'' The Man'' (Человек, Tchelovek) is a poem by Vladimir Mayakovsky written in late-1916 - early-1917 and published in February

1918 This year is noted for the end of the First World War, on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month, as well as for the Spanish flu pandemic that killed 50–100 million people worldwide. Events Below, the events ...

by the ASIS Publishers, subtitled The Thing (Вещь).

Plot

The story is built along the lines of the

Gospel Gospel originally meant the Christian message ("the gospel"), but in the 2nd century it came to be used also for the books in which the message was set out. In this sense a gospel can be defined as a loose-knit, episodic narrative of the words an ...

(The Advent of Mayakovsky, the Life of Mayakovsky, the Rise of Mayakovsky, et cetera). Back on

Earth Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to harbor life. While large volumes of water can be found throughout the Solar System, only Earth sustains liquid surface water. About 71% of Earth's surfa ...

after one thousand years the Poet discovers the street he's lived on and shot himself at, "by the door of the beloved," bears his name. This detail acquired a sinister overtone after Mayakovsky committed suicide in 1930, troubled love life cited as one of the reasons. According to biographer A. Mikhaylov, the poem's protagonist is an oversensitive young man who suffers from social injustice and longs for social upheaval. The hero is a bizarre hybrid of a lofty neo-romantic superman and a real-life Mayakovsky, the former fighting the universal evils, the latter getting bogged down into petty everyday conflicts. At the crux of the poem lies the idea of futility of man's aspirations, both personal and social, due to the baseness of human nature and the power of money ruling the world.

Premiere

In December 1917 Mayakovsky moved to Moscow from

Petrograd Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...

and settled in the San-Remo hotel. He recited his new work several times, most famously at the Poetic Tournament which took place in late January 1918 at the poet

Mikhail Tsetlin Mikhail Osipovich Tsetlin (russian: Михаи́л О́сипович Це́тлин, July 10, 1882, Moscow, Russian Empire, — November 10, 1945, New York City, United States) was a Russian poet, dramatist, novelist, memoirist, revolutionary and ...

's house and featured the stars of the "two generations of Russian poetry," including

Konstantin Balmont Konstantin Dmitriyevich Balmont ( rus, Константи́н Дми́триевич Бальмо́нт, p=kənstɐnʲˈtʲin ˈdmʲitrʲɪjɪvʲɪdʑ bɐlʲˈmont, a=Konstantin Dmitriyevich Bal'mont.ru.vorb.oga; – 23 December 1942) was a Rus ...

, Vyacheslav Ivanov,

Andrey Bely Boris Nikolaevich Bugaev ( rus, Бори́с Никола́евич Буга́ев, p=bɐˈrʲis nʲɪkɐˈlajɪvʲɪtɕ bʊˈɡajɪf, a=Boris Nikolayevich Bugayev.ru.vorb.oga), better known by the pen name Andrei Bely or Biely ( rus, Андре ...

, Yurgis Baltrushaitis,

Marina Tsvetayeva Marina Ivanovna Tsvetaeva (russian: Марина Ивановна Цветаева, p=mɐˈrʲinə ɪˈvanəvnə tsvʲɪˈtaɪvə; 31 August 1941) was a Russian poet. Her work is considered among some of the greatest in twentieth century Russia ...

David Burlyuk David Davidovich Burliuk (Давид Давидович Бурлюк; 21 July 1882 – 15 January 1967) was a Russian-language poet, artist and publicist associated with the Futurist and Neo-Primitivist movements. Burliuk has been described as ...

, Vasily Kamensky,

Ilya Ehrenburg Ilya Grigoryevich Ehrenburg (russian: link=no, Илья́ Григо́рьевич Эренбу́рг, ; – August 31, 1967) was a Soviet writer, revolutionary, journalist and historian. Ehrenburg was among the most prolific and notable autho ...

Vladislav Khodasevich Vladislav Felitsianovich Khodasevich (russian: Владисла́в Фелициа́нович Ходасе́вич; 16 May 1886 – 14 June 1939) was an influential Russian poet and literary critic who presided over the Berlin circle of Russian e ...

Boris Pasternak Boris Leonidovich Pasternak (; rus, Бори́с Леони́дович Пастерна́к, p=bɐˈrʲis lʲɪɐˈnʲidəvʲɪtɕ pəstɛrˈnak; 30 May 1960) was a Russian poet, novelist, composer and literary translator. Composed in 1917, Pa ...

, Alexey Tolstoy,

Pavel Antokolsky Pavel Grigoryevich Antokolsky ( rus, Па́вел Григо́рьевич Антоко́льский, p=ˈpavʲɪl ɡrʲɪˈɡorʲjɪvʲɪtɕ ɐntɐˈkolʲskʲɪj, a=Pavyel Grigor'yevich Antokol'skiy.ru.vorb.oga; 1 July 1896, Saint Petersburg, Ru ...

Vera Inber Vera Mikhailovna Inber (russian: link=no, Вера Михайловна Инбер), born Shpenzer (10 July 1890, Odessa11 November 1972, Moscow), was a Russian and Soviet poet and writer. Biography Her father Moshe owned a scientific publishing ...

. This potentially conflicting meeting had an unexpected outcome: Mayakovsky's rendition was praised almost unanimously by the poets of the older generation, while Burlyuk was overly aggressive and apparently jealous. Particularly impressed was Andrey Bely, who declared that it was beyond his comprehension how such profoundly powerful, deep poem could have been created here in Russia, and that it was "way ahead now of the whole world literature." According to

Nikolai Aseev Nikolai Nikolayevich Aseyev ( rus, Никола́й Никола́евич Асе́ев, p=nʲɪkɐˈlaj nʲɪkɐˈlajɪvʲɪtɕ ɐˈsʲejɪf, a=Nikolay Nikolayevich Asyeyev.ru.vorb.oga; July 10, 1889 - July 16, 1963) was a Russian and Soviet Futu ...

, Bely's impassioned "speech itself became a revelation for many and caused an ovation."

References

{{Vladimir Mayakovsky 1918 poems Poetry by Vladimir Mayakovsky