Toggle menu
Toggle personal menu
Not logged in
Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits.

Vladimir Mayakovsky

From ProleWiki, the proletarian encyclopedia
More languages
Vladimir Mayakovsky

Владимир Маяковский
Born19 July 1893
Baghdati, Russian Empire
Died14 April 1930
Moscow, RSFSR, Soviet Union
Known forPoetry


Vladimir Vladimirovich Mayakovsky (19 July 1893 – 14 April 1930) was a Soviet poet. Stalin called him, "the best and most talented poet of the Soviet epoch." He wrote many poems criticizing petty-bourgeois individualism.[1]

Early life[edit | edit source]

Mayakovsky was born on 19 July 1893 in what is now Georgia. His father was a forester with progressive ideas. Mayakovsky was 12 years old when the 1905 revolution began. After his father died in 1906, he moved to Moscow with his mother and two sisters.[1]

Pre-revolutionary activism[edit | edit source]

Mayakovsky joined the RSDLP in 1908. He distributed illegal publications and helped revolutionaries escape prison. He was imprisoned three times between 1908 and 1910. During the First World War, he became friends with Maxim Gorky.[1]

Post-revolution[edit | edit source]

Mayakovsky worked for the Russian Telegraph Agency for up to 16 hours a day between 1919 and 1922.[1]

Literary work[edit | edit source]

In 1915, Mayakovsky published "A Cloud in Trousers," calling for revolution against the bourgeoisie and its religious and moral superstructure. He criticized imperialism in his 1916 poem "War and the World" and wrote "Left March" in 1918 in support of the Red Army during the Civil War.[1]

References[edit | edit source]

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 "Vladimir Mayakovsky's 130th birth anniversary" (2023-07-19). In Defense of Communism. [2023-07-19 Archived] from the original.