Veniamin Smekhov - Mayakovsky and Lily Brik

Many famous singers, comedians and actors from Russia performed in Australia at the turn of the century and were guests of the SBS Russian program . Among them was leading actor of the famous Moscow Taganka Theatre, a movie star, director and writer Veniamin Smekhov. His concerts were a big success in Australia, and we asked him to record some of his material for the radio. Fortunately the recordings survived and we are happy to preserve them on our web archives In this recording he speaks about one of the most prominent romantic relationships in the Soviet history of literature - between poet Vladimir Mayakovsky and his beloved muse Lily Brik, a socialite, connected to many leading figures in the Russian avant-garde

Vladimir Maiakovski Russian writer and poet in 1926 at Yalta (four years before his suicide in 1930) here with with Lili Brik Source: Hulton Archive

Source: SBS

Source: SBS