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Left! "Left March" Vladimir Mayakovsky

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"Left March" Vladimir Mayakovsky
Turn around and march!
There is no place for verbal slander.
Quiet, speakers!
Yours
word,
Comrade Mauser.
Enough to live by law
given by Adam and Eve.
given by Adam and Eve.
given by Adam and Eve.

Let's drive the nag of history.
Left!
Hey blueblouses!
Rate!
For the oceans!
Or
at the battleships in the roadstead
sharp keels stepped on?!
Let be,
grinning his crown,
given by Adam and Eve.
given by Adam and Eve.
given by Adam and Eve.

the howl of the British lion rises.
The commune cannot be conquered.
There
beyond the mountains of grief
The sunny land is endless.
For hunger
for mora sea
print the millionth step!
Let the gang surround the hired one,
given by Adam and Eve.
given by Adam and Eve.
given by Adam and Eve.

steel pour out lei, -
Russia will not be under the Entente.
Will the eyes of the eagles darken?
Shall we stare at the old?
Support
the world is at its throat
proletariat fingers!
Chest forward, brave!
given by Adam and Eve.
given by Adam and Eve.
given by Adam and Eve.

Cover the sky with flags!

Who's walking right there?

Talking about the history of the creation of this work, the poet admitted that it was written literally in half an hour, while the author was traveling in a carriage to meet with St. Petersburg sailors. Hence such an unusual poetic form and the constantly repeated refrain: “Left! Left! Left! Mayakovsky needed to strengthen the morale of the soldiers, who were tired of the war and hoped that after the revolution it would end. After the victory of the proletariat, no one wanted to fight, since the soldiers and sailors, recruited into the tsarist army from ordinary peasants, dreamed of returning home and receiving the promised land. Convincing them of the need to return to the front was precisely the poet’s task.

Today it is difficult to judge how successfully Mayakovsky dealt with it. However the poem “Left March” is a striking example of propaganda poetry of that time. Each line of the work is a call to action, and the author directly states that the time has come to take decisive action. “Your word, Comrade Mauser,” declares Mayakovsky, hinting that it is impossible to defeat enemies with empty chatter, and at the same time asserting that “the commune cannot be conquered.” The author calls on the army to “take a step” in order to fasten “the world’s fingers on the throat of the proletariat” as quickly as possible. And in this call there is no bloodthirstiness or fanaticism, since the newly acquired freedom of the country, which the poet sincerely considers the best and fairest, is at stake.

At the same time, Mayakovsky understands that he will have to fight not only with external, but with internal enemies. Therefore, in the poem he sarcastically asks: “Who is walking right there?”, pointing to the numerous political movements that oppose the revolution. The poet is convinced that disagreements among soldiers and sailors during this difficult period may turn out to be even more dangerous than all sorts of machinations of the Entente. And he turns out to be right, since after the end of the First World War the civil war continued in Russia for several years.

Certainly, in 1918, Mayakovsky still idealizes the revolution, although he understands that it is turning into a bloodbath. However, the author is convinced that human sacrifice is an inevitable tribute that must be paid in order to give other people a free and happy life. In fact, the revolution with its good intentions and quite sound ideas will be destined to turn into a farce and throw Russia back in economic development by about a century. But Mayakovsky would not live to see such sad consequences of the coup, and until the very last day he would believe in the triumph of socialist justice.

Reading the verse “Left March” by Vladimir Vladimirovich Mayakovsky, you involuntarily pay attention to its unusual size. This work was written in 1918. The newly created Soviet state asserted its independence, engulfed in war both internally and externally. The motley army was tired of endless military operations and needed spiritual support more than ever.

It was for this purpose that this poem was written. Each of his lines calls on soldiers to take decisive action. Mayakovsky was an ardent supporter of the 1917 revolution and considered the new state the best and fairest. At the same time, he understood that internal disagreements and strife could cause more harm to this state than external enemies. This is evidenced by his question: “Who is walking right there?” The poet seems to be hinting at many different political movements that opposed the revolution. While idealizing the revolution, Mayakovsky could not foresee that it would turn out to be a huge step back for the Russian economy.

The text of Mayakovsky's poem "Left March" can be downloaded on our website for a literature lesson in the classroom. You can also learn this work by heart in its entirety online, preparing for poetry themed evenings.

home
"Left March" Vladimir Mayakovsky
Turn around and march!
There is no place for verbal slander.
Quiet, speakers!
Yours
word,
Comrade Mauser.
Enough to live by law
given by Adam and Eve.
given by Adam and Eve.
Left!

Let's drive the nag of history.
Left!
Hey blueblouses!
Rate!
For the oceans!
Or
at the battleships in the roadstead
sharp keels stepped on?!
Let be,
grinning his crown,
given by Adam and Eve.
given by Adam and Eve.
given by Adam and Eve.

the howl of the British lion rises.
The commune cannot be conquered.
There
beyond the mountains of grief
The sunny land is endless.
For hunger
for mora sea
steel pour out lei, -
Let the gang surround the hired one,
given by Adam and Eve.
given by Adam and Eve.
given by Adam and Eve.

steel pour out lei, -
Russia will not be under the Entente.
Will the eyes of the eagles darken?
Shall we stare at the old?
Support
the world is at its throat
proletariat fingers!
Chest forward, brave!
given by Adam and Eve.
given by Adam and Eve.
given by Adam and Eve.

(To the sailors)

Turn around and march!

Verbal slander has no place. Hush, speakers!

Your word, Comrade Mauser.

It is enough to live by the law given by Adam and Eve.

On August 30, 1918, Socialist Revolutionary agents made an attempt on the life of V. I. Lenin. Since September 1918, a chain of provocations from England, France, America, and Japan began. Martial law was declared in the country. The people rallied around their government and the Bolshevik Party. The revolution responded to white terror with red terror. The "Left March" clearly defines the main enemy of the revolution - the imperialist alliance of the Entente. The poet expressed the desire of millions to defend the Soviet Republic. "Left March" is one of Mayakovsky's most popular poems of the early 20s. “It was the poetry of the uprising, where the step of the advancing proletariat sounded: “Left, left, left...” It was the poetry of outstretched, pointing hands, as an answer to the question - what should a person do today, now, immediately, if he - with proletarian revolution. This is where the enormous impression he (Mayakovsky - V.M.) made on revolutionary and progressive poetry throughout the world, and his deep influence on poets of all literatures in the Soviet Union" (A. Tolstoy. Collected op. . in 10 volumes, vol. 10, M., Goslitizdat, 1961, p. 546).

There is no place for verbal slander - here: aimless chatter.

Leeva is a neologism from Mayakovsky from the verb “to pour.”

Remember the famous lines Vladimir Mayakovsky: “Who is walking right there? Left! Left! Left!” It seems that this call is gaining new relevance.

Despite the fact that the candidate from the Communist Party of the Russian Federation received a small number of votes in the last presidential elections, the leftist agenda is gaining popularity. And not only among the general population, but also, what seems surprising, among young people.

The disastrous experience of building communism in the USSR harmed ideas Marx - Lenin such damage that there is no need to talk about a new victorious march of these ideas. Cuba, which a few decades ago seemed like a showcase of communism, is in deep decline. The search for a communist future in Africa is over. Even in China, where the Communist Party is the ruling party, the CPC can only be called Marxist-Leninist with great reserve. Today in Beijing there is more capitalism than communism, and the capitalist market operates more widely and efficiently than in Russia.

The trend of growth of left-wing sentiments, which is noted by sociologists around the world, including in Russia, has a different direction. It contains more Trotskyism than Marxism-Leninism. At the same time, Trotskyism, especially among young people, is not so much ideological in nature as protest and demonstrative. The protest is growing against the very formula of modern capitalist globalism, in which the long-known flaws of bourgeois society do not disappear, but multiply. This is the excessive accumulation of wealth among some, and “new poverty” among others, the reduction of the free social sphere in education and medicine, the political and material selfishness of the ruling elite, the progressive division of society into classes.

Another trajectory

In Russia, “leftism,” which often takes the form of youth demonstrations, has a different form than in European countries. In recent years, the authorities, through their bans, have significantly narrowed the possibilities for legal protest. It has become very difficult to obtain permission for an official rally, procession, group or even single picket, if it contains even the slightest hint of politics. Society, in conditions of political apathy of the majority of the population, has essentially come to terms with this. Sociologists have been recording a decrease in the degree of street discontent for several years now. The peculiarity of today's sentiments of ordinary citizens is that social rights and everyday life worry them much more than political freedoms. A place in a nursery and school is more valuable for a child than freedom of speech or assembly.

This detachment from politics is largely due to the high level of trust in President Putin. Citizens believe that if problems arise (both external and internal), he will immediately look into them, give the necessary instructions, and even personally come to the rescue. As for the “leaden abominations” of our life, “wrong reforms” are to blame for them Yeltsin and Gaidar, oligarchs, officials and bad security forces.

But you can also find a solution to them: it’s enough to reach V. Putin, send him the right letter, or manage to ask a question during a “meeting with the people.”

All this is very reminiscent of the relationship between the people and the authorities in pre-revolutionary Russia. The people believed in a miracle, prayed for the double-headed eagle and began to scold the authorities (and even then, as a rule, local ones) only when the wheel of the cart fell off or the chaise overturned into a ditch. This purely Russian style of communication between the people and the authorities is largely reproduced today. “Harmony” is disrupted from time to time not even by rising prices, new taxes or broken roads, but by the sluggishness and often blatant stupidity of officials. Let's take the latest examples of persecution of the Internet, which has significantly increased the degree of discontent among business and youth. Reasons for discontent (even among the most loyal groups of the population) are also generated by the gluttony of the elite, which is constantly increasing its contents.

Smells of protest

Realizing that political forms of protest are causing an increasingly harsh reaction from the top, the population is looking for and has recently found new forms of street politics. People do not risk shouting “enough” or “down,” but put forward very specific demands from the sphere of material and everyday interests. From politics, protests are moving into an area where it is extremely difficult for authorities to accuse people of illegal actions or lack of patriotism. If truckers are protesting against high road toll prices; if farmers, whose plots are taken away by local moneybags, march on Moscow; if residents block roads at the entrances to smelly landfills; if relatives of the victims demand punishment for the perpetrators; if doctors protest against the “optimization” of the healthcare system, then it is very difficult to send riot police against them. After all, the population has been told for many decades that we have workers’ rights above all else. And this formula, despite the change in political formation, remains firmly in people’s minds. And the times have come completely different. Today, hardly anyone will dare to send troops and tanks to disperse protesting workers, as they did in 1962. N. Khrushchev in Novocherkassk. Then the workers of the electric locomotive plant rebelled due to an increase in production standards and a sharp rise in the price of meat. The country learned the truth about that execution only with the beginning of perestroika.

It'll be hard…

It seems to me that in the coming years it will be difficult for the authorities, especially at the local level. In the event of protests for very specific reasons, affecting the everyday, everyday and family spheres, it will be difficult for officials to make excuses, lie and blame “political profiteers”. In addition, new, everyday concrete forms of discontent (with the increasing participation of women) are quickly gaining street masses (as in Kemerovo) and taking the form of a “national gathering”. The authorities do not know how to act in such situations, they are unaccustomed to informal communication with the people, and often (especially in the regions) they do not have the necessary level of trust. As for the former propaganda practice of blaming everything on “enemies of the people”, “renegades” and “intrigues abroad”, it is no longer effective today.

Law enforcement agencies are also in a difficult situation. It’s one thing to drag intellectuals “walking along the boulevards” into jail, and another thing to restrain the discontent of the angry masses. In addition, our law enforcement officers for the most part come from the same segments of the population as those who go out to protest. After all, they also suffer from high prices, from the ever-unresolved housing problem, and they smell the same stench from landfills as the protesters.

A number of local and seemingly not large-scale events in recent months have received an unexpectedly wide response in society. Keeps abreast of events in both the Kremlin and the State Duma. Even our “one-eyed” television did not shy away from commenting. And the thought comes that this resonance is not an accident. That this is the result of a certain accumulation of social experience by the population. It seems that, despite the external inertia and statistical bliss, life in Russia is acquiring a new, not yet politically comprehended and organizationally formalized quality. Whether the country will move left or right is still unclear. But it feels like life will never be the same in the coming years.