Goltsshmidt's Provocative Stunts in Moscow and His Portrait by Alexey Tolstoy

The Futurist Poet Vladimir Goltsshmidt Hypnotises a Hen, Photograph Taken No Later Than 1923.

Goltsshmidt was a fairly celebrated figure of his day, and his fame rested above all on a long series of scandalous stunts. He gave lectures on strange subjects, speaking both on the benefits of hardening the body and on the harm of abstinence. Among Goltsshmidt's best-known public performances were the erection of a monument to himself beside the Bolshoi Theatre, walks through Moscow almost naked, the manifesto "Down with Shame!", and appearances in which he smashed discs over his own head, bent horseshoes straight and displayed other feats of physical culture. In addition, Goltsshmidt was a co-owner of the "Poets' Café" and kept close company with the leading Futurists of the age. He filled halls to capacity and travelled the country giving performances, especially after he was banished from Moscow.

In "Triumphant Art" Alexei Tolstoy writes of Goltsshmidt: "These were voracious young men, with magnificent stomachs and strong jaws. One of them, a 'teacher of life', to prove his manly strength would break boards over his head before the whole public, and in special proclamations urged girls to cast off their prejudices, offering them his own services. (A year ago [in 1918] I saw him in Moscow; he was wearing a silk blouse, gold bracelets and earrings, and his hair was powdered with silver."