Vladimir Vladimirovich Mayakovsky (1893-1930) was a Soviet poet, playwright, artist and actor. He was an important figure of the Russian Futurist movement and signed the 1912 Futurist publication 'A Slap in the Face of Public Taste'. In 1915 Mayakovsky's first major poem 'A Cloud in Trousers' was published by Osip Brik; it was written through the eyes of a spurned lover and depicted love, revolution, religion and art. He later fell in love with Osip's wife, Lilya Brik and it is to her that he dedicated his poem 'The Backbone Flute'. Lilya's memoirs reveal that her husband Osip had also fallen in love with Mayakovsky ("How could I have possibly failed to fall for him, if Osya loved him so?" – she argued.)