Kryuchkov vs. Yakovlev On February 13, 1993, an article by V. A. Kryuchkov “Ambassador of Trouble” appeared on the pages of Sovetskaya Rossiya. connections Yakovlev

Somehow, Vladimir Mayakovsky and Lilya Brik visited the fashionable Petrograd cafe "Halt of Comedians". After spending some time there, the couple left the establishment and the woman discovered that she had forgotten her purse. The poet immediately returned for her. The well-known journalist Larisa Reisner was sitting at the next table, who sadly remarked: “Vladimir, now you will carry this bag all your life!” To which Mayakovsky, not at all taken aback, on the contrary, proudly replied: “I, Larisochka, can carry this bag in my teeth! There is no resentment in love! This impressive case fully shows how much Lily captured the poet's heart. Today we will talk about the life and fate of such a shocking and bright woman.

The biography of the "muse of the Russian avant-garde" is closely intertwined with the lives of many famous and prominent figures of art and literature. In 1891, a girl, Lily Urievna Kagan, was born in the family of a Moscow lawyer Uriy Aleksandrovich and Elena Yulyevna Berman. The family was prosperous, so they did not spare money for education. As a child, a French governess was assigned to her, who was engaged in her upbringing. Then Lily studied very successfully at a private gymnasium, and in 1909 she entered the mathematics department of the Higher Women's Courses. Exact sciences were clearly not for our heroine: quickly throwing sines and derivatives, Lily entered the architectural institute, the department of painting and modeling. Passion for fine arts turned out to be quite serious and remained with the heroine until the end of her days. But her search for herself did not stop there. She also became interested in ballet and even asked her parents to install a professional machine at home. The girl began to attend the lessons of the famous ballerina Alexandra Dorinskaya. Who spoke of Leela as a very diligent student.

However, the girl had hobbies that gave her parents trouble, from early youth Lily was distinguished by amorousness, her novels followed one after another. Although she was not considered a fatal beauty, she possessed the incredible art of captivating and attracting members of the opposite sex. Rumor has it that Fyodor Chaliapin could not resist the charms of the girl. One day, while driving in his carriage, he was struck at first sight by Lily, who was making a promenade through the streets of Moscow. The man stopped the cab and invited the girl to his concert. Of course, no liberties followed, but we dare to assume that the ardent friends of the same age were not so tactful and delicate in the manifestation of nascent feelings.

Mom did not know a moment of peace with me and did not take her eyes off me.

At the same time, the parents had every reason to be proud of their daughter: Lily was also a capable, gifted girl. In addition, she had an incredible instinct for talented people and did not hesitate to resort to their help. Often at the musical evenings of Lily's mother, the girl's literary opuses were read. They aroused deep interest and approval of the guests-listeners. But one fine day it turned out that the real writer was not a schoolgirl, but her teacher of literature, who selflessly created instead of her young passion.

After this incident, the young swindler is sent to her grandmother in Poland as punishment. But the parents' plan to restore their daughter's morality failed. An uncle fell in love with the girl and began to seek consent from her father for an official marriage. Lily was immediately returned to Moscow, frankly, not for long. After another fleeting hobby, the girl had to go to the province to have an abortion. The result of this medical intervention was that Lily was forever deprived of the opportunity to have children. Since an unplanned pregnancy no longer threatened her, the girl became only more relaxed in an intimate way.

Another hobby of Lily was photo shoots. Intimate nature. The girl was not shy to expose her charms in front of the camera lens.

The best way to meet is in bed!

Her fleeting acquaintances and girlish adventures were accompanied by love for Osip Brik. They met when the girl was 13 years old, her chosen one was 17. Osip led a circle for studying the basics of political economy, which Lily attended. 7 years of meetings, partings, dates, explanations. At first, the young man did not particularly show feelings, although the young charmer was not at all shy about confessions and quickly announced her love. Lily did not receive an encouraging answer, but the girl had an incredible quality: she did not recognize that a man could remain indifferent to her charms. Lily did not believe in this herself and did not give such an opportunity to others. We will not assess the plausibility that Osip Brik lost his head from a sudden outbreak of feelings, but the fact remains that in 1912 they got married.

3 years after the celebration, Brikov and Mayakovsky met: Lily's younger sister, Elsa, brought him to the house of the spouses. She was extremely proud of her admirer and was seriously carried away by him. Imagine the surprise of the unfortunate sister when Vladimir, having finished reading his work, approached his elder sister and asked permission to dedicate the poem to her. So Lily got a new admirer, inadvertently wresting him from her own sister.

For the poet, this evening was fatal. He, completely engulfed in a burning feeling, literally trumpeted everywhere about his muse. Mayakovsky literally brought down his love on her. Although he sought reciprocity for a long time, he eventually succeeded in achieving his goal. Somewhat.

In those days, the literary environment was far from puritanical, but what happened shocked everyone.

Elzochka, don't make such scary eyes. I just told Osa that my feeling for Volodya was tested, firmly, and that I was now his wife. And Osya agrees.

Before leaving abroad, the younger sister decided to drop in on a visit to the Briks and found there a quiet, happy Mayakovsky, lurking at the feet of Lilichka. As for the lawful husband, he was extremely calm and only said: “Yes, now we have decided to settle down together!” There was no joke in this, the participants in the dubious adventure really began to live together. And on the doors of the communal rooms where they lived, there was a sign: “Bricks. Mayakovsky.

Lily ruled the ball, she implicitly dictated the laws of residence for all three. For example, they had to spend the evenings together, and the daytime was not subject to any control, that is, each was left to himself. Of course, Vladimir's exuberant temperament could not fit into such a regulation. He arranged scenes of jealousy, destroyed furniture. Osip, who knew his wife much longer, tried to reason with his roommate, saying: “Lilya is an element! You can’t stop rain or snow at will.” The culprit of the turbulent events did not even think about sacrificing her adventures and hobbies.

Although, it should be noted that with the clearly defined freedom of each of the members of the trio, she always closely followed not only random intrigues, but also the work of the poet, assuring that from time to time it is useful for him to suffer. For example, once she arranged a real test for Mayakovsky, forbidding him to see her for several months. The genius suffered and counted the days until the meeting. After such "therapy" amazing poems always turned out. This was not the only way to "educate" his admirer. As Lily herself admitted, she really liked to make love with her lawful spouse, while the unfortunate poet was locked in the kitchen. Lily spoke about her novel like this:

Volodya should have married my housekeeper Annushka, just as all of Russia wanted Pushkin to marry Arina Rodionovna.

Relations between Mayakovsky and Mrs. Brik from year to year only became more complicated and confusing. He tried to connect his fate with other women, but again and again he returned to her, to his One and Only. A shot in the chest completed all the throwing of the poet.

The death of Mayakovsky did not become a big tragedy for Lily. She married Vitaly Primakov, one of the leaders of the NKVD. Together they moved to the Arbat. By the way, Osip Brik also continued to live with them. The circle of contacts has replenished: now Primakov's friends have been added to the guests from the world of art.

The idyll ended with the fact that Vitaly and his friends, who entered their house, were shot on the orders of Stalin. Lilya also got on the list of those sentenced, but the leader personally crossed out her name, saying that Mayakovsky's wife should not be touched.

In 1945, Osip Brik died of a broken heart. His death was a real tragedy for Lily. According to her, "when the Axis was gone, she was gone." There have been dramatic changes in the character of the woman. Lily no longer made her third husband, Vasily Katanyan, languish with jealousy: she became a devoted wife. Until the end of her days, a woman sought to surround herself and her husband with a constant holiday. Interesting people, receptions, literary and musical evenings did not let the couple get bored.

At the age of 86, Lily accidentally stumbled near the bed and broke her femoral neck. At this age, such fractures no longer heal. The last thing she wanted was to turn from a muse into a burden. Therefore, on August 4, 1978, at a dacha in Peredelkino, she took a lethal dose of sleeping pills. In a suicide note, Lily explained her adoration to her husband, asked for forgiveness from him and his friends.

At the request of the deceased, they did not bury her, but cremated her and scattered her ashes to the wind. On one of the fields near Zvenigorod there is a monument-boulder with the letters - LOVE (Lilya Yuryevna Brik).

The woman, whose "eyes lit up the purple of the Russian avant-garde," evoked love, hatred, and envy. However, she did not live her life in vain, becoming a source of inspiration for many brilliant people.

The love story of the "symbol of socialism" Vladimir Mayakovsky and a married woman Lily Brik is so amazing that it is even hard to believe that this could happen in Soviet time. However, it was love capital letter, windy, frantic and frivolous, but real.

A lot was said about Lila Brik and a lot of lies were told. “... Medium height, thin, fragile, she was the personification of femininity,” contemporaries argued. Her hair was smooth, parted in the middle, with a braid twisted low at the back of her head, shining with the natural gold of red hair glorified by fans. Her brown eyes “pulled out like pits of two graves” - large and kind, a rather large mouth, beautifully contoured and brightly made up, showed even teeth when smiling. A somewhat large head and a heavy lower part of the face could be considered a defect in Lily Yuryevna's appearance, but perhaps this “had its own special charm in her appearance, very far from classic beauty". One of the memoirists exclaimed: “My God! Yes, she's not pretty. Too big for a small figure head, stooped back and this terrible tic.

By the time of the meeting with Mayakovsky, Lily was already married to Osip Brik. Artists, poets, politicians gathered in their house. The fact that the wife flirts with the guests sometimes behaves more than immodestly and no one is able to resist her charm, the shrewd Osip tried not to notice.

In 1915, Lily's sister Elsa introduced Brikov to her close friend and admirer, the aspiring poet Vladimir Mayakovsky, with whom she wanted to connect her future life. He came, read his Cloud in Pants. It was on that evening, according to Elsa, that everything happened: “The Briks irrevocably fell in love with Mayakovsky’s poems, and Volodya irrevocably fell in love with Lily.”
A few days later, Mayakovsky begged Brikov to accept him permanently, explaining his desire by the fact that he "fell in love with Lily Yuryevna." She gave her consent, and Osip was forced to come to terms with the whims of a windy wife. Thus began one of the most high-profile romances of the century, the "threesome marriage," rumors about which quickly spread in literary circles. And although Lilya explained to everyone that “intimate relations with Osya had long ended,” the strange trinity still lived under the same roof. Briks were quite wealthy people. Their apartment in Petrograd became a kind of salon where futurist poets, writers, philologists, and bohemians visited. The couple immediately discerned Mayakovsky's great poetic talent and helped him print the poem "A Cloud in Pants", and contributed to other publications. The poet adored Lily, called her his wife, and treated any attacks against her incredibly painfully. Mayakovsky gives Lilya Brik a ring engraved with three letters, her initials: Lilya Yuryevna Brik - LOVE. But if the ring is twisted on the finger, then the word “love” is obtained. And thus the poet once again confessed his feelings to his beloved woman. They say that Lilya Brik did not take off this ring until her death.

Lily had her own approach to men, which, in her opinion, worked flawlessly: “You need to inspire a man that he is wonderful or even brilliant, but that others do not understand this. And allow him what they do not allow him at home. For example, smoking or driving wherever you like. Good shoes and silk underwear will do the rest.”

Their "family" was more than strange: Osip Brik had a permanent lover on the side, Lily had affairs with different men, Mayakovsky - with women. In his travels in Western Europe and the USA, he made one-day acquaintances, which he did not hesitate to tell Lily about, she also did not hide her lovers from him.

But at the same time, their touching correspondence delighted: “The very first day upon arrival was devoted to your purchases,” the poet wrote from Paris to Moscow, “they ordered a suitcase for you and bought hats. Having mastered the above, I will take care of pajamas. And Lilya answered this: “Dear puppy, I have not forgotten you, I love you terribly. I do not take off your rings ... ".

In April 1930 Briks were sent to Berlin. Mayakovsky saw them off at the station, and a few days later a telegram from Russia awaited Osip and Lilya at the hotel: “Volodya committed suicide this morning.” It happened on April 14th. He left a note in which, among other phrases, were the words: "Lilya, love me."

In the year of the poet's death, she was thirty-nine years old. She lived a long and interesting life. In her memoirs, Lilya Yuryevna wrote: “I had a dream - I am angry with Volodya for shooting himself, and he so affectionately puts a tiny pistol in my hand and says:“ You will do the same anyway.

Lilya Brik died in 1978. She passed away after drinking a large dose of sleeping pills: the poet's muse herself determined the end of her own destiny.

It was a beautiful, albeit sad story, confusing and still unclear. Who knows what actually happened. What could be expected from such a famous person as Mayakovsky, what could be expected from such an eccentric woman as Lilya Brik. All this will remain a mystery, the only thing we know is that it was a bright and quick-tempered love that burned like fire. As a result, she burned both of them to the ground, and not only them, but also many other people attached to them who, in one way or another, loved them.

It's good to be a muse! Especially a wealthy person: he works hard, and you inspire him, decorate his home with your portraits, pretend that you can also create - you will act in films with him, then you will sit next to him to draw or sculpt him from clay. You can jump, depicting a ballerina. That's just writing poetry is so difficult and not everyone is given! But there is prose! You can give birth to a script and even try to make a “movie” with yourself in the lead role. Did not work out? So I'm a misunderstood genius! The main thing is to be able to hold these men in your hands!

Approximately such 15 years were the relationship between Lily Brik and the “gorlan, leader” Vladimir Mayakovsky.
Mayakovsky and his muse Lilya Brik ... Their lives seem to have long been studied minute by minute. Especially the story of their love relationship. It is necessary to live with two husbands at the same time! Is she a Muslim who is supposed to have a harem?! However, if you count all the husbands of Lily Brik, then another sheikh will be embarrassed by the poverty of his sex life. More television films have been made about her than about Mayakovsky himself: “Veniamin Smekhov about Lila Brik” (1995); "More than love: Vladimir Mayakovsky and Lilya Brik" (2003); “About this, about the poet and about Lilya Brik” (2006), “The civil widow of Mayakovsky Lilya Brik” (2009); “Women in Russian history. Lilya Brik "(2011). In addition, episodes from silent films have been preserved, where once, during the life of the poet, Lilya Brik was filmed with him. And how many articles and books have been written! From them emerges such an image.
From her pink youth, the high school student Lily Kagan, the daughter of wealthy parents - a lawyer and a pianist, was occupied by bright romance novels. When the next story of young Lily with her music teacher ended in pregnancy, she was sent to the wilderness - away from shame. There, either an abortion or an artificial birth awaited her, after which Lilya forever lost the opportunity to have children and began to live exclusively for herself! She met Osip Brik at the age of thirteen. But only after all her adventures did the young people decide to get married.

The groom's parents, wealthy merchants, were against such an alliance - the bride had a very loud fame! However, the groom rested, and this marriage in a rather strange form was preserved until his death in 1945. She became Lily Yurievna (Urievna) Brik - until the end of her life. After graduating from the law faculty of Moscow University, Osip did not work in his specialty, but served in his father's jewelry company. It seems to be a class enemy, and after the revolution he became a legal adviser to the Cheka. What a strange career! Since 1912, Lily lived at the expense of her husband and searched for herself for a long time: she studied a little at the mathematical faculty of the Higher Women's Courses, then the same amount - at the Moscow architectural institute, for some time in Munich she was engaged in sculpture, and then became interested in ballet, but did not become a ballerina either.

She found herself in the role of the mistress of a secular salon, the muse of several poets and a secular lioness, whom she managed to be even in the most difficult times for the country - during the revolutions and all the wars of the twentieth century.
Mayakovsky met this woman in July 1915 in St. Petersburg. Briks had heard about him before, but now they showed sympathetic attention to the 22-year-old futurist in a yellow jacket, guessing a great poetic talent in him.

They were introduced by the younger sister of Lily Yurievna - Elsa. Even before meeting the Briks, Mayakovsky courted her, visited her at home, frightening Elsa's respectable parents with his futuristic antics. After the death of her father - in July 1915 - Elsa came to Petrograd to her sister and, to her misfortune, invited Mayakovsky to her. He came, read Cloud in Pants... Remember:
"Want to -
I will be mad from meat
- and like the sky, changing tones -
want to -
I will be impeccably gentle,
not a man, but a cloud in his pants!
It all started with such passions, and ended... But then, as Elsa writes, “The Briks reacted enthusiastically to the poems, irrevocably fell in love with them. And Mayakovsky irrevocably fell in love with Lily ... ”The poet rented an apartment near Brikov and that’s it. free time spent with them. Osip even printed at his own expense his poem, previously rejected by the publishers. The dedication “To You, Lilya” appeared on the book - the first, but not the last. Then O. Brik publishes Mayakovsky's poem "Flute-Spine", in which, as in many subsequent poems, the poet sings of his frantic feeling for Lily (as he began to call her). Then follows the poem "Lilichka!". In terms of intensity of passion, this is one of the best lyrical poems in the poet's work, and in Soviet poetry too. Since 1915, this trinity has practically not parted.
Since then, Mayakovsky has dedicated all his works, even those written before meeting Brik, to Lilya.

They will become more concise and very "Mayakovsky". L.Yu.B. These initials of hers will adorn the ring presented to Lily - in a circle they will be read “I love”. L.Yu.B. captivated many men. How? There was something in this “dazzling in the queen of Zion of the Jews,” one of her admirers, Viktor Shklovsky, wrote about her. “She knew how to be sad, feminine, capricious, proud, empty, fickle, in love, smart, whatever.”

And one of the husbands of Anna Akhmatova, art critic N. Punin, wrote in his diary: “... she has solemn eyes; there is something arrogant and sweet in her face with painted lips and dark eyelids ... "Women saw her differently: Yes, thin, slender, fragile, but" a defect in Lily Yuryevna's appearance could be considered a somewhat large head and a heavy lower part of the face, but, maybe it had its own special charm in her appearance, very far from classical beauty. And one of the memoirists exclaimed: “My God! yeah, she's not pretty. Too big for a small figure head, stooped back and this terrible tic. There were also freckles, red hair and ... crooked thin legs. That's why we are women, to see only flaws in our own kind. This men can be attracted by something "arrogant and sweet", "dark eyelids and painted lips." You won't deceive us! In addition, apparently, one must be a really great poet in order to turn such an image into an object of worship. And Vladim Vladimych poeticized Lily in such a way that he attracted even more admirers of the “arrogant and sweet” to her.
Lily had her own approach to men, which, in her opinion, worked flawlessly:

“It is necessary to inspire a man that he is wonderful or even brilliant, but that others do not understand this. And allow him what they do not allow him at home. For example, smoking or driving wherever you like. Good shoes and silk underwear will do the rest.”

The king (and the queen too) is made by the retinue. And Lilya creates it thanks to Mayakovsky, turning their common apartment (it is maintained by Osip's parents) into a secular salon (and this was during the years of World War II!). It is regularly visited by well-known writers - friends of Mayakovsky: Velemir Khlebnikov, David Burliuk, Vasily Kamensky, Nikolai Aseev, later - Sergei Yesenin, Vsevolod Meyerhold, Maxim Gorky, Boris Pasternak, as well as such a completely non-literary figure as the deputy chairman of the OGPU Ya.S. Agranov. There were persistent rumors that the soul and owner of the "salon" Lilya Brik and her Osya were not just friends with him, but in the 20-30s they also had the most direct relation to this "company". Someone allegedly saw the ID cards of the OGPU officers on them back then, but now they have been found in the KGB archives and published.
How did Mayakovsky end up in such a company? According to the biographers of the poet, he was not such a "throat and leader" of the revolution. On the contrary, extremely impressionable, easily injured, constantly attacked by the press, he previously found shelter and affection only with his mother and sisters. Friends-writers - after all, they are always rivals. Mayakovsky, with an open soul, responded to the sympathy and attention shown to him by the Briks. Knightly noble, until the end of his life he kept in his heart warm feelings for those who once helped him, and never wrote a bad word about Briks, even if they did not always treat him decently.
L. Brik wrote that back in 1915 her relationship with her husband turned into a purely friendly one: “And this love could not darken either my friendship with him, or the friendship of Mayakovsky and Brik. We all decided never to part and lived our lives as close friends.” It is said about later life: “Osya and I were never physically close again, so all the gossip about the “triangle”, “threesome love”, etc. - completely different from what it was. I loved, love and will love Osya more than a brother, more than a husband, more than a son. I have not read about such love in any poems, in any literature. But what about Volodya? And like this: "I could not help but love Volodya, if Osya loved him so much." It really didn't look like anything. In addition, the sublime love for her retired husband did not prevent Lily from always using him in the household - to get food in difficult times, go on vacation with him to Germany and visit her mother in London. Until 1934, according to Lily, they traveled abroad, more often than in Peredelkino, easily obtaining visas. Now Lily with Osya, then Lily with Volodya. Very rarely three. And when Osip had a girlfriend, and then the wife of Eugene, she was never taken abroad. She traveled with her husband only on business trips in her native country.

Together, Lilya and Mayakovsky, she assures, have never lived. In Moscow, it was at first two rooms in a communal apartment, then a tiny apartment ... of four rooms. In one, Mayakovsky, in the other - the same salon, in the other two - Lily with Osya. What was really there? Nobody held a candle.
But in old age, Lilya Brik shocked Andrei Voznesensky with such a confession: “I loved making love with Osya. We then locked Volodya in the kitchen. He rushed, wanted to come to us, scratched at the door and cried…” “She seemed like a monster to me,” Voznesensky admitted. - But Mayakovsky loved this one. With a whip…”

And love either soared to heaven, then collapsed from them to the sinful earth. In 1922, Mayakovsky, again with the help of Brikov, published the poem "I Love" - ​​his brightest work about love for L. Brik. It was illustrated by a photographer-artist, a friend of Mayakovsky - Rodchenko. It was a collage of Lily's photos. So everything, already not very secret, became clear to everyone. And here comes the first crisis in the relationship between L. Brik and V. Mayakovsky. Tormented by the uncertainty of his status - is he a husband or who? - Mayakovsky moves from a shared apartment in Gnezdikovsky Lane to his little room - an office in a communal apartment on Lubyanka (now there is his museum). There, Volodya, according to Lily's instructions, should "correct", not be jealous, not quarrel with her, but write the number of good poems set by her. Lilya Yurievna did not take his feelings into account. In her circle, she allowed herself to speak ironically about Mayakovsky: “Can you imagine, Volodya is so boring, he even arranges scenes of jealousy”; “What is the difference between Volodya and a cabbie? One controls the horse, the other controls the rhyme. In the meantime, she lives with Osya and has affairs with other fans, and Mayakovsky, pathologically jealous of Lily, hiding, watches her for hours in the front door, sends letters and notes through the housekeeper, sends flowers, books and birds in a cage. In response, she receives only brief notes that she, too, misses.
In his experiences, Lilya Yuryevna saw "benefit": "It is useful for Volodya to suffer, he will suffer and write good poems." And so it happened. On February 28, 1923, for the first time after parting, they meet at the station to go together for a few days to Petrograd. In the carriage, Mayakovsky immediately reads to Lily a fresh poem "About this" and sobs in her arms.
The love relationship between L. Brik and V. Mayakovsky continues for some time, but in 1924 the last discord occurs. Lilya writes a note to the poet saying that she does not have the same feelings for him, and at the end she adds: “It seems to me that you love me much less and you won’t suffer much.” Mayakovsky is tormented, but tries not to show it, declaring in verse: "I am now free from love and from posters." What happened? It turns out that Lily Yuryevna's new hobby is to blame, this time with A. M. Krasnoshchekov, a neighbor in the dacha. He is not just a neighbor, but the chairman of Prombank and the deputy of Narkomfin. A person more important than a "simple proletarian" poet. When subsequently Krasnoshchekov, who warmed his hands well on state money (with the help of Lily?), was sent to prison, they did not touch her, the “official” mistress. Although they could… “What to do? she complained to Mayakovsky when he was in Paris in 1924. “I can't leave A.M. while he's in jail. Ashamed! So ashamed, like never before in life ... Dying is easier ... "
Lily calmed down quickly. Krasnoshchekov was followed by more and more new hobbies: Asaf Messerer, Fernand Leger, Yuri Tynyanov, Lev Kuleshov. For Lily, romance with close friends was as natural as breathing.

Such trials several times led the poet to the desire to commit suicide. Lily took credit for saving him twice. He called - she came running and took away the gun.
In the 1920s and until the mid-1930s, the intelligentsia were still allowed to go abroad, but not as often as Briks and Mayakovsky. And he, “trying to unwind”, regularly visited France, from there he went to Mexico and the USA. Everywhere he had concerts, meetings with readers and ... novels. In the USA, in 1926, he even had a daughter, Ellie, Elena-Patricia, which was carefully hidden from the Briks.

Vladimir saw his daughter only once - in the fall of 1928, when he and Elizabeth met in Nice, the poet soon died. Our newspapers will write about the poet's daughter only in the 90s. They recently announced her passing.

Ellie did not have children, and Mayakovsky's sisters did not either - the family line was interrupted.
Lily looked at Mayakovsky’s “ordinary novels” calmly, but as soon as she found out that “Volodya, her dear puppy”, something serious was planned and he was close to marriage, as, for example, with the Russian emigrant Tatyana Yakovleva, she immediately took action, to bring back a loved one.

In Paris, Lily had her own reliable agent - sister Elsa Triolet, who, becoming the wife of the French communist writer Louis Aragon (as it turned out later, a homosexual who left her for a man), provided her sister with the opportunity to be a Parisian from time to time. Elsa regularly tells Lily that Mayakovsky allows himself away from her, and the sisters weave their nets together. Thus, Elsa's letter was born with the message that Tatyana Yakovleva, who was waiting for Mayakovsky in Paris, had allegedly already married a wealthy aristocrat. Lily "accidentally" read it aloud in the salon, in the presence of several poets, expressing sympathy for Volodechka, who almost went crazy from this news. The poet's bride really became the wife of an aristocrat, but a little later.
The poet continued to rush between Lilechka and his new girlfriends, who flickered like a kaleidoscope in his life.

Lily doesn't deny herself anything either. And Osya has also been living with a constant friend for a long time, with whom Lily is friends. And they all exist on the earnings of Mayakovsky. It is easy to guess that Mayakovsky's marriage "seriously" would mean certain financial inconveniences for the Briks - after all, the poet incurred considerable expenses to ensure their lives. Lily Yuryevna's letters were full of endless requests for money. Osip Brik was also included in this. “Kisa asks for money,” he telegraphed Mayakovsky to Samara. “All is well. I'm waiting for money ”- a common version of Lily's telegraphic messages. Vladimir Vladimirovich paid for her trips abroad, fulfilled endless orders - from ladies' toilets to - “I really want a little car! Bring it, please!" Yes, "certainly Ford, the latest release ...".

As a man of a broad soul, the poet, even in cramped circumstances, did not disregard a single request of the Briks. "Beloved Volodechka" remained for Lily the main supplier of French cosmetics, dresses, stockings and even a "little renoshka" - almost the first private passenger car in Moscow. Now the correspondence of the sisters has been published in France (in our country it was published only selectively and usually under the editorship of Brikov). The letters are full of such orders and descriptions of the novels of the sisters themselves and the poet.
Lily's last meeting with Mayakovsky takes place on February 18, 1930, the day the Briks leave for Berlin and London, as official documents say, "to inspect cultural property." Mayakovsky, who for a long time unsuccessfully tried to get him released to Paris to T. Yakovleva, in the last days of his life will also rush abroad to L. Brik. But he is no longer allowed to leave.
The last postcard from Lily Mayakovsky was sent on April 14, 1930, the day of the poet's suicide. Later, Lilya writes: “If I had been at home at that time, maybe this time death would have moved away for some time.”
A completely different woman becomes a witness to the death of the poet - the actress of the Moscow Art Theater Veronika Polonskaya, the wife of the artist Mikhail Yanshin, whom Mayakovsky persuaded to become his wife minutes before his death.

He did not persuade - and shot in his heart, as soon as she stepped outside the threshold of his tiny office. The two-meter Mayakovsky fell so that it became impossible to immediately enter the room. When Lily and Osya's friends, the KGB officers, rushed in and entered, there was still a smell of gunpowder, but there was nothing to be done. Late…
The investigation into the death of the poet under No. 24541 was entrusted, of course, to a friend of the family, Agranov. The position of this man in the GPU can be judged by the fact that it was Yakov Agranov who accompanied Stalin to Leningrad after the assassination of Kirov. In 1935, he received an apartment in the Kremlin for Yenukidze, who was tortured to death in the dungeons. As it turned out later, the poet Nikolai Gumilyov and scientist Alexander Chayanov. True, he himself was also slapped when he was no longer needed.
Then there was no doubt about the suicide of the poet. After all, he left a note-testament, written two days before his death - April 12, 1930. There she is.
“Don’t blame anyone for dying, and please don’t gossip. The dead man disliked this terribly.
Mom, sisters and comrades, sorry - this is not the way (I do not advise others), but I have no way out.
Lily love me.
Comrade government, my family is Lilya Brik, mother, sisters and Veronika Vitoldovna Polonskaya.
If you give them a decent life, thank you.
Give the started poems to the Briks, they will figure it out.
As they say -
"Incident is over"
love boat
crashed into life.
I'm in with life
and no list
mutual pain,
troubles and insults.
Happy to stay.
Vladimir Mayakovsky.
12.04.30"
There is also a note about money.
Three days later, Brika returned to the funeral from abroad, summoned by Agranov's telegram. True to herself, Lily called Polonskaya and asked her not to come to the funeral, so as not to "poison the last minutes of farewell to Volodya and his family with her presence." The actress did not come - at that time she was just summoned to the investigator ...

The life of Veronika Polonskaya immediately and dramatically changed. “He shot himself at Nora,” Lilya Brik wrote to her sister in Paris, “but she can be blamed like an orange peel on which he slipped, fell and crashed to death.” The poor woman was so frightened by the death of the poet, interrogations in the competent authorities, that she refused everything and hid her involvement in the poet and his tragedy all her life. The suicide note was published by Pravda, and M. Yanshin, her husband, no matter how much he loved his young Nora (she was 21 years old), immediately left her because of the publicity. Veronika Polonskaya died in 1991 at the Nursing Home for Actors. Only then did her role in the life and death of the poet become known.
Mayakovsky's small property was divided equally between his mother and Lilya. In addition, she was given two thousand rubles, mentioned by Mayakovsky in a note, and two gold rings, possibly bought by him for himself and Veronika Polonskaya.
The entire archive of Mayakovsky was handed over to the Briks (there is a plausible version about the posthumous editing of the note by Briks). They began to diligently prepare the collected works of Mayakovsky, despite the protests of the poet's mother and sisters, who received the right to only a part of the royalties from publications. A long-term litigation for the rights to the manuscript begins. It came to the courts, but the Briks did not let the works of the poet out of their hands. When in 1935 there were difficulties with the publication complete collection writings, Lilya Yurievna wrote a letter to I. Stalin, in which she asked for help. It was on her letter that the leader wrote the famous and often quoted: “Comrade. Yezhov! I beg you to pay attention to Brik's letter. Mayakovsky was and remains the best, most talented poet of our Soviet era. Indifference to his memory and his works is a crime. Brick's complaints are, in my opinion, correct. Hello! Stalin." From that moment on, Mayakovsky became the main poet Soviet Union, and Briks are the main heirs and, until the very Khrushchev era, live off royalties for publications, separating the crumbs from the poet's relatives. Once, in response to another complaint from Mayakovsky's only sister Lyudmila by that time, Nikita Khrushchev ordered to stop paying fees to Lilya and her husbands. "Enough! Used!” The couple had to live on regular pensions. However, they were not poor.

After the death of Mayakovsky, Lily soon married the commander of the "Red Cossacks" commander Vitaly Primakov. But then she almost got stuck in history - her new husband was repressed in 1937, (A.M. Krasnoshchekova, whose financial frauds were exposed by none other than V.V. Kuibyshev, and Lilya was ashamed to leave while he was in prison, too). Then Lilya waited for the arrest every day and, hoping to drown out the horror, reached for the bottle. But it didn’t come to binges, and she didn’t become an alcoholic. Lily did not get, like other wives of major military men, either under execution or in the steppes of Kazakhstan. According to legend, Stalin said: “Let's not touch Mayakovsky's wife,” and crossed her out of the list of writers doomed to arrest. Perhaps the tyrant did not want to discredit the poet's name, which he had recently raised to a pedestal.
The next time (officially - for the third time) L. Brik married literary critic Vasily Katanyan ... a friend of Osip Brik. Lily took the writer away from his family and wondered why his abandoned wife was offended, and not friends with her).
It is very convenient to have your own literary critic and editor of Mayakovsky's works at home. V.Katanyan wrote several studies of the work of "the best and most talented poet." Later, when the couple grew old, Katanyan's son, also Vasily, took up the manuscripts. While still students of the Pedagogical Institute, on the instructions of teachers, we outlined the works of the Katanyans, in which they praised “the best and most talented poet of our era”, but nothing was said about the role of Briks in his life.
Until her death, Lily led her usual way of life. She went to France to visit her sister and go shopping, met celebrities there as Mayakovsky's wife and the sister of Elsa Triolet, a well-known writer in France. There she, 80-year-old, once even had an affair with a young Frenchman.

She still did a little art, translated a little, collected porcelain and trays - Volodechka and after her death continued to finance her whims. Her home salon still existed in an apartment on the prestigious Kutuzovsky prospect even in the 1960s. But the last salons were dispersed in the early 30s. Celebrities from France visited her. Here acquaintances were made, someone's destinies were arranged. For example, the poet Andrei Voznesensky received a start in life thanks to Lila Brik. She met and often visited Maya Plisetskaya, Rodion Shchedrin and other figures of culture and art. Lily Yuryevna was supposed to admire. And everyone admired. Once, they even delayed the start of a performance at the Bolshoi Theater until a small, hunched-over old woman with a red-haired fake braid, in some kind of overalls, hung with jewelry, came, supported under her arms. "She is! She is!" the audience whispered.

So who was she? Muse? Wife? Mistress? The poet's widow? His cruel destroyer? These questions have not yet been answered. As no one will ever know what the fatal motive of the last act of the poet was in reality. Personal problems? Critical campaign against Mayakovsky? The failure of "Banny" in the theater? An unsuccessful romance with Veronika Polonskaya, whom the same Briks introduced him to? Until now, in numerous publications, researchers, each in their own way, are trying to solve these issues.

Until the last days of her life, Lilya Brik wore on a chain a ring presented by the poet with an engraving of her initials - L.Yu.B., which formed an endless "LOVE". Inside the ring was written: "Volodya".

In her diary in the 70s, she wrote:
“I had a dream - I’m angry with Volodya for shooting himself, and he so affectionately puts a tiny pistol in my hand and says:“ You will do the same anyway.
The dream turned out to be real. At the age of 86, in the early May morning, she fell in her room, broke her femoral neck, and found herself doomed to immobility. A few days before her death, she dreamed of Mayakovsky's poems. She was sad, sad and silent. And on August 4, 1978, Lily Yuryevna committed suicide in a dacha in Peredelkino. Having taken a lethal dose of sleeping pills, she began to write a suicide note, which she did not have time to finish: “I ask you not to blame anyone for my death. Vasik, I adore you. I'm sorry! And friends, forgive me ... "

Much earlier, Lily ordered not to arrange a grave, but to dispel her ashes: “There will always be those who are ready to abuse!” In a field near Moscow, this sad ceremony was performed. A characteristic Russian landscape - a field, a bend of a river, a forest ... At the edge of the forest, there is, as it were, the point of her life - a huge boulder that her fans brought there. Three letters are engraved on it - L. Yu. B.

In Soviet times, nothing like this was written or talked about. Moreover, this strange triangle prevented literary critics from creating the image of an ideal proletarian poet. When part of the correspondence between L. Brik and V. Mayakovsky was published in one of the volumes of the Literary Heritage, the book was immediately banned, and the second volume was not published at all.

As always happens, bans arouse particular curiosity and a flight of fancy of “researchers”. What is not written about these people! Except for one thing: they were not the only ones in the post-revolutionary country. After all, soon after the famous decrees “On Peace” and “On Land”, the decrees (December 19, 1917) “On the Abolition of Marriage” and “On the Abolition of the Punishment for Homosexuality” come out. According to these decrees, a “sexual union” (the second name is “marriage union”) could be both easily entered into a marriage and easily terminated. A mark in the village council or in the house management was enough. And it was possible to live just like that, without noticing.

Along with revolutionary dates, the anniversary of the decree "On the abolition of marriage" was celebrated on a grand scale in the USSR with a procession of lesbians. Trotsky, in his memoirs, claims that Lenin joyfully reacted to this news: “Keep it up, comrades!” At the same procession they carried posters “Down with shame!”. This appeal finally came into wide use in June 1918, when several hundred representatives of both sexes walked around the center of Petrograd completely naked. In the country triumphantly marched not only cultural revolution, and also sexual, although the province reacted sluggishly to it. A lot of things then turned up! For example, sex education was introduced in schools for children aged 12-13 to avoid early pregnancy. Komsomol communes were common at that time, where 10-12 people of both sexes lived on a voluntary basis in a “family”.

The ideologist of the decree "On the abolition of marriage" was the notorious Alexandra Kollontai, the author of the theory of love, like a glass of water, whose personal life was no less eventful than that of Lily Brik. And even Lenin's well-known friend Inessa Armand left her four children for the love of her husband's brother. What she had with the leader is still guessing idle historians. This period of unbridled "revolutionary debauchery" did not last long. With the coming to power of Stalin in the late 1920s, the sexual revolution came to naught. And with the adoption of the Stalinist constitution, the decree “On the abolition of marriage” also lost its force.

We remembered those events that have gone down in history only because some of our countrymen miss them and rush between freedom in marriage and the desire to legitimize harems. Some fathers willingly send their daughters to other lands and threaten to break their arms and legs if they choose a foreigner as their husband.

Brick wasn't pretty. Small in stature, thin, round-shouldered, with huge eyes, she seemed like a teenager. However, there was something special, feminine in her, which attracted men so much and made them admire this amazing woman. Lilya was well aware of this and used her charms when meeting with every man she liked. “She knew how to be sad, capricious, feminine, proud, empty, fickle, smart, and whatever,” one of her contemporaries recalled. And another acquaintance described Lily as follows: “She has solemn eyes: there is arrogant and sweet in her face with painted lips and dark hair ... this most charming woman knows a lot about human love and sensual love.”

By the time she met Mayakovsky, she was already married. Lilya became the wife of Osip Brik in 1912, perhaps because he was the only one who seemed indifferent to her charm for a long time. She could not forgive such a man. Their married life seemed happy at first. Lilya, who knew how to decorate any, even more than modest life, was able to enjoy every pleasant little thing, was responsive and easy to communicate with. Artists, poets, politicians gathered in their house with Osip. Sometimes there was nothing to treat the guests with, and in the Briks' house they were fed tea with bread, but this seemed not to be noticed - after all, in the center was the charming, amazing Lilya. The fact that the wife flirts with the guests and sometimes behaves more than immodestly, the shrewd Osip tried not to notice. He understood that neither jealousy, nor scandals, nor reproaches would be possible to keep his wife near him.

This continued until 1915, until one day Lily's sister Elsa brought her close friend, the aspiring poet Vladimir Mayakovsky, to the Briks' house, with whom she was in love and with whom she wanted to connect her future life. However, Lilya seemed to ignore this fact, and that day she was especially sweet and friendly with the new guest. And he, delighted with the hostess of the house, read her his best poems and on his knees asked Lilechka's permission to dedicate them to her. She celebrated the victory, and Elsa, burning with jealousy, could not find a place for herself.

A few days later, Mayakovsky begged Brikov to accept him "for good", explaining his desire by the fact that he "fell irrevocably in love with Lily Yuryevna." She gave her consent, and Osip was forced to come to terms with the whims of a windy wife. However, Mayakovsky finally moved into an apartment with the Briks only in 1918. Thus began one of the most high-profile novels of the past century, the “threesome marriage”, rumors about which quickly spread among acquaintances, friends and in literary circles. And although Lilya explained to everyone that “she had long since ended her intimate relationship with Osya,” the strange trinity still lived together in a tiny apartment under the same roof.
And no one even dared to judge the divine Lily.

Many years later, Lilya will say: “I fell in love with Volodya as soon as he began to read Cloud in Pants. I fell in love with him immediately and forever. However, at first she kept him at a distance. “I was frightened by his assertiveness, growth, irrepressible, unbridled passion,” Lily admitted and added: “He fell on me like an avalanche ... He just attacked me.”

The love of the poet Lilya Brik was not surprised. She was completely confident in her charms and always said: “You need to convince a man that he is a genius ... And allow him what is not allowed at home. Good shoes and silk underwear will do the rest.”

In 1919, Briki and Mayakovsky moved to Moscow. They hung a sign on the door of their apartment: “Bricks. Mayakovsky. However, Lily did not even think of being faithful to the young poet. She started more and more novels, and her lover increasingly went abroad. He spent several months in London, Berlin and especially in Paris, which suited Lily very much. It was there that her beloved sister Elsa lived, who closely followed the poet's Parisian life and reported to Lily about his love affairs. Telling her sister about “romances”, Elsa always added: “Empty, Lilechka, you don’t have to worry.” And she calmed down for a while and continued to read with rapture the letters and telegrams of her admirer.

And Mayakovsky met with women, spent all the time with them and would certainly go to the shops with new girlfriends in order to buy something for his Moscow sweetheart. “The very first day upon arrival was devoted to your purchases,” the poet wrote from Paris to Moscow, “they ordered a suitcase for you and bought hats. Having mastered the above, I will take care of my pajamas.

Lilya answered this: “Dear puppy, I have not forgotten you ... I love you terribly. I don’t take off your rings ... "

Mayakovsky was returning from abroad with gifts. From the station he went to the Briks, and all evening Lily tried on dresses, blouses, jackets, threw herself on the neck of the poet with joy, and he rejoiced with happiness. It seemed that his beloved belonged only to him. However, in the morning the poet again went crazy with jealousy, broke dishes, broke furniture, shouted and, finally, slamming the door, left the house to “wander” in his small office on Lubyanka Square. The wanderings did not last long, and a few days later Mayakovsky again returned to the Briks. “Lilya is an element,” the cold-blooded Osip reassured Vladimir, “and this must be reckoned with.” And the poet calmed down again, promising his beloved: “Do as you like. Nothing will ever change my love for you…”

When Mayakovsky's friends reproached him for being too submissive to Lila Brik, he resolutely declared: “Remember! Lilya Yurievna is my wife! And when they sometimes allowed themselves to play a joke on him, he proudly answered: “There is no offense in love!”

Mayakovsky tried to endure all humiliations, just to be close to his beloved muse. And she, confident in her own power over her beloved admirer, sometimes acted too cruelly. Many years later, she confessed: “I loved making love with Osya. We locked Volodya in the kitchen. He was torn, wanted to come to us, scratched at the door and cried.

Several days passed, and the poet again could not stand it. In the summer of 1922, Briki and Mayakovsky rested at a dacha near Moscow. The revolutionary Alexander Krasnoshchekov lived next to them, with whom Lily began a stormy, albeit short-lived romance. In the autumn of the same year, Mayakovsky began to demand from his beloved that he break off all relations with his new lover. At this, she was offended and declared that she did not want to hear more reproaches from him and kicked him out of the house for exactly three months.

Mayakovsky put himself "under house arrest" and, as Lilechka ordered, they did not see each other for exactly three months. New Year the poet met alone in his apartment, and on February 28, as agreed, the lovers met at the station to go to Petrograd for a few days.

That morning, the poet rushed to Lila, knocking down all passers-by on the way. Seeing her at the station, in a fluffy coat, beautiful and perfumed, he grabbed her and dragged her into the train car. There, excited and happy, Mayakovsky read his new poem"About it". He dedicated it, of course, to Leela.

In 1926, after returning from America, Vladimir Mayakovsky told Lilya that he had experienced a stormy romance with Russian emigrant Ellie Jones, and she was now expecting a child from him. Lily's face did not express the slightest chagrin. She did not betray her excitement, demonstrating to her lover only indifference and composure. Mayakovsky could not have expected such a reaction.

The poet went crazy, suffered from jealousy and tried to forget Lily, meeting with other women. Once, when he was vacationing in Yalta with another girlfriend, Natalya Bryukhanenko, Lilya was seriously frightened for "Volodina's love" for her. She sent a telegram to her lover, where she desperately asked not to marry and return "to the family." A few days later, Mayakovsky arrived in Moscow.

In the autumn of 1928, he went to France, ostensibly for treatment. However, Lilina's faithful friends told her that Mayakovsky was going abroad to meet Ellie Jones and his little daughter. Leela became worried. However, she is always used to achieving her goals. True to herself, resolute and resourceful Brik started a new adventure. Again she asked her sister "not to lose sight of Volodya", and Elsa, in order to somehow tear Mayakovsky away from the American, introduced him to the young model of the House of Chanel, Russian emigrant Tatyana Yakovleva. The sisters were wrong. Soon after meeting Tatyana, Mayakovsky forgot about Ellie. However, he fell in love with a new acquaintance so that he decided to marry her and bring her to Russia.

Enthusiastic and in love, he dedicated a poem to Yakovleva. This meant only one thing for Lily Brik: for Mayakovsky, she is no longer a muse. “You betrayed me for the first time,” Lilya said bitterly to Vladimir when he returned to Moscow. And for the first time, he didn't say anything. Lily couldn't bear it.

In October 1929, she invited her friends and threw a lavish party. In the middle of the evening, Lily allegedly accidentally started talking about her sister, from whom she had recently received a letter. The cunning hostess decided to read this letter aloud. At the end of the message, Elsa wrote that Tatyana Yakovleva was marrying a noble and very rich viscount. Vladimir Mayakovsky, hearing the news, turned pale, got up and left the apartment. He never understood that Tatyana was not going to get married at all, that the sisters pulled off another adventure so that Volodenka would stay with Lily and could continue to work fruitfully.

Six months later, the Briks went to Berlin. Mayakovsky saw them off at the station, and a few days later a telegram from Russia awaited Osip and Lilya at the hotel: “Volodya committed suicide this morning.” This happened on April 14, 1930. He left a note in which, among other phrases, were the words: "Lilya, love me."

In July of the same year, a government decree was issued in which Lilya Brik was given a pension of 300 rubles and relinquished half of the copyright to the works of Vladimir Mayakovsky. The other half was divided among the poet's relatives. Lily, although she was worried about the death of her beloved friend, she explained it with enviable calmness: “Volodya was a neurotic,” Brik said, “as soon as I recognized him, he was already thinking about suicide.”

In the year of the poet's death, she was thirty-nine years old. She also lived a long and interesting life. Immediately after the death of Mayakovsky, she divorced Osip Brik and married Vitaly Primakov.

When he was shot, Lily entered into a third marriage - with Vasily Katanyan, a literary critic who studied the life and work of Vladimir Mayakovsky. Brik took Katanyan away from the family and lived with him for about forty years.

Osip died in 1945. Lily experienced his death in a special way. “I loved, love and will love Osya more than a brother, more than a husband, more than a son. He is inseparable from me, ”she admitted and added that she would give up everything in life, if only Osip continued to live. When she was carefully asked if Lily Yuryevna would refuse Mayakovsky so as not to lose Osip, she nodded her head in the affirmative.

Lilya Brik died in 1978. She passed away after drinking a large dose of sleeping pills. The poet's muse remained true to itself here too: she herself determined the end of her own destiny.

Until the last days, she did not take off the ring donated by Vladimir Mayakovsky. On a small, modest ring, three letters were engraved with Lily's initials - LOVE. When she turned it in her hands, remembering the poet, the letters merged into one word - "I love." Lilya Brik never left the memory of the unfortunate poet in love with her.

Used material from the site www.stories-of-love.ru