In August 1919, after the capture of Kyiv by General Denikin, Mikhail Bulgakov was mobilized as a military doctor in White army and sent to North Caucasus. Here his first publication appeared - a newspaper article entitled "Future Prospects."

Soon he parted with the medical profession and devoted himself entirely to literary work. In 1919-1921, while working in the Vladikavkaz arts department, Bulgakov composed five plays, three of which were staged at the local theater. Their texts have not survived, with the exception of one - “Sons of the Mullah”.

In 1921 he moved to Moscow. Served as secretary of the Main Political and Educational Committee under the People's Commissariat of Education of the RSFSR.

In 1921-1926, Bulgakov collaborated with the Moscow editorial office of the Berlin newspaper "Nakanune", publishing essays about the life of Moscow, with the newspapers "Gudok" and "Rabochiy", magazines " Medical worker", "Russia" and "Renaissance".

In the literary supplement to the newspaper "Nakanune" were published "Notes on Cuffs" (1922-1923), as well as the writer's stories "The Adventures of Chichikov", "The Red Crown", "The Cup of Life" (all - 1922). In 1925-1927, stories from the series “Notes of a Young Doctor” were published in the magazines “Medical Worker” and “Red Panorama”.

The general theme of Bulgakov’s works is determined by the author’s attitude towards Soviet power - the writer did not consider himself its enemy, but assessed reality very critically, believing that his satirical denunciations benefits the country and people. Early examples include the stories "The Diaboliad. The Tale of How Twins Killed a Clerk" (1924) and " Fatal eggs"(1925), combined into the collection "Diaboliad" (1925). The story written in 1925 is distinguished by greater skill and a sharper social orientation " Heart of a Dog", who was in "samizdat" for more than 60 years.

The boundary separating the early Bulgakov from the mature one was the novel " White Guard"(1925). Bulgakov's departure from the emphatically negative image of the White Guard environment brought upon the writer accusations of trying to justify the white movement.

Later, based on the novel and in collaboration with the Moscow Art Theater, Bulgakov wrote the play “Days of the Turbins” (1926). The famous Moscow Art Theater production of this play (the premiere took place on October 5, 1926) brought Bulgakov wide fame. "Days of the Turbins" enjoyed unprecedented success among the audience, but not among critics, who launched a devastating campaign against the play, which was "apologetic" in relation to the white movement, and against the "anti-Soviet" author of the play.

During the same period, Bulgakov’s play “Zoyka’s Apartment” (1926) was staged at the Evgeni Vakhtangov Studio Theater, which was banned after the 200th performance. The play "Running" (1928) was banned after the first rehearsals at the Moscow Art Theater.

The play "Crimson Island" (1927), staged at the Moscow Chamber Theater, was banned after its 50th performance.

At the beginning of 1930, his play "The Cabal of the Saint" (1929) was banned and did not reach rehearsals in the theater.

Bulgakov's plays were removed from the theater repertoire; his works were not published. In this situation, the writer was forced to turn to higher authorities and wrote a “Letter to the Government,” asking either to provide him with work and, therefore, a means of subsistence, or to let him go abroad. The letter was followed by phone call Joseph Stalin to Bulgakov (April 18, 1930). Soon Bulgakov got a job as a director of the Moscow Art Theater and thereby solved the problem of physical survival. In March 1931, he was accepted into the cast of the Moscow Art Theater.

While working at the Moscow Art Theater, he wrote a dramatization " Dead souls"According to Nikolai Gogol.

In February 1932, the “Turbin Days” at the Moscow Art Theater were resumed.

In the 1930s, one of the main themes in Bulgakov’s work was the theme of the relationship between the artist and the authorities, which he realized using the material of various historical eras: play "Moliere", biographical story"The Life of Monsieur de Molière", play " Last days", novel "The Master and Margarita".

In 1936, due to disagreements with the management during the rehearsal preparation of Molière, Bulgakov was forced to break with the Moscow Art Theater and go to work at Bolshoi Theater USSR librettist.

IN recent years Bulgakov continued to work actively, creating the libretto of the operas "The Black Sea" (1937, composer Sergei Pototsky), "Minin and Pozharsky" (1937, composer Boris Asafiev), "Friendship" (1937-1938, composer Vasily Solovyov-Sedoy; remained unfinished) , "Rachel" (1939, composer Isaac Dunaevsky), etc.

An attempt to renew cooperation with the Moscow Art Theater by staging the play "Batum" about the young Stalin (1939), created with the theater's active interest in the 60th anniversary of the leader, ended in failure. The play was banned from production and was interpreted by the political elite as the writer’s desire to improve relations with the authorities.

In 1929-1940, Bulgakov’s multifaceted philosophical and fantastic novel “The Master and Margarita” was created - last piece Bulgakov.

Doctors discovered that the writer had hypertensive nephrosclerosis, an incurable kidney disease. he was seriously ill, almost blind, and his wife made changes to the manuscript under dictation. February 13, 1940 was the last day of work on the novel.

Mikhail Bulgakov died in Moscow. Buried at Novodevichy Cemetery.

During his lifetime, his plays “Adam and Eve”, “Bliss”, “Ivan Vasilyevich” were not released; the last of them was filmed by director Leonid Gaidai in the comedy “Ivan Vasilyevich Changes His Profession” (1973). Also after the death of the writer was published " Theatrical novel", which was based on "Notes of a Dead Man".

Before publication, the philosophical and fantastic novel “The Master and Margarita” was known only to a narrow circle of people close to the author; the uncopied manuscript was miraculously preserved. The novel was first published in abridged form in 1966 in the Moscow magazine. Full text V latest edition Bulgakov was published in Russian in 1989.

The novel became one of artistic achievements Russian and world literature of the 20th century and one of the most popular and books read in the writer’s homeland, it was repeatedly filmed and staged on the theater stage.

In the 1980s, Bulgakov became one of the most published authors in the USSR. His works were included in the Collected Works in five volumes (1989-1990).

On March 26, 2007 in Moscow, in an apartment on Bolshaya Sadovaya Street, building 10, where the writer lived in 1921-1924, the government of the capital established the first M.A. Museum in Russia. Bulgakov.

Mikhail Bulgakov was married three times. The writer married his first wife Tatyana Lappa (1892-1982) in 1913. In 1925, he officially married Lyubov Belozerskaya (1895-1987), who had previously been married to journalist Ilya Vasilevsky. In 1932, the writer married Elena Shilovskaya (née Nuremberg, after Neelov’s first husband), the wife of Lieutenant General Yevgeny Shilovsky, whom he met in 1929. From September 1, 1933, Elena Bulgakova (1893-1970) kept a diary, which became one of the important sources of the biography of Mikhail Bulgakov. She preserved the writer’s extensive archive, which she transferred to the State Library of the USSR named after V.I. Lenin (now Russian State Library), as well as the Institute of Russian Literature of the USSR Academy of Sciences (Pushkin House). Bulgakova managed to achieve the publication of “The Theatrical Novel” and “The Master and Margarita”, the re-release of “The White Guard” in its entirety, and the publication of most of the plays.

The material was prepared based on information from RIA Novosti and open sources

Mikhail Afanasyevich Bulgakov - world literary genius, was also a great doctor, a master of his craft. He never cheated and was true to his humanistic ideals.

Mikhail Bulgakov was born on May 3 (15), 1891 in the family of associate professor (since 1902 - professor) of the Kyiv Theological Academy Afanasy Ivanovich Bulgakov (1859-1907) and his wife Varvara Mikhailovna (nee Pokrovskaya) (1869-1922) on Vozdvizhenskaya Street , 28 in Kyiv.

The writer's father, Afanasy Ivanovich Bulgakov, was indeed a professor at the Kyiv Theological Academy. But he received the title of ordinary professor in 1906, shortly before his early death. And then, in the year of the birth of his first son, he was a young associate professor at the academy, a man of very great talent and equally great ability to work.

He knew languages ​​- both ancient and new. He spoke English, which was not included in the programs of theological seminaries and theological academies. He had a lively, light style, and he wrote a lot and with enthusiasm.

An associate professor and later professor of the history of Western faiths, he was particularly interested in Anglicanism, perhaps because Anglicanism, with its historical opposition to Catholicism, was considered akin to Orthodoxy. This gave A.I. Bulgakov the opportunity not to denounce, but to study history English Church. One of his articles was translated in England and met with friendly responses there; he was proud of it.

In the obituaries of his death, his colleagues at the theological academy did not forget to mention that the deceased was a man of “strong faith.” He was a decent man and very demanding of himself and, since he served in the theological academy, he was, of course, a believer. But I did not choose spiritual education at the behest of my heart. He, who came from a provincial and large family of a priest, and also a priest of one of the poorest in Russia, the Oryol province, had no other paths to education, like his brothers.

Children of the clergy could receive spiritual education for free.Afanasy Ivanovich Bulgakov graduated from the Theological Seminary in Orel brilliantly, was not recommended, but “intended” for further education at the Theological Academy, in connection with which he signed the following mandatory document:

“I, the undersigned, a student of the Oryol Theological Seminary Afanasy Bulgakov, intended by the board of the seminary to be sent to the Kyiv Theological Academy, gave this signature to the board of the said seminary that upon arrival at the academy I undertake not to refuse admission to it, and upon completion of the course - from entering the ecclesiastical school service.” After which he received all the necessary “passing allowances and daily allowances for travel, as well as for acquiring linen and shoes.”

Olympiada Ferapontovna Bulgakova, Bulgakov’s paternal grandmother, godmother writer

He also graduated brilliantly from the Theological Academy in Kyiv. On the back of his diploma is the following text - partly typographical, partly handwritten: “The student named in this document from August 15, 1881 to August 15, 1885 was in the academy on government pay, for which he ... is obliged to serve in the spiritual and educational department for six years ... and in case of leaving this department ... he must return the amount used for his maintenance...” - a three-digit amount is entered.

He brilliantly defended his master's thesis (“Essays on the History of Methodism,” Kyiv, 1886), receiving the title of associate professor.

The career of a teacher at the Theological Academy - associate professor, extraordinary, then ordinary professor - was honorable. But he did not want this career for his sons and firmly sought to give his children a secular education.

In 1890, A.I. Bulgakov married a young teacher of the Karachevskaya gymnasium, the daughter of an archpriest, Varvara Mikhailovna Pokrovskaya.

Invitation to the wedding ball of V. M. Pokrovskaya and A. I. Bulgakov

It is difficult to say whether her father, another grandfather of the writer, Archpriest of the Kazan Church in the city of Karachev (the same Oryol province) Mikhail Vasilyevich Pokrovsky, had more money, or whether he was simply more educated, younger, more promising - he gave his children a secular education.

Bell nobles. Family of Mikhail Vasilyevich Pokrovsky, Bulgakov’s grandfather

Judging by the fact that Varvara Mikhailovna, at the age of twenty, was a “teacher and matron” of a girls’ gymnasium (which position was proudly noted in her marriage certificate by the archpriest who personally married his daughter to an associate professor at the Kyiv Academy), most likely she graduated from the gymnasium and, maybe perhaps the eighth, additional, “pedagogical” class, which gave the title of teacher. For her generation and for her environment, she was an exceptionally educated woman. Her two brothers, Mikhail and Nikolai, studied at the university and became doctors.

The Bulgakovs' children - seven, almost the same age - grew up one after another, strong boys and beautiful, confident girls: Mikhail (1891-1940), Vera (1892-1972), Nadezhda (1893-1971), Varvara (1895-1954), Nikolai (1898-1966), Ivan (1900-1969) and Elena (1902-1954).

The salary of an assistant professor at the academy was small, and my father, in parallel with teaching at the academy, always had another job: first he taught history at the Institute of Noble Maidens, then, from 1893 until the end of his days, he served in the Kyiv censorship. He also did not refuse the smaller earnings that happened.

The Bulgakov family at the dacha. Sitting from left to right: Vanya, D.I. Bogdazhevsky, V.M. Bulgakova, A.I. Bulgakov, Lelya. Standing: Vera, Unknown, Varya, Misha, Nadya. Bucha, 1906

At the end of the 20s, Mikhail Bulgakov told P.S. Popov: “...The image of a lamp with a green lampshade. This is a very important image for me. It arose from childhood impressions - the image of my father writing at the table.” I think the lamp under the green lampshade on my father’s desk often burned past midnight...

The world of the Bulgakov family was strong and joyful. And friends loved to visit this house, and relatives loved to visit. The mother made the family atmosphere joyful, even festive.

“Mom, bright queen,” the eldest son called her. Blonde, with very light (like her son’s) eyes, pleasantly plump after seven births and at the same time very active, lively (according to her daughter Nadezhda, Varvara Mikhailovna, having already been widowed, willingly played tennis with her almost adult children), she ruled her small kingdom well, a supportive, adored, kind queen with a soft smile and an unusually strong, even domineering character.

Music lived in this house. Nadezhda Afanasyevna, the writer’s sister, told me: “In the evenings, after putting the children to bed, the mother played Chopin on the piano. My father played the violin. He sang, and most often, “Our sea is unsociable.”

They loved opera very much, especially Faust, which was so popular at the beginning of the century. AND symphonic music, summer concerts in the Merchant Garden above the Dnieper, which enjoyed great success among the people of Kiev. Almost every spring Chaliapin came to Kyiv and certainly sang in Faust...

There were books in the house. Kind and wise books from childhood. Pushkin with his " Captain's daughter"and Leo Tolstoy. At the age of nine, Bulgakov read it with delight and perceived it as an adventure novel. Dead Souls" Fenimore Cooper. Then Saltykov-Shchedrin.

And there also lived in the house a favorite old children's book about the Saardam carpenter. A naive book by the now firmly forgotten writer P.R. Furman, dedicated to that time in the life of Tsar Peter, when Peter worked as a ship carpenter in the Dutch city of Zaandam (Saardam). It was in the book large font and many full-page illustrations, and Peter, “the sailor and the carpenter,” Peter, the worker on the throne, appeared in it as accessible and kind, cheerful and strong, with hands equally good at carpentry, and, if necessary, surgical instrument, and by the pen of a statesman, the legendary, fabulous, beautiful Peter.

“How often I read “The Carpenter of Saardam” by the glowing tiled square,” Bulgakov would write in “The White Guard.” The book became a sign of the house, part of the invariably repeating childhood. Then, in Mikhail Bulgakov’s novel “The White Guard,” the Saardam Carpenter will become a symbol of the hearth, eternal, like life itself.

Childhood and adolescence in the memory of Mikhail Bulgakov forever remained as a serene and carefree world. This is his word: “carefree.”

“In the spring, the gardens bloomed white, the Tsar’s Garden was dressed in greenery, the sun broke through all the windows, igniting fires in them. And the Dnieper! And the sunsets! And the Vydubetsky monastery on the slopes, the green sea ran down in ledges to the colorful, gentle Dnieper... The times when a carefree young generation lived in the gardens of the most beautiful city of our homeland” (essay “Kyiv-Gorod”, 1923).

“...And spring, spring and roar in the halls, schoolgirls in green aprons on the boulevard, chestnut trees and May, and, most importantly, the eternal beacon ahead - the university...” (“The White Guard”).

The reflection of home and childhood painted time in serene tones in the writer’s memories. But the time was neither calm nor serene.

Mikhail Afanasyevich Bulgakov was born in Kyiv on May 15, 1891. The Bulgakovs had seven children. It was an intelligent family, united and cheerful. The father, a teacher at the Kyiv Theological Academy, died early, and the mother told the children: “I cannot give you a dowry or capital. But I can give you the only capital you will have – education.” As a boy, Mikhail studied at the First Men's Gymnasium, where he received an excellent education. Young Bulgakov not only comprehended science, he wrote poetry, drew caricatures, played the piano, and sang. He was interested in entomology and collected good collection butterflies. He took part in impromptu performances, was fond of football, which was then becoming fashionable, and, naturally, did not avoid romantic encounters. Kyiv at the very beginning of summer... The famous chestnut trees have already faded, strewing everything around with a white carpet, but the acacia is blooming. At this very time, Saratov high school student Tatyana Lappa came to visit her aunt for the holidays. Her aunt was a friend of Bulgakov's mother, so it is not surprising that Misha and Tanya met. She is sixteen, he is seventeen. Love at first sight...

Choosing a profession

But in 1909 the gymnasium ended. On the one hand, Bulgakov wanted to follow the artistic or literary path, on the other, three uncles, three cousins and my mother’s second husband are doctors. And this outweighed. In 1909, Mikhail entered the Faculty of Medicine Kyiv University. And in 1913, he, a second-year student, married his chosen one, Tatyana Lappa. Their romance lasted almost five years. He often came to Saratov, threatened to shoot himself if he did not immediately see his beloved, and even abandoned his studies. The parents provided silverware and gold jewelry as a dowry. Mikhail ordered special wedding rings with names engraved inside. Later, during the hungry years, all this was sold. In the meantime, life was wonderful, so it was possible to be sybaritic.

Many of Mikhail Bulgakov's plots and characters are taken from the everyday life of his main profession. Bulgakov was a doctor. He delivered babies, worked as a surgeon and venereologist, and at the same time tirelessly observed himself and people, noticing everything with the keen eye of a physician and writer.

But then the first one struck world war. Prosperous, carefree times are over, and our hero plunges into the whirlwind of events. In August 1914, medical student Bulgakov helped his wife’s parents organize an infirmary for the wounded in Saratov and worked there as a nurse. In May 1915, he submitted a request to be admitted as a doctor to the naval department, but the commission declared him unfit for duty. military service. Then he achieved an appointment to the Kyiv military hospital of the Red Cross. Then, as a volunteer, he worked as a surgeon in front-line hospitals. Tatyana became a sister of mercy. She recalled: “There were a lot of gangrenous patients there, and Misha kept amputating his legs. And I held these legs. I felt so bad, I thought I was going to fall. Then I'll step aside ammonia I'll smell it again..."

In the outback

At the end of his service at the front, Bulgakov was placed at the disposal of the Smolensk governor. He was appointed head of a medical center in Sychovsky district, Nikolskoye village. It was an incredible wilderness. Bulgakov arrived there with his wife in September 1916 and became a zemstvo doctor. A tense life began, the sick came in an endless line. On some days it was necessary to receive up to a hundred people. One of the first patients was a woman in labor whose baby was not moving properly. The newly-minted doctor was assisted in delivering the baby by his wife, who, by the light of a kerosene lamp, was looking for the necessary pages in the textbook “Obstetrics.” Mikhail Bulgakov described the everyday life of a village doctor in his stories “Notes of a Young Doctor.”

The most dramatic incident, which had serious consequences, occurred with Bulgakov, when a child suffering from diphtheria was brought to him. The doctor had to suck out diphtheria films from the throat through a tube. To avoid getting infected, he vaccinated himself, which caused a terrible allergy attack. The face was swollen, the body was covered with a rash, and an unbearable itching began. appeared in the legs severe pain. As a doctor, Bulgakov believed that only morphine could help him. And indeed, the injections brought relief from unbearable pain. Several days passed and the need for morphine disappeared. But the doctor was in no hurry to give up the attractive drug. Moreover, he doubled the dose and became, as they said then, a morphine addict. Bulgakov began to have hallucinations, which he hurried to write down. Especially often he imagined a giant snake that was squeezing and strangling him. This is how the story “The Green Snake” appeared. Bulgakov tried to use the drug as a source of inspiration. At first it gave desired result, and then severe depression set in. The need for the drug increased every day, and it became more and more difficult to get it. Without an injection, Bulgakov became aggressive, pointed a Browning at his wife, and once threw a burning Primus stove at her. He forced his wife to go to the city for morphine. The pharmacists asked her: “Who does Doctor Bulgakov treat? Let him at least write the patient’s name.” Bulgakov became haggard, aged, and it seemed that his end was near.

But a year later Bulgakov managed to transfer to zemstvo hospital in the city of Vyazma, where he received the position of head of the infectious diseases and venereal departments. After the wilderness of the countryside, a large county town caused delight: finally electricity after a kerosene smokehouse, modern by the standards of that time medical equipment. All this is reflected in the story “Morphine”. The October events of 1917 found Bulgakov in Vyazma, but due to his addiction to morphine, he did not pay too much attention to them. All this time, Bulgakov tried to free himself from military conscription and for this purpose went to Moscow. He also had a secret hope of being cured there from drug addiction at the clinic of a doctor I know. Bulgakov was in Moscow for the first time. He stayed with his uncle, the famous Moscow doctor N. M. Pokrovsky, who served as the prototype for Professor Preobrazhensky in the story “The Heart of a Dog.” They achieved one goal - they received a “white ticket”, but they failed to free themselves from addiction to morphine and returned to Vyazma.

Nothing connected Bulgakov with his work in Vyazma, and he and his wife left for Kyiv, where they settled in an empty parental home. It was here, thanks to the efforts of his wife and mother’s second husband, Doctor Voskresensky, that Bulgakov got rid of drug addiction and recovered. He opened a private practice as a venereologist. But normal life it didn't work out. The Civil War raged, Kyiv passed from hand to hand - white, red, Petliurists, Germans... Bulgakov was consistently called up for service as a doctor by all the authorities that occupied the city. The events that happened to him at this time served as material for the novel “The White Guard.” In 1919, the city was occupied by the Whites, Bulgakov was again called to take the post of regimental doctor, but this time he was sent to Vladikavkaz, where he later called his wife. At the beginning of 1920, Mikhail Bulgakov decided to part with medicine and take up literary activity. He begins to collaborate with local newspapers, but then becomes infected with relapsing fever, which was rampant at that time. The time was not right for illness: the whites retreated, advising Tatyana to take her husband and leave with them. But she does not dare: the patient’s temperature has risen above forty, he is delirious, almost unconscious and may die on the way. The Bulgakovs remain in the city. Faithful Tasya—that’s what everyone knew about Lappa—marched her husband this time too. When Bulgakov recovered, there was already a Soviet power. To earn a living, he turns to the Revolutionary Committee and begins working as a journalist. Vladikavkaz came to life after the Civil War. Bulgakov found himself in his element. He composed small plays that were staged on the stage of the local theater, gave lectures before performances, held debates... But soon repressions began. The arts department in which he was registered was dispersed, and Bulgakov and his wife, fearing arrest, urgently left for Batum. Tasya went further to Moscow, and Mikhail Afanasyevich tried to sail to Constantinople, from where he dreamed of reaching France. Alas, he was unlucky. I had to return to Moscow.

Moscow

In Moscow, Bulgakov suffered for a long time to maintain his existence. .By Soviet times Bulgakov looked unusual: always fit, elegant, wearing a shirt with a starched collar and a bow tie, with a monocle. He served as a reporter and feuilletonist for newspapers, but received a pittance. He didn’t even have money to come to his mother’s funeral in Kyiv. Tatyana Lappa recalled: “He didn’t work anywhere, I didn’t work anywhere. It happened that we had nothing - no potatoes, no bread, nothing. Mikhail was running around hungry.” The Bulgakovs settled in apartment number 50 at 10 Bolshaya Sadovaya, which became famous after the release of the novel “The Master and Margarita.” A sharp pen allowed Bulgakov to collaborate in several newspapers, and gradually his financial situation began to improve. But still there was always not enough money... At this time Bulgakov joined fun company newspapermen, among whom were Paustovsky, Ilf, Petrov, Kataev, Olesha, Babel. By the mid-20s, Bulgakov published “The Diaboliad” and “Fatal Eggs,” “Notes on Cuffs,” and dozens of stories, essays, and feuilletons were published. The story “The Heart of a Dog,” written in early 1925, was banned from publication. In 1924, Bulgakov divorced Tatyana Lappa and a year later married Lyubov Belozerskaya, who returned from abroad. She was well-read, was fond of theater, and at one time even danced in Paris. Proximity new wife Bulgakov, who by that time had become a famous playwright, was very impressed with art. The success of Bulgakov's works aroused the envy of his colleagues and hostility literary critics. And here’s what Komsomolskaya Pravda wrote: “Bulgakov is what he was and will remain, a new-bourgeois brat, sprinkling poisoned but powerless saliva on the working class and its communist ideals”... Gradually, the “organs” joined in the persecution. The writer was summoned for questioning several times, and his apartment was searched. The diaries and the manuscript of “The Heart of a Dog” were confiscated.

Posthumous fame

However, after the famous call from Stalin, which all of Moscow was talking about, the position of the rogue writer changed. He was hired by the theater and began reviewing plays by young authors. Fell in love again. This time - to Elena Shilovskaya, who became his muse. In the 30s, Bulgakov devoted himself entirely to literary creativity- worked on the novel “The Master and Margarita”, prepared plays: “Dead Souls” according to Gogol, “Molière”, “Ivan Vasilyevich” and others. However, none of them were staged. The disillusioned writer broke with the theater. And again an unspoken ban was imposed on his works. In Soviet times, Bulgakov looked unusual: always smart, elegant, wearing a shirt with a starched collar and a bow tie, with a monocle. It is no coincidence that Boris Pasternak called it an “illegal phenomenon”!

The situation in which the writer found himself was not in vain for him. Bulgakov's nephrosclerosis worsened - hereditary renal hypertension, from which his father died. As a doctor, he immediately realized the hopelessness of his situation. He fell ill in the fall of 1939. Even before his marriage, he told Elena Sergeevna that it would be difficult to die. Bulgakov told his friends in detail how his illness would develop during the six months before his death, naming weeks, months and even dates in stages. The disease progressed exactly as predicted. Bulgakov went blind and died within the allotted six months, on March 10, 1940.

Mikhail Afanasyevich Bulgakov(May 3, 1891, Kyiv, Russian Empire- March 10, 1940, Moscow, USSR) - Russian writer, playwright, theater director and actor. Author of stories, short stories, feuilletons, plays, dramatizations, film scripts and opera librettos.

Mikhail Bulgakov was born into the family of an associate professor (since 1902 - professor) of the Kyiv Theological Academy Afanasy Ivanovich Bulgakov, in Kyiv. The family had seven children

In 1909, Mikhail Bulgakov graduated from the First Kyiv Gymnasium and entered the medical faculty of Kyiv University. In 1916 he received a diploma confirming “the degree of doctor with honors with all rights and advantages.”

In 1913, M. Bulgakov entered into his first marriage - with Tatyana Lappa. Their financial difficulties began on their wedding day. According to Tatyana’s memoirs, this is clearly felt: “I, of course, didn’t have any veil, nor a wedding dress - I had to do with all the money that my father sent. Mom came to the wedding and was horrified. I had a pleated linen skirt, my mother bought a blouse. We were married by Fr. Alexander. ...For some reason they laughed terribly at the altar. We rode home after church in a carriage. There were few guests at dinner. I remember there were a lot of flowers, most of all daffodils...” Tatyana's father sent her 50 rubles a month, a decent amount at that time. But the money in their wallet quickly dissolved, since Bulgakov did not like to save and was a man of impulse. If he wanted to take a taxi with his last money, he decided to take this step without hesitation. “Mother scolded me for my frivolity. Let's come to her for dinner, she sees - neither my rings nor my chain. “Well, that means everything is in the pawnshop!”

After the outbreak of World War I, M. Bulgakov worked as a doctor in the front-line zone for several months. Then he was sent to work in the village of Nikolskoye, Smolensk province, after which he worked as a doctor in Vyazma.
Since 1917, he began to use morphine, first to alleviate allergic reactions to the anti-diphtheria drug, which he took because he was afraid of diphtheria after an operation. Then the morphine intake became regular. In December 1917, he came to Moscow for the first time, staying with his uncle, the famous Moscow gynecologist N. M. Pokrovsky, who became the prototype of Professor Preobrazhensky from the story “The Heart of a Dog.” In the spring of 1918, M. Bulgakov returned to Kyiv, where he began private practice as a venereologist. At this time, M. Bulgakov stopped using morphine.
During the Civil War, in February 1919, M. Bulgakov was mobilized as a military doctor in the army of the Ukrainian People's Republic. In the same year he managed to work as a doctor for the Red Cross, and then in Armed Forces South of Russia. As part of the 3rd Terek Cossack Regiment he fought in the North. Caucasus. He was actively published in newspapers. During the retreat Volunteer Army at the beginning of 1920 he fell ill with typhus and because of this he could not leave for Georgia, remaining in Vladikavkaz.

At the end of September 1921, M. Bulgakov moved to Moscow and began collaborating as a feuilletonist with metropolitan newspapers and magazines.
In 1923, M. Bulgakov joined the All-Russian Writers Union. In 1924, he met Lyubov Evgenievna Belozerskaya, who had recently returned from abroad, and who in 1925 became his new wife.
Since October 1926, the play “Days of the Turbins” was staged at the Moscow Art Theater with great success. Its production was allowed for a year, but was later extended several times, since I. Stalin liked the play, who attended its performances several times. In his speeches, I. Stalin either agreed that “Days of the Turbins” was “an anti-Soviet thing, and Bulgakov is not ours,” or argued that the impression from “Days of the Turbins” was ultimately positive for the communists. At the same time, intense and extremely harsh criticism of M. Bulgakov’s work began in the Soviet press. According to his own calculations, over 10 years there were 298 abusive reviews and 3 favorable ones.
At the end of October 1926 at the Theater. Vakhtangov’s premiere of the play “Zoyka’s Apartment” was a great success.
In 1928, M. Bulgakov conceived the idea of ​​a novel about the devil, later called “The Master and Margarita.” The writer also began work on a play about Moliere (“The Cabal of the Holy One”).
In 1929, Bulgakov met Elena Sergeevna Shilovskaya, who became his third and last wife in 1932.
By 1930, Bulgakov's works ceased to be published, and plays were removed from the theater repertoire. The plays “Running”, “Zoyka’s Apartment”, “Crimson Island”, and the play “Days of the Turbins” were banned from production. In 1930, Bulgakov wrote to his brother Nikolai in Paris about the unfavorable literary and theatrical situation for himself and the difficult financial situation. At the same time, he wrote a letter to the USSR Government, dated March 28, 1930, with a request to determine his fate - either to give him the right to emigrate, or to provide him with the opportunity to work at the Moscow Art Theater. On April 18, 1930, Bulgakov received a call from I. Stalin, who recommended that the playwright apply to enroll him in the Moscow Art Theater.

In 1932, the play “Dead Souls” by Nikolai Gogol, staged by Bulgakov, was staged on the stage of the Moscow Art Theater. The experience of working at the Moscow Art Theater was reflected in Bulgakov’s work “Theatrical Novel” (“Notes of a Dead Man”), where many theater employees were removed under changed names.
In January 1932, I. Stalin again allowed the production of “The Days of the Turbins,” and before the war it was no longer prohibited. However, this permission did not apply to any theater except the Moscow Art Theater.

In 1936, Bulgakov left the Moscow Art Theater and began working at the Bolshoi Theater as a librettist and translator.

In 1939, M. Bulgakov worked on the libretto “Rachel”, as well as on a play about I. Stalin (“Batum”). The play was already being prepared for production, and Bulgakov, his wife and colleagues, went to Georgia to work on the play, when a telegram arrived about the cancellation of the play: Stalin considered it inappropriate to stage a play about himself. From that moment (according to the memoirs of E. S. Bulgakova, V. Vilenkin and others), M. Bulgakov’s health began to deteriorate sharply, he began to lose his sight. Bulgakov continued to use morphine, prescribed to him in 1924, to relieve pain symptoms. During the same period, the writer began to dictate to his wife corrections for the latest version of the novel “The Master and Margarita.” The editing, however, was not completed by the author.
Since February 1940, friends and relatives were constantly on duty at M. Bulgakov’s bedside. On March 10, 1940, Mikhail Afanasyevich Bulgakov died.
M. Bulgakov is buried at the Novodevichy cemetery. At his grave, at the request of his wife E. S. Bulgakova, a stone was installed, nicknamed “Golgotha,” which previously lay on the grave of N. V. Gogol.

The novel "The Master and Margarita" was first published in the magazine "Moscow" in 1966, twenty-six years after the death of the author, and brought Bulgakov world fame. The Theatrical Novel (Notes of a Dead Man) and other works by Bulgakov were also published posthumously.

based on an article from ru.wikipedia.org

Prose writer, playwright.

Born on May 3 (15 NS) in Kyiv in the family of a professor at the Kyiv Theological Academy. “The Bulgakov family is large, friendly, cultural, musical, theatrical,” recalls the wife of Bulgakov’s younger brother.

Until the fall of 1900 he studied at home, then entered the first grade of the Alexander Gymnasium, where the best teachers in Kyiv were concentrated. Already in the gymnasium, Bulgakov showed his various abilities: he wrote poetry, drew caricatures, played the piano, sang, composed oral histories and told them beautifully.

After graduating from high school in 1909, not without hesitation (the path of an artist or writer beckoned), he became a student at the Faculty of Medicine of the Kyiv Imperial University of St. Vladimir, where he has been studying for almost seven years (the university charter allowed repeating the program of a particular course). In 1913 he married T. Lappa.

With the outbreak of the First World War, he and his wife worked in a hospital, then volunteered for the front, worked in a front-line hospital, gaining medical experience under the guidance of military surgeons. In 1916, after graduating from the university, he received a diploma with honors and went to the Smolensk province as a zemstvo doctor, which was reflected in “Notes of a Young Doctor.”

The civil war found Bulgakov in Kyiv. He saw the sunset" white movement", witnessed the German occupation of Ukraine in 1918, the atrocities of the Petliura gangs.

In 1919 1921 he lived in Vladikavkaz (he ended up in the Caucasus in search of brothers who served in the White Army, promising his mother to find them, who had disappeared in civil war), worked for the newspaper "Caucasus", which did not last long, since the whites left the city, and Bulgakov was struck down by relapsing fever. The Soviet government established in the city called for cooperation from all literate people, and Bulgakov, who after his recovery was appointed head of the literary section of the arts department of public education, shared everything he knew and could. In Vladikavkaz he began writing for the theater; the comedy “Self-Defense” was staged and was a success. Inspired by success, Bulgakov wrote two more plays: “Clay Grooms” and “Paris Communards”; with the production of the latter, Vladikavkaz celebrated the 50th anniversary of the Paris Commune. The play was recommended by Glavpolitprosvet for production in Moscow theaters.

In 1921 he moved to Moscow. During the NEP literary life in Russia began to revive, private publishing houses were created, new magazines were opened. In 1922, Bulgakov published not only feuilletons and correspondence, but also the stories “The Extraordinary Adventures of the Doctor” and “The Spiritualistic Seance” (in the magazine “Rupor”). In the newspaper "Nakanune" and its literary supplement, many of M. Bulgakov's works were published: "Notes on Cuffs", "The Adventures of Chichikov", "Forty Forties", " Travel notes", "Crimson Island" and others (1922 24). M. Bulgakov's popularity began with publications in "On the Eve".

In 1924 he worked for the railway workers' newspaper Gudok, which at that time united such talented writers as Yu. Olesha and V. Kataev, I. Ilf and E. Petrov, K. Paustovsky and others. On the initiative of the Moscow Art Theater, he created a play based on the novel “The White Guard”, which was staged under the name “Days of the Turbins”. In 1927 he completed the drama "Running", which was banned shortly before the premiere.

In 1925, the story “Fatal Eggs” was published in the almanac “Nedra”, which caused discontent among the authorities. Therefore, the story “Heart of a Dog,” already prepared for publication, was not permitted for publication (it was first published in 1987). In 1928, Bulgakov began writing the novel “The Master and Margarita” and worked on it for twelve years, that is, until the end of his life, without hoping to publish it. (The novel was first published at the end of 1966 and beginning of 1967 in the magazine "Moscow".) In 1965 in the magazine " New world"The Theatrical Novel, written in 1936 1937, was published.

In 1929–1930, not a single play by Bulgakov was staged, not a single line of his appeared in print. Then he sent a letter to Stalin with a request either to allow him to leave the country or to give him the opportunity to earn a living. Got a job as an assistant director at the Moscow Art Theater (1930 36). His play “The Cabal of the Saint” was staged at the Moscow Art Theater and then removed from the repertoire. Bulgakov moved to the Bolshoi Theater, where he worked as an opera librettist and translator.