Vladimir Mayakovsky facts for kids

Vladimir Mayakovsky
Vladimir Mayakovsky
	Mayakovsky in 1915
Born	Vladimir Vladimirovich Mayakovsky; 19 July [O.S. 7 July] 1893; Baghdati, Kutais Governorate, Russian Empire
Died	14 April 1930 (aged 36); Moscow, Soviet Union
Citizenship	Russian Empire, Soviet Union
Alma mater	Stroganov Moscow State University of Arts and Industry, Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture
Period	1912–1930
Literary movement	Russian Futurism

Vladimir Vladimirovich Mayakovsky; 19 July [O.S. 7 July] 1893 – 14 April 1930) was a Soviet poet, playwright, artist, and actor.

During his early, pre-Revolution period leading into 1917, Mayakovsky became renowned as a prominent figure of the Russian Futurist movement, being among the signers of the Futurist manifesto, A Slap in the Face of Public Taste (1913), and authoring poems such as A Cloud in Trousers (1915) and Backbone Flute (1916). Mayakovsky produced a large and diverse body of work during the course of his career: he wrote poems, wrote and directed plays, appeared in films, edited the art journal LEF, and created agitprop posters in support of the Communist Party during the Russian Civil War. Though Mayakovsky's work regularly demonstrated ideological and patriotic support for the ideology of the Communist Party and a strong admiration of Vladimir Lenin, Mayakovsky's relationship with the Soviet state was always complex and often tumultuous. Mayakovsky often found himself engaged in confrontation with the increasing involvement of the Soviet State in cultural censorship and the development of the State doctrine of Socialist realism. Works that contained criticism or satire of aspects of the Soviet system, such as the poem "Talking With the Taxman About Poetry" (1926), and the plays The Bedbug (1929) and The Bathhouse (1929), were met with scorn by the Soviet state and literary establishment.

In 1930 Mayakovsky committed suicide. Even after death his relationship with the Soviet state remained unsteady. Though Mayakovsky had previously been harshly criticized by Soviet governmental bodies like the Russian Association of Proletarian Writers (RAPP), Joseph Stalin posthumously declared Mayakovsky "the best and the most talented poet of our Soviet epoch."

Images for kids

The house where Mayakovsky was born
The Mayakovskys in Kutaisi
Mayakovsky in 1910
Mayakovsky (center) with the fellow Futurist group members
Photo c. 1914 (caption: "Futurist Vladimir Mayakovsky")
Mayakovsky at his 20 Years of Work exhibition, 1930
Mayakovsky's farewell letter
Mayakovsky (third from right) with friends including Lilya Brik, Eisenstein (third from left) and Boris Pasternak (second from left).
Lilya Brik and Vladimir Mayakovsky.
Image from Mayakovsky's Как делать стихи ("How to Make Poems").
Agitprop poster by Mayakovsky