| This picture was taken at the Moscow Subway station, Mayakovskaya (“Маяковская” in Russian). The station was named after Russian / Soviet poet, playwright, artist, and stage and film actor, Vladimir Mayakovsky. He was born in Baghdati, Russian Empire (now part of Georgia), and died in Moscow in 1930. Mayakovskaya was kicked out of school when he was 8 years old because is mother could not pay the tuition. His father died when he was 6 while living in Baghdati, and then his mother took the family to Moscow. His father was a Ukrainian Cossack and his mother Ukrainian. Mayakovskaya and his family spoke Russian at home, but he could speak Georgian with his friends at school. At 14, he started partaking in political demonstration and was jailed 3 time. He was almost deported from Georgia, but was not because of his young age.Mayakovskaya developed a passion for Marist literature. His first writing was published in 1912 at the young age of 19. In 1914 he was expelled from the Moscow Art School, which he had joined at 19, His writings, of the Russian Futurist persuasion, started to increase, and a large following developed just before the Russian Revolution. After the revolution, Vladimir’s writings became increasingly popular, and he became a leader in the Left Art Front.
Vladimir was one of the few trusted writers, and traveled to Latvia, Britain, France, Mexico, Cuba, and lectured in the United States. While in the United States, he fathered a daughter with Tatiana Yakovleva. He also traveled extensively within the Soviet Union.In 1930, Mayakovskaya, committed suicide by shooting himself, after seeing the direction that Stalin was taking the country. This is disputed by his daughter, Yelena Vladimirovna Mayakovskaya, a professor of Philosophy and Women’s Studies at Lehman College in New York City.The Mayakovskaya Metro Station was opened in 1938. In 1974 the Russian State Museum of Mayakovsky was opened in the center of Moscow in the building where he resided from 1919 to 1930. Both of these items speak to the importance of Vladimir in Russian literature. |
