Discusses the dynamics underlying the suicides of 2 famous Russian poets, Serguey Yesenin and Vladimir Mayahovsky in 1925 and 1930, in light of the Soviet attitude that suicide no longer exists in the U.S.S.R. “as a social problem.” The importance of poetry in the lives of the Russian people is discussed and it is suggested that the suicides of 2 such poets is “undoubtedly 1 of the reasons that suicide is a sensitive topic with the ruling hierarchy of the Soviet Union.”