Literary and historical notes of a young technician. Writer and Leader

Introduction

Bulgakov is one of the most widely read writers of the 20th century, now we boldly call him a great, genius, which was previously unthinkable. And yet the name of the author of The Master and Margarita is not just a milestone in the history of literature. His living books should not obscure an original person, a wonderful person, strong in spirit and faith, an honest Russian writer who managed to live such a difficult, happy life, rich in creativity and deeds, and find his difficult fate in history and literature.
Now the name of Mikhail Afanasyevich Bulgakov is surrounded by readers' attention both in our country and abroad, crowned with well-deserved fame. And there was a not so distant time when words deprived a wonderful artist of his main right - live and direct communication with the reader, viewer, listener, followed his every step, and each of his new things was met suspiciously and often saw in it something that it was not there at all, but what did his critics and opponents want to see there - the "frantic zealots" of the party ideology. The reasons for such unfair criticism and actual harassment in the press, and later complete silence, were immediately revealed. Bulgakov did not know how to dissemble, to adapt either in life or in literature, he was not uncommon as a whole person, which, of course, manifested itself in his work. Both orally and in writing, Mikhail Bulgakov consistently defended the principles of Russian classical literature throughout his life, following the precepts of his great teachers: Pushkin, Gogol, Nekrasov, Saltykov-Shchedrin, Dostoevsky, L. Tolstoy - writers he loved and revered. He reasonably believed that modern domestic literature cannot develop successfully without assimilation of all the best that has been accumulated over many years by great Russian literature.
Bulgakov wrote only that he studied well, deeply and comprehensively what worried him. The opportunistic moments of creativity were deeply alien to him. He had his own point of view on the processes taking place in the country, which often did not coincide with the official one. The writer and citizen was convinced that the intelligentsia should play a leading role in the development of the country, and was an ardent supporter, in his words, of the “beloved and great Evolution”, a classic representative of that part of cultural figures who, without leaving the country in difficult years, sought to preserve their "generic characteristics" in the new conditions. But he was well aware that the creative and life attitudes realized in works of art would meet a fierce rebuff. And this predicted existence in an almost hostile environment. For a long time, Bulgakov was known as the author of the play Days of the Turbins and the staging of Gogol's poem Dead Souls. But “manuscripts do not burn”, a brilliant word is immortal, time has no power over works created by a master with a pure soul and a wise heart. And the further the dates of creation of Bulgakov's works go from us, the more the reader's and viewer's interest in them increases.
Over the past decades, the biography of the writer and his work have been studied in sufficient detail. Here we will consider the main milestones of his life path, his family ties and not only them.

Childhood and youth

Mikhail Afanasyevich Bulgakov was born on May 3, 1891 in the family of Afanasy Ivanovich Bulgakov, a teacher at the Kyiv Theological Academy, and his wife Varvara Mikhailovna, nee Pokrovskaya, the first child in their marriage, concluded on July 1, 1890. Place of birth - the house of the priest Matvey Butovsky in Kyiv, on Vozdvizhenskaya st. Both parents came from the ancient families of Orlovsky and Karachevsky, clergymen and merchants: Bulgakov, Ivanov, Pokrovsky, Turbin, Popov ... Ivan Avraamievich Bulgakov, grandfather on his father's side, was a village priest, by the time his grandson Mikhail was born, he became rector of the Sergius cemetery church in Orel . Another grandfather, on the mother's side, Mikhail Vasilievich Pokrovsky, was an archpriest of the Kazan Cathedral in the city of Karachev. The fact that both grandfathers were priests of the same locality, were born and died in the same year, had an almost equal number of children - the writer's biographers see some kind of inter-clan "symmetry", a special providential sign. And by the name of her maternal grandmother, Anfisa Ivanovna Turbina, the autobiographical characters of the novel The White Guard and the play Days of the Turbins were subsequently named.
On May 18, Mikhail was baptized according to the Orthodox rite in the Exaltation of the Cross Church. The name is given in honor of the keeper of the city of Kyiv Archangel Michael. The godparents were: a colleague of his father, an ordinary professor of the Theological Academy, Nikolai Ivanovich Petrov, and Mikhail's paternal grandmother Olimpiada Ferapontovna Bulgakova (Ivanova).

In 1892-1899 and in the 1900s. in search of better housing, the family changed apartments almost every year. The number of household members also grew: Mikhail had six brothers and sisters - Vera (1892), Nadezhda (1893), Varvara (1895), Nikolai (1898), Ivan (1900) and Elena ( 1902). The last city address for a complete family turned out to be the later famous one - Andreevsky Spusk, 13 (building 1, apt. 2, the future "House of the Turbins"), and the suburban one - a dacha in the village of Bucha near Kyiv, where the family regularly spent the summer months. But the new housing did not please the father and his family for long. In the autumn of 1906, A.I. Bulgakov fell mortally ill - nephrosclerosis was discovered in him. Colleagues of Afanasy Ivanovich did not leave him in trouble. With enviable efficiency - in order to have time to appreciate his merits - already on December 11, he was awarded the degree of Doctor of Theology. At the same time, the Council of the Theological Academy filed a petition with the Holy Synod to confer on him the title of ordinary professor, which was granted on February 8, 1907. Realizing that he would soon die, Afanasy Ivanovich tried to ensure that his family remained no less prosperous with his death. The next day, A.I. Bulgakov filed a request for dismissal from service due to illness, and on March 14 he died.
Mikhail's parent, Varvara Mikhailovna, like her father, instilled hard work and a desire for knowledge in children. According to the writer's sister, she said: “I want to give you all a real education. I cannot give you dowry or capital. But I can give you the only capital you will have is education.” So in 1900 (August 18), Mikhail was enrolled in the preparatory class of the Kyiv Second Gymnasium, which he graduated "with an award of the second degree." And on August 22, 1901, he began his studies at the famous First Men's Alexander Gymnasium and graduated from it in May 1909, having received a matriculation certificate on June 8 of the same year. This gymnasium had a special and prestigious status. Emperor Alexander I in 1811 granted her extensive rights. Pupils were prepared for admission to universities. According to researchers, this gymnasium and its teachers for Bulgakov are akin to the Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum and its teachers for Pushkin.

Gymnasium student Misha Bulgakov

The writer K. G. Paustovsky, who studied with him, gave such a portrait of the future author of The Master and Margarita: “Bulgakov was full of jokes, inventions, hoaxes. All this went freely, easily, and did not arise for any reason. This was an amazing generosity, the power of imagination, the talent of an improviser ... There was a world, and in this world existed as one of its links - its creative youthful imagination. This behavior of Mikhail Bulgakov was also facilitated by the relaxed family atmosphere, which his sister, Nadezhda, recalled: “... the main method of raising children ... was a joke, affection and goodwill ... this is what forged our characters ... Laughter sounded all the time in our house ... This was the leitmotif of our lives.

Bulgakov did not study brilliantly at the gymnasium. At that time, he wrote satirical poems about the same mother and about us, gave us all poetic characteristics, drew caricatures, played the piano. Of Bulgakov's hobbies of that time, football stood out - a game that was just beginning to gain popularity in Russia at that time, and theater. But all this did not prevent the high school student Bulgakov from having other interests ...

Writer's first marriage

In the late spring or early summer of 1908, having graduated from the penultimate, seventh grade of the gymnasium, Mikhail met fifteen-year-old Tatyana Lappa, the daughter of the chairman of the Saratov Treasury Chamber. A romantic relationship arose between him and Tasya, the difficult fate of which ended in a happy marriage: the wedding took place on April 26, 1913 in the Kiev-Podolsk Dobro-Nikolaev Church. Mikhail was at that time a second-year student at the university, Tatyana studied at the Higher Women's Courses. The Bulgakovs lived together for 11 years, Tatyana was with her husband in all his subsequent travels during the First World War and the Civil War in Kyiv, hospitals of the Southwestern Front of the Russian army, in the Smolensk region, in the Caucasus and in Moscow, where they parted ways in 1924.

Bulgakov-medic

After graduating from the gymnasium, Mikhail Bulgakov did not particularly hesitate in choosing a profession: the influence of relatives-doctors, the brothers Vasily, Nikolai and Mikhail Pokrovsky; the close presence of a friend of their home, the pediatrician I.P. Voskresensky, outweighed the hereditary roots of the ancestors - the clergy, and the time and upbringing were already completely different.
On August 21, 1909, he was enrolled in the medical faculty of the Imperial University of St. Vladimir in Kyiv. The study took place in the conditions of the war that began then in 1914-1918. Medical student Bulgakov does not stand aside: in August 1914, he helps his wife's parents organize an infirmary for the wounded at the Treasury Chamber in Saratov and works there as a medical orderly; in May 1915 he entered the Kyiv military hospital of the Red Cross in Pechersk; in the summer of that year, he served as a surgeon in the front-line hospitals of the cities of Kamenetz-Podolsky and Chernivtsi in Austrian Bukovina ... Bulgakov received a diploma of graduation from Kyiv University almost a year and a half later: on September 31, 1916, he was approved in the “degree of a doctor with honors with all rights and advantages conferred to this degree by the laws of the Russian Empire.
Arriving in mid-September 1916 at the Smolensk medical council, Bulgakov received a referral to one of the most remote corners of the Smolensk province - to the village of Nikolskoye, Sychevsky district, head of the 3rd medical center. He and his wife arrived there on September 29 - it is this date, the beginning of the medical activity of the future writer in Nikolskoye, that is in the certificate issued to him later. The work of a "zemstvo doctor" is reflected in the autobiographical cycle of stories "Notes of a Young Doctor", and in the story "Morphine" Bulgakov indirectly tells about himself...

Terrible affliction

In the summer of 1917, he began to take morphine regularly after he had been forced to inoculate himself against defthiritis, fearing infection due to a tracheotomy performed on a sick child; the onset of severe itching and pain began to be drowned out by morphine, and as a result, the use of the drug became a habit, which he could get rid of, almost miraculously, according to narcologists, only a year later, in Kyiv, through the efforts of his wife Tatyana and doctor I.P. Voskresensky , his stepfather.

Morphinism, which was then incurable, damaged the zemstvo medical career: Bulgakov worked in the Vyazemsky hospital from September 20, 1917 to February 19, 1918, when he was released from military service due to illness. On February 22, a certificate was received from the Vyazemsky district zemstvo council stating that he “performed his duties flawlessly,” and at the end of February, Mikhail and his wife returned to Kyiv, where they settled in the almost empty parental home. In the spring, Bulgakov gets rid of morphinism and opens a private practice as a venereologist. There was enough work: the authorities in the city were constantly changing - Reds, Whites, Petliurists - there were battles on the streets and in the suburbs, crowds of military and non-military people rolled in and out, there were arrests and pogroms, robberies and murders - in a word, all the horror, chaos and confusion Civil War in 1918-1920s. Bulgakov felt on his own destiny, having experienced, as he recalled, "10 coups personally." The events of that time were described by him in Moscow in the novel The White Guard. The author himself, his brother Nikolai, his sister Varvara, his son-in-law Leonid Karum, friends and acquaintances of Bulgakov became the main characters of the novel and the subsequent play "Days of the Turbins". This was in the mid-1920s, but Bulgakov began his first literary experiments in Vyazma, describing the life of a zemstvo doctor in the Sychevsky district, and continued in Kyiv with prose: “Illness”, “Green Serpent”, “First Color” (these works have not survived).

The last Kyiv power for Bulgakov in 1919 was the power of Denikin's Volunteer White Army. He was recognized as liable for military service and mobilized as a regimental doctor in a unit in the North Caucasus. At the turn of 1919-1920. he leaves the service in the hospital and in general medicine, begins to work as a journalist in local newspapers. Only three of his publications of that time have survived: the pamphlet “Future Prospects” (Grozny newspaper, November 26), the essay “In a Cafe” and (in excerpts) a story with the subtitle “Tribute of Admiration” (“Kavkazskaya Gazeta”, January 18 and 18 February). These events are also noted in Bulgakov's Autobiography.

The first literary essays of the writer

The writer Yu.L. Slezkin helped Bulgakov to decide on a literary work, with whom he collaborated with the Whites in the newspaper Kavkaz. The official duties of Mikhail Afanasyevich consisted in organizing literary evenings, concerts, performances, debates, where he spoke with an opening speech before the start of the performance.
In order to earn a living, Bulgakov began to write plays: a one-act humoresque "Self-Defense" was written for the drama troupe of the local Russian Theater. Behind her, in July-August, he wrote a "big four-act drama" "The Turbine Brothers", and in November-December 1920 - a buff comedy "Clay Bridegrooms (Treacherous Dad).

On October 1, 1921, Bulgakov was appointed secretary of the Literary Department (LITO) of the Main Political Education Department, which did not last long: on November 23, the department was liquidated and from December 1, Bulgakov was considered dismissed. Mikhail began to collaborate in the private newspaper Trade and Industrial Bulletin. But only six issues were published, and by mid-January 1922, Bulgakov was again unemployed. On February 16, there was a hope of getting a job in the newspaper "Worker" - the organ of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, and from the beginning of March he became its employee, publishing about 30 reports and essays there. In parallel, from mid-February, Bulgakov received a position as head of the publishing department in the scientific and technical committee of the Air Force Academy. NE Zhukovsky It gave at least some opportunity to live.

heavy hit

On February 1, 1922, a great grief fell upon Bulgakov, the first after the death of his father. His mother, Varvara Mikhailovna, died in Kyiv. Bulgakov loved his mother, although he often clashed with her (especially when she became Voskresenskaya, giving her children a stepfather). He dedicated the kindest words to her memory in the novel The White Guard. And the very death of the mother, as her son admitted, was one of the impetuses for the realization of the idea of ​​\u200b\u200bthis work.

However, the most difficult and difficult period of Bulgakov's life in Moscow was drawing to a close. With a job at the end of February and March 1922, the financial situation of the family began to gradually improve, which was facilitated by the publication of reports and articles. As early as February 4, Bulgakov's first Moscow reportage, The Emigrant Tailoring Factory, was published in the Pravda newspaper, then reports and articles, essays, feuilletons and stories under various pseudonyms began to appear in Rabochaya Gazeta, the Rupor magazine, and other Moscow publications. . Since the beginning of April, Bulgakov has been working as a literary editor for the railroad newspaper Gudok. His task is to give a literary form to correspondence from the provinces that were not distinguished by literacy. At the same time, he writes reports, stories and feuilletons for Gudok, works there as part of the Fourth Band, a team of journalists. It also prints announcements in various editions that "... is working on compiling a complete bibliographic dictionary of modern Russian writers with their literary silhouettes ...".
Such service and such "production" for "Gudok", "Worker" and other Soviet newspapers and magazines did not bring moral and creative satisfaction, although it provided the writer with daily bread. On April 18, 1922, Bulgakov informed his sister that, among other things, he also worked as an entertainer in a small theater. And since May, he begins cooperation in the emigrant "Smenovekhovskaya" newspaper "Nakanune" and its "Literary Supplement". The newspaper was published in Berlin on Soviet money and was relatively, in a European way, liberal, contributing to the return of the emigrant intelligentsia to their homeland. Bulgakov published 25 of the best essays, stories and feuilletons of that time there, and his fame as a journalist began with these publications. The newspaper also had a Moscow edition, and A.N. Tolstoy, who headed the Literary Supplement, demanded from Muscovites: “Send more Bulgakov.”

The recognized success of Bulgakov's publications in the newspapers of Moscow and Berlin, in a number of magazines puts him forward in the first ranks of Moscow writers, young prose writers of the "new wave". The writer is invited to literary evenings, meetings and concerts, enrolls in a creative trade union, speaks in circles of the humanitarian intelligentsia.
By the mid 1920s. he has two stories on his creative account (The Diaboliad, 1923 and Fatal Eggs, 1924), autobiographical Notes on the Cuffs, dozens of stories, essays, feuilletons - all this amounted to three books of selected prose, published in Moscow and Leningrad. At the beginning of 1925, the story "Heart of a Dog" was written, which was not allowed for publication and was published only several decades later ...
Working at night, in 1923-1924. he wrote his main work of that time, the novel "White Guard" ("Yellow Ensign"), biographically correlated with the events experienced by the author in the Civil War in Kyiv at the turn of 1918-1919. The full text of the novel was published in the late 1920s. in Paris and in 1966 in Moscow.

Then there were changes in his personal life. At the beginning of January 1924, Bulgakov participated in an evening hosted by the Nakanune newspaper at the Foreigners Service Bureau. There he met Lyubov Evgenievna Belozerskaya, who had recently returned from abroad, and who soon became his second wife: already in April 1924, Bulgakov and T.N. Lappa filed for divorce. And the marriage with Belozerskaya was registered on April 30, 1925 - a year after the divorce from T.N. Lappa and almost six months after the start of a life together.
Leaving at the end of 1924 from his house on Bolshaya Sadovaya, Bulgakov left behind his difficult life at the beginning of this decade, his former wife and some Moscow acquaintances he had acquired by that time. Having moved to the continuation of Prechistenka, to a three-room apartment on the ground floor, Bulgakov remained here until February 1934, having restored normal living conditions for himself.

theatrical recognition. Problems with the government

Prechistina time for Bulgakov is the time of the beginning of his theatrical success, the beginning of dramatic activity; “Days of the Turbins”, “Zoyka's Apartment”, “Crimson Island” are written here.
At the same time, another play was being written - the comedy "Zoyka's Apartment", accepted for production by the Theater-Studio. Evg. Vakhtanogov (Third Studio of the Moscow Art Theater). Work on it went on for almost the entire 1926. But Bulgakov’s literary and especially theatrical success caused mad envy and hatred for him and for his works of critics: “proletarian writers”, “Komsomol poets”, literary futurists and other “cultural extremists” , - "violent zealots." The terms “Bulgakovshchina”, “subbulgachnik” appeared, meetings and rallies were held. The leadership of culture in the country did not extinguish the raging passions, but only added fuel to the fire, now forbidding, now allowing performances. Bulgakov stopped printing newspapers and magazines. The matter has come to the attention of the Government. The organs of the OGPU of the NKVD also intervened, establishing covert surveillance of the writer, flooding his entourage with scammers and informers. Now published some of these "correspondences" produce a depressing impression.
The organs of the secret services continued to persistently show their interest in Bulgakov's personality. On September 22 and November 18, 1926, the writer was summoned to the OGPU for interrogations.
Efforts to discredit the writer, undertaken by the bureaucratic nomenclature and their hangers-on critics, were not in vain: in 1929, The Days of the Turbins, Zoya's Apartment, Crimson Island were removed from the repertoire, rehearsals of the new play "Running" and the production of play "The Cabal of the Saints". In a series of letters to higher authorities and to A.M. Gorky, Bulgakov informs about the unfavorable literary and theatrical situation for himself and his difficult financial situation.
The question of the "writer Bulgakov" was discussed at a meeting of the Politburo and was resolved positively: on April 18, Stalin called him. A remarkable and now legendary dialogue took place, in which the writer later assessed his position as one of the five main mistakes in life. But soon life began to improve.

Happy love

The turn of 1929 - the beginning of the 1930s was saturated for Bulgakov with dramatic events not only of a purely creative nature. New serious changes were brewing in his personal life. Bulgakov began to have friendly feelings for E.S. Shilovskaya, but they soon realized that they loved each other. Relations with Ye.S. Shilovskaya took a new turn and changed Bulgakov's life in many ways. On October 4, 1932, a marriage was registered between Elena Sergeevna and Bulgakov. It was in Elena Sergeevna that Bulgakov finally found his beloved, for whom his work was the main thing in life.

New life frontier. Regular failures

It was after such difficult personal circumstances - both dramatic and joyful - that Bulgakov began to implement his main work - the future novel The Master and Margarita. On various manuscripts, Bulgakov dated the beginning of work on it in different ways - either 1928 or 1929. Most likely, in 1928 the novel was only conceived, and in 1929 work began on the text of the first edition. On May 8, 1929, the writer handed over to the Nedra publishing house the chapter "Furibund Mania" from the novel "Engineer's Hoof". Translated from medical Latin, the title of the chapter meant "mania of rage", and it roughly corresponded in content to the chapter in the final version of "It was in Griboyedov." With this publication, Bulgakov hoped to at least slightly improve his financial situation, but the chapter in Nedra did not appear.

From the beginning of the 1930s the writer and playwright was literally overwhelmed with work. From April 1930, he worked at the Theater of Working Youth (TRAM) as a consultant, from May 10 - at the Moscow Art Theater as an assistant director. Almost a year later, on March 15, 1931, Bulgakov left TRAM. At the Moscow Art Theater, the new director was immediately appointed to the planned production of Gogol's "Dead Souls", and he had to re-write the text of the staging. Bulgakov also collaborates with the Moscow Mobile Sanitary and Educational Theater of the Institute of Sanitary Culture, writes a staging of "War and Peace" for the Bolshoi Drama Theater in Leningrad and for the Leningrad Red Theater a fantastic play about a future war - "Adam and Eve". The Moscow Theatre. Evg. Vakhtangov: in the fall of 1931, the playwright reads it in the theater. But the theaters refused to stage "Adam and Eve".

The unfavorable situation continued later: in July-November 1932, Bulgakov composed for the Theater-Studio of Yu.A. Moliere, at the same time, under the contract, writes a biography of this playwright for the series “The Life of Remarkable People”, in 1933-1934. works on a new edition of the play "Running" for the Moscow Art Theater, writes the comedy "Bliss, or the Dream of Engineer Rhine" for the Leningrad Music Hall and the Moscow Theater of Satire. All these projects did not receive practical completion: the book was rejected, the plays were not staged. Despite temporary setbacks, Bulgakov does not stop working on the novel The Master and Margarita, the personal circumstances of life only favor the creative process. At the end of 1933, he also put into practice his acting abilities: the profession of an actor attracted a writer and playwright from his youthful country performances - Mikhail Afanasyevich was a true man of the theater. On December 9, Bulgakov plays the role of Judge at the Moscow Art Theater screening of the first six scenes of N.A. Venkstern's staging of "The Pickwick Club Notes" by C. Dickens. Later in 1934-1935. Bulgakov played this role regularly in the theater, and also took part in the radio play The Pickwick Club at the head of a team of fellow actors.

But the main thing for Bulgakov in the early and mid-1930s, without a doubt, was the play about Molière - "The Cabal of the Saints". Started back in October 1929, now permitted, now forbidden, it was being prepared for staging in two theaters at once. The censorship did not like the name "The Cabal of the Holy Ones" and was removed. On October 12, 1931, Bulgakov signed an agreement on staging the play with the Leningrad Bolshoi Theater, and on October 15 with the Moscow Art Theater. However, the release of Molière in Leningrad was thwarted by a series of critical articles in the local press by the playwright Vsevolod Vishnevsky, who saw in Bulgakov not only an ideological opponent, but also a dangerous competitor. In the Moscow Art Theater, the fate of the play was also not very successful. On March 5, 1935, the performance was finally shown to K.S. Stanislavsky. He did not like the production, but the founder of the Art Theater presented the main claims not to directing or acting, but to Bulgakov's text. The “brilliant old man” seemed to feel the censorial unacceptability of the main idea that Bulgakov had - the tragic dependence of the great comedian on the insignificant power - the pompous and empty Louis and the “bondage of saints” surrounding him. That is why Stanislavsky sought to shift the emphasis somewhat, to shift the conflict into a plan of confrontation between a genius and a crowd that did not understand him. When this failed, Stanislavsky refused to rehearse. His associate V.I. Nemirovich-Danchenko undertook the production. On February 5, 1936, the first dress rehearsal took place, with the public, and on February 16, the premiere of Molière took place.

The audience liked the play, but the playwright did not. The magnificent scenery and the play of the actors in many ways made Molière a play on a historical theme. It seemed that everything was fine, and nothing foreshadowed a catastrophe. However, the fate of the production was very quickly decided, regardless of the opinion of the viewer. On February 29, 1936, the chairman of the Committee for Arts, P. M. Kerzhentsev, submitted to the Politburo a note “On Molière” by M. Bulgakov.
Stalin approved the proposal of the chairman of the Committee on Arts, and other members of the Politburo, of course, too. It was decided to publish in the central newspapers an article based on Kerzhentsev's materials condemning Molière.
The main blow to the play "Molière" was delivered on March 9, 1936, when the editorial article "External brilliance and false content" inspired by Kerzhentsev appeared in the newspaper Pravda, repeating the main theses of the chairman of the Committee on Arts. It called Molière a "reactionary" and "false" play, while Bulgakov was accused of "perverting" and "vulgarizing" the life of the French comedian, and the Moscow Art Theater was charged with "covering up the shortcomings of the play with the brilliance of expensive brocade, velvet and all sorts of trinkets." The theater directors themselves refused to continue the performances. The play only ran seven times.
M. M. Yanshin, one of Bulgakov’s closest friends, a brilliant performer of roles in his plays (Lariosika in The Days of Turbins and Bouton, Molière’s servant), also took a shameful part in the campaign against Molière. Subsequently, Bulgakov forever severed his friendship with Mikhail Mikhailovich. After Bulgakov left the Moscow Art Theater, he was invited to work at the Bolshoi Theater as a "librettist consultant".

Writers, poets and journalists about Bulgakov

Bulgakov did not like poetry and poetry, however, he recognized the talent of outstanding contemporary poets. He was friends and met with A.A. Akhmatova, respected B.L. Pasternak. Once, at the name day of the wife of the playwright Trenev, his neighbor in the writer's house, Bulgakov and Pasternak found themselves at the same table. Pasternak read his translated poems from Georgian with a special kind of breath. After the first toast to the hostess, Pasternak announced: "I want to drink to Bulgakov!" In response to the objection of the birthday girl-hostess: “No, no! Now we will drink to Vikenty Vikentievich, and then to Bulgakov! - Pasternak exclaimed: “No, I want for Bulgakov! Veresaev, of course, is a very big man, but he is a legitimate phenomenon. But Bulgakov is illegal!”
Recalling his meetings with the writer, head of the Moscow Art Theater, V.Ya. Vilenkin noted: “What kind of person was Bulgakov? This can be answered right away. Fearless - always and in everything. Vulnerable but strong. Trusting, but not forgiving of any deceit, no betrayal. Embodied conscience. Incorruptible honour. Everything else in it, even very significant ones, is already secondary, dependent on this main thing, which attracts to itself like a magnet.
Journalist E. L. Mindlin: “Everything is in Bulgakov - even a plaster-hard, dazzlingly fresh collar and a carefully tied tie, an unfashionable but well-tailored suit, pleated trousers, especially the form of addressing interlocutors with an emphasis on the dead after revolutions of endings with "s", such as "if you please" or "as you please," kissing the hands of the ladies and the almost parquet ceremony of bowing - everything decisively distinguished him from our environment. And of course, his long-sleeved fur coat, in which he, full of dignity, went up to the editorial office, invariably holding his hands sleeve to sleeve!
Moscow Art Theater actress S.S. Pilyavskaya: “Unusually elegant, fit, with all-seeing, all-noticing eyes, with a nervous, very often changing face. Cold, even a little prim with strangers and so open, mockingly cheerful and attentive to friends, or just acquaintances ... ".
The playwright A.A. Faiko: “Bulgakov was thin, flexible, blond all over in sharp corners, with transparent gray, almost watery eyes. He moved quickly, lightly, but not too freely ... he appeared in a smartly ironed black pair, a black bow tie on a starched collar, in patent, sparkling shoes, and everything else, and with a monocle, which he sometimes gracefully threw out of his eye socket and , after playing with the cord for some time, he inserted it again, but, out of absent-mindedness, already in the other eye ... ". P. A. Markov, an employee of the Moscow Art Theater: “He was, of course, very smart, devilishly smart and amazingly observant not only in literature, but also in life. And, of course, his humor could not always be called harmless - not because Bulgakov proceeded from the desire to humiliate someone (this was in fundamental contradiction with his essence), but his humor, at times, took on, so to speak, a revealing character. , often growing to philosophical sarcasm. Bulgakov looked into the essence of a person and vigilantly noticed not only his external habits, exaggerating them into an unthinkable, but quite probable characteristic, but, most importantly, he delved into the psychological essence of a person. In the most bitter moments of his life, he did not lose the gift of being surprised by her, he loved to be surprised ... ".

A series of productions

The mid-1930s was for Bulgakov both the time of turning to the work of his adored Gogol, and to the biography of Pushkin: in January 1937, a round mourning date was widely celebrated - one hundred years since the death of the poet. Bulgakov's staging of "Dead Souls" was a success at the Art Theatre. In 1934, work began on a screenplay based on Gogol's poem - "The Adventures of Chichikov", together with film director I.A. Pyryev. At the same time, Bulgakov concludes an agreement with the Kyiv film studio "Ukrainfilm" on the creation of the script for "The Government Inspector" together with director M.S. Karostin. Cooperation with Moscow theaters also continued: for the Theater of Satire, he reworked the already accepted play “Bliss” into another play, which later became known as “Ivan Vasilyevich”. And for the Theater. Evg. Vakhtangov, Bulgakov begins work on a play about Pushkin, and later, in 1938-1939, writes for this theater a staging of Don Quixote based on the novel by M. Cervantes.

On June 24, 1937, Bulgakov received a letter from the artistic director of the Vakhtangov Theater V.V. Kuza with a proposal to stage Don Quixote. The playwright hesitated for a long time whether to undertake it: the fate of the previous plays did not add optimism. Finally, he made up his mind, and in the summer of 1938 the first version of the play was written. This happened in Lebedyan, a small town in the upper reaches of the Don. Bulgakov came there to rest, to Elena Sergeevna, who was there with her children; after the most intense work on the typewritten edition of The Master and Margarita, the text of which, under dictation, was skillfully typed by his wife's sister.

Bulgakov stayed in Lebedyan from June 26 to July 21, living in the house of the accountant V.I. Andrievsky. The lines of Don Quixote were written there, which have become winged today: “...People choose different paths. One stumbles along the path of vanity, another crawls along the path of humiliating flattery, others make their way along the path of hypocrisy and deceit. Am I going down one of these roads? Not! I walk the steep road of chivalry and despise earthly goods, but not honor! These words of the knight-errant Don Quixote apply to Bulgakov as well. According to an agreement with the theater, the performance was to be released by January 1, 1940, but the playwright did not live to see the premiere on April 8, 1941.

On September 10, 1939, the Bulgakovs went to rest in Leningrad. Here the writer again felt a sudden loss of vision. We returned to Moscow, where doctors diagnosed acute hypertensive nephrosclerosis. Bulgakov, as a doctor himself, and remembering the fatal illness of his father, immediately realized the hopelessness of his situation. The authorities showed a certain attention to the patient: on November 11, the head of Soviet writers A.A. Fadeev visited him. From November 18 to December 18, Bulgakov was in a government sanatorium in Barvikha, where his condition temporarily improved.

Last years of activity

Late 1939 - early 1940 for Bulgakov they were also creative, despite the progressing illness. In Leningrad, as part of the 3rd volume of the collected works of Moliere, the play "The Miser" was published in Bulgakov's translation. At the same time, intensive editing of the typewritten version of the novel The Master and Margarita, completed in the summer of 1938, took place. Although old plots and separate scenes were deleted from it and new plots and separate scenes were added, the novel itself acquired the now known completeness and plot structure. The former names of the early-mid 1930s disappeared, and the final title was established - "The Master and Margarita". The writer made amendments to the dying writer until February 13, 1940 - just a month before his death, and when he was completely blind, he continued to dictate to Elena Sergeevna. Editing stopped at the words of Margarita: “So, it means that the writers are following the coffin?” Soon this phrase was realized, alas, literally.

* * *

The work of Mikhail Bulgakov has a tremendous impact on the modern world. And not only because he is recognized as a brilliant writer, playwright. Bulgakov was no less a brilliant thinker, able not only to correctly assess the most complex and intricate socio-political situations, but also to foresee the foreseeable future. He was a man of honor and dignity, not able to prevaricate. If we add to this that he truly, meaningfully loved Russia, was an adherent of observing and developing the best spiritual and cultural traditions of the Russian people, then his dramatic life fate becomes completely understandable. Bulgakov was a kind of passion-bearer, sufferer, martyr, who understood very early that Russia would have to experience tremendous upheavals. But still, Bulgakov could not imagine that the punishments sent down on Russian soil would be so heavy and long.

For more than twenty years, he did not cease to hope for a better lot for Russia, tried to believe in the common sense of the people and their ability to distinguish black from white, and waited for the necessary changes. Gradually, a sense of hopelessness and despair arose and developed in the writer's soul, which inevitably had to manifest itself in his work. The novel "The Master and Margarita" is the most convincing confirmation of this. The novel "The Master and Margarita" will remain in the history of Russian and world literature not only as evidence of the greatest human fortitude of Bulgakov the writer, not only as a hymn to a moral person - and a creative person - a master, not only as a story of Margarita's high, unearthly love, but also as a monument to the city where all the main events of the book take place, a monument to Moscow, where, as the writer himself admitted, "he came to stay forever."

We can proudly rank the creative heritage of Mikhail Afanasyevich Bulgakov among those indestructible "cornerstones", those granites, those foundations on which a new, lofty and majestic building of our culture is being created.

Bulgakov rightfully and worthily took his place among the classics of Russian literature and world culture.

Mikhail Afanasyevich Bulgakov is dear to all readers as a writer with a capital letter and interesting as a person who embodied in his fate the dignity and courage of an artist.

1.1 The Bulgakov family

Mikhail Afanasyevich Bulgakov was born into the family of a professor at the Kyiv Theological Academy. His father Afanasy Ivanovich was a very educated person, he read a lot and spoke several foreign languages. He even tried his hand at writing, although he wrote "on the table." It is likely that Bulgakov Jr. got his writing talent from his father. Despite the fact that Afanasy Ivanovich was a deeply religious person, he sought to give freedom to his children in matters of religion and sent them to secular schools.

Bulgakov's mother Varvara Mikhailovna was a teacher at the gymnasium. She came from a family of a priest, at the same time she had a broad outlook and at one time received a more than worthy education. Thanks to the inexhaustible energy of the mother, the family was able to adequately survive both the untimely death of their father and the First World War. There were only seven children in the Bulgakov family. Although they were not rich, they had enough to live on. Parents managed to give all children a good education and arrange their future life.

Mikhail spent all his childhood in the company of his sisters and brothers, the weather, only the youngest sister, Elena, who was affectionately called Lelya in the family, behaved more separately. Due to the age difference of 11 years, she could not take a full part in the games of the elders, although she also found herself a companion - the daughter of the owner of the house where the Bulgakovs lived. From the memoirs of Elena, recorded by her daughter, however, no discomfort is noticeable due to the current situation with her relatives, the atmosphere in the family was equally warm for everyone, therefore, even being lonelier than her sisters and brothers, Lyolya felt comfortable.

Mikhail Afanasyevich Bulgakov was born on May 3, 1891 in Kyiv, where he spent almost all of his childhood. It is this city that will become for him an endless source of inspiration and will set the atmosphere even for his latest works. The intelligent family in which Bulgakov grew up could not but leave a mark on his subsequent fate. The atmosphere of a friendly family hearth will often flash in his works. Just as often, Kyiv will appear in Bulgakov's works, which in many novels and plays will become not just a place for the unfolding of events, but a symbol of the intimacy of the family circle and homeland.

Among the features of the Bulgakov family, it is worth noting the possession of an extensive library, which became the first discovery for little Mikhail. It was thanks to an excellent collection of books that he met his literary idols at a fairly early age. Also in the family of the future writer, they were very fond of opera, especially Faust, which Bulgakov later staged in the theater with his own hands. From early childhood, the future writer was instilled with a love for music, literature, theater and architecture. He was very fond of visiting Kyiv theaters, he also studied drawings and ancient inscriptions in the churches of Kyiv.

The cultural environment and intelligent environment of Mikhail Bulgakov from an early age brought up in him a person who valued honor above all else, and also possessed all the qualities necessary for a successful writer.

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Mikhail Bulgakov is a Russian writer, playwright, director and actor. His works have become classics of Russian literature.

World fame brought him the novel "The Master and Margarita", which was repeatedly filmed in many countries.

When Bulgakov was at the height of his popularity, the Soviet government forbade the stage production of his plays and the publication of his works.

Bulgakov in his youth

After receiving his diploma, Bulgakov applied to do military service in the Navy as a doctor.

However, he failed to pass the medical examination. As a result, he asked to be sent to the Red Cross to work in a hospital.

At the height of the First World War (1914-1918), he treated soldiers near the frontline.

After a couple of years, he returned to Kyiv, where he began working as a venereologist.

Interestingly, during this period of his biography, he began to use morphine, which helped him get rid of the pain caused by taking the anti-diphtheria drug.

As a result, throughout his subsequent life, Bulgakov will be painfully dependent on this drug.

Creative activity

In the early 20s, Mikhail Afanasevich arrived in. There he begins to write various feuilletons, and soon takes on plays.

Later, he becomes a theater director of the Moscow Art Theater and the Central Theater of Working Youth.

Bulgakov's first work was the poem "The Adventures of Chichikov", which he wrote at the age of 31. Then several more stories came out from under his pen.

After that, he writes the fantastic story "Fatal Eggs", which was positively received by critics and aroused great interest among readers.

dog's heart

In 1925, Bulgakov published the book "Heart of a Dog", in which the ideas of the "Russian revolution" and the "awakening" of the social consciousness of the proletariat are masterfully intertwined.

According to literary critics, Bulgakov's story is a political satire, where each character is the prototype of one or another political figure.

The Master and Margarita

Having received recognition and popularity in society, Bulgakov set about writing the main novel in his biography - The Master and Margarita.

He wrote it for 12 years, until his death. An interesting fact is that the book was published only in the 60s, and even then not completely.

In its final form, it was published in 1990, a year before.

It is worth noting that many of Bulgakov's works were published only after his death, since they were not censored.

Bullying Bulgakov

By 1930, the writer began to be subjected to increasing persecution by Soviet officials.

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For many, Mikhail Bulgakov is the favorite writer. His biography is interpreted by people of various directions in different ways. The reason is the extent to which certain researchers correlate his name with the occult. For those interested in this particular aspect, we can recommend reading the article by Pavel Globa. However, in any case, its presentation should begin from childhood, which we will do.

Writer's parents, brothers and sisters

Mikhail Afanasyevich was born in Kyiv in the family of professor of theology Afanasy Ivanovich, who taught at the theological academy. His mother, Varvara Mikhailovna Pokrovskaya, also taught at the Karachay gymnasium. Both parents were hereditary bell nobles, their grandfathers, priests, served in the Oryol province.

Misha himself was the eldest child in the family, he had two brothers: Nikolai, Ivan and four sisters: Vera, Nadezhda, Varvara, Elena.

The future writer was thin, graceful, artistic with expressive blue eyes.

Michael's education and character

Bulgakov was educated in his hometown. His biography contains data on graduating at the age of eighteen from the First Kyiv Gymnasium and at the age of twenty-five from the Medical Faculty of Kyiv University. What influenced the formation of the future writer? The untimely death of a 48-year-old father, the stupid suicide of his best friend Boris Bogdanov because of his love for Vara Bulgakov, Mikhail Afanasyevich's sister - all these circumstances determined Bulgakov's character: suspicious, prone to neurosis.

First wife

At twenty-two, the future writer married his first wife, Tatyana Lappa, a year younger than him. Judging by the memoirs of Tatyana Nikolaevna (she lived until 1982), a film could have been made about this short marriage. The newlyweds managed to spend the money sent by their parents on a veil and a wedding dress before the wedding. For some reason they laughed at the wedding. Of the flowers presented to the newlyweds, most of all were daffodils. The bride was wearing a linen skirt, and her mother, who arrived and was horrified, managed to buy her a blouse for the wedding. Bulgakov's biography by dates, thus, was crowned with the date of the wedding on April 26, 1913. However, the happiness of the lovers was destined to be short-lived: in Europe at that time there was already a smell of war. According to Tatyana's memoirs, Mikhail did not like to save, he was not distinguished by prudence in spending money. For him, for example, it was in the order of things to order a taxi with the last money. Valuables were often pawned in a pawnshop. Although Tatyana's father helped the young couple with money, the funds constantly disappeared.

medical practice

Fate rather cruelly prevented him from becoming a doctor, although Bulgakov possessed both talent and professional instinct. The biography mentions that he had the misfortune to contract dangerous diseases while engaged in professional activities. Mikhail Afanasyevich, wishing to realize himself as a specialist, led an active medical activity. During the year, Dr. Bulgakov received 15,361 patients at an outpatient appointment (forty people a day!). He treated 211 people in the hospital. However, apparently, Fate itself prevented him from being a doctor. In 1917, having become infected with diphtheria, Mikhail Afanasyevich took a serum against it. The result was severe allergies. Her excruciating symptoms he weakened with morphine, but then became addicted to this drug.

Bulgakov's recovery

The healing of Mikhail Bulgakov is due to his admirers Tatyana Lappa, who deliberately limits his dose. When he asked for an injection of a dose of the drug, his loving wife injected him with distilled water. At the same time, she stoically endured her husband's tantrums, although he once threw a burning stove at her and even threatened her with a gun. At the same time, his loving wife was sure that he did not want to shoot, he just felt very bad ...

A brief biography of Bulgakov contains the fact of high love and sacrifice. In 1918, thanks to Tatyana Lappa, he stopped being a morphine addict. From December 1917 to March 1918, Bulgakov lived and practiced in Moscow with his maternal uncle, the successful gynecologist N. M. Pokrovsky (later the prototype of Professor Preobrazhensky from The Heart of a Dog).

Then he returned to Kyiv, where he again began working as a venereologist. The practice was interrupted by the war. He did not return to medical practice again ...

World War I and Civil War

The First World War marked for Bulgakov moving: at first he worked as a doctor near the front line, then he was sent to work in the Smolensk province, and then in Vyazma. During the Civil War from 1919 to 1921 he was twice mobilized as a doctor. First - to the army of the Ukrainian People's Republic, then - to the White Guard Armed Forces of the South of Russia. This period of his life later found its literary reflection in the cycle of stories "Notes of a Young Doctor" (1925-1927). One of the stories it contains is called "Morphine".

In 1919, on November 26, for the first time in his life, he published an article in the Grozny newspaper, which, in fact, represented the gloomy forebodings of a White Guard officer. The Red Army at the Yegorlytskaya station in 1921 defeated the advanced forces of the White Guards - the Cossack cavalry ... His comrades go beyond the cordon. However, Mikhail Afanasyevich does not allow to emigrate ... fate: he falls ill with typhus. In Vladikavkaz, Bulgakov is treated for a fatal illness and recovers. His biography captures the reorientation of the goals of life, creativity takes over.

Playwright

Mikhail Afanasyevich, emaciated, in the form of a white officer, but with torn shoulder straps, in the Tersky Narobraz works in the theater section of the sub-department of arts, in the Russian theater. During this period in the life of Bulgakov there is a severe crisis. There is no money at all. She and Tatyana Lappa live by selling the severed parts of a miraculously surviving gold chain. Bulgakov made a difficult decision for himself - never to return to medical practice. With a tormented heart, in 1920 Mikhail Bulgakov wrote the most talented play Days of the Turbins. The biography of the writer testifies to the first repressions against him: in the same 1920, the Bolshevik commission expelled him from work as a "former". Bulgakov is trampled, broken. Then the writer decides to flee the country: first to Turkey, then to France, he moves from Vladikavkaz to Tiflis through Baku. In order to survive, he betrays himself, Pravda, Conscience, and in 1921 writes the conformist play "Sons of the Mullah", which the Bolshevik theaters of Vladikavkaz willingly include in their repertoire. At the end of May 1921, while in Batumi, Mikhail Bulgakov summons his wife. His biography contains information about the most difficult crisis in the writer's life. Fate cruelly takes revenge on him for betraying his conscience and talent (meaning the aforementioned play, for which he received 200,000 rubles in fees (33 pieces of silver). This situation will happen again in his life).

Bulgakovs in Moscow

Spouses still do not emigrate. In August 1921, Tatyana Lappa left alone for Moscow via Odessa and Kyiv.

Soon, following his wife, Mikhail Afanasyevich also returned to Moscow (it was during this period that N. Gumilyov was shot and A. Blok died). Their life in the capital is accompanied by moving, unsettledness ... Bulgakov's biography is not easy. The summary of her subsequent period is the desperate attempts of a talented person to realize himself. Mikhail and Tatiana live in an apartment (in the apartment described in the novel "The Master and Margarita" - house number 10 on Bolshaya Sadovaya St. (Pigit's house), number 302-bis, which was kindly provided to them by brother-in-law philologist Zemsky A.M., who left for Kyiv to his wife). Brawling and drinking proletarians lived in the house. Spouses were uncomfortable in it, hungry, penniless. This is where they broke up...

In 1922, Mikhail Afanasyevich was in for a personal blow - his mother was dying. He feverishly begins to work as a journalist, putting his sarcasm into feuilletons.

literary activity. "Days of the Turbins" - Stalin's favorite play

Lived life experience and thoughts, born of a remarkable intellect, were simply torn to paper. A brief biography of Bulgakov records his work as a feuilletonist in Moscow newspapers ("Worker") and magazines ("Vozrozhdenie", "Russia", "Medical Worker").

Life, war-torn, begins to improve. Since 1923, Bulgakov has been accepted as a member of the Writers' Union.

Bulgakov in 1923 begins to work on the novel The White Guard. He creates his famous works:

• "Diaboliad";
• "Fatal Eggs";
• "Dog's heart".

• "Adam and Eve";
• "Alexander Pushkin";
• "Crimson Island";
• "Run";
• "Bliss";
• "Zoyka's apartment";
• "Ivan Vasilievich"

And in 1925 he marries Lyubov Evgenievna Belozerskaya.

He also made his mark as a playwright. Even then, a paradoxical perception of the work of the classic by the Soviet state was traced. Even Joseph Stalin in relation to him was contradictory and inconsistent. He watched the Moscow Art Theater production of Days of the Turbins 14 times. Then he declared that "Bulgakov is not ours." However, in 1932 he orders it to be returned, and in the only theater of the USSR - in the Moscow Art Theater, noting that after all "the impression of the play on the communists" is positive.

Moreover, Joseph Stalin subsequently, in his historic address on July 3, 1941 to the people, uses the phraseology of the words of Alexei Turbin: “I am addressing you, my friends ...”

In the period from 1923 to 1926, the writer's work flourished. In the autumn of 1924, in the literary circles of Moscow, Bulgakov was considered the current writer No. 1. The biography and work of the writer are inseparably linked. He develops a literary career, which becomes the main business of his life.

Short and fragile second marriage of the writer

The first wife, Tatyana Lappa, recalls that, being married to her, Mikhail Afanasyevich repeated more than once that he should marry three times. He repeated this after the writer Alexei Tolstoy, who considered such a family life the key to the glory of the writer. There is a saying: the first wife is from God, the second is from people, the third is from hell. Was Bulgakov's biography artificially formed according to this far-fetched scenario? Interesting facts and mysteries are not uncommon in it! However, Bulgakov's second wife, Belozerskaya, a secular lady, really married a wealthy, promising writer.

However, the writer lived soul to soul with his new wife for only three years. Until in 1928, the third wife of the writer, Elena Sergeevna Shilovskaya, “appeared on the horizon”. Bulgakov was still in his second official marriage when this stormy romance began. The writer described his feelings for his third wife with great artistic power in The Master and Margarita. The attachment of Mikhail Afanasyevich to the newfound woman, with whom he felt a spiritual connection, is evidenced by the fact that on 10/03/1932 the registry office terminated his marriage with Belozerskaya, and on 10/04/1932 an alliance was concluded with Shilovskaya. It was the third marriage that became the main thing for the writer in his life.

Bulgakov and Stalin: the lost game of the writer

In 1928, inspired by the acquaintance with "his Margarita" - Elena Sergeevna Shilovskaya, Mikhail Bulgakov begins to create his novel "The Master and Margarita". A brief biography of the writer, however, testifies to the beginning of a creative crisis. He needs space for creativity, which is not in the USSR. Moreover, there was a ban on the publication and production of Bulgakov. Despite his fame, his plays were not staged in theaters.

Iosif Vissarionovich, an excellent psychologist, knew very well the weaknesses of the personality of this most talented author: suspiciousness, a tendency to depression. He played with the writer like a cat plays with a mouse, having an undeniable dossier against him. On 05/07/1926, the only search of the entire time was carried out at the Bulgakovs' apartment. The personal diaries of Mikhail Afanasyevich, the seditious story "Heart of a Dog" fell into Stalin's hands. In the game of Stalin against the writer, such a trump card was obtained, which fatally led to the catastrophe of the writer Bulgakov. Here is the answer to the question: "Is Bulgakov an interesting biography?" Not at all. Until the age of thirty, his adult life was filled with suffering from poverty and disorder, then six years of a more or less measured, prosperous life really followed, but it was followed by a violent break in Bulgakov's personality, illness and death.

Refusal to leave the USSR. Leader's fatal call

In July 1929, the writer addressed a letter to Joseph Stalin, asking him to leave the USSR, and on March 28, 1930, he addressed the Soviet government with the same request. Permission was not given.

Bulgakov suffered, he understood that his grown talent was being ruined. Contemporaries remembered the phrase he dropped after another failed permission to leave: “I was blinded!”

However, that was not yet the final blow. And he was expected ... Stalin's call on April 18, 1930 changed everything. At that moment, Mikhail Bulgakov and his third wife Elena Sergeevna, laughing, were driving to Batum (where Bulgakov was going to write a play about Stalin's young years). At the Serpukhov station, a woman who got into their car announced: “A telegram to the accountant!”

The writer, uttering an involuntary exclamation, turned pale, and then corrected her: "Not to the accountant, but to Bulgakov." He expected ... Stalin scheduled a telephone conversation for the same date - 04/18/1930.

Mayakovsky was buried the day before. It is obvious that the leader's call could equally be called a kind of prevention (he respected Bulgakov, but still gently pressed), and a trick: in a confidential conversation, draw an unfavorable promise from the interlocutor.

In it, Bulgakov voluntarily refused to go abroad, which he could not forgive himself until the end of his life. It was his tragic loss.

The most complicated knot of relationships connects Stalin and Bulgakov. We can say that the seminarian Dzhugashvili outplayed and broke both the will and the life of the great writer.

The last years of creativity

In the future, the author concentrated all his talent, all his skill on the novel The Master and Margarita, which he wrote on the table, without any hope of publication.

The play “Batum” created about Stalin was rejected by the secretariat of Joseph Vissarionovich, pointing out the methodological error of the writer - the transformation of the leader into a romantic hero.

In fact, Joseph Vissarionovich was jealous, so to speak, of the writer for his own charisma. Since then, Bulgakov was allowed to work only as a theater director.

By the way, Mikhail Afanasyevich is considered one of the best directors in the history of Russian theater directed by Gogol and Saltykov-Shchedrin (his favorite classics).

Everything that he wrote - behind the scenes and prejudicedly, was "impassable". Stalin consistently destroyed him as a writer.

Bulgakov still wrote, he responded to the blow, as a real classic could do ... A novel about Pontius Pilate. About the all-powerful autocrat who is secretly afraid.

Moreover, the first version of this novel was burned by the author. It was called differently - "Devil's Hoof". In Moscow, after writing it, there were rumors that Bulgakov wrote about Stalin (Iosif Vissarionovich was born with two fused toes. People call this the hoof of Satan). Panicked, the author burned the first version of the novel. Hence, subsequently, the phrase “Manuscripts do not burn!” Was born.

Instead of a conclusion

In 1939, the final version of The Master and Margarita was written and read to friends. This book was judged to be published for the first time in an abridged version only after 33 years ... The terminally ill Bulgakov, suffering from kidney failure, did not have long to live ...

In the autumn of 1939, his eyesight deteriorated critically: he was practically blind. On March 10, 1940, the writer died. Mikhail Bulgakov was buried on March 12, 1940 at the Novodevichy cemetery.

The full biography of Bulgakov is still the subject of controversy. The reason is that the Soviet, emasculated version of it, presents the reader with an embellished picture of the author's loyalty to Soviet power. Therefore, being interested in the life of a writer, one should critically analyze several sources.

Mikhail Bulgakov is a Russian writer and playwright, the author of many works that today are considered classics of Russian literature. Suffice it to name such novels as The Master and Margarita, The White Guard and the stories The Devil, Heart of a Dog, Notes on the Cuffs. Many books and plays by Bulgakov were filmed.

Childhood and youth

Michael was born in Kyiv in the family of professor-theologian Athanasius Ivanovich and his wife Varvara Mikhailovna, who was engaged in raising seven children. Misha was the eldest child and, if possible, helped his parents manage the household. Of the other Bulgakov children, Nikolai became famous, who became a biologist, Ivan, who became famous in exile as a balalaika musician, and Varvara, who turned out to be the prototype of Elena Turbina in the novel The White Guard.

After graduating from the gymnasium, Mikhail Bulgakov enters the university at the Faculty of Medicine. His choice turned out to be connected solely with mercantile desire - both uncles of the future writer were doctors and made very good money. For a boy who grew up in a large family, this nuance was fundamental.

During the First World War, Mikhail Afanasyevich served in the frontline zone as a doctor, after which he healed in Vyazma, and later in Kyiv, as a venereologist. In the early 1920s, he moved to Moscow and began his literary career, first as a feuilletonist, later as a playwright and theater director at the Moscow Art Theater and the Central Theater of Working Youth.

Books

The first published book by Mikhail Bulgakov was the story "The Adventures of Chichikov", written in a satirical manner. It was followed by the partially autobiographical Notes on the Cuffs, the social drama The Diaboliad, and the writer's first major work, the novel The White Guard. Surprisingly, Bulgakov's first novel was criticized from all sides: local censorship called it anti-communist, and the foreign press spoke of it as being too loyal just to the Soviet regime.

Mikhail Afanasyevich told about the beginning of his medical activity in the collection of short stories “Notes of a Young Doctor”, which is still read with great interest today. The story "Morphine" stands out in particular. One of the author's most famous books, The Heart of a Dog, is also connected with medicine, although in reality it is a subtle satire on Bulgakov's modern reality. At the same time, the fantastic story "Fatal Eggs" was also written.

By 1930, the works of Mikhail Afanasyevich were no longer printed. For example, "Heart of a Dog" was first published only in 1987, "The Life of Monsieur de Molière" and "Theatrical Romance" - in 1965. And the most powerful and incredibly large-scale novel, The Master and Margarita, which Bulgakov wrote from 1929 until his death, was first published only at the end of the 60s, and then in an abridged form.

In March 1930, the writer, who lost ground under his feet, sent a letter to the government in which he asked to decide his fate - either to allow him to emigrate, or to give him the opportunity to work. As a result, he received a personal phone call and said that he would be allowed to stage performances. But the publication of Bulgakov's books never resumed during his lifetime.

Theatre

Back in 1925, Mikhail Bulgakov's plays, Zoya's Apartment, Days of the Turbins, based on the novel The White Guard, The Run, Crimson Island, were staged with great success on the stage of Moscow theaters. A year later, the ministry wanted to ban the production of The Days of the Turbins as an "anti-Soviet thing", but it was decided not to do this, since Stalin really liked the performance, who visited it 14 times.

Soon, Bulgakov's plays were nevertheless removed from the repertoire of all theaters in the country, and only in 1930, after the personal intervention of the Leader, Mikhail Afanasyevich was reinstated as a playwright and director.

He staged Gogol's "Dead Souls" and Dickens's "Pickwick Club", but his author's plays "", "Bliss", "Ivan Vasilyevich" and others during the life of the playwright were never published.

The only exception was the play "The Cabal of the Hypocrites", staged based on Bulgakov's play "" in 1936 after a five-year series of failures. The premiere was a huge success, but the troupe managed to give only 7 shows, after which the play was banned. After that, Mikhail Afanasyevich quits the theater and later earns a living as a translator.

Personal life

The first wife of the great writer was Tatyana Lappa. Their wedding was more than poor - the bride did not even have a veil, and then they lived very modestly. By the way, it was Tatyana who became the prototype for Anna Kirillovna from the story "Morphine".

In 1925, Bulgakov met Lyubov Belozerskaya, who came from an old family of princes. She was fond of literature and fully understood Mikhail Afanasyevich as a creator. The writer immediately divorces Lappa and marries Belozerskaya.

And in 1932 he met Elena Sergeevna Shilovskaya, nee Nuremberg. A man leaves his second wife and leads his third wife down the aisle. By the way, it is Elena who is depicted in his most famous novel in the image of Margarita. Bulgakov lived with his third wife until the end of his life, and it was she who made titanic efforts so that later the works of her beloved were published. Michael had no children with any of his wives.

There is a funny arithmetic-mystical situation with Bulgakov's spouses. Each of them had three official marriages, like himself. Moreover, for the first wife of Tatyana, Mikhail was the first spouse, for the second Lyubov - the second, and for the third Elena, respectively, the third. So Bulgakov's mysticism is present not only in books, but also in life.

Death

In 1939, the writer worked on the play "Batum" about Joseph Stalin, in the hope that such a work would definitely not be banned. The play was already being prepared for production when the order came to stop rehearsals. After that, Bulgakov's health began to deteriorate sharply - he began to lose his sight, and congenital kidney disease also made itself felt.

Mikhail Afanasyevich returned to the use of morphine to relieve pain symptoms. From the winter of 1940, the playwright stopped getting out of bed, and on March 10, the great writer died. Mikhail Bulgakov was buried at the Novodevichy cemetery, and at the insistence of his wife, a stone was laid on his grave, which was previously installed on the grave.

Bibliography

• 1922 - "The Adventures of Chichikov"
• 1923 - "Notes of a young doctor"
• 1923 - Diaboliad
• 1923 - "Notes on cuffs"
• 1924 - "White Guard"
• 1924 - "Fatal Eggs"
• 1925 - "Heart of a Dog"
• 1925 - "Zoyka's apartment"
• 1928 - "Running"
• 1929 - "Secret Friend"
• 1929 - "The Cabal of the Saints"
• 1929-1940 - The Master and Margarita
• 1933 - "The Life of Monsieur de Molière"
• 1936 - "Ivan Vasilyevich"
• 1937 - "Theatrical novel"