The LEF review [Front gauche des arts]

The appearance of the LEF review, the mouthpiece of the Left Front of the Arts created by Vladimir Mayakovsky in March 1923, represented a key moment not only in the history of Russian Futurism, but also in the developing relationship between art and power, and between aesthetics and politics, in the Soviet Union in the aftermath of the civil war, in the context of the NEP (the New Economic Policy). The five issues published between 1923 and 1924 were a final attempt to merge the 'art' front with the 'life' front, and to construct 'life through art'.
By Gérard Conio, professor emeritus at Nancy-2 University and director of collections with the Editions de l'Âge d'Homme