The Master and Margarita table of contents. Master and Margarita

"The Master and Margarita", as a rule, is studied in the 11th grade. This is a complex work, which is written on the basis of the gospel of Nicodemus, a secret follower of Jesus Christ. To remember the plot of the novel will help our summary of the chapters. If it is too long for you, we suggest it for a reader's diary, and we also recommend reading.

Chapter 1

In Moscow, Mikhail Berlioz, a short, overweight and bald man, the head of one of the leading metropolitan literary associations MASSOLIT, and his companion, the poet Ivan Ponyrev, who wrote under the name Bezdomny, walked on the Patriarch's Ponds. Surprisingly, besides them, there was no one on the alley. The men drank an apricot drink and sat down on a bench. Here another strange thing happened: Berlioz suddenly had a heart attack, and he was seized with fear, which made him want to run wherever his eyes looked. After that, he saw in the air a transparent citizen with a mocking face, dressed in a checkered jacket. Soon the man disappeared, so the chairman attributed the incident to heat and fatigue. Having calmed down, he began to talk with his comrade about the Son of God. Berlioz ordered an anti-religious poem to Bezdomny, but the leader was not satisfied with the result. Jesus turned out to be realistic, but it was required to show that he never existed.

While Berlioz was lecturing Bezdomny on this subject, a man appeared in the alley. He appears to be a tall man in his forties. His right eye was black, and his left green, clean-shaven, the crowns of his teeth were platinum on one side and gold on the other, richly dressed, a foreigner. He sat down with the men. The foreigner was interested in their atheism and remembered how he had talked to Kant on this subject, which surprised Berlioz and Bezdomny. The stranger asked who, if not the Almighty, controls everything on earth, to which Ivan replied that people are doing this. The foreigner said that they could not even know their fate in advance. After that, a suspicious man predicted to Berlioz that he would lose his head that evening because of a girl who had spilled oil. Then he advised Bezdomny to ask the doctors what schizophrenia is. Later, the stranger said that he was invited to the capital of Russia as a consultant on black magic. The man was convinced of the existence of Jesus and began the story.

Chapter 2. Pontius Pilate

The procurator of Judea, Pontius Pilate, dutifully interrogated the arrested man. The prisoner called him a kind person, but the judge denied this. Further, the centurion Mark, nicknamed the Ratslayer, at the request of Pilate, explained to the prisoner with the help of a scourge that the Roman procurator should be called hegemon. The arrested person introduced himself as Yeshua Ha-Notsri from Gamala. He was educated: in addition to Aramaic, he also knew the Greek language. The prisoner had no relatives. The hegemon asked if Yeshua really wanted to destroy the temple, as they said. The prisoner replied that people got everything mixed up because they did not receive proper education. He also spoke about Levi Matthew, who collected taxes, but lost interest in money after listening to Yeshua's sermons, and went traveling with him. The prisoner realized that Pilate had a headache and wanted his beloved dog to be by his side. When Yeshua told the hegemon about this, the ailment stopped. Pontius Pilate considered that this man was innocent, and even imbued with sympathy for the traveler. The procurator was about to pardon him, but then the secretary filed a report from Judas from Kiriath that Yeshua considered power to be violence, and that one day it would not be, and the kingdom of truth would come. It seemed to the hegemon that an ulcer appeared on the prisoner's head and his teeth fell out, but soon the vision disappeared. Pontius Pilate, being a representative of the authorities, could not get away with such a crime. The procurator was afraid that if he let Yeshua go, he himself would take his place on the cross. Therefore, the hegemon pronounced a death sentence, but in the hope that the arrested person would be pardoned in honor of Easter. The High Priest Joseph Kaifa reported that he had pardoned the robber Barraban. Pilate could not convince him. The condemned were taken to Lysaya Gora, and the hegemon returned to the palace with a feeling of sadness.

Chapter 3

When the consultant finished the story, it was already evening. The stranger declared that the gospels were not a reliable source. The man said that he was at those events. Here Berlioz finally realized that the stranger was crazy. After the mentally ill man said that he would be accommodated in the apartment of Mikhail Alexandrovich, he left him with Ivan, and he himself ran around the corner to the telephone. The stranger sadly asked Berlioz to finally believe at least in the existence of the devil. The writer played along and ran away.

On the way, he noticed the same person who was flying in the air, only not transparent, but the most ordinary, but did not begin to talk to him. Berlioz did not stop and the phrase suddenly appeared in a glass box: "Beware of the tram!". Mikhail Alexandrovich slipped and fell on the tram track. The leader with the scarlet armband braked, but it was too late. The tram ran over Berlioz, and his severed head galloped down the street.

Chapter 4

Paralyzed with fear, Ivan Bezdomny fell on the bench, unable to understand that his comrade was gone. Hearing talk about Annushka and oil, the poet immediately remembered the words of the stranger, returned to him and blamed him for what had happened. The foreigner "ceased" to understand Russian, and a man in a plaid jacket stood up for him. Ivan guessed that they were at the same time, and tried to catch, but his comrades began to move away with supernatural speed. In addition, they were joined by a huge cat. Ivan ran after them, and the gang split up. Checkered left on the bus, the cat tried to pay for the trip on the tram, but the conductor did not let him in, so he clung to the back and left for free. Later Bezdomny lost that foreigner in the crowd as well.

Deciding that the criminal must certainly end up in apartment 47 of house number 13, Ivan burst in there, but was mistaken. There were other people in the house. Grabbing a candle and a paper icon, the poet ran out of the house and went to look for the alleged criminal on the Moscow River. The homeless man undressed and left his belongings for safekeeping to an unfamiliar man. Returning to the shore, the poet found that instead of his clothes there were some cast-offs. Ivan, annoyed, changed into what was left for him, and went to look further.

Chapter 5

A meeting of writers under the direction of Mikhail Berlioz was planned for that evening at Griboyedov's house. The subordinates were waiting for their boss, discussing those who received dachas, and, suggesting for what reasons the chairman was delayed. Without waiting for his appearance, people went down to the restaurant and began to have fun in the evening. Upon learning of the sudden death of Berlioz, they plunged into short grief.

When the half-naked poet Ivan Bezdomny ended up in a restaurant looking for a foreigner, the writers sent him to a psychiatric hospital.

Chapter 6

In the hospital, Ivan told the doctor the whole truth about the death of his comrade. He was even glad that they were listening to him, although he was outraged that he, an adequate person, was put in a psychiatric hospital.

In addition to the doctors, the poet Ryukhin was also in the hospital, who testified: he reported on how Homeless was usually and in what condition he came to the restaurant. There Ivan shouted and even got into a fight with other writers.

From the hospital Bezdomny called the police to detain the consultant, but no one there listened, deciding that the poet was a psycho. Bezdomny was diagnosed with schizophrenia, so he was not released. Ryukhin left, offended by Ivan, who called him mediocre.

Chapter 7

The director of the Variety Theater in the capital, Stepan Likhodeev, woke up after drinking in apartment No. 50, where he lived with Berlioz. Stepan saw his ugly reflection in the mirror, and next to him was a stranger. The man introduced himself as Woland, a specialist in black magic, and said that they agreed to meet an hour ago. Stephen didn't remember anything. Woland let him get drunk, and his memory gradually began to recover, but Stepan still did not remember this gentleman. Likhodeev studied the contract shown by Woland, where all the signatures were in place, then went to call and, passing by Berlioz's room, was surprised that it was sealed.

Stepan spoke with financial director Rimsky, who confirmed the conclusion of the contract. Woland was joined by Koroviev, a big cat, and a short, red-haired Azazello. The company decided that it was time to get rid of Likhodeev. After that, Stepan ended up in Yalta.

Chapter 8

The homeless man wanted to go to the police to put the man from Patriarch's Ponds on the wanted list, but the doctors said that they would not believe him and would send him back to a psychiatric hospital. In this regard, Ivan began to write a statement right there.

Dr. Stravinsky argued that Bezdomny was very saddened by the death of his comrade, and he needed to rest. Ivan agreed to live in a ward where food was brought to him.

Chapter 9

The head of the housing association of house No. 32-bis Nikonor Ivanovich Bosogo began to be harassed by citizens who wanted to get a room in which the chairman of MASSOLIT lived. Exhausted by these people, the man went to the ill-fated apartment, where in a sealed room he met a man in a checkered suit, who called himself Koroviev, an interpreter for a foreigner who lived in this apartment. At the same time, he advised Nikonor Ivanovich to look at the letter from Likhodeev, which was in his bag. In it, Stepan wrote that he was leaving for Yalta, and asked to temporarily register Woland in his apartment. After a bribe of five thousand rubles and a receipt, the matter was decided, and the chairman left.

Woland expressed a desire not to see Barefoot again. Koroviev called and said that Nikonor Ivanovich was profiting from the currency. They came to Bosom with a check and found dollars from the man, and the contract disappeared along with Woland's passport, which the chairman took for paperwork.

Chapter 10

Stepan Likhodeev went to the criminal investigation department of Yalta, from where he sent a telegram to Variety to confirm his identity. Rimsky and his fellow administrator Varenukha took it for a joke, because a few hours ago the director called them on the home phone and said that he was going to go to work. The men called Stepan back at home, and Koroviev said that he had gone out of town for a car ride. Varenukha felt something was wrong and was about to go to the police. The phone rang telling me not to go anywhere. Varenukha did not listen.

On the way, robbers caught him, dragged him to apartment No. 50, where he was met by a naked girl with burning eyes and deadly cold hands, who wanted to kiss him. This made the man faint.

Chapter 11

From excitement, Ivan Bezdomny could not write a coherent text about what had happened. In addition, a thunderstorm outside the window interfered. The poet wept from impotence, which disturbed the paramedic Praskovya Fedorovna, who closed the window with curtains and carried pencils for him.

After the injections, Ivan began to recover and decided that it was not worth worrying so much about the death of Berlioz, because he was not even a relative of him. Ivan thought and mentally communicated with himself. Just as he was about to fall asleep, a man appeared at his window and said, "Shh."

Chapter 12

The financial director of Variety Rimsky did not understand where Varenukha was. The chief wanted to call the police, but for some reason not a single telephone in the theater worked. Woland arrived with a man in a checkered suit and a big cat. Entertainer Georges of Bengal introduced the consultant, saying that witchcraft does not exist, and the speaker is a master of magic.

Woland began the session with words about people. In his opinion, they have become completely different externally, and he wondered if there were changes inside. The magician conjured a rain of money, which the Muscovites began to catch, pushing and cursing. Georges of Bengal told the public that these were just tricks and the money would now disappear. Someone from the audience said to tear off George's head. The Behemoth cat did it right away. Blood gushed from his neck. Then the cat forgave the entertainer, put his head back on and let go. Woland then conjured up a foreign clothing store on stage, where one could exchange one's belongings for new fashionable and expensive items of clothing. The ladies immediately went there. Here one of the leaders Arkady Sempleyarov angrily demanded exposure. Koroviev told the audience that this man had gone to his mistress the day before. His wife, who was sitting next to him, started a row. Soon Woland and his retinue disappeared.

Chapter 13

The man who entered Ivan's room called himself a foreman and said that he had access to the balcony because he had stolen the keys. He could have run from the hospital, but he had nowhere to go. When Bezdomny said that he wrote poetry, the guest grimaced and admitted that he did not like poetry. Ivan promised not to write again. The stranger said that a man was brought to one of the chambers, who spoke incessantly about the currency in the ventilation and evil spirits. When Ivan told the guest that he was in the hospital because of Pontius Pilate, he immediately perked up and asked for details. Then an unfamiliar man expressed regret that the critic Latunsky or the writer Mstislav Lavrovich was not in the place of the chairman of MASSOLIT. At the end of the story, the master said that the poet saw Satan.

The unknown man spoke about himself. He was writing a novel about the procurator of Judea. Later, the master met his beloved woman. She was married, but the marriage was unhappy. When the novel was written, it was not accepted by the publisher, only a small piece was printed, followed by a harsh critical article. Critic Latunsky spoke especially badly about the novel. The master burned his offspring. The woman said she would kill Latunsky. The master also had a friend Alozy Mogarych, who read his novel. When the woman went to her husband to break off relations with him, there was a knock on the writer's door. He was evicted from the apartment, and he went to live in a psychiatric hospital. He did not say anything to his beloved, so as not to be drawn into his problems.

Ivan asked the master to tell the content of the novel, but he refused and left.

Chapter 14

Rimsky sat at his work and looked at the money that had fallen from the ceiling at the behest of Woland. He heard a police trill and saw half-naked women outside the window. The new clothes they exchanged for the old ones are gone. The men laughed at the ladies. Rimsky wanted to call and report what had happened, but then the phone itself rang and a woman's voice said from the receiver not to do this, otherwise it would be bad.

After a while, Varenukha came. He said that Stepan was not in any Yalta, but got drunk in Pushkin with a telegraph operator and began to send comic telegrams. Rimsky decided that he would remove the offender from his post. However, the more Varenukha told, the less the financial director believed him. In the end, Rimsky realized that all this was a lie, and also noticed that the administrator did not cast a shadow. Rimsky pressed the panic button, but it did not work. Varenukha closed the door. Then, after three rooster cries, he flew out the window along with a naked girl who suddenly appeared. Soon Rimsky, who had turned gray, was on a train to Leningrad.

Chapter 15

Nikanor Bosoy, being in a psychiatric hospital, spoke about the dark force in apartment number 50. The house was checked, but everything turned out to be in order. After the injection, the man fell asleep.

In a dream, he saw people sitting on the floor, and a young man who was collecting currency from them. Then the cooks brought soup with bread. When the man opened his eyes, he saw a paramedic holding a syringe. After another injection, Nikanor Ivanovich fell asleep and saw Bald Mountain.

Chapter 16

Under the command of the centurion Mark, three convicts were led to Lysaya Gora. The crowd watched what was happening, no one made an attempt to save these people. After the execution, unable to bear the heat, the spectators left the mountain. The soldiers stayed.

On the mountain was one of the disciples of Yeshua Levi Matthew. He wanted to stab the teacher to death in order to give him an easy death, but he did not succeed. Then Matthew began to ask God to grant Yeshua death. She still did not come, so the student began to curse the Almighty. Thunderstorm began. The soldiers pierced the criminals with spears in the hearts and left the mountain, Levi carried away the body of Yeshua, at the same time untying two other corpses.

Chapter 17

The accountant of the Variety, Lastochkin, who had stayed at the theater for the elder, was extremely distraught. He was embarrassed by the rumors circulating around Moscow, he was frightened by the disappearance of Rimsky, Likhodeev and Varenukha, discouraged by the commotion during and after the performance, and was horrified by the endless calls of the investigators. All documents about Woland and even posters have disappeared.

Lastochkin went to the commission of spectacles and entertainment, but instead of the chairman, he saw only an empty suit that signed papers, and in the branch a man in checkered organized a choir, he disappeared, and the women could not stop singing. Then Lastochkin wanted to hand over the profit, but instead of rubles he had dollars, and he was arrested.

Chapter 18

The uncle of the late Berlioz, Maxim Poplavsky, came from Ukraine to Moscow for the funeral of his nephew. He was somewhat surprised that he himself sent a telegram about his death. However, the uncle took advantage of Michael's misfortune. Having long dreamed of an apartment in the capital, he went to house number 32 bis in the hope of inheriting the area of ​​​​a relative. There was no one in the housing association, and in the room he was met by a fat cat, a man in a checkered suit, who called himself Koroviev, and Azazello. Together they took his passport from him and lowered him down the stairs.

The barman entered the apartment and announced his grief: Woland's audience paid him money that fell from the ceiling, and then the profit turned into garbage, and he suffered heavy losses. Woland said that he would soon die of cancer, so he did not need a lot of money. The bartender immediately ran to the examination. The money that he paid off with the doctor, after the patient left, also became unnecessary pieces of paper.

Part two

Chapter 19

A young, pretty and intelligent woman, whom the master loved, was called Margarita. Her husband was wealthy and adored his young wife. They had a very large living space in the center of Moscow and servants. However, in her soul, before the appearance of the master, Margarita was unhappy, since she and her husband had nothing in common. Once she came to her beloved, did not find him at home and began to worry, but she could not find him in any way. The unfortunate heroine was very worried about his fate and yearned.

During the walk, the woman met the funeral procession of Berlioz, whose head was missing. Margarita asked the red-haired man if there was a critic of Latunsky among these people. The man, whose name was Azazello, pointed to him. The redhead said that he knew where her lover was, and offered to meet. He gave her a cream to use at the appointed time and asked her to wait for the escort.

Chapter 20

Margarita was in her room. At the right time, she smeared the skin with cream, which made it even more beautiful, and the body became completely light, that, having jumped, the woman hung in the air.

The phone rang. Margarita was ordered to say the word "Invisible" while flying over the gate. At that moment, a floor brush appeared. The woman gave her things to the maid Natasha, and she herself flew away on a brush.

Chapter 21

Margarita did not fly high. When she caught up with Latunsky's house, she climbed into his apartment, where at that time there was no one, and began to destroy everything in a row, at the same time flooding the neighbors. After that, Margarita flew on.

After some time, Natasha, flying on a hog, caught up with her. She also smeared herself with cream, and at the same time she rubbed it on her neighbor's bald head, on whom the cream had an unusual effect. Then Margarita plunged into the lake, where she was met by mermaids and other witches, after which the sideburner and the goat-legged woman put the woman in the car, and she flew back to the capital.

Chapter 22

Margarita flew to house number 32-bis, and Azazello took her to the former apartment of Berlioz and Likhodeev, where Koroviev met the woman. Where she ended up was a large hall with a colonnade and no electricity. They used candles. Koroviev said that a ball was being planned, the hostess of which should be a woman named Margarita, in whom royal blood flows. It turned out that she was just a descendant of one of the French queens.

Woland immediately realized that Margarita was very smart. Natasha was right there with the boar. The maid was left with the mistress, and they promised not to cut the neighbor.

Chapter 23

Margarita was washed with blood, then with rose oil, after which they rubbed green leaves to a shine and put on very heavy clothes and jewelry. Koroviev said that the guests would be very different, but no one should be given preference. At the same time, it was necessary to take time for everyone: smile, say a few words, turn your head slightly. The cat exclaimed: “Ball! ”, after which the light came on, the corresponding sounds and smells appeared.

The hall gathered world celebrities such as Viettan and Strauss. Margarita with Koroviev, the cat and Azazello greeted the guests - the inhabitants of the underworld, whose sins were savored by the interlocutors. Most of all, the hostess of the ball remembered Frida, who buried a living newborn illegitimate son in the forest, putting a handkerchief in his mouth. After that incident, that thing was placed next to her every day. After the crowing of the roosters, the guests began to leave.

Chapter 24

At the end of the ball, Woland asked Margarita what she would like. The woman did not take advantage of the offer. Then he repeated it. Margarita asked to make sure that Frida did not bring a scarf. The wish was granted.

The man said that she could choose something for herself. Margarita said that she wanted to live with the master at his house. Her lover was immediately there. Woland gave him a novel and papers for an apartment, and the slanderer Aloisy Mogarych, who had obtained his apartment by deceit, was thrown out of the window. Margarita and the master returned home.

Chapter 25

Pontius Pilate met with the head of the secret service. This man said that Yeshua called cowardice one of the worst vices.

The procurator said that Judas would soon be killed, and gave the man a heavy bag. According to Pilate, the traitor will receive money for denunciation of Yeshua, and after the murder they will be thrown to the high priest.

Chapter 26

Judas came out of the house of the high priest and saw the girl Niza, to whom he had long had feelings. She made an appointment with him. Near the agreed meeting place, Judas was stabbed to death, and the coins were actually thrown back to the high priest with a note about the return.

At this time, Pilate had a dream that he was going to the moon along the lunar path with his dog Banga and Yeshua. The companion said that from now on they will always be together. Levi Matthew told the hegemon that he wanted to kill Judas for his betrayal, but Pilate himself avenged him.

Chapter 27

By morning Margarita had finished reading the chapter. Life in Moscow began to gradually recover. Rimsky, Likhodeev and Varenukha were found. Citizens from the psychiatric hospital were interrogated again, taking their words more seriously.

Soon, people in civilian clothes came to apartment No. 50. Koroviev said that they had come to arrest them. Woland and his comrades disappeared. Only the cat remained, which caused a pogrom and a fire.

Koroviev and the cat made a brawl in the store. They skillfully manipulated the crowd by coming to the store, where only currency was accepted as payment. The heroes presented themselves as ordinary hard workers, and Koroviev delivered an impassioned speech directed against the bourgeois who could arrange shopping in such a store. Then a man from the crowd of onlookers attacked the rich buyer. Having frightened sellers and customers, they started a fire.

Then the couple went to the MASSOLIT restaurant. They introduced themselves as dead writers, and the obsequious administrator let them out of harm's way, but immediately, promising to personally look after the preparation of fillet for guests, called the NKVD. The operatives who arrived, wasting no time in explaining, began to shoot, and the mysterious "writers" disappeared, and before that the cat set fire to the entire hall again, spilling flames from the primus stove.

Chapter 29

In the evening Woland and Azazello stood on the terrace of one of the most attractive buildings in the capital. Nearby was stuck a long sword "consultant", which cast a distinct shadow.

Soon Matthew Levi came to them. He did not greet Woland because he did not wish him well. Satan said that light without shadows would make no sense, pointing at the sword. The ambassador said that Yeshua asks Woland to take the master to him, because he is not worthy of the light, but he deserves peace. Satan agreed.

Chapter 30 It's time!

Margarita stroked her beloved master and suddenly met Azazello right in the cozy basement. The redhead fatally poisoned the couple in love with red wine and immediately resurrected, declaring the will of the master. Then they set the house on fire, mounted their horses, and the three of them rushed to heaven.

Flying past the hospital, the master said goodbye to Ivan, who was surprised at the beauty of Margarita. When the lovers disappeared and the paramedic entered, the former poet learned from her that the neighbor had died. Ivan said that a lady also died in the city.

Chapter 31

When the bad weather was over, a rainbow shone in the capital. After the lovers parted with the capital, Woland soon took them with him.

Chapter 32

During the journey, the always cheerful Koroviev turned into a serious and thoughtful knight, Behemoth into a bad jester, and Azazello into a demon. The master had a scythe, and long cavalry boots on his feet. Woland assumed the form of a block of darkness.

On the way, they met a man who was sitting next to his dog Banga and dreamed of going along with Yeshua. At the request of Margarita, Woland released Pontius Pilate. Then Satan showed the lovers their new house with a Venetian window laced with vines. Margarita told the master that there she would take care of his sleep.

Epilogue

The life of Muscovites improved. Everything that happened was written off as a mass hallucination, the fault of which was skillful magicians.

Ivan Ponyrev (Homeless) stopped writing poetry, and often came to the place where he last spoke with Berlioz. He found a new job as a professor of history and philosophy. Georges of Bengal remained alive and well, but he developed a habit of suddenly grabbing his neck, checking to see if his head was in place. Rimsky and Likhodeev changed jobs. The bartender died of cancer. Aloisy Mogarych woke up on a train near Vyatka, but found himself without pants. Soon he returned to Moscow and took the place of Rimsky. Ivan Ponyrev often dreamed of how Pontius Pilate walked along the lunar path next to Yeshua, and the beautiful woman kissed the former poet on the forehead and went to the moon with her companion.

Interesting? Save it on your wall!

Mikhail Bulgakov took away from this world the secret of the creative concept of his last and, probably, the main work, The Master and Margarita.

The author's worldview turned out to be very eclectic: when writing the novel, Judaic teachings, Gnosticism, Theosophy, and Masonic motifs were used. "Bulgakov's understanding of the world, at best, is based on the Catholic teaching about the imperfection of the primordial nature of man, which requires active external influence for its correction." It follows from this that the novel allows for a lot of interpretations in the Christian, atheistic, and occult traditions, the choice of which largely depends on the point of view of the researcher...

“Bulgakov’s novel is not dedicated to Yeshua at all, and not even primarily to the Master himself with his Margarita, but to Satan. Woland is the undoubted protagonist of the work, his image is a kind of energy node of the entire complex compositional structure of the novel.

The very title "Master and Margarita" "obscures the true meaning of the work: the reader's attention is focused on the two characters of the novel as the main ones, while in terms of the meaning of the events they are only henchmen of the protagonist. The content of the novel is not the history of the Master, not his literary misadventures, not even his relationship with Margarita (all this is secondary), but the story of one of Satan's visits to earth: with the beginning of it, the novel begins, and ends with its end. The master appears to the reader only in the thirteenth chapter, Margarita, and even later - as Woland needs them.

“The anti-Christian orientation of the novel leaves no doubt... It is not for nothing that Bulgakov so carefully disguised the true content, the deep meaning of his novel, entertaining the reader's attention with side details. But the dark mysticism of the work, in addition to the will and consciousness, penetrates into the soul of a person - and who will undertake to calculate the possible destruction that can be produced in it by that? .. "

The above description of the novel by the teacher of the Moscow Theological Academy, candidate of philological sciences Mikhail Mikhailovich Dunaev indicates a serious problem that Orthodox parents and teachers face in connection with the fact that the novel The Master and Margarita is included in the literature curriculum of state secondary educational institutions. How to protect religiously indifferent, and therefore defenseless against occult influences, students from the influence of that satanic mysticism, which is saturated in the novel?

One of the main holidays of the Orthodox Church is the Transfiguration of the Lord. Like the Lord Jesus Christ, who was transfigured before His disciples (, ), the souls of Christians are now transfigured through life in Christ. This transformation can be extended to the outside world - Mikhail Bulgakov's novel is no exception.

Era portrait

It is known from biographical information that Bulgakov himself perceived his novel as a kind of warning, as a superliterary text. Already dying, he asked his wife to bring the manuscript of the novel, pressed it to his chest and gave it away with the words: “Let them know!”

Accordingly, if our goal is not just to get aesthetic and emotional satisfaction from reading, but to understand the author’s idea, to understand why a person spent the last twelve years of his life, in fact, his whole life, we should treat this work not only from the point of view of literary criticism. To understand the author's idea, one must at least know something about the author's life - often its episodes are reflected in his creations.

Mikhail Bulgakov (1891-1940) - the grandson of an Orthodox priest, the son of an Orthodox priest, professor, teacher of history at the Kyiv Theological Academy, a relative of the famous Orthodox theologian Fr. Sergei Bulgakov. This suggests that Mikhail Bulgakov was at least partially familiar with the Orthodox tradition of perceiving the world.

Now for many it is a wonder that there is some kind of Orthodox tradition of perceiving the world, but nevertheless it is so. The Orthodox worldview is actually very deep, it has been formed over more than seven and a half thousand years and has absolutely nothing to do with the caricature drawn on it by essentially ignorant people in the very era in which the novel “The Master and Margarita.

In the 1920s, Bulgakov became interested in the study of Kabbalism and occult literature. In the novel The Master and Margarita, the names of demons, the description of the satanic black mass (in the novel it is called “Satan’s ball”) and so on speak of a good knowledge of this literature ...

Already at the end of 1912, Bulgakov (he was then 21 years old) quite definitely declared to his sister Nadezhda: "You'll see, I'll be a writer." And he became one. At the same time, it must be borne in mind that Bulgakov is a Russian writer. And what has Russian literature always been primarily concerned with? Exploration of the human soul. Any episode of the life of a literary character is described exactly as much as is necessary to understand what impact he had on the human soul.

Bulgakov took the Western popular form and filled it with Russian content, said in a popular form about the most serious things. But!..

For a religiously ignorant reader, the novel, in a favorable case, remains a bestseller, since it does not have the foundation that is necessary to perceive the fullness of the idea invested in the novel. In the worst case, this very ignorance leads to the fact that the reader sees in The Master and Margarita and includes in his worldview such ideas of religious content that Mikhail Bulgakov himself would hardly have come up with. In particular, in a certain environment, this book is valued as a "hymn to Satan." The situation with the perception of the novel is similar to the delivery of potatoes to Russia under Peter I: the product is wonderful, but due to the fact that no one knew what to do with it and what part of it is edible, people were poisoned and died by entire villages.

In general, it must be said that the novel was written at a time when a kind of epidemic of "poisoning" on religious grounds was spreading in the USSR. The point is this: the 1920s and 30s in the Soviet Union were the years when Western anti-Christian books were published in huge numbers, in which the authors either completely denied the historicity of Jesus Christ, or sought to present Him as a simple Jewish philosopher and nothing more. The recommendations of Mikhail Alexandrovich Berlioz to Ivan Nikolaevich Ponyrev (Bezdomny) at the Patriarch's Ponds (275) are a summary of such books. It is worth talking about the atheistic worldview in more detail in order to understand what Bulgakov is making fun of in his novel.

Atheistic worldview

In fact, the question "Is there a God or not" in the young Land of the Soviets was purely political in nature. The answer “God exists” required the immediate sending of the aforementioned God “to Solovki for three years” (278), which would be problematic to implement. Logically, the second option was inevitably chosen: "There is no God." Once again it is worth mentioning that this answer was purely political in nature, nobody cared about the truth.

For educated people, the question of the existence of God, in fact, never existed - another matter, they differed in opinions about the nature, features of this existence. The atheistic perception of the world in its modern form was formed only in the last quarter of the 18th century and took root with difficulty, since its birth was accompanied by terrible social catastrophes such as the French Revolution. That is why Woland is extremely happy to find in Moscow the most outspoken atheists in the person of Berlioz and Ivan Bezdomny (277).

According to Orthodox theology, atheism is a parody of religion. It is the belief that there is no God. The word "atheism" itself is translated from Greek as follows: "a" is the negative particle "not", and "theos" - "God", literally - "godlessness". Atheists do not want to hear about any faith and assure that they base their assertion on strictly scientific facts, and “in the realm of reason there can be no proof of the existence of God” (278). But such “strictly scientific facts” in the field of knowledge of God fundamentally do not exist and cannot exist ... Science considers the world to be infinite, which means that God can always hide behind some pebble in the backyard of the universe, and not a single criminal investigation department can find Him (search Woland in Moscow, which is quite limited in space, and show the absurdity of such searches like: “Gagarin flew into space, did not see God”). There is not a single scientific fact about the non-existence of God (as well as about being), but to assert that something does not exist according to the laws of logic is much more difficult than to assert that it is. To make sure that there is no God, atheists need to conduct a scientific experiment: to experimentally test the religious path that claims that He exists. This means that atheism calls everyone who seeks the meaning of life to religious practice, that is, to prayer, fasting, and other features of the spiritual life. It's clearly absurd...

It is this very absurdity (“God does not exist because He cannot exist”) that Bulgakov demonstrates to the Soviet citizen, who pathologically does not want to notice the Behemoth riding the tram and paying the fare, as well as the breathtaking appearance of Koroviev and Azazello. Much later, already in the mid-1980s, Soviet punks experimentally proved that, having a similar appearance, one could walk around Moscow only until the first meeting with a policeman. In Bulgakov, however, only those people who are ready to take into account the otherworldly factor of earthly events begin to notice all these glaring things, who agree that the events of our life do not occur by chance, but with the participation of certain specific personalities from the "otherworldly » peace.

Biblical characters in the novel

How, in fact, to explain the appeal of Mikhail Bulgakov to the plot of the Bible?

If you look closely, the range of issues that concern humanity throughout history is rather limited. All these questions (they are also called "eternal" or "damned", depending on their relation) concern the meaning of life, or, what is the same, the meaning of death. Bulgakov turns to the New Testament biblical story, reminding the Soviet reader of the very existence of this Book. In it, by the way, these questions are formulated with the utmost precision. In it, in fact, there are answers - for those who want to accept them ...

The “Master and Margarita” raises all the same “eternal” questions: why, throughout his earthly life, a person encounters evil and where does God look (if He exists at all), what awaits a person after death, and so on. Mikhail Bulgakov changed the language of the Bible to the slang of a religiously uneducated Soviet intellectual of the 1920s and 30s. For what? In particular, in order to talk about freedom in a country that was degenerating into a single concentration camp.

Human freedom

It is only at first glance that Woland and his company do what they want with a person. In fact, only under the condition of the voluntary aspiration of the human soul to evil does Woland have the power to mock him. And here it would be worth turning to the Bible: what does it say about the power and authority of the devil?

Book of Job

Chapter 1

6 And there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord; Satan also came between them.

8 And the Lord said to Satan, Have you taken notice of my servant Job?

12 ... behold, all that he has is in your hand; but do not stretch out your hand on him.

Chapter 2

4 And Satan answered the Lord, and said, ... A man will give all that he has for his life;

5 but stretch out your hand and touch his bone and his flesh, will he bless you?

6 And the Lord said to Satan, Behold, he is in your hand; save only his life.

Satan fulfills the command of God and annoys Job in every possible way. Who does Job see as the source of his sorrows?

Chapter 27

1 And ... Job ... said:

2 God lives ... and the Almighty, who grieved my soul ...

Chapter 31

2 What is my fate from God above? And what is the inheritance from the Almighty from heaven?

Even such the greatest evil in the atheistic understanding as the death of a person does not occur at the will of Satan, but at the will of God - in a conversation with Job, one of his friends says the following words:

Chapter 32

6 And Elihu the son of Barahiel answered:

21 ... I will not flatter any person,

22 because I do not know how to flatter: now kill me, my Creator.

So, the Bible clearly shows: Satan can do only what God, who cares first of all about the eternal and priceless soul of every person, will allow him.

Satan can harm a person only with the consent of the person himself. This idea is persistently carried out in the novel: Woland first checks the disposition of a person’s soul, his readiness to commit a dishonest, sinful act, and, if any, gets the power to mock him.

Nikanor Ivanovich, the chairman of the housing association, agrees to a bribe (“Strictly persecuted,” the chairman whispered quietly and quietly and looked around), gets hold of “a double mark for two people in the front row” (366) and thereby gives Koroviev the opportunity to do him nasty things.

Entertainer Georges of Bengal constantly lies, hypocrites, and in the end, by the way, at the request of the workers, Behemoth leaves him without a head (392).

The financial director of the variety show, Rimsky, suffered because he was going to "get the wrong guy, blame everything on Likhodeev, shield himself, and so on" (420).

Prokhor Petrovich, head of the Spectacular Commission, does nothing at the workplace and does not want to do it, while expressing a desire to be "damned". It is clear that Behemoth does not refuse such an offer (458).

Employees of the Spectacle branch are fawning and cowardly in front of the authorities, which allows Koroviev to organize an unceasing choir from them (462).

Maximilian Andreevich, Berlioz's uncle, wants one thing - to move to Moscow "at all costs", that is, at any cost. It is for this peculiarity of innocent desire that what happens to him happens (465).

Andrey Fokich Sokov, the manager of the Variety Theater buffet, stole two hundred and forty-nine thousand rubles, placed them in five savings banks and hid two hundred gold ten under the floor at home, before suffering all kinds of damage in apartment No. 50 (478).

Nikolai Ivanovich, Margarita's neighbor, becomes a transport hog because of the specific attention given to the maid Natasha (512).

It is significant that it is precisely for the sake of determining the tendency of Muscovites to fall away from the voice of their own conscience of all kinds that a performance is arranged in the Variety: Woland receives an answer to the “important question” that worries him: have these townspeople changed internally? (389).

Margarita, as they say, classically sells her soul to the devil ... But this is a completely separate topic in the novel.

margarita

The high priestess of a satanic sect is usually a woman. She is referred to as the "prom queen" in the novel. Woland offers Margarita to become such a priestess. Why to her? But because with the aspirations of her soul, her heart, she herself had already prepared herself for such a service: “What did this woman need, in whose eyes some kind of incomprehensible light always burned, what did this witch, who adorned herself a little squinting in one eye, need? then in the spring mimosa? (485) - this quote from the novel is taken six pages before Margarita's first proposal to become a witch. And as soon as the aspiration of her soul becomes conscious ("... oh, really, I would pawn my soul to the devil, just to find out ..."), Azazello appears (491). Margarita becomes the “final” witch only after she expresses her full consent to “go to hell in the middle of nowhere” (497).

Having become a witch, Margarita fully feels that state, which, perhaps, she did not always consciously strive for all her life: she “felt free, free from everything” (499). "From everything" - including from duties, from responsibility, from conscience - that is, from one's human dignity. The fact of experiencing such a feeling, by the way, suggests that from now on Margarita could never love anyone else but herself: to love a person means to voluntarily give up part of your freedom in his favor, that is, from desires, aspirations and everything else. To love someone means to give the beloved the strength of your soul, as they say, "invest your soul." Margarita gives her soul not to the Master, but to Woland. And she does this not at all for the sake of love for the Master, but for herself, for the sake of her whim: “I would pawn my soul to the devil, just to [me] find out…” (491).

Love in this world is subject not to human fantasies, but to a higher law, whether a person wants it or not. This law says that love is won not at any cost, but only at one cost - self-denial, that is, the rejection of one's desires, passions, whims and the patience of the pain arising from this. “Explain: I love because it hurts, or does it hurt because I love? ..” The Apostle Paul in one of his epistles has these words about love: “... I am not looking for yours, but you” ().

So, Margarita is looking not for the Master, but for his novel. She belongs to those aesthetic persons for whom the author is only an appendix to his creation. It is not the Master that is truly dear to Margarita, but his novel, or rather, the spirit of this novel, more precisely, the source of this spirit. It is to him that her soul aspires, it is to him that she will subsequently be given. Further relations between Margarita and the Master are just a moment of inertia, a person is by nature inert.

The Responsibility of Freedom

Even becoming a witch, Margarita still does not lose her human freedom: the decision of whether she should be the “prom queen” depends on her will. And only when she gives her consent, a sentence is pronounced on her soul: “In short! cried Koroviev, “quite briefly: will you not refuse to take on this duty?” “I won’t refuse,” Margarita answered firmly. "Finished!" - said Koroviev "(521).

It was with her consent that Margaret made the Black Mass possible. A lot in this world depends on the free will of a person, much more than it seems to those who now talk from TV screens about “freedom of conscience” and “universal values” ...

Black mass

The Black Mass is a mystical rite dedicated to Satan, a mockery of the Christian liturgy. In The Master and Margarita, she is called "Satan's ball."

Woland comes to Moscow precisely to perform this rite - this is the main purpose of his visit and one of the central episodes of the novel. The question is pertinent: Woland's arrival in Moscow to perform a black mass - is it just part of a "world tour" or something exclusive? What event made such a visit possible? The answer to this question is given by the scene on the balcony of the Pashkovs' house, from which Woland shows the Master Moscow.

“In order to understand this scene, you need to visit Moscow now, imagine yourself on the roof of the Pashkovs’ house and try to understand: what did a person see or not see from the roof of this house in Moscow in the second half of the 1930s? Cathedral of Christ the Savior. Bulgakov describes the gap between the explosion of the Temple and the beginning of the construction of the Palace of Soviets. At that time, the Temple had already been blown up and the area was built up by the "Shanghai". Therefore, there were visible huts, which are mentioned in the novel. Given the knowledge of the landscape of that time, this scene acquires a striking symbolic meaning: Woland turns out to be the master in the city in which the temple was blown up. There is a Russian proverb: "A holy place is never empty." Its meaning is this: demons settle in the place of the desecrated shrine. The place of the destroyed iconostases was taken by the "icons" of the Politburo. So it is here: the Cathedral of Christ the Savior was blown up and naturally a “noble foreigner” appears (275).

And this foreigner, right from the epigraph, reveals who he is: “I am part of that force that always wants evil and always does good.” But this is Woland's autocharacteristic and this is a lie. The first part is just, and the second ... It's true: Satan wants evil for people, but good comes out of his temptations. But it is not Satan who does good, but God, for the sake of saving the human soul, turns his intrigues to good. This means that when Satan says that “desiring evil without end, he does only good,” he ascribes to himself the mystery of divine Providence. And this is a godless declaration.”

In fact, everything that has to do with Woland bears the stamp of imperfection and inferiority (the Orthodox understanding of the number "666" is just that). At a performance in a variety show, we see “a red-haired girl, good to everyone, if only her neck scar did not spoil” (394), before the start of the “ball”, Koroviev says that “there will be no shortage of electric light, even, perhaps, it would be good, if it were smaller" (519). And Woland’s appearance itself is far from perfect: “Woland’s face was slanted to the side, the right corner of his mouth was pulled down, deep wrinkles parallel to sharp eyebrows were cut on his high bald forehead. The skin on Woland's face seemed to be burned forever by a tan" (523). If we take into account the teeth and eyes of different colors, the crooked mouth and the slanted eyebrows (275), then it is clear that we are not a model of beauty.

But let us return to the purpose of Woland's stay in Moscow, to the black mass. One of the main, central moments of Christian worship is the reading of the Gospel. And, since the Black Mass is just a blasphemous parody of Christian worship, it is necessary to mock this part of it as well. But what to read instead of the hated Gospel???

And here the question arises: "Pilat's chapters" in the novel - who is their author? Who writes this novel based on the plot of the Master and Margarita novel itself? Woland.

Where did the Master's novel come from

“The fact is that Bulgakov left eight major editions of The Master and Margarita, which are very interesting and useful to compare. The unpublished scenes are by no means inferior to the final version of the text in their depth, artistic power and, importantly, semantic load, and sometimes they clarify and supplement it. So, if we focus on these editions, then the Master constantly says that he writes from dictation, performs someone's task. By the way, in the official version, the Master is also lamented by the misfortune that fell on him in the form of an ill-fated novel.

Woland reads burned and even unwritten chapters to Margarita.

Finally, in the recently published drafts, the scene at the Patriarch's Ponds, when there is a conversation about whether Jesus was or not, is as follows. After Woland finished his story, Bezdomny says: “How well you talk about it, as if you yourself saw it! Maybe you should write a gospel too!” And then comes Woland's wonderful remark: “The Gospel from me??? Ha ha ha, interesting idea, though!”

What the Master writes is the “gospel of Satan,” which shows Christ the way Satan would like Him to be. Bulgakov hints at the censored Soviet times, tries to explain to the readers of anti-Christian pamphlets: "Look, here's who would like to see in Christ only a man, a philosopher - Woland."

In vain, the Master is self-absorbedly amazed at how accurately he “guessed” the ancient events (401). Such books are not "guessed" - they are inspired from outside. The Bible, according to Christians, is a God-inspired book, that is, at the time of its writing, the authors were in a state of special spiritual enlightenment, influence from God. And if the Holy Scriptures are inspired by God, then the source of inspiration for the novel about Yeshua is also easily visible. As a matter of fact, it is Woland who begins the story of the events in Yershalaim in the scene at the Patriarch's Ponds, and the Master's text is only a continuation of this story. The master, accordingly, in the process of working on the novel about Pilate was under a special diabolical influence. Bulgakov shows the consequences of such an impact on a person.

The price of inspiration and the mystery of the name

While working on the novel, the Master notices changes in himself, which he himself regards as symptoms of a mental illness. But he is wrong. "His mind is in order, his soul is going crazy." The master begins to be afraid of the dark, it seems to him that at night some “octopus with very long and cold tentacles” climbs through the window (413), fear takes possession of “every cell” of his body (417), the novel becomes “hated” to him (563 ) and then, according to the Master, "the last thing happens": he "takes out of the drawer the heavy lists of the novel and draft notebooks" and begins to "burn them" (414).

In fact, in this case, Bulgakov somewhat idealized the situation: the artist, indeed, drawing inspiration from the source of all evil and decay, begins to feel hatred towards his creation and sooner or later destroys it. But this is not “the last”, according to the Master ... The fact is that the artist begins to be afraid of creativity itself, afraid of inspiration, expecting fear and despair to return behind them: “nothing around interests me, they broke me, I’m bored, I want to go to the basement "- says Woland the Master (563). And what is an artist without inspiration?.. Sooner or later, following his work, he destroys himself. What is a Master for?

In the Master's worldview, the reality of Satan is obvious and beyond any doubt - it is not for nothing that he immediately recognizes him in a foreigner who talked with Berlioz and Ivan at the Patriarch's Ponds (402). But there is no place for God in the Master's worldview — the master's Yeshua has nothing in common with the real, historical God-Man Jesus Christ. Here the secret of this name itself is revealed - the Master. He is not just a writer, he is precisely a creator, a master of a new world, a new reality in which, in a fit of suicidal pride, he puts himself in the role of Master and Creator.

Before the beginning of the construction of the era of “universal happiness” in our country, this era was first described by individuals on paper, the idea of ​​its construction first appeared, the idea of ​​this era itself. The master created the idea of ​​a new world in which only one spiritual entity is real - Satan. The real Woland, the authentic one, is described by Bulgakov (the same one “slanted forever tanned”). And the transformed, magnificent and majestic horseman with his retinue, whom we see on the last pages of The Master and Margarita, is Woland, as the soul of the Master sees him. About the disease of this soul has already been said ...

Hell out of brackets

The end of the novel is marked by a kind of Happy End. It looks like it, but it does. It would seem: the Master is with Margarita, Pilate finds a certain state of peace, a bewitching picture of horsemen retreating, - only the titles and the word “end” are missing. But the fact is that during his last conversation with the Master, even before his death, Woland utters words that bring the real end of the novel beyond its cover: “I’ll tell you,” Woland turned to the Master with a smile, “that your novel will bring you more surprises.” » (563). And with these "surprises" the Master will be destined to meet in the very idealistic house to which he and Margarita are sent on the last pages of the novel (656). It is there that Margarita will stop “loving” him, it is there that he will never again experience creative inspiration, it is there that he will never be able to turn to God in despair because there is no God in the world created by the Master, it is there that the Master will not be able to do the last thing that the life of a desperate person who has not found God ends on earth - he will not be able to arbitrarily end his life by suicide: he is already dead and is in the world of eternity, in a world whose owner is the devil. In the language of Orthodox theology, this place is called hell...

Where does the novel take the reader?

Does the novel lead the reader to God? Dare to say "Yes!" The novel, as well as the “satanic bible,” leads a person honest to himself to God. If, thanks to The Master and Margarita, one believes in the reality of Satan as a person, then one will inevitably have to believe in God as a Person: after all, Woland categorically stated that "Jesus really existed" (284). And the fact that Bulgakov's Yeshua is not God, while Bulgakov's Satan in the "gospel from himself" is trying to show and prove by all means. But is Mikhail Bulgakov correctly described the events that took place in Palestine two thousand years ago from a scientific (that is, an atheistic) point of view? Perhaps there is some reason to believe that the historical Jesus of Nazareth is Yeshua Ha-Notsri, not described by Bulgakov at all? But then, who is he?

So, it follows from here that the reader is logically and inevitably obliged before his own conscience to embark on the path of searching for God, on the path of knowing God.

Alexander Bashlachev. Staff.

Sakharov V. I. Mikhail Bulgakov: lessons of fate. // Bulgakov M. White Guard. Master and Margarita. Minsk, 1988, p. 12.

Andrey Kuraev, deacon. The answer to the question about the novel "The Master and Margarita" // Audio recording of the lecture "On the expiatory sacrifice of Jesus Christ."

Dunaev M. M. Manuscripts do not burn? Perm, 1999, p. 24.

Frank Coppola. Apocalypse now. Hood. Movie.

Rated the book

Why do I hate these "MiM" of yours: a few observations of a bore who has not joined the main book cult of the country

1) Bulgakov had a chance to catch an amazing era: the 1920s - the time of Babel, Vaginov, Olesha, Alexei Tolstoy, Ilf and Petrov, Kataev - were almost the most interesting in the history of Russian literature. Bulgakov knew how to learn, knew how to imitate - and in his texts the finds of more talented contemporaries are abundantly presented. For example, the first chapter of "MiM" is a mirror image of the first chapter of "Julio Jurenito." Both Bulgakov and Ehrenburg's meeting with a mysterious stranger of a demonic breed turns into a conversation about meaning, God and predestination of fate, compare "But here's what worries me: if There is no God, then, one asks, who governs human life and the whole routine on earth? and "But at least something exists? ... But is it all based on something? Does anyone manage this Spaniard? Is there any sense in it? .." However, Ehrenburg's caustic and observant book has only 19 readers on the livelib! But without Jurenito, perhaps there would be no Woland.

2) Usually the Master and the Homeless are contrasted: the first is a genius, and the second is mediocre. This conclusion is based on the fact that the Master does not like Bezdomny's poems "terribly" (although he has not read and is not going to read) and Bezdomny, being in a clearly inadequate state, recognizes his poems as "monstrous". But meanwhile the very text of the novel proves the opposite. The homeless man is undoubtedly a talented poet, because "Jesus turned out to be, well, completely alive." Creating a full-blooded character is already worth a lot. Here, the Master's Jesus did not work out: his Yeshua is a dull and dull image, a leaf likeness of the Gospel Christ, the complexity of whose appearance Bulgakov, the grandson of a priest and the son of a theologian, understood very well. For me, the storyline of Bezdomny is the story of a talent that was trampled on in passing - and the reader did not notice, carried away by the demonic antics of Koroviev-Fagot; The homeless man is the only one that evokes my genuine sympathy.

3) It surprises me that most readers take at face value absolutely everything that one way or another lets out in the novel. For example, Woland's remark "... never ask for anything! Never for anything, and especially from those who are stronger than you. They themselves will offer and give everything themselves!" is perceived with extreme seriousness, as if it is voiced not by the father of lies, but by the Old Testament prophet, whose commandments must be obeyed unquestioningly and literally. And some even consider Woland to be a kind of reasoner, whose opinion a priori coincides with the opinion of the author.
UPD: They take another lie of Woland seriously - that people do not change, modern people are the same as the old ones, "the housing problem only spoiled them." But it is obvious to anyone who is interested in history that with the passage of time the categories of thinking, ideas about beauty and morality, the meanings of the most basic words and concepts, and behavior patterns change significantly. The devilish picture of the world is a simplified picture of the world.

4) Moreover, the fact that the narrator in "MiM" is most often overlooked is a mocking and cynical type, whose words and assessments should be taken more ironically. For example, the famous words “Follow me, reader! Who told you that there is no true, true, eternal love in the world? " precede the story of very specific relationships: Margarita lives on the content of an unloved person and, having met the Master, is in no hurry to leave a beautiful apartment with furniture and a maid (to put it mildly, “real, faithful, eternal love” is good!); then, having lost her lover, she regrets that she sent off a potential gentleman: "Why, in fact, did I drive this man away? I'm bored, but there is nothing wrong with this ladies' man." But the reader continues to sculpt a holy ideal out of a prudent kept woman, without thinking that if these two had "real, faithful, eternal love" - ​​they would be granted not only "peace".

As can be understood from the above, I do not like the naively enthusiastic perception of "MiM" that has taken root among the masses. This book is not the "Gospel of Michael" at all, but a game full of deliberate deceptions and omissions. And I am offended that in the wake of the enthusiasm for this unfinished and secondary novel, many first-class books were forgotten, guilty only of being written in Soviet times. Therefore, if someone, after my post, has a desire to read the same "Julio Jurenito" or "Fiery Angel" - I will be very happy.

Rated the book

It would be banal to say that The Master and Margarita is a mysterious novel. I've been talking about this in lectures for over 15 years. But here's what's amazing: when my heart is in turmoil, when I feel bad, I randomly open any page of the novel and get exactly to the one where the answer is given to me, and the mood improves, and it becomes so good, and I laugh and cry from the realization that Bulgakov and his novel are part of my life, part of my existence. The book is always there - just stretch out your hand, there are so many bookmarks in it, so many notes! No, I do not believe those people who say that they did not like the novel - it simply did not open up to the consciousness and understanding of this reader. You have to grow up to read the novel! I remember a case when I met my favorite professor, microbiologist Yuri Ivanovich Sorokin, and he told me with such enthusiasm how his son Arkady and his friends were copying the samizdat pages of the novel The Master and Margarita all night long. It was in 1979. I then modestly kept silent and did not say that I also read the novel in samizdat performance. Years have passed. Now I have 4 editions of the novel, and I am proud of it, I am proud that my colleagues come to my lectures, write down, take notes, and the members of the attestation commission (honorable ladies) cried when I told the love story of the Master and Margarita! This novel is undoubtedly sent to us by God!

Rated the book

A strange illness happened to me: everything that I do not undertake to re-read takes on a completely different meaning, often completely opposite to the original one. The Brothers Karamazov, War and Peace, Anna Karenina... And this syndrome got to the Master and Margarita. I read it in the summer, there was a feeling that I was punched in the stomach. I thought: stress - I'll re-read it later. And just finished reading it the other day. No, then - in the summer - it did not seem to me. That's right.
I'll try to tell. In my youth, for me it was, perhaps, one of the most intimate novels about ideal love, about the fate of the Master with an unconditional parallel with the fate of Bulgakov and Elena. A novel about people, about what is important to them. Well, for example, cowardice is the most terrible vice; We speak with you in different languages, as always, but the things we talk about do not change; Everyone decorates himself as best he can. And so on. I couldn’t talk about this novel with anyone for a very long time: it was too intimate, it touched my soul too much. From the words and I want Frida to stop serving a scarf, I just started to sob. This went on for a very long time.
And so I re-read the novel already, in principle, having experienced a lot in my life: both losses, and gains, and joy, and grief, and disappointment, and love, and passion - in general, I became an adult. :)
And I came to the conclusion that it was a dying romance. And no matter how much they tell me that he is the result of all Bulgakov's work, it is not true. This is a novel of a dying man contemplating where he will go after death. And will it end up somewhere at all. Is there a place where they end up after death. It’s like a person looks into a large mirror and tries to find an answer to how he lived and what he deserves: punishment or reward. Each line in the novel is a reflection of precisely this state of search and answers to this, in principle, one and only question. Reflection of Woland, Pilate and reality. And all this is carried by the Master, as if in a kaleidoscope. Another interesting thought came to my mind. Everyone tends to associate the Master and Yeshua. Well, not everyone, but most. But! Master = Pilate. Yeshua = the conscience of the Master. That's exactly how I saw it. And the Master's novel about Pilate is essentially a conversation with his conscience. Therefore, he was not finished. Therefore, the manuscripts do not burn - to look and talk with your conscience, oh, how difficult. Almost deadly. The feeling of Dostoevsky is simply amazing from these chapters. Therefore, I consider it incorrect to say that these are chapters on Christian humility and so on. Nothing like that. Bulgakov is a wise author and he took the most characteristic character for a conversation with conscience - Pilate, who betrayed his soul. A stunning example. After all, a person is not a static substance, but a moving one. Through these characters he tried to understand himself. And, probably, a clash of conscience with the truth, with reality, in which there is more evil, in which one must very often step over it. After all, the burning of the manuscript by the Master is also a kind of "crucifixion" of conscience, as in the story of Yeshua and Pilate, like the scene of Satan's ball. After all, there Margarita acts as an author / Bulgakov. And also scenes with the crucifixion of conscience: "" and I want Frida to stop serving a handkerchief "". And all the characters: the Master, Yeshua, Woland, Pilate, Margarita - these are all parts of the mosaic named M.A. Bulgakov. Such a polyphony of one person. The whole novel is essentially Bulgakov's conversation with himself. And more about my own conscience.
Further, I did not see love in the novel at all ... Absolutely. Passion. Desire. Worship of talent, but not the love of a man and a woman. Margarita did not love the Master himself. She was captivated by his talent. The male Master and the Master Creator never united in her image. True love is bright and creative, it will never lead lovers into darkness.

The foreign series "Master and Margarita" drew a line under the great October atheistic revolution ...

Anna Kovalchuk as Margarita. Frame from the movie series. Photo: kinopoisk.ru

Alexander Galibin and Anna Kovalchuk as Master and Margarita. Frame from the movie series. Photo: kinopoisk.ru

Sergei Bezrukov as Yeshua Ha-Notsri. Frame from the movie series. Photo: kinopoisk.ru

In those days when the all-Russian show of the television series ended, I met the former Moscow actress Elizaveta Ivanovna Lakshina, who remembers Bulgakov well! She is in perfect health. Cheerful, energetic. She baked a strudel for tea for our visit. When the conversation turned to Bulgakov, I secretly froze - wow! - for the first time in my life I met a person who remembers the living Bulgakov ...

"It happened in 1926, I was twenty years old,- said the hostess. - Moscow Art Theater played "Days of the Turbins". The success is extraordinary. And therefore the interest in the personality of the playwright was exceptional. Girlfriends whispered to me in secret that the author of the play is never in the stalls, but usually stands in the mezzanine. I hurried to the mezzanine. I did not know what the author looked like, but immediately drew attention to a stranger who was standing against the wall. At the famous Moscow Art Theater gray panels. He was wearing a wonderful light blue suit. And from the whole appearance, from the face and eyes, an amazing inexplicable energy emanated. Noticing my wide-open eyes, the stranger did not move, went even deeper into himself and fixed his gaze more firmly on the stage. Many years later. Bulgakov began to print. And I finally saw his picture in the book. It was he!"

Well, this inexplicable Bulgakov energy still attracts the eyes of the whole country. During the days of the show, the multi-million eyes of Russia were fixed on the great novel and its creator. The rating of the series is staggering - it's no joke, according to Gallup Media, more than 50 percent of Muscovites watched The Master and Margarita, and every fifth Russian (and plus every second Ukrainian) saw the tape across the country.

Woland

Woland of the novel appears in Moscow, on the Patriarch's Ponds, "at the hour of an unprecedentedly hot sunset." This detail immediately refers the connoisseur to the biblical phrase from the prophecies of Malachi: "Behold, the day will come, burning like an oven." Doomsday Day.

Each step of Woland is marked by an exceptional wealth of hidden meanings. First, tonight is May 1, 1929, the capital of the world proletariat is celebrating International Workers' Day. But neither Bulgakov nor Woland defiantly notice the holiday. Satan rushed to Moscow straight from the peaks of the cold Brocken, where the day before, on April 30, a great Sabbath was held. All these realities have long been discovered by connoisseurs of the novel, but it is not at all necessary to reveal this conspiracy theory in a folk series. With some exception.

Getting started is half the battle

With the curiosity of a tourist, Woland walks along an empty alley to the voice of sin, to the loud voice of the editor Berlioz, who inspires the poet that "Jesus, as a person, did not exist at all in the world." Why did Satan choose Patriarch's Ponds? There are several reasons. Firstly, nearby is Triumphal Square, the landing site of the black cavalry of the devil. Until recently, the Triumphal Arch stood here, here the Muscovites solemnly welcomed the tsars. But new times have come. The arch has been removed. The square was renamed - now it bears the name of a revolutionary, a certain Yanyshev. So in the gigantic Garden Ring (and the circle on the ground is a traditional defense against evil spirits) a gap was formed. Well, it's time to enter the Mother See of the king of the underworld.

The screen Woland, of course, is different than in the novel.

Oleg Basilashvili is the embodiment of power, which has no barriers on earth. And he was rather tired of omnipotence. It has more from the Great bureaucrat of evil than from the mischievous Mephistopheles or the imposing prince of darkness. He is a bookworm of fate, an accountant of Retribution, a prisoner of his own strength, he is squeamish about manifestations of lies and intolerant of familiarity (these are the features of Bulgakov himself). It would seem that the panorama of the fallen capital should please the heart of the devil, the townspeople, as one, are gloriously mired in sins, but here's the hitch - in the enthusiasm of the fight against religious dope, together with Christ, the fools threw the existence of evil spirits overboard the ship. There is reason to lose your head. There was Christ, there was, - Woland crucifies on a bench between two atheists.

We must pay tribute to the courage of Alexander Adabashyan, who took the risk of acting in the risky role of the head of MASSOLIT, Comrade Berlioz. Not only that - pah-pah-pah - they will cut off the head of the tram, but also the cut off head will have to be played in public on a golden platter! However, Adabashyan's courage is known, he is a gourmet of provocations, a gourmet gastronome! But, alas, it was this vivid scene that caused me the first protest and annoyance. How? Yes, those that are sitting on the bench incorrectly.

Let's look into the book, we read: “If I heard right, you deigned to say that Jesus was not in the world? asked the foreigner, turning his left green eye to Berlioz. Did you agree with your interlocutor? - the unknown inquired, turning to the right to Homeless "...

That is, Berlioz sits to the left of Woland, and the poet to the right.

In the film, it's exactly the opposite. Do you think it's a trifle? Don't tell. Why, then, does Bulgakov arrange the disposition of the characters so carefully?

Yes, because Satan, surrounded by two sinners, mockingly repeats the gospel scene of the crucifixion, where to the left of Christ on the left cross was a robber who blasphemed Jesus. Hence the concept of the left, the idea of ​​leftism, the spirit of the leftist. It was the leftists who declared themselves to be leftists as a sign of a challenge to God (“... and he will put the sheep on His right side, and the goats on His left.” Matt. 25.33), and on the right was a pious thief who believed in Christ and received a blessing from him : "...today you will be with me in paradise."

That is, the leftist Berlioz is destined for death, and the right (righteous) poet Ivan Bezdomny is promised salvation.

Of course, not everyone will notice this error, but, alas, for me personally, the entire space of the television series sins with inattention to the symmetry of Moscow realities with the drawings of the New Testament.

Who, for example, is this Annushka who broke a bottle of sunflower oil on a turntable in front of a tram? Who is that “beautiful carriage driver” who ran a tram wheel over the neck of an unfortunate blasphemer? This is a Moscow continuation of that New Testament couple of women who asked Herod for the severed head of John the Baptist - his wife Herodias and her beautiful daughter Salome.

Pilate and Yeshua

According to the rumors that constantly accompanied the shooting of the series, the actor Oleg Yankovsky refused to play the proposed choice of Christ or Woland, appealing to the fact that "it is impossible to play the devil, like the Lord God."

Well, there is some truth in these words: it is impossible to play the spirit.

Basilashvili solved this problem: he played not so much Satan as a consequence - the burden of absolute power. Played fatigue from eternity. He played the tiresome duties of the prince of darkness in relation to darkness. He is mortally bored, which is why his food is laughter, which Woland's retinue of jesters regale, and in addition, the diabolical pain in the knee is the result of a fall from Heaven. In a word, he played static.

Kirill Lavrov was placed in more favorable conditions - he played the confusion of static, the pangs of the birth of conscience: for the first time in his life, the Roman procurator did not agree with his own decision. There is something to play here!

Roman Pilate is the first evangelist. Having given the order to write in Latin on a tablet nailed to the cross, the words “Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews,” Pilate was the first to confirm in writing the appearance of the Messiah. All subsequent four canonical Gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke and John actually follow the first Gospel of Pilate.

On-screen Pilate is a skeptic who has long been disappointed in man. He is head over heels in disbelief. This is a statue of cynicism, sculpted from Carrara marble. He perfectly knows the value of himself, and Rome, and the great Caesar, the emperor Tiberius, who has gone out of his mind from voluptuousness ... The feeling of unfairness of the verdict that burst into Pilate's soul after meeting Yeshua turned the statue of skepticism into the living ruins of a resurrected man. He groans as he walks barefoot through the jagged rubble.

Do I need to say what kind of burden fell on Sergei Bezrukov in the role of Christ? Moreover, the evil spirits joked to put in November last year - ahead of the series "Master and Margarita" - a series about Yesenin with the participation of an actor in the title role. And the spectacular bruises on Yeshua's face involuntarily looked like traces from yesterday's booze drinking at the National.

The main mistake of Bortko and Bezrukov is an attempt to play a person.

Basilashvili avoided this temptation - he played not a person, but an inhuman fatigue of evil. Lavrov had the legal right to play a man, just as the knights of darkness from Woland's retinue, who comically dressed up as characters, had their right to fool around. Bezrukov had no such rights. Christ is not a character, not a man, not a prophet. Alas, the mystery of the Incarnation, the Son of the Father, was to be played, and not a captive, not a healer, not a Jew, not a truth seeker, not the leader of a small sect, and not even the novel Yeshua. The condition for the role of Christ, in my opinion, is the mystery, at least the absolute silence of the hero.

Master and Muscovites

The God of perfection is in the details.

Thus, the orchestration of the television series sometimes surpasses the main scenes, filed by Bortko with a certain amount of servility to the text of the novel. He did not dare to use congeniality, with which he jokingly and effortlessly shot “The Heart of a Dog” once. The director is too respectful of the original.

Effortlessly turned out only side dishes for the main course.

And the king of all these meatballs and plaid trousers was Koroviev, who was masterfully conducted (and not just played) by Alexander Abdulov. Bravo! His demonic restlessness, appetizing impudence of affront, a waterfall of words, poses, gestures - under the supervision of penetrating eyes - turned every scene with his participation into a casino where your head is at stake, idiot. Gamblingly giving out all sorts of dirty tricks, he administers his jester's Last Judgment.
For some reason, the house on Sadovaya in the series is not scary.

Meanwhile, it was the house on Sadovaya that became the hero of the novel. And not at all because Bulgakov lived in it, no. It was the first experience in Moscow (and in the country!) in organizing a new communist way of life. House of an exemplary workers' commune. It was here that the model of communal living of people was first tested. Landmarks of the new way of life were marked here: a shared kitchen, one toilet for all, a pantry in the bathroom, a telephone conversation only in the hallway with witnesses. Bulgakov, who miraculously ended up in this house in 1924 on the personal orders of Krupskaya, saw with his own eyes all the consequences of this social experiment: bathtubs in terrible black spots - ulcers from broken enamel, potbelly stoves that are heated with parquet tiles, and other abominations.

After observing the metamorphoses of Muscovites, who were spoiled by the housing problem, Bulgakov was finally convinced of his suspicions that the communist project would end in failure.

As the retinue plays the king, so the role of the Master was played primarily by Vladislav Galkin as the godless poet Ivan Bezdomny and Anna Kovalchuk as Margarita. Galkin remarkably managed to play the Soviet character in a state of shock from meeting with a different reality. He enters the film as the face of the collective mind, as the spirit of the Soviet community, as a delegate from poetry. The actor caught the rhythm of the then life - the rhythm of the ditty.

Together with a simpleton, she played the role of the Master and Margarita. She, performed by Anna Kovalchuk, is so flawless, she fits this image so perfectly that there is simply nothing more to say about her. Sad chastity and brilliant shamelessness of freedom, which - as Khlebnikov wrote - "comes naked" harmoniously converged in it.

Anna Kovalchuk coped with the nakedness of chastity. And one can only guess at what price this harmony of two principles was paid: humility and temptation, pride and arrogance.
Galibin, in my opinion, was destined to be led in all episodes of the series. Well, that also takes skill. Nowhere did he obscure his own image with the vanity of the actor. And this principle of complementarity (the reader himself plays the role of the Master) was originally laid down by Bulgakov.

In vain Bortko exclaimed: "Mysticism arises only when there is nothing more to say." All previous attempts to film the novel failed also because Thing did not agree with the price. And in 2005 it happened. Why? Because each of the participants secretly paid their bloody shekel, and it is unlikely that we will know which one. Bulgakov gave life to the novel. Galibin parted with his voice, the general director of the Rossiya channel, Zlatopolsky, refused to advertise - despite the fact that the budget of the ten-episode tape turned out to be two and a half times higher than planned, and amounted to five million dollars. I'm sure the series was paid in full."

Excerpts from the article by Anatoly Korolyov "The Gospel of Michael".

Mikhail Bulgakov's novel The Master and Margarita is one of the greatest works of Russian literature of the 20th century. It is very multifaceted, it can be re-read many times, each time finding a new meaning. This is a novel-mystery, a novel-revelation, which is remembered for a lifetime.

The events take place in the 30s and 40s of the 20th century. The devil arrives in Moscow with his retinue, before people he appears as a foreigner. Woland starts talking about religion, the existence of God, mystically interfering in the fate of people. In the theater "Variety" he holds a performance, where he shows absolutely incredible tricks. It gives women the opportunity to choose any outfit for free. But when they leave the theater, they remain completely naked, their clothes disappear. Woland's personality is mysterious, no one really knows anything about him. And he administers justice, punishing people for greed, cowardice, deceit, betrayal.

The second line in the plot is love. Margarita, the wife of an important official, meets the Master, an unknown writer. They are united by forbidden, fatal love, at the same time it is deep, calm. The master is writing a book about the ancient city of Yershalaim, in which Pontius Pilate judges Jesus Christ. Critics ridicule religious themes. The reading of religious literature, the Gospel was forbidden in the country.

The novel touches on the theme of the existence of God, faith, justice. Woland, together with his retinue, exposes many human vices, punishing the guilty. The love of the Master and Margarita, sincere and devoted, is able to go through the most difficult trials.

Despite the fact that the novel describes the 30-40s of the 20th century, the issues raised in it are relevant to this day. It can be noted with regret that even after many years people still strive for power, are ready to go over their heads for the sake of a career and money, lie and betray. The novel makes you think that love, kindness and honesty are still more important in life.

On our site you can download the book "The Master and Margarita" Bulgakov Mikhail Afanasyevich for free and without registration in fb2, rtf, epub, pdf, txt format, read the book online or buy the book in the online store.