusual conditions, the most likely cause of which is a psychophysiological state caused by excitement.”

"Your word, Comrade Mauser"

Relatively recently, the case “On the Suicide of V.V. Mayakovsky” was transferred from the Presidential Archive to the Museum of the Poet, along with the fatal Browning, bullet and cartridge case. But the protocol for examining the scene of the incident, signed by the investigator and the medical expert, states that he shot himself with a “Mauser revolver, caliber 7.65, No. 312045.” According to his identification, the poet had two pistols - a Browning and a Bayard. And although “Krasnaya Gazeta” wrote about a shot from a revolver, eyewitness V.A. Katanyan mentions a Mauser, and N. Denisovsky, years later, a Browning, it is still difficult to imagine that a professional investigator could confuse a Browning with a Mauser.
Employees of the V.V. Mayakovsky Museum appealed to the Russian Federal Center for Forensic Expertise with a request to conduct a study of the Browning pistol No. 268979 transferred to them from the Presidential Archives, bullets and cartridges and establish whether the poet shot himself with this weapon?

The results of the experimental shooting finally confirmed that “the 7.65 mm Browning cartridge bullet was fired not from Browning pistol No. 268979, but from a 7.65 mm Mauser.”

Vladimir Vladimirovich Mayakovsky. Born on July 7 (19), 1893 in Bagdati, Kutaisi province - died on April 14, 1930 in Moscow. Russian and Soviet poet, playwright, screenwriter, film director, actor, artist. One of the most outstanding poets of the 20th century.

Vladimir Mayakovsky was born on July 7 (19 according to the new style) July 1893 in Bagdati, Kutaisi province (Georgia).

Father - Vladimir Konstantinovich Mayakovsky (1857-1906), served as a third-class forester in the Erivan province, from 1889 in the Bagdat forestry. My father died from blood poisoning after pricking his finger with a needle while stitching papers - from then on, Vladimir Mayakovsky had a phobia of pins, needles, hairpins, etc., fearing infection, bacteriophobia haunted him all his life.

Mother - Alexandra Alekseevna Pavlenko (1867-1954), from the Kuban Cossacks, was born in the village of Ternovskaya in the Kuban.

In the poem “Vladikavkaz - Tiflis” Mayakovsky calls himself a “Georgian”.

One of his grandmothers, Efrosinya Osipovna Danilevskaya, is the author’s cousin historical novels G. P. Danilevsky.

He had two sisters: Lyudmila (1884-1972) and Olga (1890-1949).

He had two brothers: Konstantin (died at the age of three from scarlet fever) and Alexander (died in infancy).

In 1902, Mayakovsky entered the gymnasium in Kutaisi. Like his parents, he was fluent in Georgian.

In his youth, he took part in revolutionary demonstrations and read propaganda brochures.

After the death of his father in 1906, Mayakovsky, along with his mother and sisters, moved to Moscow, where he entered the fourth grade of the 5th classical gymnasium (now Moscow school No. 91 on Povarskaya Street, the building has not survived), and studied in the same class with his brother Shura.

The family lived in poverty. In March 1908, he was expelled from the 5th grade due to non-payment of tuition.

Mayakovsky published his first “half-poem” in the illegal magazine “Rush,” which was published by the Third Gymnasium. According to him, “it turned out incredibly revolutionary and equally ugly.”

In Moscow, Mayakovsky met revolutionary-minded students, began to become interested in Marxist literature, and in 1908 joined the RSDLP. He was a propagandist in the commercial and industrial subdistrict, and in 1908-1909 he was arrested three times (in the case of an underground printing house, on suspicion of connections with a group of anarchist expropriators, on suspicion of aiding the escape of female political prisoners from Novinsky prison).

In the first case, he was released under the supervision of his parents by a court verdict as a minor who acted “without understanding”; in the second and third cases, he was released due to lack of evidence.

In prison, Mayakovsky was a “scandal,” so he was often transferred from unit to unit: Basmannaya, Meshchanskaya, Myasnitskaya and, finally, Butyrskaya prison, where he spent 11 months in solitary confinement No. 103. In prison in 1909, Mayakovsky again began writing poetry, but was dissatisfied with what was written.

After his third arrest, he was released from prison in January 1910. After his release, he left the party. In 1918 he wrote in his autobiography: “Why not in the party? Communists worked at the fronts. In art and education there are still compromisers. They would send me to fish in Astrakhan.”

In 1911, the poet’s friend, bohemian artist Eugenia Lang, inspired the poet to take up painting.

Mayakovsky studied at preparatory class Stroganov School, in the studios of artists S. Yu. Zhukovsky and P. I. Kelin. In 1911 he entered the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture - the only place, where they were accepted without a certificate of reliability. Having met David Burliuk, the founder of the futurist group "Gilea", he entered the poetic circle and joined the Cubo-Futurists. The first published poem was called “Night” (1912), it was included in the futuristic collection “A Slap in the Face of Public Taste.”

On November 30, 1912, Mayakovsky’s first public performance took place in the artistic basement “Stray Dog”.

In 1913, Mayakovsky’s first collection “I” (a cycle of four poems) was published. It was written by hand, provided with drawings by Vasily Chekrygin and Lev Zhegin and reproduced lithographically in the amount of 300 copies. As the first section, this collection was included in the poet’s book of poems “Simple as a Moo” (1916). His poems also appeared on the pages of futurist almanacs “Mares’ Milk”, “Dead Moon”, “Roaring Parnassus”, etc., and began to be published in periodicals.

In the same year, the poet turned to drama. The program tragedy “Vladimir Mayakovsky” was written and staged. The scenery for it was written by artists from the “Youth Union” P. N. Filonov and I. S. Shkolnik, and the author himself acted as director and leading actor.

In February 1914, Mayakovsky and Burliuk were expelled from the school for public speaking.

In 1914-1915, Mayakovsky worked on the poem “A Cloud in Pants”. After the outbreak of the First World War, the poem “War Has Been Declared” was published. In August, Mayakovsky decided to sign up as a volunteer, but he was not allowed, explaining this as political unreliability. Soon his attitude towards service in tsarist army Mayakovsky expressed it in the poem “To you!”, which later became a song.

On March 29, 1914, Mayakovsky, together with Burliuk and Kamensky, arrived on tour in Baku - as part of the “famous Moscow futurists.” That evening, at the Mailov Brothers Theater, Mayakovsky read a report on futurism, illustrating it with poetry.

In July 1915, the poet met Lilya Yuryevna and Osip Maksimovich Brik. In 1915-1917, under the patronage of Mayakovsky, he served in military service in Petrograd at the Automotive Training School.

Soldiers were not allowed to publish, but he was saved by Osip Brik, who bought the poems “Spine Flute” and “Cloud in Pants” for 50 kopecks per line and published them. His anti-war lyrics: “Mom and the evening killed by the Germans”, “Me and Napoleon”, the poem “War and Peace” (1915). Appeal to satire. The cycle “Hymns” for the magazine “New Satyricon” (1915). In 1916, the first large collection, “Simple as a Moo,” was published. 1917 - “Revolution. Poetochronika".

On March 3, 1917, Mayakovsky led a detachment of 7 soldiers who arrested the commander of the Automotive Training School, General P. I. Sekretev. It is curious that shortly before this, on January 31, Mayakovsky received a silver medal “For Diligence” from the hands of Sekretev. During the summer of 1917, Mayakovsky energetically worked to have him declared unfit for duty. military service and in the fall he was freed from it.

In August 1917, he decided to write “Mystery Bouffe,” which was completed on October 25, 1918 and staged for the anniversary of the revolution (dir. Vs. Meyerhold, art director K. Malevich).

In 1918, Mayakovsky starred in three films based on his own scripts.

Vladimir Mayakovsky in the film "The Young Lady and the Hooligan"

In March 1919, he moved to Moscow, began actively collaborating with ROSTA (1919-1921), and designed (as a poet and as an artist) propaganda and satirical posters for ROSTA (“Windows of ROSTA”).

In 1919, the first collection of the poet’s works was published - “Everything written by Vladimir Mayakovsky. 1909-1919".

In 1918-1919 he appeared in the newspaper “Art of the Commune”. Propaganda of world revolution and revolution of spirit.

In 1920, he finished writing the poem “150,000,000,” which reflects the theme of world revolution.

In 1918, Mayakovsky organized the group “Comfut” (communist futurism), and in 1922 - the publishing house MAF (Moscow Association of Futurists), which published several of his books.

In 1923 he organized the LEF group (Left Front of the Arts), the thick magazine LEF (seven issues were published in 1923-1925). Aseev, Pasternak, Osip Brik, B. Arvatov, N. Chuzhak, Tretyakov, Levidov, Shklovsky and others actively published. He promoted Lef’s theories of production art, social order, and literature of fact.

At this time, the poems “About This” (1923), “To the workers of Kursk who mined the first ore, a temporary monument to the work of Vladimir Mayakovsky” (1923) and “Vladimir Ilyich Lenin” (1924) were published. When the author reads the poem about Bolshoi Theater, accompanied by a 20-minute ovation, was present. Mayakovsky mentioned the “leader of the peoples” himself in his poems only twice.

Years civil war Mayakovsky believes best time in life, in the poem “Good!”, written in the prosperous year of 1927, there are nostalgic chapters.

In 1922-1923, in a number of works he continued to insist on the need for a world revolution and a revolution of the spirit - “The Fourth International”, “The Fifth International”, “My Speech at the Genoa Conference”, etc.

In 1922-1924, Mayakovsky made several trips abroad - Latvia, France, Germany; wrote essays and poems about European impressions: “How does a democratic republic work?” (1922); “Paris (Conversations with the Eiffel Tower)” (1923) and a number of others.

In 1925, his longest journey took place: a trip across America. Mayakovsky visited Havana, Mexico City and for three months spoke in various cities of the United States, reading poems and reports. Later, poems were written (the collection “Spain. - Ocean. - Havana. - Mexico. - America”) and the essay “My Discovery of America.”

In 1925-1928 he traveled a lot around Soviet Union, performed in a variety of audiences. During these years, the poet published such works as “To Comrade Nette, the Ship and the Man” (1926); “Through the Cities of the Union” (1927); “The story of the foundry worker Ivan Kozyrev...” (1928).

From February 17 to February 24, 1926, Mayakovsky visited Baku, performed at the opera and drama theaters, and before oil workers in Balakhany.

In 1922-1926 he actively collaborated with Izvestia, in 1926-1929 - with Komsomolskaya Pravda.

Published in magazines: “ New world", "Young Guard", "Ogonyok", "Crocodile", "Red Niva", etc. He worked in agitation and advertising, for which he was criticized by Pasternak, Kataev, Svetlov.

In 1926-1927 he wrote nine film scripts.

In 1927, he restored the LEF magazine under the name “New LEF”. A total of 24 issues were published. In the summer of 1928, Mayakovsky became disillusioned with LEF and left the organization and the magazine. In the same year, he began writing his personal biography, “I Myself.” From October 8 to December 8 - a trip abroad, on the route Berlin - Paris. In November, volumes I and II of the collected works were published.

Satirical plays The Bedbug (1928) and Bathhouse (1929) were directed by Meyerhold. The poet’s satire, especially “Bath,” caused persecution from Rapp’s critics. In 1929, the poet organized the REF group, but already in February 1930 he left it, joining RAPP.

In 1928-1929 Mayakovsky took an active part in the anti-religious campaign. It was then that the NEP was collapsed, the collectivization of agriculture began, and materials from show trials of “pests” appeared in the newspapers.

In 1929, the All-Russian Central Executive Committee issued the Decree “On religious associations", worsening the situation of believers. In the same year, Art. 4 of the Constitution of the RSFSR: instead of “freedom of religious and anti-religious propaganda,” the republic recognized “freedom of religious confessions and anti-religious propaganda.”

As a result, a need arose in the state for anti-religious works of art, responding to ideological changes. A number of leading Soviet poets, writers, journalists and filmmakers responded to this need. Mayakovsky was among them. In 1929, he wrote the poem “We Must Fight,” in which he stigmatized believers and called for atheism.

In the same 1929, he, together with Maxim Gorky and Demyan Bedny, took part in the Second Congress of the Union of Militant Atheists. In his speech at the congress, Mayakovsky called on writers and poets to participate in the fight against religion: “We can already unmistakably discern a fascist Mauser behind the Catholic cassock. We can already unmistakably discern the edge of a fist behind the priest’s cassock, but thousands of other intricacies through art entangle us in the same damned mysticism. ...If it is still possible, one way or another, to understand the brainless ones from the flock, who have been hammering religious feelings into themselves for decades, the so-called believers, then we must classify a religious writer who works consciously and yet works as a religious person either as a charlatan, or like a fool. Comrades, usually their pre-revolutionary meetings and congresses ended with the call “to God”; today the congress will end with the words “to God.” This is the slogan of today’s writer,” he said.

Features of the style and creativity of Vladimir Mayakovsky

Many researchers creative development Mayakovsky's poetic life is likened to a five-act action with a prologue and epilogue.

The role of a kind of prologue in the poet’s creative path was played by the tragedy “Vladimir Mayakovsky” (1913), the first act was the poem “Cloud in Pants” (1914-1915) and “Spine Flute” (1915), the second act was the poem “War and Peace” "(1915-1916) and "Man" (1916-1917), the third act - the play "Mystery-bouffe" (first version - 1918, second - 1920-1921) and the poem "150,000,000" (1919-1920), the fourth act - the poems “I Love” (1922), “About This” (1923) and “Vladimir Ilyich Lenin” (1924), the fifth act - the poem “Good!” (1927) and the plays “Bedbug” (1928-1929) and “Bathhouse” (1929-1930), the epilogue is the first and second introductions to the poem “At the top of my voice” (1928-1930) and the poet’s suicide letter “To everyone” (12 April 1930).

The rest of Mayakovsky's works, including numerous poems, gravitate towards one or another part of this general picture, the basis of which is large works poet.

In his works, Mayakovsky was uncompromising, and therefore inconvenient. In the works he wrote in the late 1920s, tragic motifs began to appear. Critics called him only a “fellow traveler” and not the “proletarian writer” that he wanted to see himself.

In 1930, he organized an exhibition dedicated to the 20th anniversary of his work, but he was interfered with in every possible way, and none of the writers or state leaders visited the exhibition itself.

In the spring of 1930, the Circus on Tsvetnoy Boulevard was preparing a grandiose performance of “Moscow is Burning” based on Mayakovsky’s play; the dress rehearsal was scheduled for April 21, but the poet did not live to see it.

Mayakovsky’s early work was expressive and metaphorical (“I’m going to cry that the policemen were crucified at the crossroads,” “Could you?”), combined the energy of a meeting and demonstration with the most lyrical intimacy (“The violin twitched begging”), Nietzschean fight against God and carefully disguised in the soul religious feeling (“I, praising the machine and England / Maybe simply / In the most ordinary Gospel / The Thirteenth Apostle”).

According to the poet, it all started with the line “I launched a pineapple into the sky.” David Burliuk introduced the young poet to the poetry of Rimbaud, Baudelaire, Verlaine, Verhaeren, but Whitman's free verse had a decisive influence.

Mayakovsky did not recognize traditional poetic meters; he invented rhythm for his poems; polymetric compositions are united by style and a single syntactic intonation, which is set by the graphic presentation of the verse: first by dividing the verse into several lines written in a column, and since 1923 by the famous “ladder”, which became “ business card» Mayakovsky. The ladder helped Mayakovsky force his poems to be read with the correct intonation, since commas were sometimes not enough.

After 1917, Mayakovsky began to write a lot; in five pre-revolutionary years he wrote one volume of poetry and prose, and in twelve post-revolutionary years - eleven volumes. For example, in 1928 he wrote 125 poems and a play. He spent a lot of time traveling around the Union and abroad. When traveling, I sometimes gave 2-3 speeches a day (not counting participation in debates, meetings, conferences, etc.).

However, subsequently, disturbing and restless thoughts began to appear in Mayakovsky’s works; he exposes the vices and shortcomings of the new system (from the poem “The Sitting Ones,” 1922, to the play “Bathhouse,” 1929).

It is believed that in the mid-1920s he began to become disillusioned with the socialist system; his so-called trips abroad are perceived as attempts to escape from himself; in the poem “At the Top of My Voice” there is the line “rummaging through today’s petrified shit” (in the censored version - "shit") Although he continued to create poems imbued with official cheerfulness, including those dedicated to collectivization, until his last days.

Another feature of the poet is the combination of pathos and lyricism with Shchedrin’s most poisonous satire.

Mayakovsky had a great influence on the poetry of the 20th century. Especially on Kirsanov, Voznesensky, Yevtushenko, Rozhdestvensky, Kedrov, and also made a significant contribution to children's poetry.

Mayakovsky addressed his descendants into the distant future, confident that he would be remembered hundreds of years from now:

My verse

labor

the vastness of years will break through

and will appear

weighty,

rough,

visibly

like these days

the water supply came in,

worked out

still slaves of Rome.

Vladimir Mayakovsky. Documentary

Suicide of Vladimir Mayakovsky

The year 1930 started poorly for Mayakovsky. He was sick a lot. In February, Lilya and Osip Brik left for Europe.

Mayakovsky was harshly treated in the newspapers as a “fellow traveler” Soviet power- while he himself saw himself as a proletarian writer.

There was an embarrassment with him long-awaited exhibition“20 years of work”, which none of the prominent writers and state leaders visited, as the poet had hoped for. The premiere of the play “Bathhouse” was unsuccessful in March, and the play “The Bedbug” was also expected to fail.

At the beginning of April 1930, a greeting to “the great proletarian poet on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of work and social activity” was removed from the layout of the magazine “Print and Revolution.” There was talk in literary circles that Mayakovsky had written himself off. The poet was denied a visa to travel abroad.

Two days before his suicide, on April 12, Mayakovsky had a meeting with readers at the Polytechnic Institute, which was attended mainly by Komsomol members, and there were many boorish shouts from the seats. The poet was haunted by quarrels and scandals everywhere. His state of mind became more and more alarming and depressing.

Since the spring of 1919, Mayakovsky, despite the fact that he constantly lived with the Briks, had for work a small boat-like room on the fourth floor of a communal apartment on Lubyanka (now this is the State Museum of V.V. Mayakovsky, Lubyansky proezd, 3/6 p.4). The suicide took place in this room.

On the morning of April 14, Mayakovsky had an appointment with Veronica (Nora) Polonskaya. The poet had been dating Polonskaya for the second year, insisted on her divorce and even signed up for a writers’ cooperative in the passage Art Theater, where he was going to move to live with Nora.

As 82-year-old Polonskaya recalled in 1990 in an interview with the magazine “Soviet Screen” (No. 13 - 1990), on that fateful morning the poet picked her up at eight o’clock, because at 10.30 she had a rehearsal scheduled at the theater with Nemirovich -Danchenko.

“I couldn’t be late, it angered Vladimir Vladimirovich. He locked the doors, hid the key in his pocket, began to demand that I not go to the theater, and left from there altogether. I cried... I asked if he would see me out. “No.” ", he said, but promised to call. And he also asked if I had money for a taxi. I didn’t have money, he gave me twenty rubles... I managed to get to the front door and heard a shot. I was running around, afraid to return. Then she entered and saw the smoke from the shot that had not yet dissipated. There was a small mark on Mayakovsky’s chest. bloody stain. I rushed to him, I repeated: “What did you do?..” He tried to raise his head. Then his head fell, and he began to turn terribly pale... People appeared, someone said to me: “Run, meet the ambulance... I ran out, met him. I returned, and on the stairs someone said to me: “It’s too late. He died.” ... "," recalled Veronica Polonskaya.

The suicide note, prepared two days earlier, is very detailed (which, according to researchers, excludes the version of the spontaneity of the shot), begins with the words: “Don’t blame anyone for the fact that I’m dying, and please don’t gossip, the deceased really didn’t like it.” ...".

The poet calls Lilya Brik (as well as Veronica Polonskaya), mother and sisters members of his family and asks to transfer all the poems and archives to the Briks.

Suicide letter from Vladimir Mayakovsky:

"Everyone

Don’t blame anyone for the fact that I’m dying and please don’t gossip. The deceased did not like this terribly.

Mom, sisters and comrades, I’m sorry - this is not the way (I don’t recommend it to others), but I have no choice.

Lilya - love me.

Comrade government, my family is Lilya Brik, mother, sisters and Veronica Vitoldovna Polonskaya.

If you give them a tolerable life, thank you.

Give the poems you started to the Briks, they will figure it out.

As they say -

"the incident is ruined"

love boat

crashed into everyday life.

I'm even with life

and there is no need for a list

mutual pain,

and resentment.

Happy stay.

12/IV -30

Comrades Vappovtsy, do not consider me cowardly.

Seriously - nothing can be done.

Hello.

Tell Ermilov that it’s a pity - he removed the slogan, we should have a fight.

I have 2000 rubles in my table. - contribute to the tax. You will receive the rest from Giza.

The Briks managed to arrive at the funeral, urgently interrupting their European tour. Polonskaya, on the contrary, did not dare to attend, since Mayakovsky’s mother and sisters considered her to be the culprit in the death of the poet.

For three days, with an endless stream of people, farewell took place in the House of Writers. Tens of thousands of admirers of his talent escorted the poet to the Donskoye Cemetery in an iron coffin while the Internationale was sung. Ironically, Mayakovsky’s “futuristic” iron coffin was made by avant-garde sculptor Anton Lavinsky, the husband of the artist Lily Lavinskaya, who gave birth to a son from her relationship with Mayakovsky.

The poet was cremated in the first Moscow crematorium opened three years earlier near the Donskoy Monastery. The brain was removed for research by the Brain Institute. Initially, the ashes were located there, in the columbarium of the New Donskoye Cemetery, but as a result of the persistent actions of Lilia Brik and the poet’s elder sister Lyudmila, the urn with Mayakovsky’s ashes was moved on May 22, 1952 and buried at the Novodevichy Cemetery.

Mayakovsky. Last love, last shot

Vladimir Mayakovsky's height: 189 centimeters.

Personal life Vladimir Mayakovsky:

Was not married. Two children from extramarital affairs.

The poet had many different novels, a number of which went down in history.

He was in a relationship with Elsa Triolet, thanks to whom she appeared in his life.

- “muse of the Russian avant-garde”, hostess of one of the most famous literary and artistic salons in the 20th century. Author of memoirs, recipient of Vladimir Mayakovsky's works, who played a big role in the poet's life. Native sister Elsa Triolet. She was married to Osip Brik, Vitaly Primakov, Vasily Katanyan.

For long period creative life Mayakovsky Lilya Brik was his muse. They met in July 1915 at her parents' dacha in Malakhovka near Moscow. At the end of July, Lily's sister Elsa Triole brought Mayakovsky, who had recently arrived from Finland, to Brikov's Petrograd apartment on the street. Zhukovsky, 7.

The Briks, people far from literature, were engaged in business, having inherited a small but profitable coral business from their parents. Mayakovsky read the yet unpublished poem “A Cloud in Pants” at their home and, after an enthusiastic reception, dedicated it to the hostess - “To you, Lilya.” The poet later called this day “the most joyful date.”

Osip Brik, Lily's husband, published the poem in a small edition in September 1915. Infatuated with Lily, the poet settled in the Palais Royal hotel on Pushkinskaya Street in Petrograd, never returning to Finland.

In November, the futurist moved even closer to the Brikovs' apartment - to Nadezhdinskaya Street, 52. Soon Mayakovsky introduced new friends to his friends, futurist poets - D. Burliuk, V. Kamensky, B. Pasternak, V. Khlebnikov and others. Brikov's apartment on the street . Zhukovsky became a bohemian salon, which was visited not only by futurists, but also by M. Kuzmin, M. Gorky, V. Shklovsky, R. Yakobson, as well as other writers, philologists and artists.

Soon, a stormy romance broke out between Mayakovsky and Lilya Brik, with the obvious connivance of Osip. This novel was reflected in the poems “Spine Flute” (1915) and “Man” (1916) and in the poems “To Everything” (1916), “Lilichka! Instead of a letter" (1916). After this, Mayakovsky began to devote all of his works (except for the poem “Vladimir Ilyich Lenin”) to Lilya Brik.

In 1918, Lilya and Vladimir starred in the film “Chained by Film” based on Mayakovsky’s script. To date, the film has survived in fragments. Photographs and big poster, where Lilya is drawn, entangled in film.

Vladimir Mayakovsky and Lilya Brik in the film "Chained by Film"

Since the summer of 1918, Mayakovsky and Briki lived together, the three of them, which fit well into the popular after the revolution marriage and love concept, known as the “Glass of Water Theory.” At this time, all three finally switched to Bolshevik positions. At the beginning of March 1919, they moved from Petrograd to Moscow to a communal apartment in Poluektovy Lane, 5, and then, from September 1920, they settled in two rooms in a house on the corner of Myasnitskaya Street in Vodopyanoy Lane, 3. Then all three moved to an apartment in Gendrikov Lane on Taganka. Mayakovsky and Lilya worked at Windows of ROSTA, and Osip served for some time in the Cheka and was a member of the Bolshevik Party.

Bibliography of Vladimir Mayakovsky:

Autobiography:

1928 - “I myself”

Poems:

1914-15 - “Cloud in Pants”
1915 - “Spine Flute”
1916-17 - "Man"
1921-22 - “I Love”
1923 - “About This”
1924 - “Vladimir Ilyich Lenin”
1925 - “The Flying Proletarian”
1927 - “Okay!”

Poems:

1912 - “Night”
1912 - “Morning”
1912 - “Port”
1913 - “From street to street”
1913 - “Could you?”
1913 - “Signs”
1913 - “I”: Along the pavement; A few words about my wife; A few words about my mother; A few words about myself
1913 - “From fatigue”
1913 - “Hell of the City”
1913 - “Here!”
1913 - “They understand nothing”
1914 - “Blouse Veil”
1914 - “Listen”
1914 - “But still”
1914 - “War is declared.” July 20
1914 - “Mom and the evening killed by the Germans”
1914 - “Violin and a little nervously”
1915 - “Me and Napoleon”
1915 - “To you”
1915 - “Hymn to the Judge”
1915 - “Hymn to the Scientist”
1915 - “Naval Love”
1915 - “Hymn to Health”
1915 - “Hymn to the Critic”
1915 - “Hymn to Lunch”
1915 - “That’s how I became a dog”
1915 - “Magnificent absurdities”
1915 - “Hymn to Bribe”
1915 - “Attentive attitude towards bribe takers”
1915 - “Monstrous Funeral”
1916 - “Hey!”
1916 - "Giveaway"
1916 - “Tired”
1916 - “Needles”
1916 - “The Last St. Petersburg Fairy Tale”
1916 - “Russia”
1916 - “Lilichka!”
1916 - “To Everything”
1916 - “The author dedicates these lines to himself, his beloved”
1917 - “Brothers Writers”
1917 - "Revolution". April 19
1917 - “The Tale of Little Red Riding Hood”
1917 - “To the Answer”
1917 - “Our March”
1918 - " Good attitude to the horses"
1918 - “Ode to the Revolution”
1918 - “Order for the Army of Art”
1918 - “Working Poet”
1918 - “That Side”
1918 - “Left March”
1919 - “Amazing Facts”
1919 - “We Are Coming”
1919 - “Soviet ABC”
1919 - “Worker! Throw out the non-party nonsense..." October
1919 - “Song of the Ryazan peasant.” October
1920 - “The weapon of the Entente is money...”. July
1920 - “If you live in disarray, as the Makhnovists want...” July
1920 - “A story about bagels and a woman who does not recognize the republic.” August
1920 - “Red Hedgehog”
1920 - “Attitude towards the young lady”
1920 - “Vladimir Ilyich”
1920 - “An extraordinary adventure that happened with Vladimir Mayakovsky in the summer at the dacha”
1920 - “The story about how the godfather talked about Wrangel without any intelligence”
1920 - “Heine-shaped”
1920 - “A third of the cigarette case went into the grass...”
1920 - “The Last Page of the Civil War”
1920 - “About rubbish”
1921 - “Two not quite ordinary cases”
1921 - “A poem about Myasnitskaya, about a woman and about an all-Russian scale”
1921 - “Order No. 2 of the Army of Arts”
1922 - “The Satisfied Ones”
1922 - “Bastards!”
1922 - “Bureaucracy”
1922 - “My speech at the Genoa conference”
1922 - “Germany”
1923 - “About poets”
1923 - “On “fiascoes”, “apogees” and other unknown things”
1923 - “Paris”
1923 - “Newspaper Day”
1923 - “We don’t believe!”
1923 - “Trusts”
1923 - “April 17”
1923 - “Spring Question”
1923 - “Universal Answer”
1923 - “Vorovsky”
1923 - “Baku”
1923 - “Young Guard”
1923 - “Norderney”
1923 - “Moscow-Koenigsberg”. 6 September
1923 - “Kyiv”
1924 - “January 9th”
1924 - “Be ready!”
1924 - “Bourgeois, - say goodbye to pleasant days - we’ll finally finish with hard money”
1924 - “Vladikavkaz - Tiflis”
1924 - “Two Berlins”
1924 - “Diplomatic”
1924 - “The roar of uprisings, multiplied by echoes”
1924 - “Hello!”
1924 - “Kyiv”
1924 - “Komsomolskaya”
1924 - “Little Difference” (“In Europe...”)
1924 - “To the Rescue”
1924 - “Every little thing is accounted for”
1924 - “Let's laugh!”
1924 - “Proletarian, nip the war in the bud!”
1924 - “I protest!”
1924 - “Keep your hands off China!”
1924 - “Sevastopol - Yalta”
1924 - “Selkor”
1924 - “Tamara and the Demon”
1924 - “Sound money is solid ground for the bond between the peasant and the worker”
1924 - “Wow, and fun!”
1924 - “Hooliganism”
1924 - “Jubilee”
1925 - “That’s what a man needs a plane for”
1925 - “Drag out the future!”
1925 - “Give me the engine!”
1925 - “Two Mays”
1925 - “Red Envy”
1925 - “May”
1925 - “A little utopia about how the metro will go”
1925 - “O. D.V.F.”
1925 - “Rabkor” (“He will write “The Keys of Happiness...””)
1925 - “Rabkor (“Having broken through the mountains of illiteracy with my forehead...”)
1925 - “Third Front”
1925 - “Flag”
1925 - “Yalta - Novorossiysk”
1926 - “To Sergei Yesenin”
1926 - “Marxism is a weapon...” April 19
1926 - “Four-story hack”
1926 - “Conversation with the financial inspector about poetry”
1926 - “Advanced Front”
1926 - “Bribery takers”
1926 - “On the Agenda”
1926 - “Protection”
1926 - “Love”
1926 - “Message to proletarian poets”
1926 - “Factory of Bureaucrats”
1926 - “To Comrade Nette” July 15
1926 - “Terrifying Familiarity”
1926 - “Office Habits”
1926 - “Hooligan”
1926 - “Conversation at the Odessa landing craft raid”
1926 - “Letter from the writer Mayakovsky to the writer Gorky”
1926 - “Debt to Ukraine”
1926 - “October”
1927 - “Stabilization of life”
1927 - “Paper Horrors”
1927 - “To Our Youth”
1927 - “Through the Cities of the Union”
1927 - “My speech at the show trial on the occasion of a possible scandal with the lectures of Professor Shengeli”
1927 - “What did they fight for?”
1927 - “You Give an Elegant Life”
1927 - “Instead of an Ode”
1927 - “Best verse”
1927 - “Lenin is with us!”
1927 - “Spring”
1927 - “Careful March”
1927 - “Venus de Milo and Vyacheslav Polonsky”
1927 - “Mr. People’s Artist”
1927 - “Well, well!”
1927 - “A General Guide for Beginning Sneaks”
1927 - “Crimea”
1927 - “Comrade Ivanov”
1927 - “We’ll see for ourselves, we’ll show them”
1927 - “Ivan Ivan Honorarchikov”
1927 - “Miracles”
1927 - “Marusya got poisoned”
1927 - “Letter to Molchanov’s beloved, abandoned by him”
1927 - “The masses do not understand”
1928 - “Without a rudder and without a twirl”
1928 - “Ekaterinburg-Sverdlovsk”
1928 - “The story of foundry worker Ivan Kozyrev about moving into a new painting”
1928 - “Emperor”
1928 - “Letter to Tatyana Yakovleva”
1929 - “Conversation with Comrade Lenin”
1929 - “Perekop enthusiasm”
1929 - “Gloomy about humorists”
1929 - “Harvest March”
1929 - “Soul of Society”
1929 - “Party Candidate”
1929 - “Stab Self-Criticism”
1929 - “Everything is calm in the West”
1929 - “Parisian”
1929 - “Beauties”
1929 - “Poems about the Soviet passport”
1929 - “The Americans Are Surprised”
1929 - “An example not worthy of imitation”
1929 - “Bird of God”
1929 - “Poems about Thomas”
1929 - “I'm happy”
1929 - “Khrenov’s story about Kuznetskstroy and the people of Kuznetsk”
1929 - “Minority Report”
1929 - “Give me the material base”
1929 - "The Trouble Lovers"
1930 - “Already the second. You must have gone to bed..."
1930 - “March of Shock Brigades”
1930 - “Leninists”