Chapter 2. Vladimir Vladimirovich Mayakovsky

On 13 May 1986, at the beginning of perestroika, the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet approved the “Law on amateur associations and interest clubs”. Its original title is “Положение о любительском объединении, клубе по интересам: Утв. 13.05.1986 г.; № 05/15-38 // Культурно-просветительная работа. – 1986. – № 8. – С. 26-28.” The law covered a large variety of interests, from sport, science, art, veteran clubs etc. “Interest clubs” could register with cultural and other institutions (if accepted). Such institutions were directly responsible for them and I suppose that they did not have to get permanent feedback from superior authorities.[1]

In other words, interest clubs were not fully autonomous in their decisions, but concerning “unofficial” artists – those lacking appropriate diplomas, a category which applied to most New artists – the Soviet system passed from an utterly restrictive system to a much more flexible system of self-organisation. Using those new opportunities, different groups of “underground” artists were hoping to get public support for their activities – in the first place a club room for meetings and exhibitions. The new law, however, did not abolish the discriminatory status of amateur artists, nor did it lift a number of restrictions applying to them, such as denying them the right to generate an income through their creative activities. In this and some other respects, professional artists were in a priviledged position.[2] Put differently, both of Novikov's clubs, the Mayakovsky Friends Club and the Club of the Appreciation of Amateur Creativity, confirmed the amateur status of its members, although the name Mayakovsky Friends Club conceals this fact.

Lyubov Gurevich’s article “About the history of the emergence of the ‘Leningrad Gallery’ foundation” (К истории возникновения фонда «ленинградская галерея), printed in the TEII compilation 2007 [3], offers some information about the circumstances that led to the foundation of the Mayakovsky Friends Club .

Gurevich writes that in the summer of 1986, the Leningrad city administration made an open call to amateur associations, inviting them to join a new federation which would give them a legal status. This open call obviously followed the new “Law on amateur associations and interest clubs” mentioned above.

A public meeting was set at the café Vostok, and during this meeting, Novikov, hoping to receive premises for the New Artists, conceived of the V.V. Mayakovsky Friends Club and recorded its name in the list of applications.

Why then did Timur Novikov not register the New Artists and Friends, but the Club of Friends of V.V. Mayakovsky instead? According to Lyubov Gurevich, Novikov, during this very meeting at the café Vostok, tried to think of a proper name and, after having discussed the question with a member of the Komsomol, the Communist Youth Organisation, took a decision on the spot. [4]

Unfortunately, Gurevich doesn't tell the reader the exact date of the meeting. Around the same time, Novikov and Gutsevich also concieved of the New Creative Association (see Chapter 5. Document A, undated, and Chapter 6. Document B, dated 4. 8. 1984). Considering that the name doesn‘t reappear later, it is possible that Novikov spontaneously converted the New Creative Association into the Club of Friends of V.V. Mayakovsky (although it is actually more plausible that New Creative Association was subsituted by the Club of the Appreciation of Amateur Creativity headed by Gutsevich).

Whatever the case, Vladimir Mayakovsky‘‘s name offered Novikov the possibility to combine the requirements of the official communist ideology with some glamour, [5] and to use this name looks like a conscious rather than a spontaneous decision.

In the Soviet Union, the great poet, who committed suicide in 1930, at the age of thirty-six, was an established representative of the Russian and Soviet avant-garde – with a functionally streamlined biography, reduced to a simple tale of a young Marxist and Futurist who dedicated his life to the Revolution and his art to the people. The main building of the Leningrad branch of the Writers' Union LO SP (ЛО СП, Ленинградское отделение Союза писателей СССР) was the “House of Writers named after V.V. Mayakovsky” (Дом писателя им. В. В. Маяковского), located in the former palace of Count Sheremetov, today Hotel Sheremetev Palace. According to the Saint Petersburg Encyclopaedia, the Leningrad literary "underground" of the 1950s to 1980s existed aside from the LO SP and even despite it, since the LO SP carried out its activities under the strict control of the Communist Party and participated in the campaigns against Akhmatova, Zoshchenko and Brodsky. [6] In this way, Mayakovsky's name was drawn into major acts of politcal repression.

Vladimir Mayakovsky, 1915. Unknown photographer Wikipedia Public Domain External link >>

But Mayakovsky also had the coolness of an urban dandy, plus there was his ménage à trois with Lily Brik, his lover, and Osip Brik, his editor, while his suicide turned him into a mystic figure. On top of that, Mayakovsky was a visual artist who designed some of the best-known early Soviet propaganda posters. Speaking for the New Artists, Evgenij Kozlov remembers (in a private talk, 2020): “Mayakovsky stood for style, urbanity and radical originality. His genius was primary and made a unique contribution to the world of art.”

For Georgy Guryanov, the artist and musician who contributed to Leningrad’s subculture with his impeccable taste, Vladimir Mayakovsky was the personification of stylishness. In an interview interview with Andrey Damer, Guryanov, who calls the club Club of Fans of Mayakovksy, (Клуб любителей Маяковского), refers to the famous movie “Some Like it Hot” with Marilyn Monroe, where “Friends of Italian Opera” is the name of an undercover meeting of the national crime syndicate. In the same way, Guryanov says, the Mayakovsky Friends Club was their cover.[7] 

In the absence of a contemporary Soviet David Bowie, V.V. Mayakovsky was a perfect choice for a label. Just as the official side “forgot” about Mayakovsky‘s anarchic personality, Mayakovsky‘s admirers choose to ignore his bizarre eulogies of “an ordinary little boy by the name of Lenin born in the solitude of Simbirsk”.[8] 

As a marketing brand, the components “Club”, “Friends” and “Mayakovsky” combine sociality, unconventionality, and personality – especially in its long form Club of Friends of V.V. Mayakovsky, which makes the double “V” resound. The first V is the abbreviation of Mayakovsky’s first name Vladimir, and the second V is the abbreviation of Mayakovky’s patronymic name “Vladimirovich”. In Russia, this naming custom adds a slight note of respectful irony to the name, while it adds an a exotic element outside Russia.

next page: Chapter 3: Source material and references

Research / text / layout: Hannelore Fobo, March 2020 / August 2021