Vladimir Mayakovsky was a well-known figure for foreign journalists. His craving for everything “stoverst” prompted his need to expand the “KomFut” ideas to “out-of-soviet” space, while his romantic worldview has set a landmark goal in building a bright future, that is, to get the “new word” across to the “inveterate capitalists”. Considering this, in 1922-1924 Vladimir Mayakovsky went abroad to Latvia (up to 1940 Latvia was not in the Soviet Union), France (Paris) and Germany (Berlin). After his first international trips Mayakovsky wrote essays and poems based on his European impressions (“How does a democratic republic work?” (1922), “Paris (Talks with the Eiffel Tower)” (1923)). Mayakovsky went to Paris several times more in the period of 1925-1929, and he would always reflect his trips and impressions in his verse (such as lyrical cycle “Paris” (1924-1925). In 1925 Mayakovsky’s interest in engaging the reader's attention went further than Europe, as he traveled across to America to perform in public. The international trips aroused his interest in foreign life. Mayakovsky was admired by the engineering and architectural achievements he saw in the USA (see “Brooklyn Bridge” (1925)). However, as the poet wished to detect the discrepancies between the luxury of European and American capitals and the daily life of the common workers, he criticized the capitalist system, which he opposed to the “fair regime” of the young socialist state of the USSR. In his public speeches Mayakovsky did not miss a chance to express his beliefs and rejection of the western public institutions which, in his opinion, made human life miserable. Such an open confronting position of the Russian poet resulted in a strong reaction in foreign press. The following article considers the responses to Mayakovsky’s creative works and personality reflected in lifetime and posthumous foreign press. The journalist works can be contingently divided into three groups: 1) hostile right-wing press, 2) “moderate” journalism perceiving the poet in “cheap popular” light, 3) left-wing press welcoming the Soviet Union and the Soviet poet. The article is aimed at determining the overall “tone” of the foreign press writing about Mayakovsky. The cultural, historical and comparative analysis in notes and columns of foreign newspapers and magazines dedicated to Mayakovsky’s life, works and suicide, occupies an important place in the presented study. It is noted that this kind of sensational and conflicting notes distorting the real facts appeared on the pages in both the left-wing and right-wing press and can be considered as a demonstration of outrageously superficial international perception of Mayakovsky’s life and work.
Mayakovskiy, futurizm, poet-komfut, publichnye vystupleniya, inostrannaya pressa, neprikrytoe ozloblenie, yavnyy vostorg, bol'shevistskie idei, «lubochno-dekorativnyy», samoubiystvo, neproverennye fakty
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2. Pil'skiy P. Nahalkikanec iz-za Tashkentu // Segodnya. Riga. 1927. № 144.
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4. RGALI. F. 336. Op. 7. Ed. hr. 52. Stenogramma vystupleniy N.N.Aseeva, G.Gupperta i dr. v Politehnicheskom muzee 17 dekabrya 1936 g. 45 l. Gugo Guppert o vospriyatii Mayakovskogo v Germanii. L. 7.
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6. RGALI. F. 336. Op. 7. Ed. hr. 39. Stat'i i zametki o V.V.Mayakovskom. Vyrezki iz gazet i zhurnalov. 25 yanvarya 1927 - 17 dekabrya 1936. 95 l. Biha. Wladimir Majakowskis Ende // Rote Fahne. Wien. 1930. 18 apr.
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8. RGALI. F. 336. Op. 7. Ed. hr. 39. Stat'i i zametki o V.V.Mayakovskom. Vyrezki iz gazet i zhurnalov. 25 yanvarya 1927 - 17 dekabrya 1936. 95 l. Samoubiystvo Mayakovskogo // Prager Presse. Praga. 1930. 16 apr.
9. RGALI. F. 336. Op. 7. Ed. hr. 39. Stat'i i zametki o V.V.Mayakovskom. Vyrezki iz gazet i zhurnalov. 25 yanvarya 1927 - 17 dekabrya 1936. 95 l. A Poet¢s Suicide // The Star. Southampton. 1930. 15 apr.
10. RGALI. F. 336. Op. 7. Ed. hr. 39. Stat'i i zametki o V.V.Mayakovskom. Vyrezki iz gazet i zhurnalov. 25 yanvarya 1927 - 17 dekabrya 1936. 95 l. Mayakovskys end // The New-York Times. New-York. 1930. 15 apr.
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