Kruchonykh was born on 21 February 1886, in the Kherson region of the Russian Empire; his parents were peasants. With the intention of becoming an artist, he went to Odessa Art School and the
Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture, publishing caricatures and occasionally exhibiting to make a living, but changed his mind in 1912 to be a poet instead. Soon after he met the Burliuk brothers, he became a major poet of
Cubo-Futurism, a style he helped to launch with his friends
David Burliuk,
Vladimir Mayakovsky,
Mikhail Larionov, and others. He helped write the drafts for the most famous Cubo-Futurist manifesto,
A Slap in the Face of Public Taste, published in 1912, notable for its statement to throw the writers of old "off the steamboat of modernity". The first example of
zaum poetry was by him; called
Dyr bul shchyl, it was published in a 1913 book called
Pomada. Together with
Velemir Khlebnikov, he is considered inventor of this poetry style. Kruchenykh was also the first Russian poet to try writing a poem only using vowels. Soon he became one of the most prolific Cubo-Futurist writers, alongside
Elena Guro, Khlebnikov, and others. The books were often lithographed by hand, illustrated by fellow Futurists, and titles included ''A Little Duck's Nest of... Bad Words
, Hermits: a Poem
, Worldbackwards
, and Explodity
. They were also sometimes in collaboration with each other; for example, with Olga Rozanova, he invented the samopismo'', a kind of Futurist book where text and images are literally connected. (left), Kruchenykh (middle) and
Kazimir Malevich (right) at the First All-Russian Congregation of the Bards of the Future (The
Futurist Poets) meeting in March 1912. Photo by
Karl Bulla. He went to the house of the composer
Mikhail Matyushin with
Kazimir Malevich that summer (Khlebnikov was supposed to visit him too, but he lost the cheque to pay for his train ticket that Matyushin had sent him); they collaborated to write the Futurist opera
Victory over the Sun, with music by Matyushin, prologue by Khlebnikov, libretto by Kruchenykh, and set designs by Malevich. This opera remains his most famous work; it is about a group of Futurists who capture the sun and defy gravity, much to the annoyance to everybody else. It premiered at the Luna Park Theatre at St. Petersburg, in a performance organised by the
Union of the Youth. This play was written in a sort of zaum, the costumes were of cardboard, and a real aeroplane and aviator made an appearance; the audience booed throughout the show, and overall it caused great outrage. He, like his friends, also caused shock when he took to lecturing and poetry recitals, and on one occasion, he had to use his shoes to fight back the enraged audience from leaping up and attacking him. Another time, he spilled tea over many of the audience, an event which was probably intentional. After Zdanevich left Georgia (first to
Turkey, then to
France), Kruchenykh returned to Russia in 1921, publishing more books, writing essays, and lecturing with friends; his views soon became so shocking the authorities decided to restrict his access to publishers, so he made his books himself. When the Soviets banned the avant-garde, he got a job as an archivist and gave up poetry. He also collected and sold rare books and manuscripts written by the people of his generation, eventually falling into obscurity with only occasional acknowledgment from the public. In 1932 he wrote his memoirs. He died of
pneumonia in 1968. ==Legacy==