Mayakovsky, Vladimir Vladimirovich 1894-1930
Russian poet and playwright

Born in Bagdadi (Mayakovsky), Georgia, he was involved in the Social Democratic movement during his youth, but when imprisoned for 11 months he renounced politics for art. Writing was his first love, however. He was an enthusiastic supporter of the 1917 Revolution, and both his play Misteriya-Buff (1918, Eng trans Mystery-Bouffe, 1968) and the long poem 150,000,000 (1919-20) are well-known works of the period. The advent of the new conservative leaders in 1921 led him to write Pro eto (1923, 'About This'), poems pre-Revolution in sentiment, and satirical plays like Klop (1929, Eng trans The Bedbug, 1960) and Banya (1930, Eng trans The Bath-House, 1968). Vladimir Ilyich Lenin (1924), Khorosho! (1927, 'Good!') and the unfinished Vo ves golos (1929-30, translated into Scots by Edwin Morgan, 1972), made him famous in the former USSR. Towards the end of his life he was severely castigated by more orthodox Soviet writers and critics for his outspoken criticism of the bureaucracy and his unconventional opinions on art, and he committed suicide.

Bibliography: E Brown, Mayakovsky: a poet in the revolution (1973)