Vladimir Vladimirovich Mayakovsky is a Soviet poet who achieved success and recognition. He was born in 1893 in the Caucasus. His works can be identified by the emotional nature of the poems and by the well-recognized “ladder” of text presentation, which later became his “calling card”.
In life he was energetic, did not keep his mouth shut, for which he was imprisoned, he was a scandalous person. Vladimir Mayakovsky made a huge contribution to the treasury of Russian culture. But who would have thought that Mayakovsky V.V. such a short line is allotted. He died when he was 36 years old. But why and how did Mayakovsky die?
From the poet's personal life
The mysterious death of Mayakovsky worried experts for a very long time.
His personal life did not please him. Everyone laughed at his desire to have a normal family, especially Lilya Brik, the beloved woman of his life. She said that if she gave birth to a child, he would never give birth to a single talented poem. And he increasingly began to talk about suicide as the only salvation.
Love and death
Trying to free himself from Lily's spell, he tried to start his life from scratch.
His last passion was Veronica Polonskaya, beautiful actress Moscow Art Theater. On April 14, 1930, they were supposed to have a date. He locked the doors and spoke for a long time about how she should divorce her husband and move in with him immediately. But Veronica (Nora) could not decide to leave Mikhail Yanshin, realizing that at any moment their romance could end. He walked out the door, she heard the sound of a shot, ran to her lover and saw blood on his body.
The shot was fired point-blank into the heart. A suicide note dated April 12 was also found.
Versions of Mayakovsky's death
What is the cause of Mayakovsky's death? The woman he loved, or the fact that he was afraid of old age, or his conflicts with poets, whom he no longer understood, just as they did him. He was a revolutionary, but the revolution was already over. There are several versions of the poet’s death, each with its own supporters and opponents.
Murder. Perhaps someone wanted him dead? Opponents of this version say that Vladimir Vladimirovich was preparing to die. After all, he left suicide note. But the fact that the note was written with a simple pencil, is alarming. Since, firstly, handwriting with a pencil can be forged more easily, as graphologists assure. In addition, as V.I. Skoryatin argued, Mayakovsky was sensitive to his fountain pen and, most likely, would have written his last letter with it. And S. Eisenstein notes that Mayakovsky did not write anything like this at all, and the note was the work of his killers. The version of murder is also supported by the fact that Mayakovsky had a broken nose, although he fell on his back. According to Nora, when he was found, Vladimir Vladimirovich was lying on his back with with open eyes and tried to tell her something, but didn’t have time. Another argument in favor of the fact that Mayakovsky would not kill himself: when he heard the news of Sergei Yesenin’s suicide, he severely condemned him, calling such an act cowardice. As a rule, the Soviet secret services are accused of killing the poet.
Accident. The most unpopular version says that the poet died as a result of a sad coincidence. The fact is that Mayakovsky several times tried extreme sports with one bullet in a seven-shot pistol. And could it be that this time his luck refused him in the game “Russian roulette”?
Suicide. Today this is the official version. Most researchers adhere to it. And according to the memoirs of Liliya Brik, Mayakovsky more than once tried to commit suicide. It is also noted that the poet had sudden mood swings. He was overwhelmed with emotions of joy when he had success, and failures led him into deep depression.
The true cause of the poet's death still remains a subject of heated debate.
85 years ago, on April 14, 1930, MAYAKOVSKY shot himself on Lubyansky Proezd in Moscow. This was the official version: the poet himself brought the gun to his chest, exhausted by problems with women, creative failures and syphilis (the obituary said: “swift disease,” although tests were later done and the disease was not confirmed).
“Many classified documents and annoying unanswered questions suggest: the real truth was distorted and hidden. Outstanding work done by a Russian researcher Valentin Skoryatin, makes us look at the version of Mayakovsky’s suicide in a new way,”- spoke at a conference on Mayakovsky American professor Albert Todd.
The more materials Skoryatin found about the poet’s death, the more inconsistencies and oddities he noticed.
Several people testified that Mayakovsky did not intend to consider April 14 the last day of his life. On April 10 or 12, the poet promised that he would help make May Day slogans for the Central Committee, but asked to postpone the work for several days due to the flu.
A little earlier, on April 4, he contributed money to the housing cooperative RZhSKT named after. Krasina. And he asked his friends to help him rent a house before the fall, while the house was being built. Life with three Bricks weighed heavily on Mayakovsky, he wanted to have a normal family, he proposed Veronica Polonskaya.
After the poet's death, the Briks moved to a new apartment.
Lilya did not hide from her Puppy that she had become a mistress Agranova, head of the Secret Department of the OGPU. The bloody investigator, who was called the executioner of the Russian intelligentsia and who personally authorized the execution Gumilyov, Agranov was not at all jealous of his predecessor. I even gave him a revolver. Mayakovsky was left-handed, but for some reason he took the pistol in his right hand, which was uncomfortable for him, before firing... Years later, while studying the investigation report, Skoryatin noticed that the weapon had been replaced. Instead of Mauser No. 312045, recorded in the protocol, Browning No. 268979 was discovered.
Mayakovsky’s suicide letter also left many questions. Why did the poet write it with a pencil and not with a pen? It is known that Mayakovsky was terribly disgusted and would not give his pen to a stranger. In addition, it is almost impossible to forge handwriting with a fountain pen, but a professional from Agranov’s department made a pencil forgery without difficulty.
And the contents of the letter look strange. How could it happen that Mayakovsky, who was very decent towards his close people, when determining his heirs, placed his mother and sister after Lily? The right to inheritance was secured by the Decree of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee and the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR: 1/2 part - to Lilya, 1/6 - to the mother and sisters. V. Polonskaya, in violation of the will of the poet - nothing. Interestingly, Agranov immediately took the original letter. When dividing the inheritance, government members were guided not by the original, but by newspaper reprints.
Agranov rushed like a bullet into Mayakovsky’s room and immediately took the investigation into his own hands. Perhaps it was with his help that the investigation “did not notice” the testimony of the people who ran into the room immediately after the fatal shot. They claimed that the poet fell with his feet towards the door. Those who came later saw the body in a different position, with its head towards the door. Someone changed the position of the body so that there would be no thought that the poet had been shot.
While studying the death mask, researchers noticed that the poet had a broken nose. It looks like Mayakovsky fell face down, and not on his back, as happens when a person shoots himself.
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APOSTLE OR JUDAS
Michael Bulgakov, who knew Mayakovsky well, did not believe the official version of suicide. Marina Cherkashina, a researcher of Bulgakov’s work, noted: “Bulgakov was so shocked that he resumed work on the novel he had abandoned about the prince of darkness. A drama of truly biblical proportions played out before his eyes.” Caesar in this drama - Marx and his “omnipotent teaching”, procurator Pilate (Caesar’s governor in the USSR) - comrade Stalin, head of the secret service of Yershalaim Afraniy - head of the Special Department of the OGPU Yakov Agranov(even the last name is consonant!) with Berry. “The preacher of Yeshua was the Master crucified on newspaper pages; finally, a ruddy money changer from Kiriath (who exchanged his soul for 30 coins) - a tall poet from Baghdadi, who exchanged his talent for party agitprop, writes Cherkashina. - It was necessary to have remarkable courage in order to reveal and show in the novel the secret mechanism of such murders in a country where a well-functioning machine of political murders - the OGPU-NKVD - operated. Bulgakov did this using the sad example of Mayakovsky.
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And no one was deceived by the biblical setting of the episode. Under the white cloak with bloody lining, under the togas of Afranius and his henchmen, the Chekist jackets with blue buttonholes are clearly visible.”
Bulgakov persistently emphasized: the biblical events of the novel took place on the 14th of the spring month of Nisan. A direct reference to the date of the poet’s death, April 14, 1930. On the 14th, the head of the secret service of Yershalaim, Afranius, talks with the procurator of Judea Pilate. On the same day, Judas dies, having been stabbed in the heart. They dealt with Mayakovsky without a knife. He was shot.
In the novel, Pilate raises a glass of wine red as blood - Caecuba. The name of this brand is very consonant with the familiar abbreviation of the Central Committee (b) - Bolsheviks. And here is Pilate’s toast addressed to Caesar: “For you, Caesar, father of the Romans, dearest and best of people!” In Bulgakov’s times, only one single person was called the dearest and best of people.
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From the novel “The Master and Margarita”:
- Yes, Afranius, this is what suddenly occurred to me: did he commit suicide?
“Oh no, procurator,” Afranius answered, even leaning back in surprise in his chair, “forgive me, but this is absolutely incredible!”
- Ah, in this city everything is possible! I'm willing to bet that through the most a short time rumors about this will spread throughout the city.
Rumors that someone had helped suicide actually spread throughout Moscow that same day.
But isn’t it too harsh to imagine a living suffering person, like Mayakovsky, in the image of a biblical traitor? Why, in the eyes of Bulgakov, could the proletarian poet only be Judas?
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Ivan BUNIN:
- I think that Mayakovsky will remain in the history of literature of the Bolshevik years as the lowest, most cynical and harmful servant of Soviet cannibalism in terms of literary praise of him.
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REVOLT OF THE UNDERGRADUATE
Mikhail Bulgakov, the son of a professor at the Theological Academy, who came from a religious family, looked with a shudder at Mayakovsky’s fight against God. He could only be Judas in his eyes, exclaiming: “I would throw blasphemies into the sky.” In almost every verse, Mayakovsky voices obsessive thoughts about God, literally leading a personal rivalry with the Almighty, hoping to take his place in the hearts of people.
I, who praise the machine and England,
maybe just
In the most ordinary Gospel
thirteenth apostle
And when my voice
hoots obscenely -
from hour to hour,
the whole day,
May be,
Jesus Christ sniffs
my soul's forget-me-nots.
Back in 1916 - 1917, he wrote the poem “Man,” where he builds the life of the lyrical hero (whose name, without false modesty, is Vladimir Mayakovsky) according to the gospel canon. Speaking about the birth of Mayakovsky, the poet plays on the plot of the Nativity of Christ. The next chapters are “The Passion of Mayakovsky”, “The Ascension of Mayakovsky”, “The Return of Mayakovsky”, “Mayakovsky for the Ages”.
“How come
I can’t sing myself,
if all of me -
completely unheard of,
if every movement is mine -
huge,
an inexplicable miracle."
THEY DIDN'T ACTUALLY ACCUMULATE A RUBLE FOR ME
Marina Cherkashina notes: “In the eyes of Bulgakov, Mayakovsky could only be Judas, because he betrayed his “attacking class”, becoming the new proletarian bourgeois: trips abroad, large fees, foreign currency gifts to his mistress - all this had little to do with the image of the fiery “agitator, loud-mouthed leader.”
“Damn you! - the poet shouts to everyone who is well-fed in the 22nd year of hunger. - Let it be so that every swallowed sip burns your stomach! Let the scissors wrap around a juicy steak, tearing open the walls of the intestines!” "All-Russian Headman" Kalinin Having visited the southern regions, he witnessed facts of cannibalism. And Mayakovsky, traveling around Berlin, orders huge portions in the most expensive restaurants. In Paris he goes to an expensive studio for Place Vendôme to have the shirts sewn by a dressmaker.
At Lilina's request, he brings a Ford from abroad to Moscow. latest issue on reinforced balloon tires. The Soviet gentleman wore silk underwear and rested in best houses rest, rented dachas, hired housekeepers.
“Mayakovsky’s statements to the tax office allow us to create an idea of his income. His usual income for six months was about 6 thousand rubles, that is, 12 thousand a year. Let's compare this amount with the worker's annual earnings, which was approximately 900 rubles. Mayakovsky earned almost 13 times more,” writes Swedish literary critic Bengt Youngfeldt.
IN THE COMPANY OF GEPESHNIKS
Once on the door of the apartment where Mayakovsky and Briki lived, an epigram appeared, the authorship of which was attributed to Yesenin: “Do you think Brick, the language researcher, lives here? / Cheka’s spy and investigator lives here.” Osip Brik was officially recruited by the Cheka. Soon, Lily also received a GPU employee ID number 5073. A specific audience gathers in their apartment: NKVD officers, Soviet bankers and government officials.
Parsnip later he would call this house “the Moscow police station.” Later he admitted that it was scary to hear Lilya say: “Wait, we’ll have dinner soon, as soon as Osya comes from the Cheka.”
Mayakovsky looked after women with carelessness, as if considering them to be creatures of a lower order. He could easily describe the girl as a “tasty piece of meat” and loved to talk about his adventures. According to Burliuk, Mayakovsky was “little picky” in his passion. He was content with “the love of bourgeois women who cheated on their husbands at their dachas - in hammocks, on swing benches, or the early unbridled passion of female students.” At the same time, he wrote about “the scum clinging to every double bed.”
1. Vera Shekhtel. Mayakovsky evoked disgust and horror among the parents of the girls he knew. When the poet started dating Vera Shekhtel, the daughter of a prominent architect, her father took all measures to end the relationship. But in vain. Vera became pregnant and was sent abroad to have an abortion.
Then she married someone else. In 1932, her son Vadim Tonkov was born. The older generation remembers him in the image of the comic Veronika Mavrikievna.
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2. Lilya Brik. From a young age Lile Kagan was characterized by heightened sexual curiosity. At the age of 17, she became pregnant by her music teacher. Lilya was delivered from pregnancy by a doctor she knew at the “dirty bedbug infestation” hospital in Armavir.
Having married Osip Brik Lilya didn’t even think about hiding her adventures from him. The affair with Mayakovsky, whom she called Shchenik, smoothly turned into strange life three of us.
Andrey Voznesensky will later be shocked by Lily's confession: “I loved making love with Osya. We then locked Volodya in the kitchen. He was eager, wanted to come to us, scratched at the door and cried...”
When Lilya left for Riga, Osip and Mayakovsky had the same topic of conversation: “the only person in the world is a kitty.” “I am still your puppy,” Mayakovsky writes to Lila, “I live only thinking about you, I wait for you and adore you. Every morning I come to Osya and say: “It’s boring, brother Kiss, without Liska,” and Oska says: “It’s boring, brother Puppy, without Kisa.”
One day Lilya told Mayakovsky that she loved Osip. This is what happened next, according to the biographer Bengt Youngfeldt: “Mayakovsky sobbed, almost screamed and threw himself onto the sofa as fast as he could. His huge body lay on the floor, and he buried his face in the pillows and clasped his head in his hands. He was sobbing. Lilya bent over him in confusion. - Volodya, come on, don’t cry. You are tired of such poems. - Osya ran to the kitchen for water. He sat down on the sofa and tried to lift Volodin’s head. Volodya raised his face, stained with tears, and pressed himself to Aspen’s knees. Through the sobbing howl he shouted: “Lily doesn’t love me!” - he broke free, jumped out and ran into the kitchen. He moaned and cried there so loudly that Lilya and Osya hid in the bedroom.”
4. Ellie Jones. When Mayakovsky came to America, he, not knowing English, took a note from his pocket when meeting people. He read aloud her apology for not shaking hands. (Mayakovsky was very afraid of infections, even door handles opened through a jacket pocket or with a napkin.) I volunteered to be his translator Ellie Jones, an emigrant who fled Russia after the revolution. In June 1926, Ellie gave birth to a daughter from Mayakovsky. Together with the girl, she came to Nice in 1928 - this was the first and last meeting father and daughter.
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5. Tatyana Yakovleva. Lilya Brik was calm about the amorous adventures of Puppy, but Ellie Jones caused her terrible fear. The poet did not hide the fact that he fell in love. This jeopardized the Briks’ financial situation, which Mayakovsky ensured. To eliminate her rival, Lilya asked her sister Elsa, who lived in Paris, to introduce the poet to someone else. Elsa brought Mayakovsky together with Tatiana Yakovleva. And again fatal passion! The poet fell in love so much that when he left, he left a lot of money in a flower shop so that Tatiana would be brought an armful of roses every Sunday.
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6. Veronica Polonskaya. Fearing that the amorous Shchen will marry Yakovleva and leave the influence of the Briks, they introduce him to the actress Veronica Polonskaya. Polonskaya was married, but all of Moscow, including her husband, knew about her affair with Mayakovsky. On the eve of the poet’s death, the actress promised that she would move in with him. Maybe this is what infuriated Lilya, who was given strength and omnipotence by her adultery with Agranov?
No one will now answer what happened in the poet’s “boat room” at the time of his death. Yuri Olesha said that Polonskaya, who was there, ran out shouting: “Save me!” And only then a shot rang out.
Polonskaya did not come to the funeral: Mayakovsky’s mother and sisters considered her guilty of the poet’s death. But Lilya accepted Mayakovsky’s death without tragedy. After the funeral, the Briks drank tea, joked, and chatted about everything in the world.
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V.V. Mayakovsky
At one of the concerts, a short man jumped up to Vladimir Mayakovsky and shouted: “From the great to the ridiculous - one step!” Mayakovsky stepped towards him: “So I’m doing it.”
But the brilliant Poet took not only a step from the great to the ridiculous. He crossed the border of life and death. Voluntary or not - this is still actively debated by researchers of the life and work of V. V. Mayakovsky.
His death caused a public outcry and came as a surprise to his enemies, friends and family. This happened in Moscow on April 14, 1930 at 10:17 am. Vladimir Mayakovsky committed suicide by shooting himself point-blank in the heart.
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, 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 Veronika 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's no need for a list
mutual pain,
troubles
and resentment.
Happy stay.
Vladimir M, and I am k o v s k i y.
12/IV -30
Take a close look at the date of writing - April 12 (Mayakovsky died, let me remind you, on the 14th). Does this mean that the Poet was already preparing to “suicide himself” a few days before his death?
On your own or not on your own? - that is the question.
There are many mysteries in Mayakovsky’s death. Most controversial issue: did it happen? itself murder?
Here the opinions of researchers diverge in exactly opposite directions. Some claim that the Poet was killed. The main evidence, they believe, is the criminal case opened regarding the death of Mayakovsky.
V.I. Skoryatin stated most confidently about intentional murder. He conducted independent investigations and came to the conclusion that there was an unnamed killer.
Film director S. Eisenstein also spoke out on this matter: “He had to be removed. And he was removed."
However, experts officially revealed the “indisputable” fact of suicide. The word undeniable is in quotation marks here, because this issue there are still heated debates.
Disagreements among scientists regarding the authenticity of the note (suicide letter) add even more fuel to the “discussion fire.” Skoryatin bases his doubts on the following: first of all, the note was written in pencil, “although the poet was very sensitive to his fountain pen and always used only it.” And with a pencil it’s easy to imitate someone else’s handwriting.
The same S. Eisenstein notes that Mayakovsky did not write anything like that.
Repeated autopsy of the body. Why and what did it show?
Already on the evening of April 14, specialists performed an autopsy on the body and removed Mayakovsky’s brain. Personally, I find this disgusting and unethical, despite the “good” scientific goals.
It is only worth noting that the brain did not have any significant deviations from the norm.
“...suddenly unceremoniously loud knocks began to be heard from his room: it seemed that only a tree could be cut down like that. This was an opening of the skull. There was Mayakovsky’s brain in the basin...” - V.P. Kataev, even thirty years later, could not forget this story.
On April 17, a second autopsy was performed on the body. This was due to rumors about Mayakovsky’s illness (as if he was suffering from syphilis). However, the results of the examination refuted all sorts of gossip.
Was V. Mayakovsky's will violated?
By the way, about gossip. The request of the deceased, noted in the very first lines (which indicates its significance), was not fulfilled: “... please do not gossip. The deceased didn’t like this terribly.”
But rumors spread throughout Moscow faster than news reports, and the death of the Poet became known even before the official “publication” (not without far-fetched details, however).
From the intelligence report:
“The news of Mayakovsky’s suicide made a very strong impression on the public...
Conversations, gossip.
Newspaper reports about suicide, a romantic background, and an intriguing posthumous letter aroused, for the most part, morbid curiosity among the philistine.”
Strange...Have you noticed that often the wills of great people are not only not fulfilled, but distorted or completely ignored?
“God thinks: wait, Vladimir!” Did the poet foreshadow his death?
Vladimir Mayakovsky, like many geniuses of this world, predicted his own death. They talk about this, no - this is proclaimed by the lines of his poems:
“More and more often I think whether it would be better to put a bullet point at my end”
“Anyway, I know I’ll die soon!”("Spine Flute")
“And the heart is longing for a shot, and the throat is raving with a razor”
“Loop the ray around your neck”("Human")
“You just have to stretch out your hand and the bullet will instantly draw a thundering path to the afterlife.”("About it")
“Well, come out.
Nothing.
I'll strengthen myself.
See how calm he is!
Like the pulse
Dead man."("A cloud in pants")
Not only in his works, but also in his speeches, the Poet more than once mentioned the possibility of suicide.
Why did the great poet pass away?
The exact reasons for suicide are still unclear.
For example, A. Potapov writes about the influence personal anxiety The poet's fate.
He notes that Mayakovsky was characterized by sharp fluctuations in mood and impressionability. Success inspired him, failures made him depressed.
Internal tension, exaggerated fear of getting sick (associated with the death of Mayakovsky’s father), frequent mood changes, thirst for fame, failures in the love sphere - all this significantly influenced tragic outcome his life.
According to the memoirs of Lily Brik, Mayakovsky more than once tried to take his own life. On July 18, 1916, he made his first attempt to shoot himself, but the weapon misfired. The second case took place on October 11, 1917, which also turned out to be unsuccessful. These dates are noted in the Poet's diary in the following words: “Immediately, somehow there was absolutely nothing to live for.”
And only for the fateful third time, a ruthless piece of metal stopped the heartbeat of the great and unique Vladimir Vladimirovich Mayakovsky...
But understand: incomparable right
Choose your own death
In Ladimir, Mayakovsky did not immediately start writing poetry - at first he was going to become an artist and even studied painting. The poet's fame came to him after meeting avant-garde artists, when David Burliuk greeted the young author's first works with delight. Futurist group, “Today's Lubok”, “Left Front of the Arts”, advertising “Windows of GROWTH” - Vladimir Mayakovsky worked in many creative associations. He also wrote for newspapers, published a magazine, made films, created plays and staged performances based on them.
Vladimir Mayakovsky with his sister Lyudmila. Photo: vladimir-mayakovsky.ru
Vladimir Mayakovsky with his family. Photo: vladimir-mayakovsky.ru
Vladimir Mayakovsky in childhood. Photo: rewizor.ru
Vladimir Mayakovsky was born in Georgia in 1893. His father served as a forester in the village of Baghdadi, and later the family moved to Kutaisi. Here the future poet studied at the gymnasium and took drawing lessons: the only Kutaisi artist, Sergei Krasnukha, taught him for free. When the wave of the first Russian revolution reached Georgia, Mayakovsky - as a child - participated in rallies for the first time. His sister Lyudmila Mayakovskaya recalled: “The revolutionary struggle of the masses also influenced Volodya and Olya. The Caucasus experienced the revolution especially acutely. There everyone was involved in the struggle, and everyone was divided into those who participated in the revolution, those who definitely sympathized with it and those who were hostile.”.
In 1906, when Vladimir Mayakovsky was 13 years old, his father died from blood poisoning: he injured his finger with a needle while stitching papers. Until the end of his life, the poet was afraid of bacteria: he always carried soap with him, took a collapsible basin with him when traveling, carried cologne with him for rubbing and carefully monitored hygiene.
After the death of the father, the family found itself in a difficult situation. Mayakovsky recalled: “After my father’s funeral, we have 3 rubles. Instinctively, feverishly, we sold out of tables and chairs. We moved to Moscow. For what? There weren’t even any acquaintances”. In a Moscow gymnasium, the young poet wrote his first “incredibly revolutionary and equally ugly” poem and published it in an illegal school magazine. In 1909–1910, Mayakovsky was arrested several times: he joined the Bolshevik Party and worked in an underground printing house. At first, the young revolutionary was given “on bail” to his mother, and for the third time he was sent to prison. Mayakovsky later called confinement in solitary confinement “11 Butyrka months.” He wrote poetry, but the notebook with lyrical experiments - “stilted and tearful,” as the author assessed them - was taken away by the guards.
In conclusion, Mayakovsky read many books. He dreamed of a new art, a new aesthetics that would be radically different from the classical one. Mayakovsky decided to study painting - he changed several teachers and a year later he entered Moscow school painting, sculpture and architecture. Here the young artist met David Burliuk, and later Velimir Khlebnikov and Alexei Kruchenykh. Mayakovsky again wrote poetry, which his new comrades were delighted with. Avant-garde authors decided to unite against the “old aesthetics,” and soon a manifesto of a new creative group appeared - “A Slap in the Face of Public Taste.”
David has the anger of a master who has surpassed his contemporaries, I have the pathos of a socialist who knows the inevitability of the collapse of old things. Russian futurism was born.
Vladimir Mayakovsky, excerpt from his autobiography “I Myself”
Futurists spoke at meetings - read poems and lectures on new poetry. For public speaking, Vladimir Mayakovsky was expelled from the school. The famous Futurist tour took place in 1913–1914: creative Group She toured Russian cities with performances.
Burliuk traveled and promoted futurism. But he loved Mayakovsky, stood at the cradle of his poetry, knew his biography to the smallest detail, knew how to read his things - and therefore, through David Davidovich’s butads, Mayakovsky’s appearance appeared so material that one wanted to touch him with his hands.
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Upon arrival in the city, Burliuk first organized an exhibition of futuristic paintings and manuscripts, and in the evening gave a report.Futurist poet Pyotr Neznamov
Vladimir Mayakovsky, Vsevolod Meyerhold, Alexander Rodchenko and Dmitry Shostakovich at the rehearsal of the play “The Bedbug”. 1929. Photo: subscribe.ru
Vladimir Mayakovsky and Lilya Brik in the film “Chained by Film.” 1918. Photo: geometria.by
Vladimir Mayakovsky (third from left) and Vsevolod Meyerhold (second from left) at the rehearsal of the play “Bathhouse”. 1930. Photo: bse.sci-lib.com
Vladimir Mayakovsky was interested not only in poetry and painting. In 1913, he made his debut in the theater: he himself wrote the tragedy “Vladimir Mayakovsky”, he himself staged it on stage and acted main role. In the same year, the poet became interested in cinema - he began writing scripts, and a year later he starred for the first time in the film “Drama in the Futurist Cabaret No. 13” (the picture has not survived). During the First World War, Vladimir Mayakovsky was a member of the avant-garde association “Today's Lubok”. Its participants - Kazimir Malevich, David Burliuk, Ilya Mashkov and others - painted patriotic postcards for the front, inspired by traditional popular print. Simple colorful pictures were created for them and short poems were written in which they ridiculed the enemy.
In 1915, Mayakovsky met Osip and Lilya Brik. The poet later noted this event in his autobiography with the subtitle “the most joyful date.” Lilya Brik on long years became Mayakovsky's lover and muse, he dedicated poems and poems to her, and even after breaking up he continued to declare his love. In 1918, they starred together in the film Chained by Film - both in leading roles.
In November of the same year, the premiere of Mayakovsky’s play “Mystery Bouffe” took place. It was staged at the Musical Drama Theater by Vsevolod Meyerhold, and designed in the best traditions of the avant-garde by Kazimir Malevich. Meyerhold recalled working with the poet: “Mayakovsky was knowledgeable in very subtle theatrical, technological things that we, directors, know, which we usually study for a very long time in different schools, practically in the theater, etc. Mayakovsky always guessed every right and wrong stage decision, precisely as a director.”. The “revolutionary folk performance,” as translator Rita Wright called it, was staged several more times.
A year later, the intense era of “GROWTH Windows” began: artists and poets collected hot topics and produced propaganda posters - they are often called the first Soviet social advertising. The work was intense: both Mayakovsky and his colleagues more than once had to stay late or work at night in order to release the batch on time.
In 1922, Vladimir Mayakovsky headed literary group“Left Front of the Arts” (later the “left” in the name was replaced by “revolutionary”), and soon the magazine of the creative association of the same name. Its pages published prose and poetry, photographs by avant-garde photographers, bold architectural projects and news of “leftist” art.
In 1925, the poet finally broke up with Lilya Brik. He went on tour to France, then went to Spain, Cuba and the USA. There Mayakovsky met translator Ellie Jones, a short but whirlwind romance. In the fall, the poet returned to the USSR, and in America he soon had a daughter, Helen-Patricia. After returning from the USA, Vladimir Mayakovsky wrote the cycle “Poems about America” and worked on scripts for Soviet films.
Vladimir Mayakovsky. Photo: goteatr.com
Vladimir Mayakovsky and Lilya Brik. Photo: mayakovskij.ru
Vladimir Mayakovsky. Photo: piter.my
In 1928–1929 Mayakovsky wrote satirical plays"Bedbug" and "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 interested in all kinds of work. He threw himself into his work. Before the premiere of “Bath” he was completely exhausted. He spent all his time in the theater. Wrote poems and inscriptions for auditorium for the production of "Bath". I supervised their hanging myself. Then he joked that he was hired at the Meyerhold Theater not only as an author and director (he worked a lot with the actors on the text), but also as a painter and carpenter, since he painted and nailed down something himself. As a very rare author, he was so passionate and passionate about the performance that he participated in the smallest details of the production, which, of course, was not at all part of his authorial functions.
Actress Veronica Polonskaya
Both plays caused a stir. Some viewers and critics saw the works as a satire on bureaucracy, while others saw them as criticism of the Soviet system. “Bathhouse” was staged only a few times, and then it was banned until 1953.
Loyal attitude of the authorities to the “main thing” Soviet poet"was replaced by coolness. In 1930, he was not allowed to travel abroad for the first time. Official criticism began to fiercely attack the poet. He was reproached for satire in relation to phenomena that were supposedly defeated, for example, the same bureaucracy, and bureaucratic delays. Mayakovsky decided to hold an exhibition “20 years of work” and present the results of his many years of work. He himself selected newspaper articles and drawings, arranged books, and hung posters on the walls. The poet was helped by Lilya Brik, his new beloved actress Veronica Polonskaya and an employee of the State Literary Museum Artemy Bromberg.
On the opening day, the guest hall was packed. However, as Bromberg recalled, no representatives of literary organizations came to the opening. And there were no official congratulations to the poet on his twentieth anniversary of work either.
I will never forget how, in the House of Press, at Vladimir Vladimirovich’s exhibition “Twenty Years of Work,” which for some reason was almost boycotted by “big” writers, we, several people from Smena, literally stood around the stands for days, physically suffering because of how sad and stern face walked through the empty halls of the big, A tall man, with his hands behind his back, he walked back and forth, as if expecting someone very dear and becoming more and more convinced that this dear person would not come.
Poet Olga Berggolts
The lack of recognition was aggravated by personal drama. Vladimir Mayakovsky, in love with Polonskaya, demanded that she leave her husband, leave the theater and live with him in new apartment. As the actress recalled, the poet would create scenes, then calm down, then again begin to be jealous and demand an immediate solution. One of these explanations became fatal. After Polonskaya left, Mayakovsky committed suicide. In his suicide letter, he asked “comrade government” not to leave his family: “My family is Lilya Brik, mother, sisters and Veronica Vitoldovna Polonskaya. If you give them a tolerable life, thank you.”.
After Mayakovsky's death, the entire archive of the poet went to Brik. Lilya Brik tried to preserve the memory of his work, wanted to create a memorial room, but constantly ran into bureaucratic obstacles. The poet was almost never published. Then Brik wrote a letter to Joseph Stalin. In his resolution, Stalin called Mayakovsky “the best and most talented poet Soviet era" The resolution was published in Pravda, Mayakovsky’s works began to be published in huge editions, and streets and squares of the Soviet Union were named after him.
Vulgarity, without challenging it in life, challenged it in death. But living, excited Moscow, alien to petty literary disputes, stood in line at his coffin, without anyone organizing this line, spontaneously, by itself recognizing the unusualness of this life and this death. And lively, excited Moscow filled the streets on the way to the crematorium. And living, excited Moscow did not believe his death. He still doesn’t believe it.
This happened on April 14, 1930 in Moscow, in Lubyansky Proezd. A shot was fired in Vladimir Mayakovsky's workroom. The debate over whether the poet died voluntarily or was killed has not subsided to this day.
One of its participants, professor of the Department of Forensic Medicine of the Sechenov Moscow Medical Academy, Alexander Vasilyevich Maslov, talks about the masterly investigation of the experts.
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 last days V.V. Mayakovsky did not reveal any mental discord and nothing foreshadowed a catastrophe.”
In the afternoon the body was transported to the poet’s apartment on Gendrikov Lane. Was removed 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 the 22-year-old Moscow Art Theater actress Veronica Polonskaya. It is known that Mayakovsky asked her to become his wife. She was the last person to see 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. That means she couldn't shoot.
The version that Mayakovsky, not in a figurative, but in a literal sense, “lay down with his head on the gun”, put a bullet in his head, does not stand up to 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 he 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 wrapped in paper soaked in 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 in forensic medicine and criminology there are three of them: point-blank shot, close-up shot and long distance. 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, but 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:
"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 instantaneous release of blood from the wound, and the absence of vertical blood flows indicates that immediately after receiving the wound V.V. Mayakovsky was in horizontal position, lying on your 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 downwards right hand splattered with blood, or from a weapon 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, 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 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?
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 pistol model 1914.”
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 as a gift 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.”