How are Verses Made? by Vladimir Mayakovsky

Vladimir Mayakovsky was born in 1893 in the village of Bagdadi, near Kutayis (now renamed Mayakovsky) in the Republic of Georgia. In June of 1906 his family moved to Moscow, where he entered high school and was brought into political work with the then Russian Social Democratic Workers' Party (Bolsheviks). He became a member of the party the following year. He was arrested and released several times, and befriended several poets of the Futurist Group. His first play Vladimir Mayakovsky: A Tragedy was written in verse and caused a riot when it premiered in 1913. His major works include A Cloud in Trousers, Man, and his play Mystery Bouffe (1918). Most of these works were written in support of the new Soviet order, but Mayakovsky's later works, such as The Bedbug (1928) and The Bathhouse (1930) were satirical criticisms of the new order. He grew increasingly disillusioned with Soviet life and committed suicide in 1930.