Vladimir Mayakovsky "fought battles in the fields of poetry itself"

July 19, 2020 marks the 127th anniversary of the birth of Vladimir Mayakovsky, one of the greatest poets of the 20th century, who fully proved himself as a playwright, screenwriter, director, actor, artist, publicist and editor.

Electronic collection of the Presidential Library "Vladimir Mayakovsky (1893-1930)" contains digital copies of rare editions of the poet's works: the tragedy "Vladimir Mayakovsky", published in 1914, the play "Mystery-Buff", written for the anniversary of the October Revolution, and the collected works of the poet "All composed by Vladimir Mayakovsky... 1909-1919". The collection also includes the poet's satirical works. In addition, a major selection contains critical articles, abstracts of scientific works, obituaries on the death of Mayakovsky, portraits of the poet and images of monuments in his honor. Thus, the collection of the Presidential Library allows one to get an idea of ​​the multifaceted talent of Mayakovsky, whose personality does not fit into the generally accepted canonical framework.

The publication of the first poems by Vladimir Mayakovsky was noticed by the literary environment. Even his early lyrics are considered a distinctive and large-scale phenomenon in the art of the 20th century. The poems "Port", "Nate!", "Could you?", "A few words about myself" and others testified to a fundamentally new poetry. There was no one to compare with him, although at the same time there were Anna Akhmatova, Igor Severyanin, Maximilian Voloshin, Nikolai Gumilyov…

Unlike other fellow writers, Vladimir Mayakovsky from the very beginning actively expressed his civic position in the turbulent years of social change. “They say that here is Mayakovsky, a poet, so let him sit on his poetry bench... I’m not a poet, but first of all - who put his pen in the service of the present hour, real reality...”, - Victor Pertsov quotes the words of the writer in the book "Mayakovsky the Patriot" (1941), which is available on the Presidential Library's portal.

As a result, Mayakovsky became known not only as a poet, but also as the author of the first Soviet advertising posters produced by the Russian Telegraph Agency - ROSTA.

Mayakovsky's collaboration with the Russian Telegraph Agency resulted in the album “Terrible Laughter. ROSTA Posters" (1932), published on the 10th anniversary of the legendary" Windows ".

At the same time, books of poems and poems by Mayakovsky were released, and he declared himself either an "agitator, a throat-leader", or an amazingly subtle lyric poet.

The satirical cycle of poems by Vladimir Mayakovsky is closely related to the work in the field of social advertising "ROSTA Posters". The Presidential Library’s portal features an electronic copy of the rare edition "Mayakovsky Mocks" (1922), where the authors are V. Mayakovsky and L. Brik, who among the fantastic gifts (role in the film, "Renault", brought by her order from Paris, etc.) could also be the authorship conveyed by a broad gesture of a poet in love.

Mayakovsky's "creative universe" did not imply division into "low" and "high" genres, with the same obsession he tried himself in everything, invariably setting himself global social goals and leading his lyrical hero through all the vicissitudes of a deeply personal, through which a person inevitably passes...