Editing Vladimir Mayakovsky (section)

==Legacy==
After Mayakovsky's death the Association of the Proletarian Writers' leadership made sure the publications of the poet's work were cancelled and his very name stopped being mentioned in the Soviet press. In her 1935 letter to Joseph Stalin, Lilya Brik challenged her opponents, asking personally the Soviet leader for help. Stalin's resolution inscribed upon this message, read:<blockquote>Comrade [[Nikolai Yezhov|Yezhov]], please take charge of Brik's letter. Mayakovsky is the best and the most talented poet of our Soviet epoch. Indifference to his cultural heritage amounts to a crime. Brik's complaints are, in my opinion, justified...<ref>Katanyan, Vasily (1998) ''Memoirs''. p. 112</ref></blockquote>
[[File:Moscow, Triumfalnaya Square (30375273347).jpg|thumb|Monument to Vladimir Mayakovsky in Moscow ]]
The effect of this letter was startling. Mayakovsky was instantly hailed a Soviet classic, proving to be the only member of the artistic avant-garde of the early 20th century to enter the Soviet mainstream. His birthplace of Baghdati in Georgia was renamed Mayakovsky in his honour. In 1937 the Mayakovsky Museum (and library) were opened in Moscow.<ref name="v_m"/> Triumphal Square in Moscow became Mayakovsky Square.<ref name="max"/> In 1938 the [[Mayakovskaya (Moscow Metro)|Mayakovskaya Metro Station]] was opened to the public. [[Nikolay Aseyev]] received a [[State Stalin Prize|Stalin prize]] in 1941 for his poem "Mayakovsky Starts Here", which celebrated him as a poet of the revolution.<ref name="kirjasto"/> In 1974 the Russian State Museum of Mayakovsky opened in the center of Moscow in the building where Mayakovsky resided from 1919 to 1930.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.mayakovsky.info/museum.html |title=Museum |publisher=mayakovsky.info }}</ref>

As a result, for the Soviet readership Mayakovsky became just "the poet of the Revolution". His legacy has been censored, more intimate or controversial pieces ignored, lines taken out of contexts and turned into slogans (like the omnipresent "Lenin lived, Lenin lives, Lenin shall live forever"). The major rebel of his generation was turned into a symbol of the repressive state. The Stalin-sanctioned [[wiktionary:canon|canon]]ization dealt Mayakovsky a second death, according to Boris Pasternak, as the communist authorities "started to impose him forcibly, like [[Catherine the Great]] did with potatoes."<ref name="zaytsev_1">{{cite web | author = Zaytsev, S.| date =2012| url  = http://www.taday.ru/text/1597717.html|title = Mayakovsky's Second Death| publisher  = Tatyanin Den| access-date = 13 January 2015}}</ref>
In the late 1950s and early 1960s Mayakovsky's popularity in the Soviet Union started to rise again, with the new generation of writers recognizing him as a purveyor of artistic freedom and daring experimentation. "Mayakovsky's face is etched on the altar of the century," Pasternak wrote at that time.<ref name="haaretz"/> Young poets, drawn to avant-garde art and activism that often clashed with communist dogma, chose Mayakovsky's statue in Moscow for their organized poetry readings.<ref name="britannica"/>

Among the Soviet authors he influenced were [[Valentin Kataev]], [[Andrey Voznesensky]] (who called Mayakovsky a teacher and favorite poet and dedicated a poem to him entitled ''Mayakovsky in Paris'')<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ruthenia.ru/60s/voznes/antimir/mayakovskij.htm |script-title=ru:Андрей Вознесенский. Маяковский в Париже |language=ru |trans-title=Andrei Voznesensky. Mayakovsky in Paris |publisher=Ruthenia.ru |access-date=13 July 2012}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ogoniok.com/archive/2002/4734/08-08-11/ |script-title=ru:Огонек: Как Нам Было Страшно! |language=ru |trans-title=Spark: How It was terrible! |publisher=Ogoniok.com |access-date=13 July 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120212001823/http://www.ogoniok.com/archive/2002/4734/08-08-11/ |archive-date=12 February 2012 |df=dmy-all }}</ref> and [[Yevgeny Yevtushenko]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.aif.ru/culture/article/19660 |script-title=ru:Евгений Евтушенко: "Как поэт я хотел соединить Маяковского и Есенина" &#124; Культура – Аргументы и Факты |language=ru |trans-title=Yevgeny Yevtushenko: "As a poet, I would like to connect Mayakovsky and Esenin» |publisher=Aif.ru |date=23 April 2008 |access-date=13 July 2012}}</ref> In 1967 the [[Taganka Theater]] staged the poetical performance ''Listen Here!'' ({{lang|ru|Послушайте!}}), based on Mayakovsky's works with the leading role given to [[Vladimir Vysotsky]], who was also much inspired by Mayakovsky's poetry.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://taganka.theatre.ru/press/articles/5392/ |script-title=ru:Театр на Таганке: Высоцкий и другие |language=ru |trans-title=Taganka Theater: Vysotsky and other |publisher=Taganka.theatre.ru |access-date=13 July 2012}}</ref>
[[File:RR5009-0008R BU 100-летие со дня рождения В.В.Маяковского.png|thumb|200px|[[List of commemorative coins of Russia (1993)|1993 Russian 1 rouble coin]] commemorating the 100th anniversary of Mayakovsky's birth]]
Mayakovsky became well-known and studied outside of the [[USSR]]. Poets such as [[Nâzım Hikmet]], [[Louis Aragon]] and [[Pablo Neruda]] acknowledged having been influenced by his work.<ref name="v_m"/> He was the most influential futurist in [[Lithuania]] and his poetry helped to form the ''[[Keturi vėjai|Four Winds]]'' movement there.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.tekstai.lt/tekstai/4vejai/apie/nyliunas.htm |title=tekstai |publisher=Tekstai.lt |access-date=13 July 2012}}</ref> Mayakovsky was a significant influence on American poet [[Frank O'Hara]]. O'Hara's 1957 poem "Mayakovsky"(1957) contains many references to Mayakovsky's life and works,<ref>{{Cite web|title = Mayakovsky by Frank O'Hara : The Poetry Foundation|url = http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/238460|website = www.poetryfoundation.org|access-date = 8 May 2015|quote = "I am standing in the bath tub/ crying. Mother, mother"  "That’s funny! there’s blood on my chest / oh yes, I’ve been carrying bricks /what a funny place to rupture!  "with bloody blows on its head. / I embrace a cloud, / but when I soared / it rained."}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|title = Backbone Flute: Selected Poetry of Vladimir Mayakovsky|last = Mayakovsky|first = Vladimir|publisher = CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform|year = 2008|isbn = 978-1438211640|location = Boston|chapter = A Cloud in Trousers, I Call|others = trans. Andrey Kneller|quote = "Mother? / Mother! / Your son has a wonderful sickness! / Mother!"  " I walked on, enduring the pain in my chest. / My ribcage was trembling under the stress."  "Not a man – but a cloud in trousers."}}</ref> in addition to "A True Account of Talking to the Sun at Fire Island" (1958), a variation on Mayakovsky's "An Extraordinary Adventure that Happened to Vladimir Mayakovsky One Summer at a Dacha" (1920).<ref>{{Cite web|title = Brad Gooch: On "A True Account of Talking to the Sun at Fire Island" {{!}} Modern American Poetry|url = http://www.modernamericanpoetry.org/criticism/brad-gooch-true-account-talking-sun-fire-island|website = www.modernamericanpoetry.org|access-date = 8 May 2015}}</ref> 1986 English singer and songwriter [[Billy Bragg]] recorded the album ''[[Talking with the Taxman about Poetry]]'', named after Mayakovsky's poem of the same name. In 2007 Craig Volk's stage bio-drama ''Mayakovsky Takes the Stage'' (based on his screenplay ''At the Top of My Voice'') won the [[PEN Center USA#Literary Awards|PEN-USA Literary Award]] for Best Stage Drama.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://penusa.org/awards/winners |title=PEN Center USA Literary Awards Winners |access-date=3 April 2012 |archive-date=15 November 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171115042826/https://penusa.org/awards/winners |url-status=dead }}</ref>

In the Soviet Union's final years there was a strong tendency to view Mayakovsky's work as dated and insignificant; there were even calls for banishing his poems from school textbooks. Yet on the basis of his best works, Mayakovsky's reputation was revived<ref name="britannica"/> and attempts have been made (by authors like Yuri Karabchiyevsky) to recreate an objective picture of his life and legacy. Mayakovsky was credited as a radical reformer of the Russian poetic language who created his own linguistic system charged with the new kind of expressionism, which in many ways influenced the development of Soviet and world poetry.<ref name="v_m"/> The "raging bull of Russian poetry," "the wizard of rhyming," "an individualist and a rebel against established taste and standards," Mayakovsky is seen by many in Russia as a revolutionary force and a giant rebel in the 20th century Russian literature.{{citation needed|date=December 2020}}

Bernd Alois Zimmermann included his poetry in his ''[[Requiem für einen jungen Dichter]]'' (''Requiem for a Young Poet''), completed in 1969.

There is a Mayakovsky monument in Kyrgyzstan, in a former Soviet sanatorium outside the capital Bishkek.

Poet [[Yegor Letov]] dedicated a poem titled "Self-withdrawal" to his suicide and has included verses of his in his poetry.