Mikhail Afanasyevich Bulgakov - Russian writer.
Mikhail Bulgakov was born on May 15 (May 3, old style) 1891, in Kyiv, in the family of Afanasy Ivanovich Bulgakov, a professor at the Department of Western Religions of the Kyiv Theological Academy. The family was large (Mikhail is the eldest son, he had four more sisters and two brothers) and friendly. Later, M. Bulgakov will remember more than once about his “carefree” youth in a beautiful city on the Dnieper steeps, about the comfort of a noisy and warm native nest on Andreevsky Spusk, and the shining prospects for a future free and wonderful life.
The role of family also played an undeniable influence on the future writer: the firm hand of Varvara Mikhailovna’s mother, who was not inclined to doubt what is good and what is evil (idleness, despondency, selfishness), education and hard work of her father (“My love is green lamp and books in my office,” Mikhail Bulgakov would later write, remembering his father staying up late at work). In the family there reigns the unconditional authority of knowledge and contempt for ignorance that is not aware of it.
When Mikhail was 16 years old, his father died of kidney disease. Nevertheless, the future has not yet been canceled; Bulgakov becomes a student at the Faculty of Medicine at Kyiv University. “The medical profession seemed brilliant to me,” he would say later, explaining his choice. Possible arguments in favor of medicine: independence of future activity (private practice), interest in the “human structure,” as well as the opportunity to help him. Next is the first marriage, which was too early for that time. Mikhail, a second-year student, against the wishes of his mother, marries young Tatyana Lappa, who has just graduated from high school.
Young doctor Mikhail Bulgakov
Bulgakov's studies at the university were interrupted ahead of schedule. Was walking world war, in the spring of 1916, “a warrior of the second militia,” Mikhail was released from the university (his diploma was received later) and voluntarily went to work in one of the Kyiv hospitals. Wounded, suffering people became his medical baptism. “Will anyone pay for blood? No. Nobody,” he wrote a few years later on the pages of The White Guard. In the fall of 1916, Doctor Bulgakov received his first appointment - to a small zemstvo hospital in the Smolensk province.
The choice associated with the constant tension of the moral field, against the backdrop of a breakdown in the routine course of life, extreme everyday life, shaped the future writer. It is characterized by a desire for positive, effective knowledge - serious reflection on the atheistic worldview of the “naturalist”, on the one hand, and faith in a higher principle, on the other. One more thing is important: medical practice left no room for deconstructive mindsets. Perhaps this is why Bulgakov was not affected by the modernist trends of the beginning of the century.
The daily surgical practice of a recent student who worked in military field hospitals, then the invaluable experience of a rural doctor, forced to cope alone with numerous and unexpected diseases, saving human lives. The need to make independent decisions, responsibility. Moreover, the rare gift of a brilliant diagnostician. Later, Mikhail Afanasyevich showed himself as a social diagnostician. It is obvious how insightful the writer turned out to be in his disappointing forecast of the development of social processes in the country.
At the turning point
While yesterday's student was growing up, turning into a determined and experienced zemstvo doctor, events began in Russia that would determine its fate for many decades to come. The abdication of the Tsar, the February days, and finally the October Revolution of 1917. “The present is such that I try to live without noticing it... Recently, on a trip to Moscow and Saratov, I had to see everything with my own eyes, and I would not want to see anything more. I saw how gray crowds, whooping and vile swearing, broke windows on trains, I saw people being beaten. I saw destroyed and burnt houses in Moscow... stupid and brutal faces... I saw crowds that besieged the entrances of captured and locked banks, hungry tails at the shops... I saw newspaper sheets where they write, in essence, about one thing: about blood , which flows in the south, and in the west, and in the east, and about prisons. I saw everything with my own eyes, and finally understood what happened” (from a letter from Mikhail Bulgakov on December 31, 1917 to his sister Nadezhda).
In March 1918, Bulgakov returned to Kyiv. Waves of White Guards, Petliurists, Germans, Bolsheviks, nationalists of Hetman Pavel Petrovich Skoropadsky, and Bolsheviks again roll through the city. Every government is mobilizing, and doctors are needed by everyone who holds a gun in their hands. Bulgakov was also mobilized. As a military doctor, he goes to the North Caucasus with the retreating Volunteer Army. The fact that Bulgakov remained in Russia was only a consequence of a confluence of circumstances, and not a free choice: he lay in typhoid fever when the White army and its sympathizers left the country. Later, T.N. Lappa testified that Bulgakov more than once blamed her for not taking him, who was sick, out of Russia.
Upon recovery, Mikhail Bulgakov left medicine and began collaborating with newspapers. One of his first journalistic articles is called “Future Prospects.” The author, who does not hide his commitment to the white idea, prophesies that Russia will lag behind the West for a long time. The first dramatic experiments appeared in Vladikavkaz: the one-act humoresque “Self-Defense”, “Paris Communards”, the drama “The Turbin Brothers” and “Sons of the Mullah”. All of them were performed on the stage of the Vladikavkaz Theater. But the author treated them as steps forced by circumstances. The author will evaluate “Sons of the Mullah” as follows: “they were written by three people: me, the assistant attorney and the hunger. In 1921, at its beginning...” About a more thoughtful piece (“The Turbin Brothers”), he will tell his brother bitterly: “When I was called after the second act, I left with a vague feeling... I looked vaguely at the actors’ made-up faces, at the thundering hall. And I thought: “but this is my dream come true... but how ugly: instead of the Moscow stage, the provincial stage, instead of the drama about Alyosha Turbin, which I cherished, a hastily made, immature thing...”
Bulgakov's move to Moscow
Perhaps the change of profession was dictated by circumstances: a recent military doctor in the White Army lived in a city where Bolshevik power was established. Soon Bulgakov moved to Moscow, where writers flocked from all over the country. Numerous literary circles were created in the capital, private publishing houses were opened, and bookstores operated. In hungry and cold Moscow of 1921, Bulgakov persistently mastered new profession: wrote in “Gudk”, collaborated with the Berlin editorial office of “Nakanune”, visited creative clubs, made literary acquaintances. He treats forced work in a newspaper as a hateful and meaningless activity. But you also have to earn a living. “... I have lived a triple life,” wrote Mikhail Afanasyevich Bulgakov in the unfinished story “To a Secret Friend” (1929), born as a letter to the writer’s third wife, Elena Sergeevna Shilovskaya. In essays published in Nakanune, Bulgakov sneered at official slogans and newspaper cliches. “I am an ordinary man, born to crawl,” the narrator certified himself in the feuilleton “Forty Forties.” And in the essay “Red Stone Moscow” he described the cockade on the band of his uniform cap: “It’s either a hammer and a shovel, or a sickle and rake, at least not a hammer and sickle.”
“On the Eve” published “The Extraordinary Adventures of the Doctor” (1922) and “Notes on the Cuffs” (1922-1923). In The Doctor's Extraordinary Adventures, descriptions of successive authorities and armies are given by the author with an undisguised sense of hostility. It comes to the seditious thought about the wisdom of desertion. The hero of "Adventures..." does not accept either the white idea or the red idea. From work to work, the courage of the writer, who dared to condemn both warring camps, grew stronger.
Mikhail Bulgakov mastered new material, requiring other forms of display: Moscow in the early 1920s, characteristic features new way of life, previously unknown types. At the cost of mobilizing mental and physical strength (there was a housing crisis in Moscow, and the writer lived in a room in a communal apartment, which he would later describe in the stories “Moonshine Life,” with dirt, drunken brawls and the impossibility of privacy), Bulgakov published two satirical stories: “The Devil’s Day” ( 1924) and “Fatal Eggs” (1925), wrote “Heart of a Dog” (1925). The story about pain points of the modern day he takes on fantastic forms.
"Fatal Eggs"
A chicken pestilence (“Fatal Eggs”) occurred in the Soviet Republic. The government needs to restore the “chicken population”, and it turns to Professor Persikov, who discovered the “red ray”, under the influence of which living creatures not only instantly reach colossal sizes, but also become unusually aggressive in the struggle for existence. The hints about what is happening in Soviet Russia are unusually transparent and fearless. The ignorant director of the chicken state farm, Rokk, who mistakenly receives snake and ostrich eggs ordered from abroad for professorial experiments, uses a “red ray” to remove hordes of giant animals from them. The giants are marching on Moscow. The capital is saved only by a happy accident: unprecedented frosts hit it. At the end of the story, brutal crowds destroy the professor's laboratory, and his discovery perishes along with him. The accuracy of the social diagnosis proposed by Bulgakov was appreciated by wary critics, who wrote that from the story it is absolutely clear that “the Bolsheviks are completely unsuitable for creative peaceful work, although they are capable of well organizing military victories and protecting their iron order.”
"Heart of a Dog"
The next piece, “Heart of a Dog” (1925), was no longer put into print and was published in Russia only during the years of perestroika, in 1987. Her phrases and formulas immediately entered the oral speech of an intelligent person: “the devastation is not in the closets, but in the heads”, “everyone can occupy seven rooms”, later “sturgeon of the second freshness” and “whatever you don’t miss, nothing at all” will be added to them you are not there,” “it’s easy and pleasant to tell the truth.”
Main character In the story, Professor Preobrazhensky, conducting a medical experiment, transplants the organ of the “proletarian” Chugunkin, who died in a drunken fight, into a stray dog. Unexpectedly for the surgeon, the dog turns into a man, and this man is an exact repetition of the deceased lumpen. If Sharik, as the professor called the dog, is kind, intelligent and grateful to the new owner for the shelter, then the miraculously revived Chugunkin is militantly ignorant, vulgar and arrogant. Having convinced himself of this, the professor carries out the reverse operation, and the good-natured dog appears again in his cozy apartment.
The professor's risky surgical experiment is an allusion to the "daring social experiment" taking place in Russia. Bulgakov is not inclined to see the “people” as an ideal being. He is sure that only difficult and long haul enlightenment of the masses, the path of evolution, not revolution, can lead to a real improvement in the life of the country.
"White Guard"
Mikhail Afanasyevich Bulgakov also does not let go of his experiences during the Civil War. In 1925, the first part of “The White Guard” appeared in the magazine “Russia”. During these months the writer new novel, and, leaving Tatyana Lappa, he dedicates “The White Guard” to Lyubov Evgenievna Beloselskaya-Belozerskaya, who became his second wife. Bulgakov chooses the path of writing in radically changed conditions, when many are confident that the traditions of the great Russian literature of the 19th century are hopelessly outdated and are no longer interesting to anyone.
Bulgakov writes a defiantly “old-fashioned” thing: “The White Guard” opens with an epigraph from Pushkin’s “ The captain's daughter", she openly continues the traditions of Tolstoy's family novel. In The White Guard, as in War and Peace, family thought is closely connected with the history of Russia. At the center of the novel is a broken family living in Kyiv in the “house of the white general”, on Andreevsky Spusk during the fratricidal war in Ukraine. The main characters of the novel were the doctor Alexei Turbin, his brother Nikolka and sister, the charming red-haired Elena, and their “tender, old” childhood friends. Already in the first phrase that opens “The White Guard”: “Great was the year and terrible year after the Nativity of Christ 1918, from the beginning of the revolution,” Bulgakov introduces two points of reference, two systems of values, as if “looking back” at each other. This allows the writer to more accurately assess the meaning of what is happening, to see modern events through the eyes of an impartial historian.
Back in 1923, on the pages of a diary bearing the eloquent title “Under the Heel,” Mikhail Bulgakov wrote: “It cannot be that the voice that is disturbing me now is not prophetic. Can't be. I can’t be anything else, I can be one thing - a writer.” Bulgakov’s powerful entry into literature, about which Maximilian Aleksandrovich Voloshin ( real name Kiriyenko-Voloshin) in a private letter said that it “can only be compared with the debuts of Dostoevsky and Tolstoy,” will pass by the general reading public. And although the birth of a great Russian writer took place, few people noticed him.
"Days of the Turbins"
Soon the Rossiya magazine closed, and the novel remained unprinted. However, his heroes continued to disturb the writer’s consciousness. Bulgakov begins to compose a play based on The White Guard. This process is wonderfully described on the pages of the later “Notes of a Dead Man” (1936-1937) in the lines about the “magic box” that opens in the evenings in the writer’s imagination.
In the best theaters of those years there was an acute repertoire crisis. In search of new dramaturgy, the Moscow Art Theater turns to prose writers, including Bulgakov. Bulgakov's play "Days of the Turbins", written in the footsteps of the "White Guard", becomes the "second "Seagull" of the Art Theater, and People's Commissar of Education Anatoly Vasilyevich Lunacharsky called it "the first political play Soviet theater" The premiere, which took place on October 5, 1926, made Bulgakov famous. Every performance is sold out. The story told by the playwright shocked the audience with its life-like truth of the disastrous events that many of them had recently experienced. On the wave of the resounding success of the performance, the magazine " Medical worker"published a series of stories, which would later be called "Notes of a Young Doctor" (1925-1926). These printed lines turned out to be the last that Bulgakov was destined to see during his lifetime. Another consequence of the Moscow Art Theater premiere was a flood of magazine and newspaper articles that finally noticed Bulgakov the prose writer. But official criticism branded the writer’s work as reactionary, affirming bourgeois values.
Images of white officers that Bulgakov fearlessly brought onto the stage the best theater Countries, against the backdrop of a new audience, a new way of life, acquired an expanded significance for the intelligentsia, no matter whether military or civilian. The play included Chekhov's motifs, the Moscow Art Theater's "Turbines" were correlated with "Three Sisters" and fell out of the current context of poster, propaganda drama of the 1920s. The performance, met with hostility by official criticism, was soon filmed, but in 1932 it was restored by the will of Stalin, who personally watched it more than a dozen times (to this day his attitude towards Bulgakov himself remains a mystery).
Drama by Mikhail Bulgakov
From that time until the end of M.A.’s life. Bulgakov no longer abandoned drama. In addition to a dozen plays, the experience of intratheater life will lead to the birth of the unfinished novel “Notes of a Dead Man” (first published in the USSR in 1965 under the title “Theatrical Novel”). The main character, an aspiring writer Maksudov, serves in the newspaper "Shipping Company" and writes a play based on own novel, undisguisedly biographical. The play is written by Maksudov for the Independent Theater, which is led by two legendary personalities - Ivan Vasilyevich and Aristarkh Platonovich. The reference to the Art Theater and two major Russian theater directors of the 20th century, Konstantin Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko, is easily recognizable. The novel is full of love and admiration for the people of the theater, but it also satirically describes the complex characters of those who create theatrical magic, and the intra-theater ups and downs of the country's leading theater.
"Zoyka's apartment"
Almost simultaneously with “Days of the Turbins,” Bulgakov wrote the tragic farce “Zoyka’s Apartment” (1926). The plot of the play was very relevant for those years. Enterprising Zoyka Peltz is trying to save money to buy foreign visas for herself and her lover by organizing an underground brothel in own apartment. The play captures the abrupt breakdown of social reality, expressed in a change in linguistic forms. Count Obolyaninov refuses to understand what a “former count” is: “Where did I go? Here I am, standing in front of you.” With demonstrative simplicity, he does not accept not so much “new words” as new values. The brilliant chameleonism of the charming rogue Ametistov, the administrator in Zoya’s “atelier”, forms a striking contrast to the count, who does not know how to adapt to circumstances. In the counterpoint of two central images, Amethystov and Count Obolyaninov, the deep theme of the play emerges: the theme of historical memory, the impossibility of forgetting the past.
"Crimson Island"
Zoya's Apartment was followed by the anti-censorship dramatic pamphlet The Crimson Island (1927). The play was staged by the Russian director, People's Artist of Russia Alexander Yakovlevich Tairov on the stage of the Chamber Theater, but it did not last long. The plot of "Crimson Island" with the uprising of the natives and the "world revolution" in the finale is nakedly parodic. Bulgakov's pamphlet reproduced typical and characteristic situations: a play about a native uprising is being rehearsed by an opportunistic director, who readily alters the ending to please the all-powerful Savva Lukich (who in the play was made to resemble the famous censor V. Blum).
It would seem that luck was with Bulgakov: it was impossible to get to the “Days of the Turbins” at the Moscow Art Theater, “Zoyka’s Apartment” fed the staff of the Yevgeny Vakhtangov Theater, and only for this reason the censorship was forced to endure it; The foreign press wrote admiringly about the courage of the “Crimson Island”. In the theater season of 1927-1928, Bulgakov was the most fashionable and successful playwright. But the time of Bulgakov the playwright ends just as abruptly as that of the prose writer. Bulgakov's next play, “Running” (1928), never appeared on stage.
If “Zoykina’s Apartment” told about those who remained in Russia, then “Running” spoke about the fates of those who left it. White General Khludov (he had real prototype- General Ya. A. Slashchov), in the name of a high goal - the salvation of Russia - went to execution in the rear and therefore lost his mind; the dashing General Charnota, who rushes into attack with equal readiness both at the front and at the card table; soft and lyrical, like Pierrot, university private assistant professor Golubkov, saving his beloved woman Seraphim, ex-wife former minister - all of them are outlined by the playwright with psychological depth.
True to the precepts of classical Russian literature of the 19th century, Bulgakov does not caricature his heroes. Despite the fact that the characters were not at all portrayed as ideal people, they evoked sympathy, and among them there were many recent White Guards. None of her characters were eager to return to their homeland to “take part in building socialism in the USSR,” as Stalin advised to end the play. The issue of staging “Running” was considered four times at Politburo meetings. The authorities did not allow the second appearance of white officers on the stage. Since the writer did not listen to the leader’s advice, the play was first staged only in 1957 and not on the capital’s stage, but in Stalingrad.
1929, the year of Stalin’s “great turning point,” broke the fates not only of the peasantry, but also of any “individual peasants” still remaining in the country. At this time, all of Bulgakov's plays were removed from the stage. In desperation, Bulgakov sent a letter to the government on March 28, 1930, which spoke of “deep skepticism regarding the revolutionary process” taking place in backward Russia, and admitted that “he had not even attempted to compose a communist play.” At the end of the letter, filled with genuine civic courage, there was an urgent request: either to be allowed to go abroad, or to be given a job, otherwise “poverty, the street and death.”
His new play was called "The Cabal of the Saints" (1929). At its center is a collision: the artist and power. A play about Moliere and his unfaithful patron Louis XIV lived by the writer from the inside. The king, who highly values the art of Moliere, nevertheless deprives the patronage of the playwright, who dared to ridicule the members of the religious organization “Society of the Holy Gifts” in the comedy “Tartuffe”. The play (titled “Molière”) was rehearsed at the Moscow Art Theater for six years and at the beginning of 1936 it appeared on the stage, only to be removed from the repertoire after seven performances. Bulgakov never saw any of his plays on the theater stage.
The result of the appeal to the government was the transformation of a free writer into an employee of the Moscow Art Theater (the writer was not released abroad, despite the fact that at the same time another dissident writer Evgeniy Ivanovich Zamyatin was allowed to leave). Bulgakov was accepted into the Moscow Art Theater as an assistant director, assisting in the production of his own adaptation of Gogol’s “ Dead souls" At night he writes a “novel about the devil” (this is how Mikhail Bulgakov’s novel about “The Master and Margarita” was originally seen). At the same time, an inscription appeared in the margins of the manuscript: “Finish before you die.” The novel was already recognized by the author as the main work of his life.
In 1931, Bulgakov completed the utopia “Adam and Eve,” a play about a future gas war, as a result of which only a handful of people remained alive in the fallen Leningrad: the fanatical communist Adam Krasovsky, whose wife, Eve, goes to the scientist Efrosimov, who managed to create the apparatus , exposure to which saves from death; fiction writer Donut-Nepobeda, creator of the novel “Red Greens”; the charming hooligan Marquisov, devouring books like Gogol's Petrushka. Biblical reminiscences, Efrosimov’s risky assertion that all theories are worth one another, as well as the pacifist motives of the play led to the fact that “Adam and Eve” was also not staged during the writer’s lifetime.
In the mid-1930s, Bulgakov also wrote the drama “ Last days"(1935), a play about Pushkin without Pushkin, a comedy "Ivan Vasilyevich" (1934-1936) about a formidable tsar and a foolish house manager, due to an error in the operation of a time machine, centuries have changed; the utopia "Bliss" (1934) about a sterile and ominous future with ironically planned desires of people; finally, a dramatization of Cervantes’ “Don Quixote” (1938), which under the pen of Bulgakov turned into an independent play.
Mikhail Bulgakov chose the most difficult path: the path of a person who firmly delineates the boundaries of his own, individual existence, aspirations, plans and does not intend to obediently follow the rules and canons imposed from outside. In the 1930s, Bulgakov's dramaturgy was just as unacceptable for censorship as his prose had been before. In totalitarian Russia, the themes and plots of the playwright, his thoughts and his characters are impossible. “Over the last seven years I have made 16 things, and all of them died, except one, and that was a dramatization of Gogol! It would be naive to think that the 17th or 18th will go,” Bulgakov writes on October 5, 1937 to Vikenty Vikentyevich Veresaev.
"The Master and Margarita"
But “there is no such writer that he should shut up. If he fell silent, then he was not real,” these are the words of Bulgakov himself (from a letter to Stalin on May 30, 1931). And the real writer Mikhail Bulgakov continues to work. His crowning glory creative path became the novel “The Master and Margarita,” which brought the writer posthumous world fame.
The novel was originally conceived as an apocryphal "gospel of the devil", and future title characters were absent in the first editions of the text. Over the years, the original plan became more complex and transformed, incorporating the fate of the writer himself. Later, the woman who became his third wife entered the novel - Elena Sergeevna Shilovskaya (they met in 1929, the marriage was formalized in the fall of 1932). A lonely writer (Master) and his faithful friend (Margarita) will become no less important than central characters world history of mankind.
The story of Satan's presence in Moscow in the 1930s echoes the legend of the appearance of Jesus two millennia ago. Just as they once did not recognize God, Muscovites do not recognize the devil, although Woland does not hide his well-known signs. Moreover, Woland meets seemingly enlightened heroes: the writer, editor of the anti-religious magazine Berlioz and the poet, author of the poem about Christ Ivan Bezrodny.
The events took place in front of many people and yet remained misunderstood. And only the Master, in the novel he created, is given the opportunity to restore the meaningfulness and unity of the flow of history. With the creative gift of experience, the Master “guesses” the truth in the past. The accuracy of the penetration into historical reality, witnessed by Woland, thereby confirms the accuracy and adequacy of the Master’s description of the present. Following Pushkin's "Eugene Onegin", Bulgakov's novel can be called, by well-known definition, an encyclopedia Soviet life. Life and customs new Russia, human types and characteristic actions, clothing and food, methods of communication and occupations of people - all this is unfolded before the reader with deadly irony and at the same time piercing lyricism in the panorama of several May days.
Mikhail Bulgakov builds The Master and Margarita as a “novel within a novel.” Its action takes place in two times: in Moscow in the 1930s, where Satan appears to throw a traditional spring full moon ball, and in ancient city Yershalaim, in which the trial of the Roman procurator Pilate over the “wandering philosopher” Yeshua takes place. The modern and historical author of the novel about Pontius Pilate, the Master, connects both plots.
In the years when the national point of view on what was happening was asserted as “the only correct one,” Bulgakov came out with a distinctly subjective view of the events of world history, contrasting the members of the “writing collective” (MASSOLIT) with a lonely creator. It is no coincidence that the cast “ancient chapters” of the novel, telling the story of the death of Yeshua, are introduced by the writer as a truth revealed to an individual, as a personal comprehension of the Master.
The novel revealed the writer’s deep interest in issues of faith, religious or atheistic worldview. Connected by origin with a family of clergy, albeit in its “scientific” book version (Mikhail’s father is not a “father”, but a learned cleric), throughout his life Bulgakov seriously reflected on the problem of attitude towards religion, which in the thirties became closed to public discussion. In The Master and Margarita, Bulgakov brings to the fore the creative personality in the tragic 20th century, affirming, following Pushkin, the independence of man, his historical responsibility.
Bulgakov the artist
Everything is aimed at developing the reader’s own attitude to what is happening. artistic features creativity of Bulgakov. Almost every writer's work begins with a riddle, which is designed to destroy the previous clarity. Thus, in “The Master and Margarita” Bulgakov deliberately gives the characters unconventional names: Satan - Woland, Jerusalem - Yershalaim, he calls the eternal enemy of the devil not Jesus, but Yeshua Ha-Nozri. The reader must independently, without relying on what is generally known, penetrate into the essence of what is happening and seem to relive in his mind the central episodes of the world history of mankind: the trial of Pilate, the death and resurrection of Jesus.
In Bulgakov’s works, the time of the present, the momentary, is necessarily correlated with the time of the “big” history of mankind, the “blue corridor of millennia.” In “The Master and Margarita” the technique is deployed throughout the entire space of the text. Thus, the current momentary values of the Soviet era are called into question and reveal their obvious transience and dubiousness.
Mikhail Bulgakov is characterized by another feature: his hero, whether in prose or drama, is returned by the author to the origins of fate. And Moliere still does not know the scale of his genius (“The Cabal of the Holy One”), and Pushkin’s poetry (“The Last Days”) is generally considered weaker than Benedict’s, and even Yeshua wanders, afraid of pain, does not feel omnipotent and immortal. The judgment of history has not yet been completed. Time unfolds, bringing with it opportunities for change. It was probably this feature of Bulgakov’s poetics that made it impossible to stage “Batum” (1939), written as a drama not about an omnipotent ruler, but about one of many whose fate had not yet taken final shape. Finally, in Bulgakov’s works there are only two options for endings: either the thing ends with the death of the main character, or the ending remains open. The writer offers a model of the world in which there are countless possibilities. And the right to choose an action remains with actor. Thus, the author helps the reader to feel like the creator of his own destiny. And the life of a country is made up of many individual destinies. The idea of a free and historically responsible person, “sculpting” the present and future in his own image and likeness, proposed by the writer Bulgakov, is a precious testament to his entire creative life.
"Batum"
"Batum" became last play Mikhail Afanasyevich Bulgakov (originally it was called “Shepherd”). Theaters were preparing for Stalin's 60th birthday. Considering the months needed to get a particularly important thing through censorship, as well as for rehearsals, the search for authors for the anniversary began back in 1937. After urgent requests from the Moscow Art Theater directorate, Bulgakov began working on a play about the leader. Refusing a flattering order was dangerous. But Bulgakov takes an unconventional path here too: he does not write about the all-powerful leader, like the authors of other anniversary works, but talks about Dzhugashvili’s youth, starting the play with his expulsion from the seminary. Then he takes the hero through humiliation, prison and exile, that is, he turns the dictator into an ordinary dramatic character, treating the biography of the leader as material subject to free creative implementation. After reviewing the play, Stalin banned its production.
A few weeks after the news of the ban on Batum, in the fall of 1939, Bulgakov suffered from sudden blindness: a symptom of the same kidney disease from which his father died. The will of a terminally ill writer only postpones death, which occurs six months later. Almost everything the writer did was still waiting in the wings on his desk for more than a quarter of a century: the novel “The Master and Margarita,” the stories “The Heart of a Dog” and “The Life of Monsieur de Molière” (1933), as well as 16 that were never published during the writer’s lifetime. plays. After the publication of the “sunset novel,” Bulgakov will become one of the artists who defined the face of the 20th century with their creativity. This is how Woland’s prophecy addressed to the Master will come true: “Your novel will bring you more surprises.”
Since February 1940, friends and relatives were constantly on duty at M. Bulgakov’s bedside. On March 10, 1940, Mikhail Afanasyevich Bulgakov died. On March 11, a civil memorial service took place in the building of the Union of Soviet Writers. Before the funeral service, Moscow sculptor S. D. Merkurov removed the death mask from M. Bulgakov’s face.
M. Bulgakov is buried at the Novodevichy cemetery. At his grave, at the request of his wife E. S. Bulgakova, a stone was installed, nicknamed “Golgotha,” which previously lay on the grave of N. V. Gogol.
In 1966, the magazine “Moscow” began publishing the novel “The Master and Margarita” for the first time in banknotes. This happened thanks to the titanic efforts of the writer’s widow E. S. Bulgakova and the effective support of Konstantin Mikhailovich Simonov. And from then on the triumphant march of the novel began. In 1973, the first complete edition of the novel appeared in the writer’s homeland; in the mid-1980s, the novel was published abroad, where it was published by the American publishing house Ardis. It was only in the 1980s that the works of the outstanding Russian writer finally began to appear in Russia one after another.
Photo from 1926
Mikhail Afanasyevich Bulgakov born May 15, 1891. Kyiv is considered the birthplace of Mikhail Afanasievich, and the head of the family, Afanasy Ivanovich, worked all his life as a teacher at the same theological academy.
Mikhail Afanasievich received his primary education starting in 1901, studying at the very first gymnasium in Kyiv. Further, he continued his successful education at the University of Kyiv at the Faculty of Medicine. While in his 2nd year, Mikhail Bulgakov married Tatyana Lapp.
In 1916, he graduated from medical school. After receiving his diploma, Mikhail Bulgakov gets a job at a large hospital in Kyiv. At the same time, in the summer, he is sent to the village of Nikolskoye, which is located in the Smolensk Province. It was these lives, constantly working with patients and being on the verge of a nervous breakdown, that Mikhail Bulgakov became addicted to morphine. However, his addiction was successfully overcome thanks to the many efforts of his wife.
During the civil war, Mikhail Bulgakov was mobilized into the army of the UPR (Ukrainian People's Republic), as a military doctor. After serving there, Mikhail Afanasievich was reassigned to the army from Southern Russia.
So, while serving in the army, in 1920 Bulgakov fell ill with typhus, and it was for this reason that he could not leave the country as part of the Volunteer Army.
A year later, Mikhail emigrates to Moscow. There, Mikhail Afanasyevich, is active literary activity, finds opportunities and ways of cooperation with many editorial offices in Moscow, and also participates in meetings of literary circles.
In 1923, Bulgakov became one of the members of the All-Russian Union of Writers, which already included Gimilev, Chukovsky, and others.
In 1924 he divorced his first wife, and a year later Bulgakov found his second love - Lyubov Belozerskaya.
From 1924 to 1928, Mikhail Bulgakov wrote and published his prose masterpieces, including “Heart of a Dog,” “The White Guard,” and “Days of the Turbins.” At the same time, by personal order of Joseph Stalin, the play “Days of the Turbins” is staged at the Moscow Art Theater.
Mikhail Bulgakov visited Leningrad in 1929, where he met Yevgeny Zamyatin, as well as Anna Akhmatova. Due to the “sharp and unfounded criticism” of revolutionary events in Bulgakov’s novels (including the novel “Days of the Turbins”), Mikhail Afanasievich was repeatedly summoned for questioning by the NKVD. The works of Mikhail Afanasyevich are stopped being printed and published, and a ban on production in theaters is imposed on his plays.
The following year, unable to withstand the pressure from the authorities and society, Mikhail Bulgakov sends a personal letter to Stalin, in which he asks to be given the opportunity to leave the Soviet Union or to be given permission to work in the USSR. After this appeal, Mikhail Afanasievich was hired as an assistant director.
1931 marks a break for Mikhail Bulgakov with Lyubov Belozerskaya, and in 1932, Elena Shilovskaya becomes his wife.
In the last years of his life, Mikhail was very ill. The doctors' diagnosis was unequivocal - hypertensive nephrosclerosis (kidney disease).
On March 10, 1940, Mikhail’s heart could not stand it. The funeral took place in Moscow at the Novodevichy cemetery.
Even on the verge of death, Mikhail Afanasyevich did not stop polishing one of the most mysterious works of Russian literature of the 20th century, making corrections to the manuscript of the novel. The last phrase edited by the author was Margarita’s remark: “So this means that the writers are going after the coffin?”
In the first days of the New Year, my condition was serious. On January 6, he makes notes for the play, which he had been thinking about over the past year - “conceived in the fall of 1939. Started with a pen on January 6, 1940. Play. Closet, exit. Swallow's Nest. Alhambra. Musketeers. Monologue about impudence. Grenada. Death of Grenada. Richard I. I can’t write anything, my head is like a cauldron... I’m sick, I’m sick...”
From Marietta Chudakova’s book “The Biography of Mikhail Bulgakov”
Being a doctor, he understood that his days were numbered; as a writer and philosopher, he did not believe that death was the end: “I sometimes imagine that death is a continuation of life. We just can't imagine how this happens. But somehow it happens...” (from the memoirs of Sergei Ermolinsky).
1.
Mikhail Bulgakov wrote his first literary work, the story “The Adventures of Svetlana,” at the age of seven. In the fifth grade of the gymnasium, the feuilleton “The Day of the Chief Physician” came out from his pen; the future writer also composed epigrams and satirical poems. But young Bulgakov considered medicine to be his real calling in life and dreamed of becoming a doctor.
Children's performance"Princess Pea." On the reverse side there is an explanatory inscription by N.A. Bulgakova: “Syngaevskys, Bulgakovs and others. Misha plays the role of Leshy brilliantly.” (Lies on the right). 1903
2.
Bulgakov collected theater tickets from all the performances and concerts he ever attended.
Mikhail Bulgakov and director Leonid Baratov, 1928
3.
The writer collected special album newspaper and magazine clippings with critics' reviews of their works, especially plays. Among the published reviews, according to Bulgakov’s calculations, there were 298 negative and only three assessed the master’s work positively.
Mikhail Bulgakov with Moscow Art Theater artists in a Moscow radio studio. 1934
4.
The first production at the Moscow Art Theater of “The Days of the Turbins” (the original title “The White Guard” had to be changed for ideological reasons) was saved by Konstantin Stanislavsky, declaring that if the play was banned, he would close the theater. But from the work it was necessary to remove an important scene of the Petliurists beating a Jew, in the finale to introduce the “ever increasing” sounds of the “International” and a toast to the Bolsheviks and the Red Army from the lips of Myshlaevsky.
5. Stalin loved “The Turbins” very much, watched the performance at least 15 times, enthusiastically applauding the artists from the government box. Eight times the “Father of Nations” was at “Zoyka’s Apartment” in the Theater. E. Vakhtangov. Encouraging intensity political struggle in literature (individual blows also reached Bulgakov, painfully affecting his creative and personal fate), Stalin at the same time patronized the writer.
6.
In 1926, during the landmark debate “Theatrical Policy of Soviet Power,” which opened with Lunacharsky’s report, Vladimir Mayakovsky made noise about the Moscow Art Theater: “... we started with Aunt Manya and Uncle Vanya and ended with the White Guard! We accidentally gave Bulgakov the opportunity to squeak under the arm of the bourgeoisie - and he squeaked. We won't give it any further. (Voice from the audience: “Ban it?”) No, not ban it. What will you achieve by prohibiting it? That this literature will be carried around the corners and read with the same pleasure as I read Yesenin’s poems in a rewritten form two hundred times ... "
Mayakovsky suggested simply booing “Days of the Turbins” in the theater. At the same time, the singer of the revolution was often Bulgakov’s partner in billiards, but the “civil war” of their views continued until tragic death poet.
7.
In 1934, Mikhail Afanasyevich Bulgakov wrote a comedy play “Ivan Vasilyevich” about how Moscow inventor Nikolai Ivanovich Timofeev creates a time machine and, with its help, transports Tsar Ivan the Terrible to the 30s of the 20th century. In turn, the house manager Bunsha-Koretsky, like two peas in a pod like the formidable ruler of all Rus', and the swindler Georges Miloslavsky fall into the past. Since the similarities between the character of Ivan Vasilyevich and the personality of Joseph Stalin were obvious, the play was never published during the author’s lifetime.
In 1973, filmed by Leonid Gaidai, “Ivan Vasilyevich” was shown in cinemas across the country with triumphant success. The director carefully handled Bulgakov's plan, changing only a few details, in particular, he moved the action to the 70s of the twentieth century and modernized the situation - for example, the place of the gramophone was taken by a tape recorder that was more appropriate for the time of the film's release.
8. In 1937, when the hundredth anniversary of the tragic death of Pushkin was celebrated, several authors presented plays dedicated to the poet. Among them was Bulgakov’s play “Alexander Pushkin,” which was distinguished from the works of other playwrights by the absence of a main character. The writer believed that the appearance of Alexander Sergeevich on stage would look vulgar and tasteless.
9.
Woland's famous assistant, the cat Behemoth, had a real prototype. Mikhail Bulgakov had a black dog named Behemoth. This dog was very smart.
Stone from the grave of Nikolai Gogol on the grave of Mikhail Bulgakov
10.
After the death of the writer, his widow Elena Shilovskaya chose as tombstone a huge granite block - “Calvary”, so named for its resemblance to a mountain. For a hundred years this stone was the foot of the cross at the grave of Gogol, the writer whom Bulgakov idolized. But when they decided to install a bust at the burial site of Nikolai Gogol, the stone, fulfilling Bulgakov’s dying will (“Cover me with your cast-iron overcoat,” he wrote in one of his last letters), was moved to the Novodevichy cemetery.
One of the last photos. Mikhail Bulgakov with his wife Elena Shilovskaya.
Before the talent of this wonderful Russian and Soviet writer You can bow your head low. The most famous works Almost all of Bulgakov’s work has been disassembled into quotes. Mikhail Afanasyevich considered Gogol to be his teacher, he imitated him and also became a mystic. Until now, writers do not have a common opinion on whether Bulgakov was an occultist. But he was a great playwright and theater director, the author of many feuilletons, stories, plays, film scripts, dramatizations and opera librettos. Bulgakov's works were staged in theaters and filmed. When his first dramatic experiments appeared, he wrote to his relative that he was four years late with what he should have started long ago - writing.
Mikhail Bulgakov, whose books are almost always heard, has become a true classic, whom descendants will never forget. He predicted the fate of his works with one brilliant phrase: “Manuscripts don’t burn!”
Biography
Bulgakov was born on May 3, 1891 in Kyiv in the family of professor of the Theological Academy Afanasy Ivanovich Bulgakov and Varvara Mikhailovna, nee Pokrovskaya. The future writer, after graduating from high school, entered medical school hometown, wanting to follow in the footsteps of his famous uncle N.M. Pokrovsky. In 1916, after graduating, he practiced for several months in the front-line zone. Then he worked as a venereologist, and during the civil war he managed to work for both the whites and the reds and survive.
Works of Bulgakov
Saturated literary life it began after moving to Moscow. There, in well-known publishing houses, he publishes his feuilletons. Then he writes the books “Fatal Eggs” and “Diaboliad” (1925). Behind them he creates the play “Days of the Turbins”. Bulgakov's works provoked sharp criticism from many, but be that as it may, with each masterpiece he wrote, there were more and more admirers. As a writer he enjoyed enormous success. Then, in 1928, he had the idea of writing the novel The Master and Margarita.
In 1939, the writer worked on a play about Stalin, “Batum,” and when it was ready for production and Bulgakov went with his wife and colleagues to Georgia, a telegram soon arrived saying that Stalin considered it inappropriate to stage a play about himself. This greatly undermined the writer’s health, he began to lose his vision, and then doctors diagnosed him with kidney disease. For pain, Bulgakov again began to use morphine, which he had taken back in 1924. At the same time, the writer was dictating to his wife last sheets manuscript "The Master and Margarita". A quarter of a century later, traces of the drug were found on the pages.
He died at 48 on March 10, 1940. He was buried at the Novodevichy cemetery in Moscow. Mikhail Bulgakov, whose books over time became real bestsellers, if we say modern language, and still stirs the minds of people who are trying to unravel his codes and messages, was truly great. This is a fact. Bulgakov's works are still relevant, they have not lost their meaning and fascination.
Master
"The Master and Margarita" - a novel that became reference book millions of readers, and not only Bulgakov’s compatriots, but the whole world. Several decades have passed, and the plot still excites minds, attracts with mysticism and riddles that prompt various philosophical and religious thoughts. “The Master and Margarita” is a novel studied in schools, and this is even though not every literature-savvy person can understand the intent of this masterpiece. Bulgakov began writing the novel in the 20s, then with all the amendments to the plot and title, the work was finally formalized in 1937. But in the USSR complete book came out only in 1973.
Woland
The creation of the novel was influenced by M. A. Bulgakov’s passion for various mystical literature, German mythology of the 19th century, Holy Scripture, Goethe’s Faust, as well as many other demonological works.
Many are impressed by one of the main characters of the novel - Woland. To not particularly thoughtful and trusting readers, this Prince of Darkness may seem like an ardent fighter for justice and goodness, opposing the vices of people. There are also opinions that Bulgakov portrayed Stalin in this image. But Woland is not so easy to understand, this is a very multifaceted and difficult character, this is the image that defines the real Tempter. This is the real prototype of the Antichrist, whom people should perceive as the new Messiah.
Tale
“Fatal Eggs” is another fantastic story by Bulgakov, published in 1925. He moves his heroes to 1928. The main character - a brilliant inventor, professor of zoology Persikov, one day makes a unique discovery - he discovers a certain phenomenal stimulant, a red ray of life, which, acting on living embryos (embryos), makes them develop faster and they become larger than their usual counterparts. They are also aggressive and reproduce incredibly quickly.
Well, further in the work “Fatal Eggs” everything develops exactly as in Bismarck’s words that the revolution is prepared by geniuses, carried out by romantic fanatics, but the fruits are enjoyed by scoundrels. And so it happened: Persikov became the genius who created the revolutionary idea in biology, Ivanov became the fanatic who brought the professor’s ideas to life by building cameras. And the rogue is Rokk, who appeared from nowhere and just as suddenly disappeared.
According to philologists, the prototype of Persikov could be the Russian biologist A. G. Gurvich, who discovered mitogenetic radiation, and, in fact, the leader of the proletariat V. I. Lenin.
Play
“Days of the Turbins” is a play by Bulgakov, created by him in 1925 (at the Moscow Art Theater they wanted to stage a play based on his novel “The White Guard”). The plot was based on the writer's memoirs during the civil war about the fall of the regime of Ukrainian hetman Pavel Skoropadsky, then about Petliura's rise to power and his expulsion from the city by Bolshevik revolutionaries. Against the backdrop of constant struggle and change of power, the family tragedy of the Turbin couple appears in parallel, in which the foundations of the old world are broken. Bulgakov then lived in Kyiv (1918-1919). A year later the play was staged, then it was repeatedly edited and the name was changed.
“Days of the Turbins” is a play that today’s critics consider the pinnacle of the writer’s theatrical success. However, at the very beginning stage fate was complex and unpredictable. The play was a huge success, but received devastating critical reviews. In 1929, it was removed from the repertoire; Bulgakov began to be accused of philistinism and propaganda of the white movement. But on the instructions of Stalin, who loved this play, the performance was restored. For the writer, who did odd jobs, the production at the Moscow Art Theater was practically the only source of income.
About myself and the bureaucracy
“Notes on Cuffs” is a story that is somewhat autobiographical. Bulgakov wrote it between 1922 and 1923. It was not published during his lifetime; today part of the text is lost. The main motive of the work “Notes on Cuffs” was the writer’s problematic relationship with the authorities. He described in great detail his life in the Caucasus, the debate about A.S. Pushkin, the first months in Moscow and the desire to emigrate. Bulgakov really intended to flee abroad in 1921, but he did not have the money to pay the captain of the shipping machine going to Constantinople.
“Diaboliada” is a story that was created in 1925. Bulgakov called himself a mystic, but, despite the declared mysticism, the content of this work consisted of pictures of ordinary everyday life, where, following Gogol, he showed the unreasonableness and illogicality of social existence. It is from this foundation that Bulgakov’s satire consists.
“Diaboliada” is a story in which the plot takes place in a mystical whirlwind of bureaucratic whirlwind with the rustling of papers on tables and in endless bustle. The main character - the little official Korotkov - is chasing along long corridors and floors after a certain mythical manager, Long John, who either appears, then disappears, or even splits into two. In this relentless pursuit, Korotkov loses both himself and his name. And then he turns into a pitiful and defenseless little man. As a result, Korotkov, in order to escape from this enchanted cycle, has only one thing left to do - throw himself from the roof of a skyscraper.
Moliere
"The Life of Monsieur de Molière" is a novelized biography, which, like many other works, was not published during the author's lifetime. Only in 1962 the publishing house “Young Guard” published it in the series of books “ZhZL”. In 1932, Bulgakov entered into an agreement with a magazine and newspaper publishing house and wrote about Moliere for the ZhZL series. A year later he finished the work and passed it. Editor A. N. Tikhonov wrote a review in which he recognized Bulgakov’s talent, but in general the review was negative. Mainly he did not like the non-Marxist position and the fact that the story has a narrator (“a cheeky young man”). Bulgakov was asked to remake the novel in the classical spirit historical narrative, but the writer categorically refused. Gorky also read the manuscript and also spoke negatively about it. Bulgakov wanted to meet with him several times, but all attempts were unsuccessful. For obvious reasons, the Soviet leadership often did not like Bulgakov's works.
The illusion of freedom
In his book, Bulgakov raises a very important topic for him using the example of Moliere: power and art, how free an artist can be. When Moliere's patience ran out, he exclaimed that he hated royal tyranny. In the same way, Bulgakov hated Stalin's tyranny. And in order to somehow persuade himself, he writes that, it turns out, evil lies not in the supreme power, but in those around the leader, in officials and newspaper Pharisees. In the 30s, there really was a large part of the intelligentsia who believed in Stalin’s innocence and innocence, so Bulgakov fed himself with similar illusions. Mikhail Afanasyevich tried to understand one of the characteristics of the artist - fatal loneliness among people.
Satire on power
Bulgakov’s story “The Heart of a Dog” became another of Bulgakov’s masterpieces, which he wrote in 1925. The most common political interpretation boils down to the idea of the “Russian revolution” and the “awakening” of the social consciousness of the proletariat. One of the main characters is Sharikov, who received large number rights and freedoms. And then he quickly reveals selfish interests, he betrays and destroys both those who are like him and those who endowed him with all these rights. The end of this work shows that the fate of Sharikov’s creators is predetermined. In his story, Bulgakov seems to predict the massive Stalinist repressions of the 1930s.
Many literary critics believe that Bulgakov’s story “The Heart of a Dog” political satire on the government of that time. And here are their main roles: Sharikov-Chugunkin is none other than Stalin himself (as evidenced by the “iron surname”), Preobrazhensky is Lenin (the one who transformed the country), Doctor Bormental (who is constantly in conflict with Sharikov) is Trotsky ( Bronstein), Shvonder - Kamenev, Zina - Zinoviev, Daria - Dzerzhinsky, etc.
Pamphlet
At a meeting of writers in Gazetny Lane, where the manuscript was read, an OGPU agent was present, who noted that such things read in a brilliant metropolitan literary circle could be much more dangerous than speeches by 101st grade writers at meetings of the All-Russian Union of Poets.
Bulgakov hoped to the last that the work would be published in the almanac "Nedra", but it was not even allowed into Glavlit for reading, but the manuscript was somehow handed over to L. Kamenev, who noted that this work should under no circumstances be published, since it is a poignant pamphlet on modern times. Then in 1926 there was a search of Bulgakov, the manuscripts of the book and the diary were confiscated, they were returned to the author only three years after the petition of Maxim Gorky.
In August 1919, after the capture of Kyiv by General Denikin, Mikhail Bulgakov was mobilized as a military doctor in the White Army and sent to the North Caucasus. Here his first publication appeared - a newspaper article entitled "Future Prospects."
Soon he parted with the medical profession and devoted himself entirely to literary work. In 1919-1921, while working in the Vladikavkaz arts department, Bulgakov composed five plays, three of which were staged at the local theater. Their texts have not survived, with the exception of one - “Sons of the Mullah”.
In 1921 he moved to Moscow. Served as secretary of the Main Political and Educational Committee at the People's Commissariat of Education of the RSFSR.
In 1921-1926, Bulgakov collaborated with the Moscow editorial office of the Berlin newspaper "Nakanune", publishing essays about the life of Moscow, with the newspapers "Gudok" and "Worker", and the magazines "Medical Worker", "Russia" and "Vozrozhdenie".
In the literary supplement to the newspaper "Nakanune" were published "Notes on Cuffs" (1922-1923), as well as the writer's stories "The Adventures of Chichikov", "The Red Crown", "The Cup of Life" (all - 1922). In 1925-1927, stories from the series “Notes of a Young Doctor” were published in the magazines “Medical Worker” and “Red Panorama”.
The general theme of Bulgakov's works is determined by the author's attitude towards the Soviet regime - the writer did not consider himself its enemy, but assessed reality very critically, believing that with his satirical denunciations he was benefiting the country and the people. Early examples include the stories "The Diaboliad. The Tale of How Twins Killed a Clerk" (1924) and "The Fatal Eggs" (1925), collected in the collection "The Diaboliad" (1925). The story “The Heart of a Dog,” written in 1925, is distinguished by greater skill and a sharper social orientation, which was in “samizdat” for more than 60 years.
The boundary separating the early Bulgakov from the mature one was the novel The White Guard (1925). Bulgakov's departure from the emphatically negative image of the White Guard environment brought upon the writer accusations of trying to justify the White movement.
Later, based on the novel and in collaboration with the Moscow Art Theater, Bulgakov wrote the play “Days of the Turbins” (1926). The famous Moscow Art Theater production of this play (the premiere took place on October 5, 1926) brought Bulgakov wide fame. "Days of the Turbins" enjoyed unprecedented success among the audience, but not among critics, who launched a devastating campaign against the play, which was "apologetic" in relation to the white movement, and against the "anti-Soviet" author of the play.
During the same period, Bulgakov’s play “Zoyka’s Apartment” (1926) was staged at the Evgeni Vakhtangov Studio Theater, which was banned after the 200th performance. The play "Running" (1928) was banned after the first rehearsals at the Moscow Art Theater.
The play "Crimson Island" (1927), staged at the Moscow Chamber Theater, was banned after the 50th performance.
At the beginning of 1930, his play "The Cabal of the Saint" (1929) was banned and did not reach rehearsals in the theater.
Bulgakov's plays were removed from the theater repertoire; his works were not published. In this situation, the writer was forced to turn to supreme authority and wrote a “Letter to the Government,” asking either to provide him with work and, therefore, a means of subsistence, or to let him go abroad. The letter was followed by a telephone call from Joseph Stalin to Bulgakov (April 18, 1930). Soon Bulgakov got a job as a director of the Moscow Art Theater and thereby solved the problem of physical survival. In March 1931, he was accepted into the cast of the Moscow Art Theater.
While working at the Moscow Art Theater, he wrote a dramatization of “Dead Souls” based on Nikolai Gogol.
In February 1932, the “Turbin Days” at the Moscow Art Theater were resumed.
In the 1930s, one of the main themes in Bulgakov’s work was the theme of the relationship between the artist and the authorities, which he realized using the material of various historical eras: the play "Moliere", the biographical story "The Life of Monsieur de Moliere", the play "The Last Days", the novel "The Master and Margarita".
In 1936, due to disagreements with the management during the rehearsal preparation of Molière, Bulgakov was forced to break with the Moscow Art Theater and go to work at the Bolshoi Theater of the USSR as a librettist.
IN recent years Bulgakov continued to work actively, creating the libretto of the operas "The Black Sea" (1937, composer Sergei Pototsky), "Minin and Pozharsky" (1937, composer Boris Asafiev), "Friendship" (1937-1938, composer Vasily Solovyov-Sedoy; remained unfinished) , "Rachel" (1939, composer Isaac Dunaevsky), etc.
An attempt to renew cooperation with the Moscow Art Theater by staging the play "Batum" about the young Stalin (1939), created with the theater's active interest in the 60th anniversary of the leader, ended in failure. The play was banned from production and was interpreted by the political elite as the writer’s desire to improve relations with the authorities.
In 1929-1940, Bulgakov’s multifaceted philosophical and fantastic novel “The Master and Margarita” was created - last piece Bulgakov.
Doctors discovered the writer had hypertensive nephrosclerosis, incurable disease kidney he was seriously ill, almost blind, and his wife made changes to the manuscript under dictation. February 13, 1940 was the last day of work on the novel.
Mikhail Bulgakov died in Moscow. He was buried at the Novodevichy cemetery.
During his lifetime, his plays “Adam and Eve”, “Bliss”, “Ivan Vasilyevich” were not released; the last of them was filmed by director Leonid Gaidai in the comedy “Ivan Vasilyevich Changes His Profession” (1973). Also, after the writer’s death, a “Theatrical Novel” was published, which was based on “Notes of a Dead Man.”
Before publication, the philosophical and fantastic novel “The Master and Margarita” was known only to a narrow circle of people close to the author; the uncopied manuscript was miraculously preserved. The novel was first published in abridged form in 1966 in the Moscow magazine. Full text V latest edition Bulgakov was published in Russian in 1989.
The novel became one of the artistic achievements of Russian and world literature of the 20th century and one of the most popular and read books in the writer’s homeland; it was repeatedly filmed and staged on the theater stage.
In the 1980s, Bulgakov became one of the most published authors in the USSR. His works were included in the Collected Works in five volumes (1989-1990).
On March 26, 2007 in Moscow, in an apartment on Bolshaya Sadovaya Street, building 10, where the writer lived in 1921-1924, the government of the capital established the first M.A. Museum in Russia. Bulgakov.
Mikhail Bulgakov was married three times. The writer married his first wife Tatyana Lappa (1892-1982) in 1913. In 1925, he officially married Lyubov Belozerskaya (1895-1987), who had previously been married to journalist Ilya Vasilevsky. In 1932, the writer married Elena Shilovskaya (née Nuremberg, after Neelov’s first husband), the wife of Lieutenant General Yevgeny Shilovsky, whom he met in 1929. From September 1, 1933, Elena Bulgakova (1893-1970) kept a diary, which became one of the important sources of the biography of Mikhail Bulgakov. She preserved the writer’s extensive archive, which she transferred to the State Library of the USSR named after V.I. Lenin (now the Russian State Library), as well as the Institute of Russian Literature of the USSR Academy of Sciences (Pushkin House). Bulgakova managed to achieve the publication of “The Theatrical Novel” and “The Master and Margarita”, the re-release of “The White Guard” in its entirety, and the publication of most of the plays.
The material was prepared based on information from RIA Novosti and open sources