Vladimir Mayakovsky

Vladimir Mayakovsky was a poetic genius, a titan of the pen whose abrupt stylistic flourishes —

His poems looked like THIS! ——

sent shock waves through Russian literary circles. If there was a man for his time, then it was Mayakovsky, whose bold, sharp lines became symbolic of the Russian revolution, only for... Well, we're getting ahead of ourselves.

There was nothing Jewish about Mayakovsky (other than two very anti-antisemitic poems), except for the woman he loved. Well, one of the many women he loved, but THE woman he loved. Mayakovsky shtupped. Oh, did he ever shtup!

The line of mistresses is long, but regardless who he was with, none rivaled Lilya Brik, the Jewish muse he would always come back to. Well, not just to her. Mayakovsky lived with Lilya in a throuple with her husband Osip. This was not the chaste Soviet society that one would expect!

For two years, Brik kept rejecting Mayakovsky (apparently, he was too tall!), but eventually his persistence paid off. Osip played a role as well... No, he wasn't enamored with Mayakovsky romantically (as far as we know), but fell in love with his work. And Lilya loved Osip, so the trio lived in a very skewed love triangle, each with their own bedroom!

At the age of 36, Mayakovsky shot himself. His suicide note asked not to blame anyone... Lilya was blamed. (As with all Soviet suicides, there are multiple conspiracy theories that we will not delve into.)

The Briks divorced shortly after Mayakovsky's death. Osip died in 1945 and Lilya in 1978, at the age of 86, from... a suicide.

Love takes many forms!