V.V.Mayakovsky : Fatal Romances
A.Charumati Ramdas
Last five years of Vladimir Vladimirovich Mayakovsky’s life had been full of strange events, which gradually drew him towards death. Vladimir Vladimirovich’s name reminds one not only of his immortal poetry, but also of the thirst of love which he could not quench, or, to be more precise, which had been snatched away from him by quirks of fate. Consequent to which he perished a lonely, broken man. Towards the later years for Mayakovsky all the doors of affection, recognition and fame were closed, though this did not diminish his talent in the least.
Mayakovsky had love affairs of various intensities with many women. Only few of them were really serious ones, while others were either brief romances or mere flirtations. Only four of these affairs were prolonged, serious and impactful, so as to make significant impression on his poetry. The longest and most sincere among them was the one with Lily Brik, wife of a famous futurist poet Osip Brik. Lily Brik was the heroine of almost whole of Vladimir Vladimirovich’s poetry.
By virtue of being close to Vladimir Vladimirovich, Lily Brik definitely enjoyed certain privileges. When she noticed that her relationship with Mayakovsky was gradually weakening, she tried her best to remain all the time close to him, thereby not letting other women come close to the poet.
Even before he met Lily Brik, young Vladimir Vladimirovich had affairs with many women. Remarkable among them was his friendship with Elsa Triolet. Around World War I he fell in love with her. Elsa Triolet was about 16 at that time. Soon after, he was introduced to Elsa Triolet’s sister Lily Brik. Subsequently Mayakovsky started paying less attention to Elsa Triolet and got emotionally involved with Lily Brik. The relationship with Lily Brik and dedication to her continued till his death, though simultaneously his involvement with other women also continued.
The heroine of the poem ‘Cloud in Trousers’, Maria, was the other woman who influenced Vladimir Vladimirovich’s poetry. There are different opinions about the identity of this woman. Several people, known to Mayakovsky, thought that she was Maria Denisova, who had come from Odessa; some others opined that she was Kornei Chukovsky’s wife; while Lily Brik says that she was some other Maria, implying that she was known to her.
By 1925 Mayakovsky felt that the intensity of love between him and Lily Brik was on the decline. This was the time when he was often travelling abroad. In October 1928 he was introduced to Tatyana Yakovleva in Paris. It was ‘love at first sight’. Tatyana Yakovleva too was fascinated by the poet. From 25th Oct to 2nd Nov she met him everyday. During those days Tatyana Yakovleva was a favourite amongst the youth in Paris. In fact there were quite a few young men who were convinced that she would marry one of them. But, according to Tatyana Yakovleva, herself, she was most impressed by Mayakovsky. After meeting him she, obviously started thinking of marrying him, while Mayakovsky was prepared to take her “to Moscow along with Paris”. Before leaving for Moscow he instructed a local florist to send her a bouquet of fresh roses every Sunday, and on reaching Moscow he started sending her telegrams everyday. Tatyana Yakovleva too was sending him letters frequently, but from Vladimir Vladimirovich’s telegrams she understood that her letters didn’t reach him.
In this connection Mayakovsky’s elder sister, who collected all the correspondence between Vladimir Vladimirovich and tatyana Yakovleva from latter’s mother, studied it carefully and observed: “I am sure that a conspiracy was hatched by people to separate them, by those people who always wanted to remain in the vicinity of my brother and enjoy the privileges he was offered. During the last fve years of his life he got sick of this situation and he, undoubtedly, aspired for a new life. He used to say that only a “tremendous amount of love could save me! Tatyana Yakovleva could give him such a love.”
In the meanwhile, through Vladimir Vladimirovich’s biography, Tatyana Yakovleva learnt about Lly Brik, with whom Mayakovsky was in love for the past ten years. All his poetry was dedicated only to her. Tatyana Yakovleva also came to know that Vladimir Vladimirovich always loved with a sense of dominance and demanded complete dedication from the woman he loved. Without being unfaithful to Lilichka, he demanded from other women total love for himself, but could never reciprocate his love for them with same intensity. These women were well aware that Vladimir Vladimirovich would never leave Lily Brik and hence they were not keen to put their future at stake with him.
Although these traits of Mayakovsky disturbed Tatyana Yakovleva a lot, but she continued writing to him. However Vladimir Vladimirovich received only a few of her letters. He was planning to visit Paris in October 1929. “…I can’t imagine being far from you after October. I can’t just enjoy anything without you. From September I will start preparing wings for myself so that I can fly over to you,” wrote he to Tatyana Yakovleva. But he could never return to Paris as he didn’t get the visa.
Various views were expressed about Vladimir Vladimirovich’s Visa episode. Mayakovsky’s family members were of the view that Lily Brik played a major role in this connection. “Lily Brik saw to it that Vladimir Vladimirovich does not get visa to Paris. In this matter she took Agranov’s help, who was assistant of Yagoda (People’s Comissar for Internal Affairs). Our friend Brodskii worked there at that time and he informed us that Mayakovsky was refused the visa under the pretext that he would stay back for ever in Paris”.
Even Roman Jakobson wrote the same on the basis of Mayakovsky’s letter to Tatyana Yakovleva. According to another version there is no proof at all of Mayakovsky’s request for the above mentioned visa. As a result of all these developments Vladimir Vladimirovich had to remain in Moscow. He became more introvert, silent, disappointed and frustrated. In this very state of mind he met Veronica Polonskaya, who was an actress and also used to work in theatre.
During this period one more incidence took place – Tatyana Yakovleva married Bertrand du Plissé on 23rd Dec 1929. Mayakovsky’s friends tried to hide this news from him, but he came to know about it from Elsa Triolet’s letter to Lily Brik, which was being read loudly in Vladimir Vladimirovich’s presence. This was a terrific humiliation for him, which he tried to forget in Polonskaya’s company. Veronica Polonskaya gave him the love which he was looking for throughout his life. He wanted to marry her – she too agreed in spite of the fact that she was already married. Mayakovsky insisted that she should abandon theatre, her husband, her rehearsals and shpuld remain devoted to him. She said ‘yes’ to all his demands, but said she would quit the theatre only after completing the assignment she had in hand.
On the eve of the suicide he was with V.P.Kataev till 2 O’clock. Next morning he visited Polonskaya. V.Shklovsky writes, “This lady (Polonskaya) did not want to go with him. He cried. They went together to his flat. At 10.15 a.m. he shot himself at the doors of his room. There was only one bullet in the revolver. The woman got scared, she called the neighbour and left. She was arrested but later released in the evening for rehearsals.”
Another version says that on that day i.e. on the fourteenth of April 1930, when Lily and Osip Brik were away in Berlin, and Polonskaya had left for her rehearsals, Vladimir Vladimirovich was alone in his room. The loneliness (of which he was very scared) took possession of him and he shot himself down.
Obviously, this time Vladimir Vladimirovich could not believe that true love could ever come to him. This tough man, who always longed for true love, probably could not bear when such a love smiled at him. If, by chance, someone bestowed upon him her unbound love – he would run away from her. Earlier also, he had abandoned more than one of his true admirers. One such woman was Elizabeth Jones (Elli Jones).
Very little is known about Elli Jones. It is interesting to note that Mayakovsky had dedicated beautiful poems to the above mentioned women, but his affair with Elli Jones did not yield any such poem, though he was father of Elli Jones’ daughter. The only child which Mayakovsky left behind him and about whom the world came to know only in the year 1989.
It happened like this: Vladimir Vladimirovich had a strong desire to visit USA and he did so in May 1925. The three months that Mayakovsky spent in the United States, after his trip to Mexico saw some of the excellent poems that he wrote about America. A substantial part of his stay in Us (27th July to 28th October) was spent in New York. Here he met Elli Jones, who worked as his guide-cum-interpreter. Elli Jones gave birth to a female child in June 1926 and Mayakovsky accepted the child to be his.
In Soviet Union, for long, there were rumours about Vladimir Vladimirovich’s love affair and the child. Prof. Bengdt Jangfaldt, who is considered to be an authority on Mayakovsky, after carefully examining Mayakovsky’s and Lily Brik’s archives, wrote in detail about Mayakovsky’s ‘Two Ellis’.
In Mayakovsky’s archives some letters written by Elli Jones and some photographs of both, the mother and the daughter, were found. Researchers knew about the existence of Mayakovsky’s daughter, but no one ever thought of bringing these two women into the focus of any controversy. In 1989 Patricia J. Thompson, Professor of Women’s Studies in New York, disclosed her identity as Mayakovsky’s daughter. Soon the life history of Mrs Thompson was published in Soviet journals.
Helen Patricia Jones (who, like her mother, was also called Elli) was born on 15th June 1926 in New York and her mother Elli Jones (Elizabeth Petrovna Zeibert) was born in 1904. In the beginning of 20’s she met George E. Jones who was working as a representative of American Radio Association. They got married in 1923 and left Moscow. Subsequently they settled down in New York.
While in Moscow, Elli Jones had once seen Mayakovsky but she was introduced to him only in New York. The week-ends, in August and September 1925, were often spent together along with famous futurist poet David Burlyuk at the Camp Nitgedaijnet. During these two months Mayakovsky wrote about ten of his very famous poems about America.
Like in case of Tatyana Yakovleva, almost all, except one or two of Elli Jones’ letters to Vladimir Vladimirovich are lost (of course some covers addressed to Mayakovsky, bearing sender’s name as Elli Jones witness the correspondence between them). But from these letters it is clear that by the end of spring, in 1926, Mayakovsky came to know that he is destined to become father. In May, Elli Jones requested him to send her some money and soon after the birth of her daughter, she informed him about the same. Mayakovsky reacted with restraint. In his letter to her he expressed his desire to come to New York, but could not do so. In Dec 1926 Elli Jones sent him a Christmas card after which there seems to be no communication between the two. Only in 1928 when Mayakovsky went to Paris, he went to Neitze just for two days. He spent these two days with Elli Jones and his daughter. On his return to Paris Mayakovsky wrote to Elli Jones expressing his desire to return soon. Elli Jones promptly answered, saying that they (mother and the daughter) would be too happy to see him. She also asked him to write to them frequently. But Mayakovsky neither visited them again, nor did he answer her letters, because precisely at this time he was introduced to Tatyana Yakovleva and his stormy affair with her made him forget the whole world.
Last letter to Mayakovsky from Elli Jones was written on 12th April 1929, in which she informed him about her departure to New York. Informing him her New York address she requested him to note down the same with the comment that in case of his death Elli Jones should also be informed about the same. Mayakovsky wrote down her address in his diary, but after his death, no one informed Elli Jones. She came to know about only through newspapers.
Later Elli Jones did her Masters in Slavic Languages from Millersville College, University of Pennsylvania and spent her remaining life teaching German, French and Russian. She passed away in 1985 in Lancaster (Pennsylvania State).
Such was the irony of fate! Vladimir Vladimirovich longed for eternal love, and he got it more than once. But every time it was snatched away from him by cruel fate. With every such tragic shock he came closer to his death. In the end when Veronica Polonskaya was almost ready to marry him and had decided to sacrifice her life and career for him, he, probably, just could not believe it and fearing that Polonskaya would also be separated from him, he finished his own life.
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