Mayakovsky V. Vladimir Ilyich Lenin. Poem.

Mayakovsky V. Vladimir Ilyich Lenin. Poem.
Moscow: Soviet literature, 1934, 104 p. Hardcover with pancake lettering, artistic dust jacket, encyclopedic format (23 x 30 cm). Good condition: the cover and binding are dirty, the dust jacket has minor losses, scuffs, creases, small tears; the owner's signature on the flyleaf; rare notes on the lines in red pencil.

[The leader of the revolution and its first poet were not personally acquainted. Mayakovsky only saw Lenin once, but they had quite a lot of mutual acquaintances. There is no doubt that if the life of the two knights of the revolution had not ended so early, they would have become close and friends - this was the logic of the development of the personality of the leader and the poet. To this day, Mayakovsky's opponents gloat that "Lenin did not like Mayakovsky", while Lenin's opponents claim that Ilyich was a retrograde and did not understand high art. Both of them thoroughly (and deliberately) confused the problem and made confusion in the ordinary (and not only) brains. Strictly speaking, this problem is far-fetched, but it is necessary to understand it.

Lenin's sharply negative review of the large-scale epic poem "150000000" (1919-1920) is known. Lenin, who, like most Russian intellectuals, was brought up on the poetry of Pushkin and Tyutchev, naturally could not immediately accept this extremely complicated in form, difficult to read work. This poem was best perceived in the author's performance. However, we can admit that this is really not the best thing of Mayakovsky and Lenin's assessment is fair. Lenin, with his peculiar humor, recommended that such works be published in small editions - "for cranks and libraries." Nevertheless, Ilyich put the poem published in a separate book with the poet's gift inscription on the shelf in his office. No repressive measures, of course, was not followed, and the famous poem "Prozasedavshiesya" caused a storm of delight of Lenin. This, in fact, is all that is known about the leader's attitude to Mayakovsky's poetry. It is possible that if the poet had given Ilyich "A cloud in his pants" or his anti-war poems and articles, the reaction would have been completely different.

Pushkinists must agree that "dear and beloved Alexander Sergeevich" did not always create only masterpieces. Only Dante and Shakespeare have masterpieces.

Lenin had a precious quality: not only to teach others, but also to learn himself. N. K. Krupskaya gave the highest rating to the "Windows of GROWTH", the main Creator of which was the poet and artist Mayakovsky. She recalled the warmth and tenderness with which Ilyich spoke about this work of Mayakovsky.

Mayakovsky called himself a poet "not of the Pushkin school, but of the Nekrasov school" and this is true. At the same time, his poems and poems of the second half of the 20s are clearly close to the Pushkin tradition. Close "power of voice", simplicity, but not the one that is "worse than theft", but the ingenious simplicity inherent in all the great poets of the world. It is he who is closest to Pushkin in his deepest essence, and these works of his are masterpieces.

One can regret that Lenin was not destined to know these works - he would have appreciated them like no one else.]