Vasily Kamensky

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Vasily Vasilevich Kamensky (Василий Васильевич Каменский, 1884-1961) was a Russian Futurist poet, playwright, and artist as well as one of the first Russian aviators.

Kamensky was born on a steamboat on the Kama River near the city of Perm, where his father worked as a goldfield inspector. He embarked on a writing career but gave it up after receiving negative reviews. As one of Russia’s first aviators, he suffered a nearly fatal crash in Poland, after which David Burliuk persuaded him to return to literature and to join Burliuk and Mayakovsky on their Futurist Tour of Russia, lecturing and giving poetry readings in outrageous attire. Kamensky fled Moscow during World War I, then returned and, in the mid-1920s, became a member of Mayakovsky’s Leftist Front of the Arts (LEF). In 1948, three years after both his legs were amputated, he gave his last public address at an event dedicated to Mayakovsky. A stroke left him paralyzed until his death in Moscow. (Source)

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