Osip Brik is a Soviet literary critic, writer, critic, prominent researcher and popularizer of the work of Vladimir Mayakovsky. He belonged to the circle of close friends of the poet and devoted most of his creative life to working on his legacy.
The beginning of the biography
Osip Maksimovich Brik was born in 1888 into an intelligent Jewish family belonging to the merchant class. He received a good legal education, but from a young age he was distinguished by a penchant for literature. Parents fully supported the son's hobby and his creative pursuits, but feared that literature would not be able to provide him with a livelihood.
Since 1916, Osip was seriously engaged in journalism, tried himself in literature. On his initiative, OPOYAZ (Society for the Study of the Literary Language) was created. He participated in associations of left art, was friends with famous futurists, among whom were Burliuk, Kruchenykh, Mayakovsky.
Work and creativity
The main works of Brik are associated with Vladimir Mayakovsky. Brick writes numerous articles, gives lectures, leads a literary circle, prepares collections of the poet's works. Unfortunately, many plans were not implemented, these include a dictionary of poetic language, personal memories, analysis of diaries. In collaboration with Mayakovsky, he wrote a series of political manifestos and the play "Radio October". Osip Maksimovich published several stories that are not being republished today.
Since the late 1920s, Brick moved to the cinema, wrote scripts, acted as a director and even starred in a small role. During the war years he worked in the text department of "Windows TASS".
Personal life
In 1912, Brick met Lily Kagan, a few months later the young people got married. Osip's parents were not delighted with such an early marriage, but they received their daughter-in-law warmly, recognizing her as educated and intelligent. Lilya was passionately in love with Osip, he doubted his feelings for a long time. Later, Brick admitted that in this union he always played second violin, fully recognizing the primacy of his wife.
The meeting with Mayakovsky took place later, the poet was a friend of Lily's younger sister Elsa. However, the first meeting with the fatal beauty turned out to be fateful - Mayakovsky fell in love, as it turned out later, forever. By 1915, Brick's relationship with his wife turned into friendly, they did not plan to leave, but the passion left their life. As a result, Briki and Mayakovsky began to live together, while Lily Yurievna always emphasized that there was never any talk of "menage a trois". During this period, she was sincerely passionate about Mayakovsky, and Brik became her most reliable comrade and friend. Mayakovsky had the same feelings for Osip.
The joint life continued until the tragic death of the poet. Then Lilya again married the commander Vitaly Primakov, and Brik himself married Evgenia Zhemchuzhnaya, who became not only a wife, but also an assistant in her work. The couple was in excellent relations with Osip's ex-wife, supported her in every possible way. The family idyll was interrupted in 1945: Osip died suddenly of cardiac arrest.
