Mayakovsky — Money — Personal Brand: Vladimir Mayakovsky’s Publishing Contracts as Financial and Creative Documents

The article is devoted to the analysis of the economic component of Vladimir Mayakovsky’s life. For the first time, as an important source of creative and economic activity of the poet, his publishing contracts are introduced into scientific circulation. A general description of the surviving treaties is given and some of the most revealing and characteristic of them are published. The poet’s contracts of 1925 are considered separately. A comparative analysis of Mayakovsky’s publishing contracts with Sergey Yesenin’s contracts is carried out. Special attention is paid to Mayakovsky’s marketing strategies, his efforts aimed at building a personal brand and media appeal through advertising in periodicals and public appearances, which helped achieve financial success in creative work. The preparation and publication of author’s collections was only one of the types of Mayakovsky’s earnings. To understand the overall picture, the article shows other sources of his income — from creating posters and advertising texts, writing screenplays and plays, newspaper and magazine publications, holding creative evenings in the USSR and abroad, etc.