The сoncept of future in the artistic system of V. Mayakovsky and its constants

The article is devoted to the concept of the Future as one of the key and comprehensive categories that characterize the work of V. V. Mayakovsky. The importance of this concept was already realized by the poet’s contemporaries M. Gorky, K. Chukovsky, M. Tsvetaeva. However, in the Soviet years, the topic was narrowed down to an ideologically motivated “communist future.” A significant methodological update that took place at the turn of the century allowed to expand the context of research, to compare Mayakovsky’s works about the future with the philosophical views of Russian cosmism, N. F. Fedorov’s ideas of the resurrection, the scientific theories of Lobachevsky, Tsiolkovsky, and Einstein. These achievements of Russian science were successfully integrated into the global cultural space, where the phenomenon of Mayakovsky was actively received. Against the background of various theoretical and methodological approaches to the study and interpretation of the Future, Mayakovsky’s worldview examines the poet’s characteristic desire to create an image of the life of a person and society dynamically, from the present time to several centuries ahead. To systematize the concepts associated with the concept of the Future, we propose a kind of a metaphorical time scale, on which four constants are designated on a vertical axis: today, tomorrow, future, and eternity. Each of the ascending levels is associated with the reflection of ideas about the Future, with its active development, inherent in Mayakovsky throughout his life. The desire to anticipate and bring the Future closer through creativity and the construction of utopian models of life, love, art, and an ideal society is clearly reflected at all the levels under consideration.