Lilya Yuryevna Brik

Independent activity 1891–1978 ✕ Suicide

Mayakovsky's lover, muse of the Russian avant-garde and guardian of his legacy

In April 1930 Mayakovsky's suicide note read: "My family is Lilya Brik, Mama, my sisters and Veronika Vitoldovna Polonskaya."

Born in Moscow into a Jewish lawyer's family, she married the critic Osip Brik in 1912 and in 1915 met Vladimir Mayakovsky, becoming his lover and the chief addressee of his poetry. Still married to Osip, she lived with Mayakovsky from 1918, and their home was a salon for the Futurists and the LEF (Left Front of Art) circle. Mayakovsky's farewell note named her first among his family; she received half of his literary estate and supervised his collected works. Her 1935 letter to Stalin about the neglect of his legacy led to Mayakovsky's official canonisation as the foremost Soviet poet. She later lived as the wife of Vitaly Primakov and then of Vasily Katanyan.

Also known as: Lili Brik · Lily Brik