Vladimir Mayakovsky

Vladimir Mayakovsky was one of the most compelling Soviet literaries. He was born in 1893 in Bagdadi, Georgia, then a part of the Russian Empire, and moved to Moscow with his mother as a child. At the age of 15 he joined the Russian-Social Democratic Workers’ Party. Mayakovsky started writing poetry in 1909 while in solitary confinement for politically subversive activity. Upon release he was influenced by noteworthy Russian Futurists and began writing prolifically. Openly Communist, fervently political, and a driving force behind the Russian Futurist movement, his poems were prosaic, daring and meant to reach and incite a mass audience. El Lissitzky illustrated his 1923 book of poems, "For the Voice". He died April 14, 1930 and is remembered as the leading poet of the Russian Revolution and early Soviet period. Mayakovsky can be said to have influenced many artists, poets, and musicians. Tom Burr created an entire series of works thinking about Mayakovsky's poem, "Cloud in Trousers".

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Vladimir Mayakovsky is featured in Edition: Guest Editor, Tom Burr