In the early 1910s, the name Burlyuk sounded like a challenge. Brothers David, Vladimir, and Nikolai, sons of the estate manager of Count Mordvinov in Chernyanka near Kherson, transformed the steppe estate into a headquarters for new art. Here, 'Gileya' was born - a group that named itself after the ancient name of Taurida. Khlebnikov, Livshits, and Mayakovsky came here.

The eldest, David, called himself the 'father of Russian futurism.' He was a one-eyed artist with a monocle and a painted face. In 1912, he signed the manifesto 'A Slap in the Face of Public Taste' along with Mayakovsky, Khlebnikov, and Kruchyonykh, proposing to 'throw Pushkin off the steamboat of modernity.' Vladimir painted powerful, almost sculptural works. Nikolai was the quiet poet of the group.

The revolution scattered the family. Vladimir died in 1917 on the Salonika front. Nikolai was shot during the Civil War. David moved east: through Siberia, he reached Japan, where he spent about two years, writing a lot and selling works to pay for his journey further. In 1922, he arrived in New York with his wife Marusya and sons.

In America, Burlyuk remained tireless. He wrote, published books, and together with Marusya, released the magazine Color and Rhyme. He spent his last decades on Long Island, in Hampton Bays. He maintained sympathies for his Soviet homeland and visited the USSR twice, in 1956 and 1965, but never returned there permanently.

David Burlyuk died in 1967, outliving almost all those with whom he once gave a 'slap' to the era. His legacy is divided between two continents, just like his fate.