150. To A. V. LUNACHARSKY

Written on May 6, 1921 · First published in 1957 in Kommunist No. 18. Printed from the original. · page 138

Aren’t you ashamed to vote for printing 5,000 copies of Mayakovsky’s “150,000,000”?

It is nonsense, stupidity, double-dyed stupidity and affectation.^[1]

I believe such things should be published one in ten, and not more than 1,500 copies, for libraries and cranks.

As for Lunacharsky, he should be flogged for his futurism.

6/V.

Lenin

Notes

[1] The poem “150,000,000” had signs of V. V. Mayakovsky’s early futuristic trend: it was written in a mannered style and cast in a complicated form; he denied the classical heritage and extolled futurism as the only literary trend consonant with the times.