Poetry about the Russian Revolution often documents the dramatic shift from the Tsarist autocracy to the Soviet regime, exploring themes of radical hope, political violence, betrayal, and the fate of the individual in the collective; Vladimir Mayakovsky's avant-garde and revolutionary verse directly championed the Bolshevik cause, using bold, public language and striking graphic layouts; A poem could use the metaphor of a 'shattered crown' or a 'shipwrecked empire' to describe the fall of the Tsar and the ensuing chaos of the Russian Revolution; Boris Pasternak’s work, and the persecution faced by poets like Osip Mandelstam, demonstrates the conflict between artistic freedom and the ideological control that followed the initial promise of the Russian Revolution; The imagery of 'Red' flags, 'workers' fists,' and 'winter snow' often serves as symbolic shorthand for the upheaval and suffering intrinsic to the Russian Revolution; A narrative poem could trace the trajectory of an idealist from the exhilarating early days of the revolution to the grim realities of the subsequent civil war.