Mikhail Afanasyevich Bulgakov was a Russian and Soviet writer who wrote novels and plays. His novel The Master and Margarita, which was published after his death, is considered one of the greatest works of the 20th century. He also wrote the novel The White Guard and the plays Ivan Vasilievich, Flight (also called The Run), and The Days of the Turbins.
Some of his works (Flight, all his works between 1922 and 1926, and others) were banned by the Soviet government, including Joseph Stalin, because they were believed to praise people who left Russia and supported military leaders who opposed the government. However, Stalin loved the play The Days of the Turbins. He watched it at least 15 times and even asked a theater to perform it when the playwright was no longer in favor. Despite Stalin’s support for some of Bulgakov’s works, the writer was only briefly successful during his lifetime. After his death, especially after The Master and Margarita was published in 1966–67, his work was re-evaluated. Today, Bulgakov is widely respected as one of the most important Russian authors of the 20th century.
Life and work
Mikhail Bulgakov was born on 15 May (Old Style 3 May) 1891 in Kiev, Kiev Governorate of the Russian Empire, at 28 Vozdvishenskaya Street, into a Russian family. He was baptized on 18 May (Old Style 6 May) 1891. He was the oldest of seven children of Afanasiy Bulgakov, a state councilor, professor at the Kiev Theological Academy, and a well-known Russian Orthodox writer and translator of religious texts. His mother was Varvara Mikhailovna Bulgakova (née Pokrovskaya), a former teacher at a women’s gymnasium. His godfather was academician Nikolai Petrov, and his godmother was his paternal grandmother, Olympiada.
Afanasiy Bulgakov (1859–1907) was born in Oryol, Oryol Governorate, as the oldest son of Ivan Avraamovich Bulgakov, a priest, and Olympiada Ferapontovna. He studied at a seminary in Oryol and later at the Kiev Theological Academy from 1881 to 1885. In 1886, he became a docent at the academy. Varvara Bulgakova (1869–1922) was born in Karachev. Her father, Mikhail Pokrovsky, was a priest. Afanasiy and Varvara married in 1890. Their other children were Vera (b. 1892), Nadezhda (b. 1893), Varvara (b. 1895), Nikolai (b. 1898), Ivan (b. 1900), and Yelena (b. 1902).
All the children received a good education. They read books by famous Russian and European authors, studied music, and attended concerts. Mikhail played piano, sang baritone, and enjoyed opera. He especially liked the opera Faust by Gounod. His sister Nadezhda said he saw Faust at least 40 times. At home, Mikhail and his siblings acted out plays they enjoyed. The family also had a summer home in Bucha.
In 1900, Bulgakov was enrolled in the Second Kiev Gymnasium. In 1901, he was enrolled in the First Kiev Gymnasium, where he developed an interest in Russian and European literature (his favorite authors at the time were Gogol, Pushkin, Dostoyevsky, Saltykov-Shchedrin, and Dickens), theatre, and opera. The teachers at the Gymnasium greatly influenced his taste in literature.
In 1906, Afanasiy Bulgakov became seriously ill with malignant nephrosclerosis and died in 1907. The loss of his father caused Mikhail to lose his faith in the Orthodox Church. His sister Nadezhda noted that he became interested in the theories of Darwin and turned to "non-belief."
In the summer of 1908, Bulgakov met Tatyana Lappa. Lappa, who lived in Saratov, visited Kiev to see her relatives. Her aunt was friends with Varvara Bulgakova and introduced her to the young Bulgakov. In 1909, Bulgakov began studying medicine at Kiev University. In 1912, Lappa moved to Kiev to study. The two married in April 1913.
At the start of World War I, Bulgakov was staying with Lappa’s parents in Saratov. Her mother opened a field hospital for wounded soldiers, where Bulgakov worked as a doctor. The couple returned to Kiev in the autumn. In 1916, Bulgakov graduated from university and volunteered for the Red Cross. His wife volunteered as a nurse. He first worked in Kamianets-Podilskyi, then was transferred to Chernivtsi in the same year. In September, he was transferred to Moscow and then to the village of Nikolskoye in Smolensk Oblast. His time as a doctor inspired his short story cycle A Young Doctor’s Notebook and his short story Morphine. Morphine is based on his real-life addiction to the drug, which he began taking to ease allergic reactions from an anti-diphtheria medicine after accidentally infecting himself while treating a child. During a visit to Kiev, his stepfather advised him to inject distilled water instead of morphine, which helped him stop his addiction.
In the autumn of 1917, Bulgakov was transferred to the town of Vyazma but left for Moscow in November or December 1917 in an attempt to get a military discharge. After briefly visiting Lappa’s parents in Saratov, they returned to Kiev in February 1918. Upon returning, Bulgakov opened a private medical practice at his home on Andreyevsky Descent, 13. He lived through the Civil War and witnessed ten coups. Successive governments drafted him into service while two of his brothers fought in the White Army against the Bolsheviks.
In 1918, Bulgakov began writing. He later worked as a journalist and playwright. His early works included stories and
Works
During his life, Bulgakov was most famous for the plays he wrote for the Moscow Art Theatre, which was led by Konstantin Stanislavski and Nemirovich-Danchenko. Stalin liked Bulgakov’s play Days of the Turbins (Дни Турбиных, 1926), which was based on Bulgakov’s novel The White Guard. Even after his plays were forbidden from being performed in theaters, Bulgakov wrote a comedy about Ivan the Terrible visiting 1930s Moscow. His play Batum (Батум, 1939), which described Stalin’s early years, was also banned by Stalin himself. Bulgakov later wrote about his experiences as a Soviet playwright in Theatrical Novel (Театральный роман, 1936), which was not finished.
Bulgakov’s books were not published from the late 1920s until 1961; his plays were also rarely performed. His play Days of the Turbins was not performed again until 1954 at the Stanislavski and Nemirovich-Danchenko Theatre. In 1962, Life of Monsieur de Molière was published; in 1963, Notes of a Young Doctor; in 1965, Theatrical Novel and a collection of plays, including Flight, Ivan Vasilievich, and The Cabal of Hypocrites; in 1966, a collection of Bulgakov’s books, including The White Guard; and in 1967, The Master and Margarita was published.
Bulgakov began writing novels with The White Guard (Белая гвардия) in 1923. The book was published in parts in 1925 and fully in Paris between 1927 and 1929. It tells the story of a White Army officer’s family during the civil war in Kiev. In the mid-1920s, Bulgakov admired the works of Alexander Belyaev and H. G. Wells and wrote science fiction stories, including The Fatal Eggs (Роковые яйца, 1924) and Heart of a Dog (Собачье сердце, 1925). Bulgakov planned to collect stories he wrote in the 1920s, which were published in medical journals, into a book called Notes of a Young Doctor (Записки юного врача). This book was finally published in 1963.
The Fatal Eggs describes a scientist, Professor Persikov, who discovers a red ray that causes living things to grow quickly. At the time, an illness was killing chickens in Moscow, so the Soviet government used the ray on a farm. A mistake in shipping the eggs caused the professor to receive chicken eggs, while the government farm got ostrich, snake, and crocodile eggs. When the eggs hatched, they grew into large, dangerous creatures that caused chaos in Moscow’s suburbs and killed many workers. The government used propaganda to blame Persikov for the disaster. This story led to Bulgakov being labeled as a supporter of the old system.
Heart of a Dog tells the story of a scientist who implants human organs into a dog named Sharik. The dog becomes more human over time, causing confusion and problems. The story is a satire that criticizes certain ideas in the communist movement. The name of the man who donated the human organs, Chugunkin, is similar to the name of Stalin, which may be a reference to him. In 1973, the story was adapted into a comic opera called The Murder of Comrade Sharik by William Bergsma. In 1988, a film version titled Sobachye Serdtse was made by Lenfilm, starring Yevgeniy Yevstigneyev, Roman Kartsev, and Vladimir Tolokonnikov.
The Master and Margarita
The novel The Master and Margarita shows problems in Soviet society and its literary world. It is admired for its deep thoughts about life and its high quality of writing, which includes vivid descriptions (especially of old Jerusalem), poetic parts, and a unique style. The story uses a frame narrative, which means it includes two connected time periods or plot lines: one is Bulgakov's version of the New Testament, and the other describes life in Moscow during the 1930s.
The novel starts with Satan visiting Moscow in the 1930s, where he joins a conversation between a critic and a poet discussing ways to deny the existence of Jesus Christ. The story grows into a wide criticism of the corruption in communist and Soviet Russia. Within the main story, there is another story about Jesus Christ being questioned by Pontius Pilate and his crucifixion.
The book is the most famous novel written by Bulgakov. He began writing it in 1928, but it was not published until 1966, 26 years after his death, by his wife. The book introduced phrases like "Manuscripts don't burn" and "second-grade freshness" into the Russian language. The story includes a destroyed manuscript by the Master, which is a key part of the plot. Bulgakov had to rewrite the novel from memory after burning the draft in 1930 because he believed he could not have a future as a writer in the Soviet Union during a time of heavy political control.
Legacy
The Mikhail Bulgakov Museum (Bulgakov House) in Kyiv has become a museum that shows his life and work. Some rooms display items from his family, while others focus on his books and plays. This building was his family home and inspired the house of the Turbin family in his play The Days of the Turbins.
In Moscow, two museums honor Mikhail Bulgakov and his famous book The Master and Margarita. Both are located in his old apartment building on Bolshaya Sadovaya Street, number 10. Parts of The Master and Margarita take place in this building. Since the 1980s, the building has been visited by Bulgakov fans and some groups, and graffiti appeared on the walls. Many drawings, sayings, and paintings were removed in 2003. Before that, the best drawings were kept visible so that layers of paint could be seen around them.
The Bulgakov House (Russian: Музей – театр "Булгаковский Дом") is located on the ground floor. It was created by private efforts and opened on May 15, 2004.
The museum displays personal items, photographs, and exhibits about Bulgakov’s life and works. It hosts poetry and literary events and offers tours of Bulgakov’s Moscow, some of which include actors playing characters from The Master and Margarita. The museum also includes a theater with 126 seats, called Theatre M.A. Bulgakov, and a café named Café 302-bis.
In the same building, apartment number 50 on the fourth floor is home to a second museum, the Museum M.A. Bulgakov (Russian: Музей М. А. Булгаков). This museum was created by the government and opened on March 26, 2007.
The Museum M.A. Bulgakov also displays personal items, photographs, and exhibits about Bulgakov’s life and works. It regularly hosts poetry and literary events.
Medical eponym
After finishing medical school in 1909, he began his career as a specialist in sexually transmitted diseases, rather than becoming a pediatrician, because syphilis was very common at that time. During these early years, he studied how syphilis affected the bones and described the symptoms. He noticed that the top parts of the shin bones in people with syphilis had an unusual, uneven shape that looked like they had been eaten by worms. He also observed the growth of extra bone formations in the later stages of the disease. These findings became known as "Bulgakov's Sign" and are still used in the former Soviet states. In Western countries, this sign is called the "Bandy Legs Sign."