Film UbuWebVladimir Mayakovsky (1893-1930)
Mayakovskiy smeyotsya AKA Mayakovsky Laughs (1976) dir. Sergei Yutkevich
Vladimir Vladimirovich Mayakovsky (July 19, 1893 – April 14, 1930) was among the foremost representatives for the poetic futurism of early twentieth-century Tsarist Russia and the Soviet Union. Mayakovsky was considered the leading poet of the Russian Revolution. He and his colleagues in the revolutionary and avant-garde artist movements promoted a "democratization of art." Like many artists seeking to make art more utilitarian, he willingly allowed himself to be used by the propaganda needs of the new regime. Unlike many artists who embraced the new regime early on only to become quickly disillusioned, Mayakovsky remained loyal to the Soviet regime until almost the end of his life. His attempts to create a new world ultimately ended in suicide, as the revolutionary art gave way to Stalinist retrenchment and socialist realism.