(A biting satire of Bolshevism, it was written in 1925 at ...)
A biting satire of Bolshevism, it was written in 1925 at the height of the NEP period, when communism appeared to be relaxing in the Soviet Union. It is generally interpreted as an allegory of the Communist revolution and "the revolution's misguided attempt to radically transform mankind."
(It is 1918: the Russian Revolution has just ended, Ukrain...)
It is 1918: the Russian Revolution has just ended, Ukraine is in the midst of civil war, and in Kiev, the two Turbin brothers are preparing to fight for the White Guard in the wake of their beloved mother’s death. Friends charge in from the streets amid an atmosphere of heady chaos, downing vodka, keeling over, taking baths, playing the guitar, falling in love. But the new regime is poised for victory, and in its brutal triumph lies destruction for the Turbins and their world.
(As the turbulent years following the Russian revolution o...)
As the turbulent years following the Russian revolution of 1917 settle down into a new Soviet reality, the brilliant and eccentric zoologist Persikov discovers an amazing ray that drastically increases the size and reproductive rate of living organisms. At the same time, a mysterious plague wipes out all the chickens in the Soviet republics. The government expropriates Persikov's untested invention in order to rebuild the poultry industry, but a horrible mix-up quickly leads to a disaster that could threaten the entire world.
(Full of invention, they display Bulgakov's breathtaking s...)
Full of invention, they display Bulgakov's breathtaking stylistic range, moving at dizzying speed from grotesque satire to science fiction, from the plainest realism to the most madcap fantasy. "Diaboliad" is a wonderful introduction to literature's most uncategorisable and subversive genius.
(Black Snow is the story of Maxudov, a young playwright wh...)
Black Snow is the story of Maxudov, a young playwright whose play is chosen, almost at random, to be performed by the legendary Independent Theatre, and the chaos that ensues. The two co-directors of the theater, modeled after Stanislavski and his co-director, battle to control the production, star actresses throw daily fits, and with each rehearsal the chances of the play ever being ready to perform recedes.
(Zoyka's Apartment captures the exotic image and the real ...)
Zoyka's Apartment captures the exotic image and the real heartbeat of an amazing city at a fascinating moment: Moscow in the Soviet equivalent of the roaring 20's, in a pause between the cyclone of the revolution and the inferno of the purges, a window of desperate opportunity. Tremendous danger mingles with heady excitement, as everyone scrambles to get together as many rubles as possible and escape to Paris before the inevitable crackdown.
(With the ink still wet on his diploma, the twenty-five-ye...)
With the ink still wet on his diploma, the twenty-five-year-old Dr. Mikhail Bulgakov was flung into the depths of rural Russia which, in 1916-17, was still largely unaffected by such novelties as the motor car, the telephone or electric light. How his alter-ego copes (or fails to cope) with the new and often appalling responsibilities of a lone doctor in a vast country practice — on the eve of Revolution — is described in Bulgakov's delightful blend of candid realism and imaginative exuberance.
(Mikhail Bulgakov’s fantastical, funny, and devastating sa...)
Mikhail Bulgakov’s fantastical, funny, and devastating satire of Soviet life combines two distinct yet interwoven parts, one set in contemporary Moscow, the other in ancient Jerusalem, each brimming with historical, imaginary, frightful, and wonderful characters.
(A Dead Man's Memoir is a semi- autobiographical story abo...)
A Dead Man's Memoir is a semi- autobiographical story about a writer who fails to sell his novel, then fails to commit suicide. When the writer's play is taken up for production in a theater, literary success beckons, but he is not prepared to reckon with the grotesquely inflated egos of the actors, directors, and theater managers.
Mikhail Afanasyevich Bulgakov was a Soviet medical doctor, writer, novelist and satirist with an outstanding talent for depicting the grotesque, the comic, and the fantastic. He is particularly known for his novel The Master and Margarita, one of the masterpieces of the 20th century.
Background
Mikhail Bulgakov was born on May 2, 1891, in Kyiv, Russian Empire (present-day Ukraine) to a middle-class intellectual family. He was one of the seven children of Afanasiy Ivanovich Bulgakov and Varvara Bulgakova. His father was a state councilor, a professor at the Kyiv Theological Academy, as well as a prominent Russian Orthodox essayist, thinker and translator of religious texts, while his mother was a former teacher. Both of his grandfathers were clergymen in the Russian Orthodox Church.
Education
Mikhail Bulgakov attended First Kyiv Gymnasium, where he developed an interest in Russian and European literature, theatre and opera. After graduation from the Gymnasium in 1909, he continued his education as a medical student at the University of Kyiv (nowadays Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv) which he finished with a special commendation.
In 1916, Mikhail Bulgakov began serving as a surgeon at Chernovtsy hospital, later being appointed provincial physician to Smolensk province. His life in those days is reflected in his A Country Doctor's Notebook. In September 1917 Mr. Bulgakov was moved to the hospital in Vyazma, near Smolensk.
In February 1918, he returned to Kyiv, Ukraine, where he opened a private practice at his home at Andreyevsky Descent, 13. Here he lived through the Russian Civil War. Successive governments drafted the young doctor into their service while two of his brothers were serving in the White Army against the Bolsheviks.
In February 1919 he was mobilised as an army physician by the Ukrainian People's Army and assigned to the Northern Caucasus. There, he became seriously ill with typhus and barely survived. To suppress chronic pain, especially in the abdomen, he injected himself with morphine. Over the next year, his addiction grew stronger. In 1918, he abandoned morphine and never used it again. Morphine, a book released in 1926, is his account of that trying period.
In the Caucasus, he started working as a journalist. After illness Mikhail Bulgakov abandoned his career as a doctor for that of a writer. His first book was an almanac of feuilletons called Future Perspectives, written and published the same year.
In December 1919 Mr. Bulgakov moved to Vladikavkaz. He wrote and saw his first two plays, Self Defence and The Turbin Brothers, being produced for the city theater stage with great success. In 1921 Bulgakov moved to Moscow and was appointed secretary to the literary section of Glavpolitprosvet (Central Committee of the Republic for Political Education).
He then started working as a correspondent and feuilletons writer for the newspapers Gudok, Krasnaia Panorama and Nakanune, based in Berlin. Bulgakov’s first significant features of satire were his short stories, such as "The Fatal Eggs" and "Devilry," in which the real world is mixed with science fantasy for the purpose of social and moral satire.
The realistic novel The White Guard (1924) was Bulgakov's first major triumph and is notable as one of the few works published in the Soviet Union which sympathetically portray the supporters of the White cause during the civil war. This outstanding novel was never reprinted in Russia, but Bulgakov's dramatic adaptation of it, The Days of the Turbins (1926), became a fixture on the Soviet stage.
From 1926 until his death Bulgakov was closely associated with the Moscow Art Theater, for which he wrote over 30 plays, only 8 of which were performed in his lifetime. Bulgakov's plays at the Moscow Art Theatre were directed by Stanislavsky and Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko. When The Days of the Turbins was premiered at the MAT, Stalin liked it very much and reportedly saw it at least 15 times. Ivan Vasilievich, Last Days (Pushkin), and Don Quixote were banned. The premier of another, Moliėre (The Cabal of Hypocrites) received bad reviews in Pravda and the play was withdrawn from the theater repertoire. In 1928, Zoyka's Apartment and The Purple Island were staged in Moscow; both comedies were accepted by public with great enthusiasm, but critics again gave them bad reviews.
During the 1930s Bulgakov's partiality for satire and his independence as a writer kept him under a political cloud. At one time the pressure on him became so great that he asked Stalin for permission to leave the Soviet Union permanently, but Stalin refused. He also suffered from poor health and became blind the year before his death in 1940. It was not until the 1960s that Bulgakov was fully rehabilitated by the Soviet authorities. At that time the manuscripts of numerous stories and plays and of three novels were discovered and published; these works established him as one of the finest 20th-century Russian writers.
The first of the novels to appear was Black Snow (written in the late 1930s), a satire on the Soviet theatrical world. The second, The Heart of a Dog (written in 1925), is a science fantasy in which human organs are transplanted into a dog, giving it the most disgusting qualities of mankind. The third novel, The Master and Margarita, was written in his last years and is Bulgakov's greatest work. It is a complex, grotesque, and fantastic satire, combining a unique interpretation of the story of Jesus with descriptions of the literary and theatrical circles of Moscow and with weird adventures caused by the mischief of the devil. The novel has many symbolic elements, which can be interpreted in a great variety of ways. A number of Bulgakov's manuscripts remain unpublished.
(With the ink still wet on his diploma, the twenty-five-ye...)
1963
Politics
Bulgakov was blamed for being anti-Soviet. During the Civil War Bulgakov joined the anti-communist White Army. Later Bugakov's own way of life and his witty criticism of the ugly realities of life in the Soviet Union caused him much trouble. For example, his story "Heart of a Dog" (1925) is a bitter satire about the loss of civilized values in Russia under the Soviet system. Soon after, Bulgakov was interrogated by the Soviet secret service, OGPU. After interrogations, his personal diary and several unfinished works were confiscated by the secret service. His plays were banned in all theaters. By 1929 Soviet government censorship managed to prevent the publication of any of his work, effectively ruining his career. Bulgakov distanced himself from the Proletariat Writer's Union because he refused to write about the peasants and proletariat.
He took a risk and wrote a letter to Joseph Stalin with an ultimatum: "Let me out of the Soviet Union, or restore my work at the theaters." On the 18th of April of 1930, Bulgakov received a telephone call from Joseph Stalin. The dictator told the writer to fill an employment application at the Moscow Art Theater. Gradually, Bulgakov's plays were back in the repertoire of the Moscow Art Theatre. But most other theatres were in fear and did not stage any of the Bulgakov's plays for many years.
Views
Heavily influenced by Nikolai Gogol, he combined fantasy, realism, and satire to ridicule modern progressive society in general and the Soviet system in particular. His works celebrate the nonconformist, and often portray an artist or scientist in conflict with society.
Quotations:
"Yes, man is mortal, but that would be only half the trouble. The worst of it is that he's sometimes unexpectedly mortal - there's the trick!"
"Everything will turn out right, the world is built on that."
"You should never ask anyone for anything. Never- and especially from those who are more powerful than yourself."
"Manuscripts don't burn."
"Follow me, reader! Who told you that there is no true, faithful, eternal love in this world! May the liar's vile tongue be cut out! Follow me, my reader, and me alone, and I will show you such a love!"
"But what can be done, the one who loves must share the fate of the one he loves."
"Cowardice is the most terrible of vices."
"Punch a man on the nose, kick an old man downstairs, shoot somebody or any old thing like that, that’s my job. But argue with women in love—no thank you!"
"What would your good do if evil didn't exist, and what would the earth look like if all the shadows disappeared?”
“In the first few seconds an aching sadness wrenched his heart, but it soon gave way to a feeling of sweet disquiet, the excitement of gypsy wanderlust."
"The tongue may hide the truth but the eyes—never!"
"There is no greater misfortune in the world than the loss of reason."
"Why try to pursue what is completed?"
"Nobody should be whipped. Remember that, once and for all. Neither man nor animal can be influenced by anything but suggestion."
Personality
Although a native of Kyiv, Bulgakov wrote in Russian. Like his Ukrainian predecessor, Nikolai Gogol, he was a humorist and satirist of the first order. Few of Bulgakov’s works saw the light of day in his own lifetime, but that could hardly have been a help to the writer, particularly one who so fearlessly – or recklessly – paraded the absurdities of communist rule.
Bulgakov was friends with Valentin Kataev, Yuriy Olesha, Ilya Ilf, Yevgeni Petrov, and Konstantin Paustovsky. Later, he met Mikhail Zoschenko, Anna Akhmatova, Viktor Ardov, Sergey Mikhalkov, and Korney Ivanovich Chukovskiy.
Interests
Writers
Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol, Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin, Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoyevsky, Mikhail Yevgrafovich Saltykov-Shchedrin, Charles Dickens
Connections
In 1913, Mikhail Bulgakov married Tatiana Lappa. In 1925 Mr. Bulgakov divorced his first wife and married Lyubov Belozerskaya. In 1932, he married for the third time, to Yelena Shilovskaya, who would prove to be an inspiration for the character Margarita in his most famous novel.
Father:
Afanasiy Ivanovich Bulgakov
Mother:
Varvara Mikhailovna Bulgakova (Pokrovskaya)
ex-wife:
Tatiana Lappa
ex-wife:
Lyubov Belozerskaya
Wife:
Yelena Shilovskaya
Sister:
Varvara Afanasyevna Bulgakova
Brother:
Nikolai Afanasyevich Bulgakov
Friend:
Valentin Kataev
Friend:
Konstantin Georgiyevich Paustovsky
Friend:
Ilya Ilf
Friend:
Yevgeny Petrov
References
Manuscripts Don't Burn: Mikhail Bulgakov: a Life in Letters and Diaries
In Manuscripts Don't Burn, J.A.E. Curtis has collated the fruits of eleven years of research to produce a fascinating chronicle of Bulgakov's life, using a mass of exciting new material - much of which has never been published before.
Mikhail Bulgakov: The Early Years
One of the foremost Russian writers of the Soviet period, Mikhail Bulgakov (1891-1940) has attracted much critical attention. But Edythe Haber is the first to explore in depth his formative years, to probe the roots of his artistic vision. Her study yields a new picture of the novelist and playwright working in tumultuous times, and a fresh understanding of his ultimate masterpiece, The Master and Margarita.