Mikhail Bulgakov

[Stewart]

Mikhail Bulgakov ( May 15 [O.S. May 3] 1891, Kiev – March 10, 1940, Moscow) was a Russian novelist and playwright active in the first half of the 20th century. He is best known for the novel The Master and Margarita, which the New York Times Book Review has called one of the greatest novels of the twentieth century.

Mikhail Bulgakov was born to Russian parents on May 15, 1891 in Kiev, Ukraine (which at the time was part of the Russian Empire). He was the oldest son of Afanasiy Bulgakov, an assistant professor at the Kiev Theological Academy. He was the grandson of priests on both sides of the family. From 1901 to 1904, Mikhail attended the First Kiev Gymnasium, where he developed an interest in Russian and European literature.

In 1913 Bulgakov married Tatiana Lappa. At the outbreak of the First World War he volunteered with the Red Cross. In 1916, he graduated from the Medical School of Kiev University and then served in the White Army. He briefly served in the Ukrainian People's Army. His brothers also served in the White Army. After the Civil War and rise of the Soviets, they emigrated to exile in Paris. Mikhail, who had enlisted in the White Army as a field doctor, ended up in the Caucasus. There he began to work as a journalist.

In 1919 he decided to leave medicine to pursue his love of literature. In 1921, he moved with Tatiana to Moscow where he began his career as a writer. Three years later, divorced from his first wife, he married Lyubov' Belozerskaya. He published a number of works through the early and mid 1920s, but by 1927 his career began to suffer from criticism that he was too anti-Soviet. By 1929 his career was ruined, and government censorship prevented publication of any of his work.

In 1931, Bulgakov married for the third time, to Yelena Shilovskaya, who would prove to be inspiration for the character Margarita in his most famous novel. They settled at Patriarch's Ponds. During the last decade of his life, Bulgakov continued to work on The Master and Margarita, wrote plays, critical works, stories, and made several translations and dramatisations of novels, but none were published.

Bulgakov never supported the Soviet regime, and mocked it in many of his works. Therefore, most of his work stayed in his desk drawer for several decades. In 1930 he wrote a letter to the Soviet government, requesting permission to emigrate if the Soviet Union could not find use for him as a satirist. He received a personal phone call from Stalin himself, who asked Bulgakov if he truly desired to leave the country. Bulgakov replied that a Russian writer could not live outside of his homeland.

Stalin had enjoyed Bulgakov's work, The Days of the Turbins and found work for him at a small Moscow theatre, and then the Moscow Art Theatre. In Bulgakov's autobiography, he claimed that he wrote to Stalin out of desperation and mental anguish, never intending to post the letter. Bulgakov wrote letters to Stalin during the 1930s again requesting to emigrate, to which Stalin did not reply.

The refusal of the authorities to let him work in the theatre and his desire to see his family living abroad, whom he had not seen for many years, led him to seek drastic measures. Despite his new work, the projects he worked on at the theatre were unsuccessful and he was stressed and unhappy. He also worked briefly at the Bolshoi Theatre as a librettist but left when his works were not produced.


Bulgakov died from nephrosclerosis (an inherited kidney disorder) on March 10, 1940. He was buried in the Novodevichy Cemetery in Moscow. His father had died of the same disease.

RELATED THREADS

• A Dead Man's Memoir
• The Master And Margarita

[Stewart]

I'm not bothering to put a bibliography in for Bulgakov above because a) I can't find a good one; and b) I'm too tired to go organising all the ones I've found into a coherent whole.

But I've recently bought a couple of Bulgakov books (A Dog's Heart and A Dead Man's Memoir) and have had The Master And Margarita sitting there for a while. I've always left TMAM aside because I always think that, since it's a satire, that I'm going to miss all the comedy of it - especially since my Soviet lifestyle knowledge isn't all that - as I tend not to find comedy in books to be funny. Anyone want to allay my concerns?

[Mirabell]

Oh read it by all means
its funny as hell
before our friend chimes in with
a rant on the system it criticizes
I tell you knowledge enhances it
as it does everything
but it's not necessary
at all.

A sensibility to certain quirks of Russian writing
helps
but you have read some books
here'n there if I remember correctly
so that's no issue for you.

Go ahead, don't be afraid,
it bites.

[Stewart]

What's with the messed up posting style?

[Mirabell]

Originally Posted by Stewart

What's with the messed up posting style?

something I picked up from Suz
and can't always shake

[cuchulain]

It is a great novel. Though I think it does add much to it knowing what he was satirizing and whom.

It can be read without that and enjoyed. Like a very strange fantasy. Almost like a Harry Potter book with more complexity. For adults, etc.

I think the fact that he pulled a Velazquez on the authorities just deepens the whole thing.

. . . .

I read it a long time ago, and probably not from the best translation. Need to find the best recent version and reread.

(Suggestions for that are more than welcome)

That's also the case with Dr. Zhivago. Reading that now. The old translation by Max Hayward and Manya Harari.

[Mirabell]

It can be read without that and enjoyed.

yes, why don't we stress that point more to incite Stewart into reading the book, hm?

I have read it twice now and the first time I was in seventh grade and didn't know anything and it was still an engrossing read. Do do do read it. It's probably weeping bitter tears on that shelf of yours (or summoning satan, which is more likely )

[GreenDoor]

The Dog's Heart is much more satirical and needs much more knowledges about the epoch, than The Master and Margarita. TMAM is one of the recognized masterpieces of Russian literature and one of the most popular books in Russian. Many expressions have became winged words. A lot of modern Russian writers are influenced by Bulgakov. For example, I had noticed some spirit of TMAM in some books of Pelevin (not in plot, but in language, some kind of construction of the sentences).
TMAM is wonderful - it is vivid and wise at the same time, and its language is very "tasty".

[titania7]

Having just finished A Dead Man's Memoir, which I will write a review of in a separate thread, it seemed like the appropriate time to
do a bit of web-searching on Bulgakov.

For those who haven't yet read his work, knowing a few things about his life might prompt you to pick up one of his books. Thus far, I have read his masterpiece, The Master and Margarita (which, in my opinion, is begging for a re-read soon), and The Day of the Turbins. And now, of course, A Dead Man's Memoir.

I make no secret of my fervent passion for Russian literature. Whenever I read a work by a Russian author, a sense of contentment comes over me. Although I have been asked many times, based on my appearance, if I am of Russian descent, the truth is, I am not. Hence I have no explanation for why I am drawn so strongly to the world of Russian literature. It is inexplicable. Perhaps it is the timelessness in works by Dostoevsky, Turgenev,
Tolstoy, Gogol, Chekhov, and Gorky that attract me. Then again, it could be that the Russian temperament is something I strongly relate to. I appreciate the fact that they rarely smother their feelings under a veneer of complacency or apathy. They feel deeply about their country, their lives, and their work. And, unlike such writers as Trollope, Austen, and, to a certain extent, Charles Dickens, their books and stories rarely seem "dated." I'm always left feeling very much as if their writing could have been penned in today's time--with a few alterations, of course.

My favorite poet is Anna Akhmatova, yet another Russian.
Like so many other Russians, Anna was deeply affected
by the political situation of the Soviet Union in the 1920's,
1930's, and 1940's, as well as the condemnation of her work by Soviet critics.

So....what does Akhmatova have to do with Bulgakov? In the 1930's, Anna became good friends with Mikhail and his wife,
Yelena. Yelena gave Akhmatova the manuscript of The Master and Margarita to read in Tashkent.*

* a city East of the Syr Darya, of Uzbekistan (a country W of
central Asia, E of the Amu Darya)

Here is a poem that Akhmatova wrote that's inspired by The Master and Margarita. It was dedicated to Yelena Bulgakov.

The Hostess

Before me in this chamber lived
A solitary sorceress:
Her shadow is still visible
On the eve of the new moon
Her shadow still stands
By the high doorsill,
And sternly and evasively,
She glances at me.
I am not one of those
Subject to other people's spells,
I myself.....But, by the way,
I don't just give my secrets away.

Continuing with the Akhatova-Bulgakov connection,
let us take a look at a poem that Ahkmatova wrote
in Bulgakov's memory. As always, her words are
beautifully composed and visually evocative.

***
Here is my gift, not roses on your grave,
not sticks of burning incense.
You lived aloof, maintaining to the end
Your magnificent disdain.

You drank wine, and told the wittiest jokes,
and suffocated inside stifling walls.
Alone you let the terrible stranger in
and stayed with her alone.

Now you're gone, and nobody says
a word about your troubled and exalted life.
Only my voice, like a flute, will mourn
at your dumb funeral feast.

Oh, who would have dared to believe that half-crazed I,
I, sick with grief for the buried past,
I, smoldering on a slow fire,
Having lost everything and forgotten all,

would be fated to commemorate a man
so full of strength and will and bright inventions,
who only yesterday, it seems, chatted with me,
hiding the tremor of his mortal pain.

***

Anyone who has an interest in finding out more about
Anna Akhmatova should try to procure a copy of
the magnificent biography, Anna Akhmatova by
Roberta Reeder.

I am still trying to find a good biography of Bulgakov.
Recommendations are most welcome!

A few sites relating to Bulgakov that you might want to
check out are:

Mikhail Bulgakov - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Mihail Bulgakov

Mikhail Afanasjevitch Bulgakov

If you have any problems with this links, please
let me know. Thanks.


Note to Stewart:
You can add me to the list of those who strongly recommend
that you read The Master and Margarita. I'm cognizant of the fact
you probably won't be able to get to it until next year,
but I truly hope you'll put near the top of your TBR stack
at that point. As for the humor, it is not the least bit
difficult to grasp. Even if you usually don't appreciate
the comedic elements in certain works, I feel like
you will find TMAM not only funny, but also thought-provoking,
brilliant, and positively stupendous. Please--please--don't miss
this one.

Best,
Titania

[miercuri]

Originally Posted by Mirabell

I have read it twice now and the first time I was in seventh grade and didn't know anything and it was still an engrossing read.

So did I! Anyway it's one of those books that must be read at least twice! And what fun it is!