Kharms and Mayakovsky

On October 25, 1928, the first "founding" evening took place at the House of the Press, featuring five poets (including Vaginov). The next day, the Oberiuts (as we can now call them) tried to make themselves known to a wider audience — at Mayakovsky's evening at the Capella.

On the eve of the event, scheduled for October 26, Kharms came to Mayakovsky's room at the Eliseevsky Hotel and asked for permission to read a declaration of the new literary group from the stage at the Capella. Kharms knew how to win over his interlocutor (let us recall his interaction with Malevich). Mayakovsky agreed to give the young poet and his friends a platform, without even bothering to read the declaration in advance. At the beginning of the evening, he announced that "a rather interesting young group" would now perform. The Oberiuts took the stage.

According to Bakhterev, all seven Oberiuts participated in the event; according to other accounts, only Kharms, Vvedensky, and Levin took part. The manifesto (more precisely, its draft version written by Zabolotsky) was read by Vvedensky, followed by poems. The audience received them with some puzzlement, but Mayakovsky rather liked the Oberiuts and took their collections for "New LEF." An article about OBERIU for this publication was specially written by a certain "roving correspondent" of Komsomolskaya Pravda (according to Bakhterev — the aforementioned Klyuykov). Neither the poems nor the article appeared in the magazine. It is said that Osip Brik opposed this performance. Manuscripts by Kharms and Vvedensky were kept in the so-called "LEF trash bin" (the archive of works rejected by the editorial board) and from there ended up in the collection of N.I. Khardzhiev (Kharms's poems were preserved, but Vvedensky's were not).

Source: http://www.d-harms.ru/library/daniil-harms-zhizn-cheloveka-na-vetru4.html