Biography by Mayakovsky. Death of Mayakovsky: the tragic ending of the poet

Mayakovsky V.V. - biography Mayakovsky V.V. - biography

Mayakovsky Vladimir Vladimirovich (1893 - 1930)
Mayakovsky V.V.
Biography
Born July 19 (old style - July 7) 1893 in the village of Baghdadi near Kutaissi (Georgia), in the family of a forester. From 1901 to 1906 he studied at the classical gymnasium in Kutaissi. In 1906, after the death of his father, Mayakovsky moved to Moscow with his mother and sisters. He studied at the fifth gymnasium, in 1908 - in the preparatory class of the Stroganov School, in 1911 - 1914 - in the figure class of the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture, from which he was expelled for participating in the scandalous performances of the Futurists. In 1908 he joined the RSDLP (b), engaged in propaganda, worked in an illegal printing house, was arrested three times. In 1909 he spent 11 months in Butyrka prison, later calling this time the beginning of poetry. On November 17, 1912, he performed for the first time with a public reading of poetry in the Petersburg cafe-cabaret "Stray Dog". The first publication of the poems took place in 1912, in the futuristic collection "A Slap in the Face to Public Taste". Between 1912 and 1913, about 30 poems were published. In December 1913, the tragedy "Vladimir Mayakovsky" was staged at the Luna Park in St. Petersburg, where he acted as a director and performer of the main role. In 1913 his first film work took place - the script for the film "Pursuit of Glory". In 1912 - 1913 in Petersburg he met Blok and V. Khlebnikov, in 1914 - with Gorky Maxim, in 1915 - with I.E. Repin, with K.I. Chukovsky. From 1915 to March 1919 he lived in Petrograd. From October 1915 to October 1917 passed military service as a draftsman in the Petrograd Automobile School. After the October Revolution he worked in the People's Commissariat of Education. In November 1918, in the hall of the Musical Drama Theater (now the Great Hall of the Conservatory), Mayakovsky's play "Mystery-Buff" was staged (directors V.E. Meyerhold and Mayakovsky, artist K. S. Malevich) In 1919 the first collected works "Everything composed by Vladimir Mayakovsky" was published.
In March 1919 he moved to Moscow, where he worked in the "Okny ROSTA" (Russian Telegraph Agency) - draws posters with poetic texts of an agitation nature (about 1100 "windows" were created in 3 years), is engaged in industrial and book graphics. He made many trips to the USA (within 3 months in 1925), Germany, France, Cuba. Mayakovsky headed the literary group LEF (Left Front of the Arts), and later - REF (Revolutionary Front of the Arts); in 1923 - 1925 he edited the magazine "LEF", and in 1927 - 1928 - "New LEF". Having come to the conclusion that closed groups hinder the normal creative communication of Soviet writers, in February 1930 he joined the RAPP (Russian Association of Proletarian Writers), which caused condemnation from his friends. Alienation and social harassment were aggravated by personal drama: he was stubbornly refused to travel abroad, where a meeting with the woman with whom the poet intended to connect his life was to take place. Since April 1926, Mayakovsky lived mainly in Moscow, in Gendrikov Lane (since 1935 - Mayakovsky Lane; since 1937, the Mayakovsky Library-Museum has been located in the house), 15/13, together with the Brik spouses. A.V. Lunacharsky, V.E. Meyerhold, S.M. Eisenstein, M.E. Koltsov, I.E. Babel, V.B. Shklovsky. April 14, 1930 Vladimir Mayakovsky died, committing suicide. Buried in Moscow, at the Novodevichy cemetery.
During a trip to the United States, Mayakovsky became involved with the American Ellie Jones, from whom he left a daughter, Patricia, who became a famous feminist, an expert in philosophy, sociology and family economics, the author of 15 books (including the book "Mayakovsky in Manhattan" (Mayakovsky in Manhattan) and a teacher at Lehman College in New York.Ph.D Patricia Thompson, who claims that she inherited a rebellious character from her father, considers herself “Mayakovsky in a skirt.” Since the 1990s, he periodically comes to Russia.
According to the All-Union Book Chamber, as of January 1, 1973, the total circulation of V. Mayakovsky's books was 74 million 525 thousand; his works have been translated into 56 languages ​​of the peoples of the USSR and into 42 foreign languages.
Works by Mayakovsky-artist: portrait sketches, sketches of popular prints, theatrical works, posters, book graphics.
Film work: scripts for the films "The Pursuit of Glory" (1913), "The Young Lady and the Hooligan" (based on the work "Teacher of the Workers" by E. D'Amicis, 1918, starred), "Born Not for Money" (after "Martin Eden" J. London, 1918, starred), "Chained by the film" (1918, starred in the title role), "To the front" (1920, propaganda film), "Children" ("Three", 1928), "Dekabryukhov and Oktyabryukhov "(1928)," The Elephant and the Match "(1926 - 1927, was not staged)," Heart of Cinema "(1926 - 1927, was not staged)," Lyubov Shkapolyubova "(1926 - 1927, was not staged)," How are you doing? " (1926 - 1927, was not staged), "The Story of a Nagant" (1926 - 1927, was not staged), "Comrade Kopytko" (1926 - 1927, was not staged; some moments were used in the play "Bath"), " Forget about the fireplace "(1926 - 1927, was not staged; the script was reworked into the comedy" The Bedbug ").
Literary works: poems, poems, feuilletons, publicistic articles, plays: "Vladimir Mayakovsky" (1913, tragedy), "Civilian shrapnel" (November 1914, article), "War has been declared" (July 1914), "Mom and the evening killed by the Germans" (November 1914), "A Cloud in Pants" (1915 lyric poem), "Spine Flute" (1916, poem), "War and Peace" (1916, separate edition - 1917, poem), "Man" (1916 - 1917, published - 1918, poem), "Mystery-Buff" (1918, 2nd version - 1921, play), "Left March" (1918), "Good attitude to horses" (1918), "150,000,000" (1919 - 1920, 1st edition without the name of the author, 1921, poem), "Sitting Down" (1922), "I Love" (1922), "About This" (1923), "Vladimir Ilyich Lenin" (1924, poem), "Paris "(1924 - 1925, a cycle of poems)," Poems about America "(1925 - 1926, a cycle of poems)," To Comrade Netta, a ship and a man "(1926)," Sergei Yesenin "(1926)," Good! " (1927, poem), "Letter to Tatyana Yakovleva" (1928), "Pompadour" (1928), "Bedbug" (1928, staged in 1929, play), "Conversation with Comrade Lenin" (1929), "Poems about the Soviet passport "(1929)," Bathhouse "(1929, staged in 1930, play)," With the Whole Voice "(1930, poem), poems for children," I myself "(autobiographical story).
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Sources of information:
Encyclopedic resource www.rubricon.com (Great Soviet Encyclopedia, Encyclopedic Reference "St. Petersburg", Encyclopedia "Moscow", Encyclopedia of Russian-American Relations, Encyclopedic Dictionary "Cinema")
The project "Russia congratulates!" - www.prazdniki.ru

(Source: "Aphorisms from all over the world. Encyclopedia of wisdom." Www.foxdesign.ru)

Consolidated encyclopedia of aphorisms... Academician. 2011.

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Russian poet. In pre-revolutionary creativity, the poet's forced confession, which is forced to shout, perceives reality as an apocalypse (tragedy "Vladimir Mayakovsky", 1913, poems "A Cloud in Pants", 1915, "Spine Flute", 1916, "War and Peace", 1917). After 1917 - the creation of a myth about the socialist world order (play "Mystery Buff", 1918, poems "150,000,000", 1921, "Vladimir Ilyich Lenin", 1924, "Good!", 1927) and a tragically growing feeling of its depravity (from verse. "Lost Sitting", 1922, before the play "Bath", 1929). In the poem "With the Whole Voice" (1930), the assertion of the sincerity of his path and the hope to be understood in the "communist distance". A reformer of the poetic language, he had a great influence on the poetry of the 20th century. Committed suicide.

Biography

Vladimir Vladimirovich (1893-1930), poet.

Born on July 7 (19 NS) in the village of Baghdadi, near Kutaisi, in the family of a forester, a man of progressive views, humane and generous. Studied at the Kutaisi gymnasium (1902 - 06). It was then that I read revolutionary poems and proclamations for the first time. "Poems and revolution somehow united in the head," the poet later wrote.

In a stormy 1905, a twelve-year-old high school student took part in demonstrations and a high school strike.

In 1906, after the sudden death of his father, the family moved to Moscow, where Mayakovsky continued his education. However, he soon took up serious revolutionary work, was arrested three times (in 1909 he was imprisoned in Butyrka prison). Released from prison as a minor in 1910, he decided to devote himself to art, entered the studio of the artist P. Kelin to prepare for exams at the School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture, where he began to study in 1911. Here he met D. Burdyuk, the organizer of a group of Russians futurists. From 1912 he began to publish his poems, becoming a professional poet. Published in futuristic almanacs. For participation in public speaking he was expelled from the school in 1914.

In the same year, he travels with a group of futurists to seventeen cities in RUSSIA, promoting new art among the masses. However, in his work, Mayakovsky was already independent and original in these years. In 1915 he created his best pre-revolutionary poem "A Cloud in Pants" about the belief in the inevitability of an imminent revolution, which he expected as a solution to the country's most important problems and the determination of his personal destiny. The poet even tries to predict the timing of her arrival ("In the crown of thorns of revolutions // The sixteenth year is coming").

The poems of 1916 sound gloomy and desperate, making up a special cycle ("Tired", "Giveaway", "Darkness", "Russia", etc.).

Gorky invited Mayakovsky to collaborate in the Letopis magazine and the Novaya Zhizn newspaper, and helped in the publication of the second collection of poems, Simple as a Mooing. During these years, Mayakovsky created the poems "War and Peace" and "Man", which, as it were, presented an anti-war panorama.

He called the October Revolution "My Revolution" and was one of the first figures of culture and art who responded to the call of the Soviet government to cooperate with it; participated in the first meetings and gatherings of representatives of culture. At this time he published "Our March", "Ode to the Revolution", "Left March". The play "Mystery-Buff" was written and staged. During 1919 he worked on the poem "150,000 LLC".

In October 1919 he issued the first posters in the "Windows of ROSTA", which marked the beginning of his work as an artist and poet (until 1921).

In 1922 - 1924 he made his first trips abroad (Riga, Berlin, Paris, etc.), the impressions of which he will describe in essays and poetry.

In 1925 he set off on his longest journey - overseas: he visited Havana, Mexico City and for three months performed in various cities of the United States with the reading of poetry and reports. Later poems were written (collection "Spain. - Ocean. - Havana. - Mexico. - America".) And the essay "My discovery of America."

Trips around his native country were of great importance in the poet's life. In 1927 alone, he performed in 40 cities besides Moscow and Leningrad. In 1927, the poem "Good!"

Drama plays an important role in his work. Created the satirical plays "Bedbug" (1928), "Bath" (1929). In February, Mayakovsky joined the RAPP (Russian Association of Proletarian Writers), for which many of his literary associates broke off relations with him. On the same days, the exhibition "20 Years of Mayakovsky's Work" opened, which had no success due to the poet's deliberate isolation. His personal life also remained difficult and unsettled. The state of health and mood of Mayakovsky in the spring of 1930 deteriorated sharply.

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

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

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

Vladimir Mayakovsky as a child. Photo: rewizor.ru

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

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

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

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

David has the anger of the master who has overtaken his contemporaries; I have the pathos of a socialist who knows the inevitability of the collapse of old stuff. Russian futurism was born.

Vladimir Mayakovsky, an excerpt from the autobiography "I myself"

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

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

Poet-futurist Pyotr Neznamov

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Vladimir Mayakovsky. Photo: goteatr.com

Vladimir Mayakovsky and Lilya Brik. Photo: mayakovskij.ru

Vladimir Mayakovsky. Photo: piter.my

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

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

Actress Veronica Polonskaya

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

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

On the opening day, the guest room was overcrowded. However, as Bromberg recalled, none of the representatives of literary organizations came to the opening. And there were no official congratulations to the poet on the 20th anniversary of his work either.

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

Poetess Olga Berggolts

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

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

The vulgarity, without challenging it in life, challenged it in death. But lively, agitated Moscow, alien to petty literary disputes, stood in line to his grave, not organized in this queue by anyone, spontaneously, recognizing by itself the unusualness of this life and this death. And lively, agitated Moscow filled the streets on the way to the crematorium. And the lively, agitated Moscow did not believe his death. He still does not believe.

The fatal shot that Veronika Polonskaya heard, leaving the room on the Lubyanka, the poet's last affection, sounded on April 14, 1930 ...

The death of Mayakovsky at the thirty-seventh year of life caused many questions from his contemporaries. Why did the genius, beloved by the people and the Soviet regime, "the singer of the revolution" voluntarily passed away?

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

When Yesenin passed away three years earlier, Mayakovsky writes: “It is not difficult to die in this life.
Making life much more difficult. " With these lines, he gives a bitter assessment of the escape from reality by means of suicide. About his own death, he writes: "... this is not a way ... but I have no way out."

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

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

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

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

I
Since the time of Plutarch, the productivity of comparative biographies has been noticed. Indeed, the easiest way to explain is by comparing two persons, because "everything is cognized in comparison." It is most productive, however, to find couples who are in opposition to each other, and it is even better if they are contemporaries and people of the same culture. If we take Russian literature of the 20s of the last century, these are undoubtedly Mayakovsky and Bulgakov.

These are people of the same generation, of the same social origin, both were born in the provinces. Both lost their father early. Both are exceptionally talented. Both are sociable and beautiful - such people become the soul of society and plant their own culture of communication and thoughts around themselves. Both are, so to speak, "lyric satirists."

But one of them rejected Russian culture and built his life on its denial and even overthrowing, and the second considered it his life task to be its successor.

What's the bottom line? The answer to this question is very important, because here lies the answer not only to what happened to our civilization, but also to what will happen to us next.

II
Mayakovsky knew only one foreign language - Georgian. He spoke it well enough, but learned it as a child, that is, by itself. Paradoxical as it may seem, exceptional philological abilities can make it difficult to consciously learn languages. verbal forms are memorized "creatively". Ignorance of foreign words and grammar is replaced by their invention. Chekhov, Bunin and Gorky were completely incapable of languages, and this despite the fact that all three lived abroad for a long time.

It is believed that the Mayakovskys come from semi-mythical "Zaporozhye Cossacks", such references in nine cases out of ten are a lie. The so-called "Little Russian nobility" comes from the children of priests, shopkeepers, soldiers and the like, who were established in the order of lists in the nobility in spite of the real nobility of the Western Territory, that is, the Polish gentry. Having received the nobility at the beginning of the 19th century, all these people subsequently claimed that they were nobles in the 18th century and even in the 17th, but the documents were "lost." At the same time, the noble, in their opinion, ancestors were either invented or taken from among famous historical characters, often by the consonance of names.

The real facts are that Mayakovsky's father was born in the Caucasus and knew the Georgian language well, his mother was also born in the Caucasus and also spoke Georgian. Both the husband and wife also spoke Armenian. Representatives of the Caucasian community in Moscow considered the Mayakovskys to be a Georgian family. An admixture of Mayakovsky's eastern blood is also indicated by his appearance, not Russian, but rather Mediterranean, as well as early puberty, characteristic of Caucasians.

Mayakovsky was born in the village of Baghdadi, near the Turkish border, in the family of a forester. In 1901, he and his mother moved to Kutais, where he soon entered the local gymnasium. At one time, his father studied at this gymnasium (he did not finish) and his uncle, his father's elder brother. Uncle graduated from the Forestry Institute in St. Petersburg, it was he who made patronage to his brother in the forestry department.

Mayakovsky in the first grade of the Kutaisi gymnasium. Do not suffer - the third from the left sits in the first row.

This is Stalin's class just in case. The contingent is generally similar.

Mayakovsky and Stalin close-up. Both were desperate fighters.
Mayakovsky's father continued to live in Baghdadi, where in February 1906 he accidentally pricked himself with a pin and died. Ironically, he pricked himself with a pin, preparing papers for moving to a new service in Kutais, that is, to his family.

It is believed that due to the tragicomic death of his father, Mayakovsky went a little crazy, began to wash his hands ten times a day, grab the doorknobs with the sleeve of his jacket and go to visit with a soap dish.

In fact, Mayakovsky had a mania for cleanliness earlier. At the age of 9, he fell ill with typhoid fever, his mother explained to him that this was a consequence of poor hygiene, and little Volodya remembered the lesson for the rest of his life.

I remembered it because it corresponded to his psychotype. Mayakovsky was neat, he washed and darned his own linen, put things on the shelves, and wiped the shelves with a rag. The trouble is that in his youth, Mayakovsky was by the nature of his activity a hooligan and a playboy, moreover, in 1917, the sanitary service in Russia collapsed. Therefore, Vladimir Vladimirovich had to constantly be treated for venereal diseases. He did this in detail, observing quarantine precautions, which from the outside created a picture of compulsive behavior. If there was such a thing, then at the level of accentuation (that is, not a mental disorder, but personality traits).

I must say that the story with Mayakovsky's father is rather strange. He was supposed to be a fairly wealthy man. The death in the colony of an influential official (he was in charge of about 100,000 hectares of forest), whose activities are related to financial supervision, is always suspicious. Moreover, when it occurs before a new appointment and under very strange circumstances. Moreover, in conditions of rebellion and martial law.

It is not clear why, after the death of Vladimir Konstantinovich, his family had no means of subsistence left. It is even more incomprehensible why a family with minor children was allocated a mocking pension of 10 (!) Rubles a month and not paid a solid one-time benefit. And it is completely incomprehensible why the widow of Vladimir Konstantinovich hastily sold all the property and left for Moscow, where she had no connections or relatives (not counting her daughter, a poor student), and where she never lived. But in the Caucasus, she and her deceased husband had a lot of relatives and friends.

Vladimir Konstantinovich could have been killed and robbed - foresters, especially foreigners, aroused hatred among the population, and armed clashes with the Russian authorities began in Georgia. But this would generate double the help and sympathy of the administration.

We have to assume that Vladimir Konstantinovich committed a serious malfeasance and committed suicide. Out of compassion for the children, they did not initiate a case, and the voluntary departure from life was filed as an accident - in the conditions of the extremely negative attitude of Orthodoxy towards suicides, this was a common practice.

I am not claiming anything, but this topic should be investigated in detail. And she was not investigated at all.

(By the way, Vladimir Mayakovsky was a pathological gambler. Everybody played cards then, everybody for money and everything for a long time. There was little entertainment. But Mayakovsky stood out even against this background, and most importantly he had one very bad trait. He won back until he turned blue. the only thing that saved him was that he was a celebrity and played mostly with fans.)

The Mayakovskys arrived in Moscow in August 1906. Before that, they had never been to Russia. Volodya was sent to the 4th grade of the gymnasium. The Russians immediately christened him "Idiot Polyphemovich" (a surprisingly accurate nickname that delighted Bunin) and staged a boycott. In addition, the level of knowledge obtained in Kutais (that is, in the province of a province, and a colonial one) did not at all correspond to Moscow's requirements. Volodya studied for only two grades and was expelled from the "golden fifth grade". He did not reach the "physics of Kraevich".

It was, as Polya from the Mayakovskaya "Bath" says, "not funny." At a turning point in adolescence, Mayakovsky survived the death of his father, lost his familiar environment, was harassed by his peers and, finally (more on that below), he went to prison.

All his life he wrote with spelling errors, and did not know grammar at all. The commas and periods in his poems were placed by Osip Brik. Mayakovsky could write “recognize” instead of “recognizing”, and said “Lose”. About physics, chemistry, geography, he had the most distant ideas, his speeches at numerous meetings were a mixture of ignorance and the Soviet chancellery:

“First of all, what I insist on is that Shklovsky is a deeply learned man in the literary line. He is the founder of the formal school. It is generally accepted to think that the formal school is contrary to Marxism and that the formal school has embraced Lef entirely. The formal school does not contradict Marxism in the following respects. You know, comrades, that, for example, all chemistry is in its sources of origin, that all chemical processes are wholly dictated by social conditions. The transition, for example, to other dyes is dictated by the re-development of the textile industry. This means that chemistry must be viewed in relation to sociology. But within chemistry, there are special chemical compounds. You can talk about chemistry, taking the periodic table of elements. "

All this is a consequence of the secondary education not received in time. By his natural qualities, Mayakovsky was an intelligent person. He thought logically and rationally, easily navigated in unfamiliar surroundings, was witty. Due to these qualities, he made up a lot. But he never got a secondary education. Under normal conditions, this would create some inconvenience. In a cultural crisis, this became a disaster.

What Mayakovsky did not have, and what Bulgakov had. And the author of this picture - the wonderful children's artist Konstantin Kuznetsov.

Wikipedia knows ten Konstantin Kuznetsovs. But the Russians are not interested in knowing about one of them. And it is not necessary. (Let me remind you that missing articles are highlighted in red.)

But what the Russians really need to know. Khark-snot-chmyak. Mayakovsky thought he was drawing in ROST about 1918. And he drew about his 1908. (Clickable.)
Leaving for Moscow, the Mayakovskys counted on support from the elder brother of their father, Mikhail Konstantinovich. With his help, in St. Petersburg it was possible to procure an increase in pension from 10 to 50 rubles. It's still incredibly small. In Soviet times, the Mayakovskys could simply lie about this, but the circumstances of their life in Moscow testify to the constrained material circumstances. For example, they were forced to sublet part of their housing to poor students. And the children earned extra money by handicraft (burning wood, painting plates, etc.)

Mikhail Konstantinovich by this time lived in the Grodno province, where he continued to work in the forestry department. However, in September 1906 he died suddenly. Apparently from a pin prick - a bloody revolution was going on in the country with permanent armed uprisings.

According to Ukrainian custom, Mayakovsky used to call his mother "you" all his life, but he did not respect and did not take into account her opinion - according to Georgian custom. After the death of his father, he began to behave like the master of the family. Most interestingly, the mother found this behavior of the 12-year-old (!) Son acceptable.

At first, the Mayakovskys' acquaintances in Moscow consisted of Caucasians. Most of the Caucasians were their lodgers. They treated Volodya very well. The first tenant was a young Kutaisi resident Isidor Morchadze, he spoke to Mayakovsky in Georgian and generally considered him a Georgian - because of his appearance and because of the lack of an accent. Morchadze was a member of an international terrorist organization, an armed bandit, a Social Revolutionary militant. With a high degree of certainty, it can be assumed that he was also an agent of the security department. A good uncle gave Volodya wine to drink and told enticing stories about how in 1905 he was a member of the "Caucasian military squad" and Gorky's bodyguard, robbed banks and shot police officers. All this contrasted sharply with the boring and unfriendly fifth grammar school, where Boris Pasternak studied at that time and which Vladimir Solovyov had previously graduated from.

In the spring of 1906, Morchadze and his accomplices robbed the Moscow bank "Merchant Society of Mutual Credit". Soon he left for the western border to ensure the smuggling of weapons, and together he brought himself a second lodger - the Georgian Vasily Kandelaki, also the killer of the revolutionary. At this time, Mayakovsky made friends with student Ivan Karakhan (Karakhanyan), he decided to seriously engage in the education of Mayakovsky. He gave Masonic gibberish to read ("the correspondence between Engels and Kautsky"), told how to get away from surveillance:

"Here I am sitting in a horse-drawn car, I see that they are watching me, I quickly jump out through the front platform and, on the way, jump into another show jumping, into the third, and thus cover up my tracks; or, knowing the courtyards in Moscow, I quickly disappear through them ".

The puppy was trained, then they began to send to small matters - to get used to it. Dali drove. There was no longer any talk of studying at the gymnasium.

The boy is 14 years old. Height is 180 cm. The hat is also good. "Sick, gymnazist, yes."
The first time Mayakovsky was arrested in the spring of 1908 - in an illegal printing house in the area of ​​Bolshaya Gruzinskaya (which is symbolic). They kept him for a week and released him for early childhood. They were not released immediately, because during the arrest he said that he was 17 years old, and when examined by the police, the doctor specified: "physical development is 17-19 years old."

The second time Mayakovsky was arrested in January 1909 and kept in prison for over a month. It is noteworthy that in the arrest report it was written that Mayakovsky looked about 21 years old. The arrest was preventive - Mayakovsky was a syavka hanging around a gang of robbers. But they found a Browning with cartridges. And this translated the matter on a different plane.

Mayakovsky was rescued by his Caucasian connections. His father's friend stood up for him - the former deputy head of the Kresty prison Mahmud-Bekov, who was accidentally arrested in the Mayakovskys' apartment. He stated that the pistol was his, he had accidentally forgotten it during a previous visit. The pistol itself, de, was issued to him after an assassination attempt by the revolutionaries, when he quit his job as prison officers and went to work in the postal department. I forgot the Browning number.

Mayakovsky was released.

He sat down firmly for the third time - in July 1909. Paradoxically, this was the greatest success of his life. But more on that in the next post.

III
I will dwell on the oddities with age. And on the strangeness of the Mayakovsky family relations.

Mayakovsky at the age of 14 looked 17-19, had a height of about 180 cm and spoke in a bass. He considered himself the main one in the family and his mother obeyed him.

In total, five children were born in the Mayakovsky family:

Lyudmila - was born in 1884, Alexander - was born in 1886 and soon died, Konstantin - was born in 1888 and died in 1891 from scarlet fever, Olga - was born in 1890 and Vladimir - was born in 1893.

Vladimir looked like his father - a tall man who spoke in a bass. He looks like his sisters. But Mayakovsky is very distantly similar to his mother.

From left to right: sister Olga, mother Alexandra Alekseevna, sister Lyudmila. Both sisters are clearly similar to Vladimir Vladimirovich. As for the mother ...
Before Vladimir, two boys died in the family. And what if the third died, and the Mayakovskys adopted the illegitimate son of Vladimir Konstantinovich from a Georgian woman? Who was older by a year or two or three, and in addition, due to southern blood, developed faster?

On the left sits Mayakovsky's father, his older brother stands (Vladimir Vladimirovich looks more like him). On the right is Volodya's mother and older sister Lyudmila. It is believed that the baby is in the center of Volodya. But it could also be Kostya.

Volodya with his younger sister. It looks like this is Photoshop - compare the head of the child and his legs - and they are in the foreground.
Gorky's wife Andreev describes her acquaintance with Mayakovsky in 1914 this way.

“- Let's, - I suggest, - let's go to the forest to pick mushrooms.
- Yes, I have never been in the forest.
“Sorry, but I can't believe this. Are you twenty years old?
- Oh, - he says, - I have much more.
He never said how old he was.
- Well, let's go!
- I don’t know mushrooms, I have never picked them.
- Well, let's figure it out. If you see a mushroom, you come to me. Show me, and I'll tell you what it is, a toadstool, or russula, or some other mushroom.
Let's go. We walked through the woods for an hour or an hour and a half. And suddenly all this husk peeled off him. He began to tell how little he was, how he lived in the Caucasus. He said that his mother was sort of like a laundress, then I found out that his mother was a teacher. I don’t know why he said this: it’s not that he wanted to laugh at me, not something else. It is difficult to understand such people at once.
Then he began to tell me about his poems, read them aloud, and not at all the same as I read. I remember one thing I really liked, it started like this:

Listen!
After all, if the stars are lit -
does it mean - somebody needs it? .. "

According to the circumstances of the conversation, it is clear that Mayakovsky behaved sincerely, and he had no need to lie about his mother. And such hoaxes were not in his nature.

In 1916 Mayakovsky wrote the poem "Man". Already by the name it is clear that this is a futuristic abstraction. Nevertheless, the pedantic author is extremely accurate in describing the father met in the abstract afterlife:

Father is near.
Same.
Only the ear is more tight,
yes, look around
Little

on the elbow
uniform forester's frock coat.
Annoys.
Too
stared down.
What is the old idea clear?
Quietly says:
“In the Caucasus,
probably spring. "

White herd
well, and longing is it
drives!
Apache's anger flared up.
Daddy,
I'm bored!
I'm bored, dad!

Not long before that, in 1913, Mayakovsky wrote a kind of triptych: “A few words about myself”, “A few words about my mother” and “A few words about my wife” (the moon turns out to be my wife).

There is nothing in the poem about mom. Mom - no. Only

"I have a mother on cornflower blue wallpaper"

Next is a set of words. Mom is sick, maybe died, some symbols are associated with her. What kind of mom is on cornflower-blue wallpaper is not clear. This is some kind of photograph, or maybe just an icon of the Virgin Mary. There is no image of the mother in Mayakovsky's poems.

1905 year. In the center is Volodya, on the right is his mother. There is no particular similarity.

It is also interesting that "A few words about myself" begins with the infamous phrase:

"I love watching children die."

And it ends like this:

I'm lonely as the last eye
from a man going to the blind!

This poem can be interpreted in different ways, the meaning will always be elusive. And only in one case will the focusing become clear - BASTARD.

Then all the torments of Mayakovsky, and in general, all of his work (and his personal life) will be in a single row of the world literary tradition. And Mayakovsky was a very accurate, rational and direct person. "I sing everything that I see." He did not see his mother. And he saw himself very much in the role of a world outcast and a misunderstood loner. When you want to be sorry, but for what to be sorry, it is impossible to explain. Have pity, that's all. Like a little animal.

One of the fans asked Mayakovsky about the "dying children." Mayakovsky could have gone mad or joked. But he (after a long silence) answered simply and incomprehensibly:

- You need to know why it was written, when it was written and for whom it was written ...

Speaking about the origin of Mayakovsky, two lines were quoted in Soviet schools:

I am a Cossack grandfather
Others - a sechevik.

It is a little illogical, since the Secheviki are Cossacks, but it is clear that Mayakovsky is from Ukraine, Ukrainian. Three lines were quoted in higher education

I am a Cossack grandfather
Others - a sechevik.
And by birth Georgians.

This indicated that Mayakovsky was an internationalist. But very rarely the rich thought of the poet was quoted in full:

I am not one of the katsap-razin.
I am a Cossack grandfather
Others - a sechevik.
And by birth Georgians.

The main line here is the first. This is the nationality that the bastard Mayakovsky - NERUSSKY - has deliberately chosen for himself. Although in language, biography, and culture (though he rejected it), he is, of course, a Russian person. It was simply unprofitable for him to be a Russian since 1917, and even dangerous. And there were clues for straightening the papers. He straightened them, straightened them for 12 years, like he straightened everything.

And then he took it and shot himself. Following the gaping Yesenin.