150. TO A. V. LUNACHARSKY (original) (raw)

V. I. Lenin

150

To: A. V. LUNACHARSKY

Written: Written on May 6, 1921
Published: First published in 1957 in Kommunist No. 18. Printed from the original.
Source: Lenin Collected Works, Progress Publishers,1976, Moscow,Volume 45, pages 138c-139a.
Translated: Yuri Sdobnikov
Transcription\Markup: R. Cymbala
Public Domain: Lenin Internet ArchiveYou may freely copy, distribute, display and perform this work; as well as make derivative and commercial works. Please credit “Marxists Internet Archive” as your source. • README

Aren’t you ashamed to vote for printing 5,000 copies of Mayakovsky’s “150,000,000”?

It is nonsense, stupidity, double-dyed stupidity and affectation.[1]

I believe such things should be published one in ten, and not more than 1,500 copies, for libraries and cranks.

As for Lunacharsky, he should be flogged for his futurism.

6/V.

Lenin

Notes

[1] The poem “150,000,000” had signs of V. V. Mayakovsky’s early futuristic trend: it was written in a mannered style and cast in a complicated form; he denied the classical heritage and extolled futurism as the only literary trend consonant with the times.