Lilya Brik

Lilya Yuryevna Brik(alternatively spelledLiliorLily; Russian:Ли́ля Ю́рьевна Брик; néeKagan; November 11 [O.S.October 30] 1891 – August 4, 1978) was a Russian author and socialite, connected to many leading figures in theRussian avant-gardebetween 1914 and 1930. She was the lover and muse ofVladimir Mayakovsky, even while she was married to poet, editor and literary criticOsip Brik(1888–1945).Pablo Nerudacalled Lilya the "muse of Russian avant-garde". Her name was frequently abbreviated by her contemporaries as "Л.Ю." or "Л.Ю.Б." which are the first letters of the Russian word "любовь"lyubov, "love".
She was bornLilya Yuryevna Kagan(Лиля Юрьевна Каган) into a wealthy Jewish family of Yuri Alexandrovich Kagan, a lawyer and Yelena Youlevna Berman, a music teacher in Moscow. Both she and her sister Ella "Elsa" received excellent education and were able to speak fluent German and French, and to play the piano. Lilya graduated fromMoscow Institute of Architecture.
As teenagers, the sisters were famous for their beauty. Their portraits were done byAlexander Rodchenko, Alexander Tyshler,David Shterenberg,David Burlyuk,Fernand Légerand later byHenri MatisseandMarc Chagall. When she was twenty years old, Lilya married poet-futuristand poetry critic Osip Brik whom she had met when she was 14 and he was 17; they were married March 26, 1912. (Her sisterElsamarriedLouis Aragon, a French writer).
Mayakovsky's sexual relationship with Lili lasted from 1917 to 1923, and afterwards he continued to have a close friendship with the couple: "For the rest of his life, Osip Brik, Lilya's husband, remained the poet's most trusted adviser, his most fervent proselytizer, and also a co-founder with him of the most dynamic avant-garde journal of the early Soviet era,Left Front of Art."
In 1915, Lilya's sister Elsa befriended aspiringfuturistpoet and graphic artist Vladimir Mayakovsky and invited him home, but he fell in love with Lilya. Despite the calamities ofWorld War I,Russian Civil Warand throughout the 1920s, their love affair caught and stayed in public attention, possibly because she did not divorce her husband.
After June 1915, Mayakovsky's lyrical poetry was almost exclusively devoted to Lilya (with notable exception of late 1920s to Tatyana Yakovleva). He frequently explicitly dedicated his poems or referred in them to Lilya by name, for example in his "Облако в штанах" ("A Cloud in Trousers", 1915), "Флейта-позвоночник" ("The Backbone Flute", 1916), "Про это" ("About This", 1922), "Лилечка! Вместо письма" ("Lilechka! Instead of a Letter").
In 1918, Mayakovsky wrote the scenario for the movie "Закованная фильмой" (Chained by the Film), in which he and Lilya starred. The movieNeptune– produced by a private movie company – has been lost, with the exception of a few trial shots. Gianni Toti used them in his 1980s movie.
In 1926, after visiting JewishkolkhozesinCrimea, she produced a documentary, "Еврей и земля" (The Jew and the Land), about Jewish communal farming in the USSR,with the script co-written by Mayakovsky andVictor Shklovsky. In 1928–1929, Lilya turned to directing a half-fiction-half-documentary motion picture "Стеклянный глаз" (The Glass Eye), a parody on "bourgeoiscinematography".
Some authors consider that his passion for Lilya was one of the motives that drove Mayakovsky to suicide in 1930 at his Moscow apartment immediately after his breakup with Veronika Polonskaya. Lilya, who at the time was inBerlin, denied this and wrote that earlier she saved him twice from committing suicide.
Later in 1930, after divorcing Osip earlier that year, she married Soviet GeneralVitaly Primakov. Primakov was arrested in 1936 and executed in 1937 in relation to theCase of Trotskyist Anti-Soviet Military Organization, a part of theMoscow Trials. The charges were dropped and he was rehabilitated posthumously in 1957.
In her 1935 letter toJoseph Stalin, Lilya Brik complained that Mayakovsky's poetic heritage was getting neglected. Stalin made a famous remark toNikolai Yezhov:
In 1938, she married writerVasily Abgarovich Katanyanand they spent forty years together.
Lilya Brik died by suicide at the age of 86 when she was terminally ill. She left sculptures and writings. Recently published letters between the sisters in the course of more than five decades (except six years ofWorld War II) reveal insights into life and cultural exchange across theIron Curtain.
Speculations about Lilya's and Osip's involvement with theNKVDandState Political Directoratestarted during their lifetime. According to the Swedish critic and Mayakovsky's biographerBengt Jangfeldt[sv],Boris Pasternakonce toldRoman Jakobsonthat Lilya Brik "frightened" him by saying that her guests would start supper "right after Osya returns fromCheka", and that he later called their apartment "Moscow police department".There's also a well-known story how someone – supposedlySergei Yesenin– wrote a joke poem on Briks' doors with chalk that read "You think that Brik lives here, a language specialist? A fink lives here and a сhekist".Anna Akhmatovaalso called the house of Briks "a saloon where writers met with chekists" according toLydia Chukovskaya.
In her memoirs the artist Elizaveta Lavinskaya, a friend of Briks and Mayakovsky, mentions that at some point new persons started visiting theLEFmeetings, includingYakov Agranov, Zakhar Volovich and some other people later identified as high-ranking NKVD officers.A number of people also speculated about the sexual relationships between Lylia and Agranov, including the Soviet ballet dancerMaya Plisetskayain her book.However, film directorVasili Katanyan[ru], the son of Lylia's third husband Vasily Katanyan, said Brik personally denied those "fantasies" that "started circulating after Agranov's execution".
In 1990, when closed archives became available, an investigative journalist Valentin Skoryatin published an article inThe Journalistmagazine[ru]No. 5 titledWho, me, shot myself? You don't say!where he talked about the mysterious death of Mayakovsky and the inheritance Lilya received after he died. He also made public the NKVD serial numbers of both Osip and Lilya Brik (No. 24541 and No. 15073 respectively). Osip received his ID of the 7th secret department in 1920, while his wife was granted it in 1922. The article was later published as part of the bookThe Mystery of Vladimir Mayakovsky's Death. New Version of the Tragic Events Based on the Late Archive Findings.
There were attempts to present her as greedy and manipulativefemme fatale, but those who knew her noted her altruism and intelligence. She helped many aspiring talents and was acquainted with many leading figures of Russian and international culture, such asSergei Eisenstein,Lev Kuleshov,Boris Pasternak,Vsevolod Meyerhold,Kazimir Malevich,Sergei Paradjanov,Maya Plisetskaya,Rodion Shchedrin,Andrei Voznesensky,Yves St. LaurentandPablo Picasso.
Lilya Brik's idiomatically posed portrait appeared on the cover ofLEF magazine(Leftist Front of Arts) in the 1920s, a magazine concerningDadaandConstructivistart.  The portrait, designed byAlexander Rodchenko, has been reworked into other designs, including ascover artforFranz Ferdinand(albumYou Could Have It So Much Better, 2004),BeyoncéandRobyn.