Lily Brik, one of Russian and Soviet culture's most enigmatic women who
was admired by many important men, was known for her wit and beauty and
helped many talented people to become famous.
She was born Lilya Urievna Kagan, in 1891, in Moscow, Russia, into a
Jewish family of a lawyer and a music teacher. Young Lilya grew up in a
trilingual family environment, she received an excellent private
education and absorbed from the intellectual and artistic circles of
both Russian capitals, St. Petersburg and Moscow. Lilya studied piano
professionally; in addition to her native Russian and Yiddish she spoke
fluent German and French. She studied art and architecture and
graduated from Moscow Institute of Architecture.
Lilya and her junior sister, Elsa, who later became known as
Elsa Triolet, were both famous for their
personal charm and special beauty. Lilya was just a teenage girl when
she attracted attention of the famous Russian opera basso
Feodor Chaliapin Sr.. At that time,
as Lilya realized the power of her charm, intellect, and sex appeal,
she became part of Russian cultural milieu. She was arguably one of the
most famous and influential women in the 1910s, 1920s, and 1930s
Russian and Soviet culture. Lily Brik's face was on the cover of LEF
magazine and on numerous posters of that time. She also helped many
talented men to become famous and happy, and some men, like poet
Mayakovsky, were unhappy without her company.
On February 26, 1912, Lilya married Osip Brik in Moscow, and soon the
couple moved to St. Petersburg. They had a dacha-home in Levashovo, an
upscale suburb of St. Petersburg. There, in July of 1915, Lilya's
junior sister, Elsa, introduced her boyfriend, poet
Vladimir Mayakovsky, to Osip and
Lilya. Mayakovsky became obsessed with both, charming and coquettish
Lilya Brik, and intellectually challenging Osip Brik. But Lilya
remained married to Osip Brik, who extended his hospitality to her
greatest admirer. Osip Brik financed the publication of futurist poetry
collection 'Cloud in Pants' (1915) by
Vladimir Mayakovsky, which was
inspired by their muse, Lilya. At that time Lilya became involved in
silent film. In 1918 she made her film debut co-starring with
Mayakovsky in
Zakovannaya filmoi (1918)
which was produced by the "Neptun" film studio in St. Petersburg.
During the Russian Revolution the Briks lived in Petrograd (St.
Petersburg). There Lilya's husband briefly served at the special
militarized Revolutionary Automobile Group, and had risen to the rank
of a Commissar. In June of 1920, the Briks moved to Moscow where Osip
Brik was hired as a Legal Councel for the CheKa (predecessor of the
KGB). From there Osip Brik was fired with a verdict, "for negligent
attitude and evasion from work", but the Briks still managed to help
emigration of the parents of writer
Boris Pasternak.
During the 1920s the Moscow apartment of Lily and Osip Brik was the
meeting place for such Russian culture luminaries as
Boris Pasternak,
Maxim Gorky,
Vladimir Mayakovsky,
Sergei Eisenstein, Kazimir
Malevich, Alexander Rodchenko,
Yuri Tynyanov,
Vsevolod Meyerhold and many others.
Lily and Osip Brik were among the most active proponents of new
artistic ideas in art, literature, theatre and film in the 1910s -
1930s Russia. They were both important members of Russian Formalism and
Futurism in literature and art. In 1922-23 Lily and Osip Brik made a
trip to Europe and visited
Wassily Kandinsky and Bauhaus in
Germany.
In the 1920s, Lily Brik directed two films. In 1926, she produced and
directed a documentary titled 'Jews on the land', based on a scenario
by Mayakovsky and Viktor Shklovskiy
about Jewish collective farms in Russia. Then Lily Brik directed a
parody on "bourgeous cinema" titled 'Steklyanny glaz' (aka.. The Glass
Eye 1929). From 1922-1928 Lily Brik was also involved in publishing the
magazine 'LEF' (Leftist Front of Arts), which became the platform for
the LEF group, and for the Russian Dada and Constructivist art. Lily
Brik's portrait by
Alexander Rodchenko appeared on the
cover of LEF magazine. She was the inspirational force for the group of
Russian avant-garde writers, artists and film directors, such as
Vladimir Mayakovsky,
Alexander Rodchenko,
Lev Kuleshov,
Dziga Vertov,
Sergei Eisenstein,
Sergei Yutkevich,
Viktor Shklovskiy,
V. Ivanov-Zhemchuzhny and
others.
In 1930, while she was on a trip in Europe, Lily Brik learned that her
close friend and film partner
Vladimir Mayakovsky committed
suicide after his breakup with actress
Veronika Polonskaya. Lily, who
previously twice saved him from committing suicide, was too far away to
be able to help him this time. After Lily Brik's letter to
Joseph Stalin, who approved her idea to
publish the collected works of Mayakovsky, his poetry was included in
the Soviet school curriculum and reissued in massive printings. She
divorced from Osip Brik. From 1930-1937 she was married to Soviet
General Vitali Primakov, who was falsely accused of relations with
Anti-Soviet Trotskyist organization and was executed in 1937, during
the Moscow Trials and "Great terror" under dictatorship of
Joseph Stalin.
During hard times Lily Brik was supported by none other, than
Nikolay Cherkasov who was a strong
supporter of retired and disabled actors and writers. He personally
donated substantial sums of money to many less fortunate actors and
cinematographers who suffered under the communist regime. Cherkasov
found that Lily Brik was left homeless in Moscow, and that she has no
income. Cherkasov used his star power to pressure the Soviet
authorities: he wrote a letter to the Soviet Government requesting
"good care and accommodation for actress Lily Brik, the widow of writer
Vladimir Mayakovsky" and soon Lily Brik was provided with a decent
place to live in central Moscow.
From 1938-1978 she was married to writer
Vasily Katanyan. The home of Lily Brik
and Vasili Katanyan was the meeting place for unofficial cultural
milieu in the 1950s and 1960s Moscow. At that time Lily Brik played
important role in supporting the new generation of talented writers,
musicians, artists, and filmmakers in the former Soviet Union. She was
instrumental in the early career of poet
Andrei Voznesensky and filmmaker
Sergei Parajanov as well as other
aspiring talents. In 1978, after suffering from an incurable illness,
she committed suicide by taking a lethal dose of sleeping pills. That
was on August 4, 1978, in Peredelkino, Moscow, Russia.
Lily Brik was model for portraits by such famous artists as
Marc Chagall, Alexander Tyshler,
Alexander Rodchenko, David Burlyuk,
Fernand Léger, and
Henri Matisse.
