"Evening" invites you to remember the most famous works masters of literature of the 20th century.

« White Guard"(novel, 1922-1924)

In his first novel, Bulgakov describes the events of the Civil War at the end of 1918. The action of the book takes place in Kyiv, in particular, in the house in which the writer’s family lived at that time. Almost all characters have prototypes - relatives, friends and acquaintances of the Bulgakovs. Despite the fact that the manuscripts of the novel have not survived, fans of the novel have traced the fate of many prototype characters and proved the almost documentary accuracy and reality of the events described by the author.

Part of the book was first published in the magazine "Russia" in 1925. The entire novel was published two years later in France. The opinions of critics were divided - the Soviet side criticized the writer’s glorification of class enemies, the emigrant side criticized loyalty to the authorities.

In 1923 Bulgakov wrote: “I dare to assure you, this will be a novel that will make the sky feel hot...”. The book served as the source for the play "Days of the Turbins" and several film adaptations.

“Diaboliad” (story, 1923)

In “the story of how the twins killed the clerk,” Bulgakov reveals the problem “ little man", who became a victim of the Soviet bureaucratic machine, which in the imagination of clerk Korotkov is associated with devilish power. Unable to cope with the demons of bureaucracy, a fired employee goes crazy. The story was first published in the almanac “Nedra” in 1924.

“Fatal Eggs” (story, 1924)

1928 The brilliant zoologist Vladimir Ipatievich Persikov discovers the amazing phenomenon of the stimulating effect of light from the red part of the spectrum on embryos - organisms begin to develop much faster and achieve greater large sizes than the "originals". There is only one drawback - such individuals are distinguished by aggressiveness and the ability to reproduce rapidly.

After a chicken pestilence spreads across the country, one state farm, led by a man named Rokk, decides to use Persikov’s discovery to restore the chicken population. Rokk takes the irradiation chambers from the professor, however, as a result of a mistake, instead of chicken eggs, he gets crocodiles, ostrich and snake eggs. The hatched reptiles continually multiply - sweeping away everything in their path, they move towards Moscow.

The plot of the book echoes the novel written in 1904 H.G. Wells"Food of the Gods", in which scientists invent a powder that causes significant growth in animals and plants. Experiments lead to the appearance in England of giant rats and wasps attacking people, later they are joined by giant plants, chickens and giant people.

According to philologist Boris Sokolov, the prototypes of Professor Persikov could be the famous biologist Alexander Gurvich and the leader of the world proletariat Vladimir Lenin.

In 1995, director Sergei Lomkin made a film of the same name based on the story, in which he used characters from the novel "Master and Margarita"- the cat Behemoth (Roman Madyanov) and Woland himself (Mikhail Kozakov). Performed the role of Professor Persikov brilliantly Oleg Yankovsky.

« dog's heart"(story, 1925)

1924 The outstanding surgeon Philip Filippovich Preobrazhensky achieves fantastic results in the field of practical rejuvenation and conceives an unprecedented experiment - an operation to transplant a human pituitary gland into a dog. The professor uses the stray dog ​​Sharik as a test animal, and the thief Klim Chugunkin, who died in a fight, becomes the organ donor.

Gradually, Sharik's limbs stretch out, his hair falls out, speech and a human appearance appear. Soon Professor Preobrazhensky will have to bitterly regret what he did.

Many Bulgakov scholars are of the opinion that the writer depicted Stalin (Sharikov), Lenin (Preobrazhensky), Trotsky (Bormenthal) and Zinoviev (assistant Zina) in the book. In addition, it is believed that in this story Bulgakov predicted the mass repressions of the 1930s.

In 1926, during a search in Bulgakov’s apartment, manuscripts "Heart of a Dog" were confiscated and returned to the author only after the petition of Maxim Gorky.

In 1976, Italian director Alberto Lattuada made a film of the same name with Max von Sydow in the role of Professor Preobrazhensky, but it was not particularly popular. A completely different fate awaited.

Excerpt from the film "Heart of a Dog" (1988)

"The Master and Margarita" (novel, 1929-1940)

Satire, farce, fantasy, mysticism, melodrama, parable, myth... sometimes it seems that this book combines all possible and impossible genres.

Satan, introducing himself as Woland, wanders around the world with goals known only to him, from time to time stopping in different cities and villages. During the spring full moon, his journey takes him to Moscow in the 1930s - a place and time where no one believes in Satan or God, denying the existence of Jesus Christ in history.

Everyone who comes into contact with Woland is punished for their inherent sins: bribery, drunkenness, selfishness, greed, indifference, lies, rudeness, etc.

The master who wrote a novel about Pontius Pilate is in a madhouse, where harsh criticism from his literary contemporaries brought him. His mistress Margarita dreams of only one thing - to find the Master and bring him back. Azazello gives hope for the fulfillment of this dream, but to make it come true, Margarita must provide Woland with one service.

The first edition of the novel contained a detailed description of the characteristics of the “stranger” (Woland), 15 handwritten pages long. In early editions of the novel, the character's name was Astaroth. In the 1930s, the title of “master” in Soviet journalism and newspapers was firmly assigned to Maxim Gorky.

According to the writer’s widow, Elena Sergeevna, last words Bulgakov about the novel “The Master and Margarita” before his death were: “So that they know... So that they know.”

The Master and Margarita was not published during the author's lifetime. It was first published only in 1966, 26 years after Bulgakov’s death, with banknotes, in an abbreviated magazine version. The novel gained noticeable popularity among the Soviet intelligentsia and, until its official publication (in 1973), was distributed in hand-typed copies. Elena Sergeevna managed to preserve the manuscript of the novel during all these years.

Performances based on the novel, staged by Valery Belyakovich, were extremely popular; films by Andrzej Wajda and Alexander Petrovich and television series by Yuri Kara and were also made.

Excerpt from Yuri Kara's film "The Master and Margarita" (1994)

“Theatrical novel” (“Notes of a Dead Man”) (1936-1937)

An unfinished novel, written on behalf of a certain writer Sergei Leontyevich Maksudov, talks about the theater behind the scenes and the world of writers.

Work on the book began on November 26, 1936. On the first page of the manuscript, Bulgakov indicated two titles: “Notes of a Dead Man” and “Theatrical Novel”, and the first was underlined twice by the author.

Most researchers consider the novel to be Bulgakov's funniest work. It was created with extraordinary ease: in one go, without drafts, outlines or any corrections. Elena Sergeevna recalled that while she, upon Mikhail Afanasyevich’s return in the evening from Bolshoi Theater, she served dinner, he sat down at his desk and wrote a few pages, after which he came out to her unusually satisfied, rubbing his hands with pleasure.

“Ivan Vasilyevich” (play, 1936)

Engineer Nikolai Timofeev makes a time machine in an apartment in Moscow. When the house manager Bunsha comes to see him, the engineer turns the key in the machine, and the wall between the apartments disappears, revealing the thief Georges Miloslavsky sitting in the apartment of Shpak's neighbor. Timofeev opens a portal to the times of Moscow in the 16th century. Frightened, Ivan the Terrible rushes into the present, and Bunsha and Miloslavsky find themselves in the past.

This story began in 1933, when Bulgakov agreed with the music hall to write a “fun play.” Her first text was called “Bliss” - in it the time machine went into the communist future, and Ivan the Terrible appeared only in an episode.

First major work Mikhail Bulgakov - novel “White”. The novel takes place in Kyiv in 1918. Although Bulgakov describes the events of the civil war, it is only a background to the house, so similar to native home the writer himself, and about family values. The main characters of the novel are the best representatives of the Russian intelligentsia, doomed to death in the whirlwind of the civil war. The language of the novel is very beautiful and poetic, especially its sublimely solemn beginning: “Great was the year and terrible was the year after the birth of Christ, 1918, from the beginning of the second revolution...” Unfortunately, the novel “The White Guard” remained unfinished. Subsequently, based on it, Bulgakov created the play “Days of the Turbins”.

Evil satire and good humor in the works of Bulgakov

Bulgakov’s satirical story “The Heart of a Dog” is extremely popular among readers. Written in 1925, it was first published in the USSR only in 1987. The Soviet censorship of the 20s simply did not allow it to be published; the satire on the “new man” turned out to be too harsh, born of revolution. The current popularity of the story was greatly facilitated by the film adaptation filmed in 1988 by the famous director Vladimir Bortko.

“Theatrical Romance” is most popular among representatives of the creative intelligentsia, primarily those who are directly related to the theater. And for wide range readers of the novel are no less interesting. Perhaps, despite its second title, “Notes of a Dead Man” is the most funny piece writer. In it, Bulgakov spoke about the life of the theater behind the scenes and about the misadventures of an aspiring playwright who risked staging his first play. Of course, behind all this one can easily guess the history of the relationship between Bulgakov himself and the leadership of Moskovsky Art Theater while working on the play “Days of the Turbins”.

"The Master and Margarita" - the main book of the writer

And finally, the writer’s main work is the wonderful novel “The Master and Margarita.” Bulgakov worked on it for 11 years, creating the whole world, unfolding on the pages of one book. It seems that the novel combines all existing genres. There are satirical pictures of Moscow life and everyday life, good humor, biblical mythology, fantasy, and a love story...

One of the main characters of the novel is the devil himself, named Woland, with his cheerful and dangerous retinue. However, devilish forces do not bring evil; rather, they restore justice, punishing sins and rewarding suffering and virtue.

In the images of the Master and Margarita, Bulgakov, in fact, showed himself - a talented writer who did not find understanding with official criticism - and his third wife Elena Sergeevna - faithful, devoted, ready to share with her loved one any hardships of life and supporting him in his work.

The so-called “biblical chapters” stand apart in the novel - chapters from the novel created by the Master, where Bulgakov presented his own interpretation of the events that happened in last days earthly life of Jesus Christ.

The novel "The Master and Margarita" was never published during the author's lifetime. Its abridged version was first published in 1966. The official publication of the novel took place in 1973. From then to this day, “The Master and Margarita” has been one of the most widely read works in Russia. It has been put on many times theater stage, and was also filmed by directors Yuri Kara (1994) and Vladimir Bortko (2005).

The fate of Mikhail Bulgakov’s works was not easy; many of them did not immediately manage to find their way to the reader, but now they are among the most popular, beloved and read books.

Michael Bulgakov. 1920s Museum of M. A. Bulgakov

Mikhail Bulgakov arrived in Moscow in the fall of 1921 and already the next year began publishing in thin Moscow magazines - “Rupor”, “Red Magazine for Everyone”, “Smekhach” and others; got a job as a feuilletonist at the newspaper Gudok and became a regular contributor to the Berlin newspaper Nakanune. Bulgakov's first Moscow years were marked by the appearance of a large number of essays, notes, reporters' reports, feuilletons, stories and novellas. Until the mid-1920s, Mikhail Bulgakov was known as a metropolitan writer, and only in the second half of the 1920s, after the huge success of the play “Days of the Turbins,” did he gain fame as a playwright and practically abandoned prose. We have selected five stories by Bulgakov from the 1920s, written in different genres and on different topics. All together they give an idea of ​​Bulgakov the writer of that time - about where he started and how he worked with his recent past and the new Soviet reality.

"Moonshine Lake" (1923)

"Moonshine Lake" - business card Bulgakov's first Moscow years. Having moved to the capital, he quickly gained fame as a keen observer and witty chronicler of Moscow life in the first half of the 1920s. The editor-in-chief of the literary supplement to the Berlin newspaper “Nakanune”, Alexei Tolstoy, asked Moscow employees: “Send more Bulgakov!” “Moonshine Lake” is the most characteristic and funniest of this series of stories and essays.

The main character of the story, occupying a room in communal apartment No. 50, in the evening, when silence reigned in the “cursed apartment,” he intended to quietly read a book, but the reading was interrupted by the crow of a rooster. As it turned out, the rooster was plucked alive by an absolutely drunk unknown citizen, the housekeeper of Vasily Ivanovich’s quarters. The main character saved the rooster, and for a while the apartment became quiet again, but then at night the apartment owner himself broke all the windows and beat his wife. The drunken chairman of the board was summoned because of the noise, and at three o’clock in the morning Ivan Sidorych, the second person on the board after the chairman, came to the hero, “swaying like a blade of grass in the wind.” In the morning, other drunken neighbors came, as well as a junior janitor (“lightly drunk”), a senior (“dead drunk”) and a stoker (“in a terrible state”). During the day, the police closed the moonshine shop, but in the evening a “fresh spring began to flow” in the neighborhood, and general drunkenness continued on an equally large scale. The desperate hero and his wife closed the room and went to their sister for three days.

Annushka's prototype - Anna Fedorovna Goryacheva Museum of M. A. Bulgakov

Mikhail Bulgakov seems to describe his life almost literally in communal apartment No. 50 at 10 Bolshaya Sadovaya Street, where he lived with his wife Tatyana Lappa since the fall of 1921. Another 16 people lived with them in the communal apartment, most of whom were workers from the neighboring printing house. Many of Bulgakov’s communal neighbors are easily recognizable as the heroes of Moonshine Lake. So, Annushka is Anna Fedorovna Goryacheva, who will be the prototype of the famous Anushka the plague from The Master and Margarita, and the apartment owner of apartment No. 50 Vasily Ivanovich is Vasily Ivanovich Boltyrev, a 35-year-old painter at the 2nd Moscow factory Goznak, who repeatedly threatened Bulgakov with eviction and fairly frayed his nerves.

Bulgakov’s wife later recalled the everyday life of moonshine in the apartment: “They’ll buy moonshine, get drunk, they’ll definitely start fighting, the women will shout: “Save me, help me!” Bulgakov, of course, jumps out and runs to call the police. And the police come - they lock their doors and sit quietly. They even wanted to fine him.” And Bulgakov himself constantly complained about the noisy apartment, dreaming of moving out as soon as possible. In Bulgakov’s diary there is an entry dated October 29, 1923: “I positively don’t know what to do with the bastard that inhabits this apartment.” Bulgakov managed to leave apartment No. 50 only in the fall of 1924, and his first separate apartment with his own office appeared only three years later.

"Chinese Story" (1923)

« Chinese history", perhaps the least famous story Bulgakov - and at the same time one of his best. It stands out for its atypicality: in the story there is no communal life, well known to the writer, there are no shops and restaurants of the noisy NEP era, there is no autobiographical basis - but there is the Civil War.

Accidentally caught in Soviet Russia Chinese man walking  Walking- nickname Chinese who sold from stalls (see, for example, in Osip Mandelstam’s “Egyptian Mark”: “At night I dreamed of a Chinese man, hung handbags, like a necklace of hazel grouse"), and then they began to call all Chinese that way. Saint-Zin-Po yearns for warm China in cold, alien Moscow. In an opium parlour, he lost his last money and a sheepskin coat. Later, “in some gigantic hall with semicircular vaults,” the Chinese gets to the Red Army and is signed up as a volunteer: it turns out that Sen-Zin-Po is an excellent shooter and in his “agate slanting eyes from birth there was a wonderful sighting panorama.” In the very first battle (“brilliant debut”) Sen-Zin-Po dies, without fully realizing what was happening.

Story about tragic death Bulgakov clearly contrasts the Chinese in the fire of the Civil War, which he does not understand and in which he finds himself in by pure chance, with the then famous story by Vsevolod Ivanov “Armored Train No. 14.69”, the hero of which, the Red Army soldier Sin-Bin-U, has a class instinct, takes the side of the Red Army and sacrifices himself for the sake of common victory.

Three years later, the heroes of “Chinese History” moved into Bulgakov’s play “Zoyka’s Apartment” - the lonely lost Sen-Zin-Po turned into a Chinese bandit and murderer, and the old Chinese, the owner of an opium den, became the owner of a laundry in the play.

"Khan's Fire" (1924)

“Khan’s Fire” also stands apart in the series of Bulgakov’s stories: it is a completely fictional story with a strong plot and an unexpected ending, written by Bulgakov almost on a dare:

“A rather sophisticated short story writer himself, V.P. Kataev, comparing our writers with O’Henry, once complained:
- They write poorly, boringly, no invention. You read the first two paragraphs, and then you don’t have to read any further. The denouement has been solved. The story is seen right through to the last point.
Touched to the quick, our other short story writer, Bulgakov, suddenly interjects:
“I swear and promise: I’ll write a story, and you won’t be able to unravel the plot until you read the last line.”

Ivan Ovchinnikov.“In the editorial office of “Gudk””

The story takes place in the Khan's Headquarters estate-museum. The old caretaker Jonah, who served with its former owners even before the revolution, shows the palace to a group of young tourists. Among them, he notes two mysterious visitors - “naked” in only shorts and pince-nez and a foreigner in gold glasses. The palace evokes different feelings among visitors - Komsomol members, a naked man, a bourgeois lady with her daughter, a mysterious foreigner. In the end, having sent the visitors away, Jonah is about to close the museum, notices that same mysterious foreigner and suddenly recognizes his face. The ending of the story, as Bulgakov promised, is impossible to predict in advance.

Interior of the Oval Hall in the Arkhangelskoye Museum-Estate. 1954 TASS photo chronicle

The prototype of the palace was probably the Arkhangelskoye estate, which Bulgakov visited in 1923. A curious detail: Bulgakov then used the surname of the main character Tugai-Beg as his pseudonym.

In the story, an important theme for Bulgakov appears: emigration and the confrontation between the pre-revolutionary world (a mysterious foreigner in gold glasses) and the new Soviet reality (young Komsomol excursionists). In 1921, Bulgakov himself almost left Russia on a ship from Batum to Constantinople, and before that, in 1920, in Vladikavkaz, he was going to leave the city with the whites, but fell ill with typhus. Tatyana Lappa later recalled how Bulgakov reproached her:

““You are a weak woman, you couldn’t take me out!” But when two doctors tell me that he will die at the first stop, how could I take him? They told me: “What do you want - to take him to Kazbek and bury him?”

The second wife of Mikhail Bulgakov, Lyubov Evgenievna Belozerskaya, went into exile. The writer asked her about Constantinople when he wrote the play “Running”.

"Blizzard" (1926)

Michael Bulgakov. Circa 1918 Museum of M. A. Bulgakov

The story “Blizzard” is part of the famous cycle “Notes of a Young Doctor” - and the symbolic depth of the story, the intensity of the action, the almost cinematic precision in the image main stage chases and a happy ending make “Blizzard,” as it seems, the main and most exciting story in the cycle.

A young doctor, seeing a hundred peasants a day, is enjoying unexpected peace and a hot bath: there is a blizzard outside, and no one has come to the appointment - when suddenly they bring him a note asking him to urgently come to the patient - the fiancee of the clerk whose wedding she was talking about the entire district (“I’m unlucky in life,” I thought sadly, looking at the hot wood in the stove). Cursing everything in the world, the doctor agrees to go, hopelessly watches the death of a young girl, and on the way home, in a raging blizzard, he loses his way. The hero and the fireman accompanying him escape from a pack of wolves (“In my mind I saw short message in the newspaper about themselves and the ill-fated fireman") and get home - the fight with death this time ended in victory, but this fight is not over: “Make me rich,” I muttered, dozing off, “but I don’t care anymore...” “You’ll go... ah, you’ll go...” the blizzard whistled mockingly.”

The dramatic story made such a strong impression on the readers that one of them sent his response to the editor with a description of a similar case: “Wolves: from the life of local medical workers in the village. Balaklaya, Izyum district."

Seven stories from “Notes of a Young Doctor” were published in 1925-1926 in the magazine “Medical Worker”. They are based on real events from the life of the writer: in September 1916, he came to work as a zemstvo doctor in the village of Nikolskoye, Sychevsky district (Smolensk province) and worked in a remote region as the only doctor for almost a year - until September 20, 1917. Even then he began to make the first drafts of stories about his life in Nikolskoye. Although the writer shifts the narrative by one year (the action begins in 1917, not 1916), and main character he is single, otherwise the stories fairly accurately reflect his biography.

A few years later, in a letter to the USSR Government, Bulgakov called one of his main tasks “the persistent portrayal of the Russian intelligentsia as the best layer in our country.” One of these Russian intellectuals, undoubtedly, was the young hero of “Notes of a Young Doctor.”

"I Killed" (1926)

One of the most important Bulgakov themes of the first half of the 1920s, associated with the understanding of the experience of the Civil War, was the theme of collective responsibility. As Marietta Chudakova wrote, “participation—even if through inaction—in the murder of compatriots, placing an irredeemable burden on the entire future fate each individually and all together - this biographical motif will form the basis of Bulgakov’s artistic world.”

Three stories in particular stand out here: the earlier "The Red Crown" and "The Doctor's Extraordinary Adventures" and the later "I Killed". So, main character The “Red Crown” is unable to prevent murder and death, and this literally drives him crazy: “I left so as not to see how a man was hanged, but the fear left with me in shaking legs.” He is hopelessly trying to go back to the past and change the course of events.

The story “I Killed” is interesting precisely because in it, it seems, for the first and last time in art world Bulgakov violates this principle of the hero’s inaction and the subsequent painful feeling of guilt.

The main character of the story, Doctor Yashvin, in the company of friends, tells how seven years ago he deliberately killed a patient. In the winter of 1919, he was forcibly mobilized by the Petliurists retreating from Kyiv, and he witnessed the atrocities and cruelties of Colonel Leshchenko. One day the doctor was called to the colonel to bandage a wound: some unfortunate tortured man managed to rush at him with a penknife. It is here that the very fork in the road that tormented the hero of the story “The Red Crown” passes. The doctor turns from a passive witness into a participant and intervenes in what is happening: “Everything became blurred before my eyes, even to the point of nausea, and I felt that now the most terrible and amazing events in my ill-fated doctor’s life had begun.” Doctor Yashvin shot the colonel and escaped from Petlyura's captivity.

Dr. Yashvin, a dapper, brave, successful, calm and secretive person, undoubtedly carries the traits of Bulgakov. The plot of the story is also partially autobiographical: in the winter of 1919, Bulgakov, as a doctor, was forcibly mobilized by the Petliurists who fled from the Bolsheviks who were advancing on Kyiv. While captured by the Petliurists, he witnessed the murder of a man on a bridge. The shocked writer was able to escape at night:

“And then at three o’clock [at night] suddenly there were these calls!.. We rushed with Varka  Varvara, sister of Mikhail Bulgakov. open the door - well, of course he does. For some reason, he ran hard, trembled all over, and was in a terrible state - so nervous. They put him to bed, and after that he lay sick for a whole week.”

Tatyana Lappa

Painful memories of what he saw in captivity were reflected in Bulgakov’s work. Thus, in the novel “The White Guard” there appears a scene of the murder of a Jew at the Chain Bridge:

“The master of the kurennoy did not calculate the blow and with lightning speed lowered the ramrod on his head. Something grunted in her, the black one no longer responded with a “wow”... Turning his hand and shaking his head, he fell from his knees to the side and, broadly waving his other hand, threw it away, as if he wanted to grab more of the trampled and manured land for himself. The fingers bent crookedly and scooped up the dirty snow. Then, in the dark puddle, the man lying in convulsions twitched several times and became silent.” 

Mikhail Bulgakov is a Russian writer and playwright, the author of many works that today are considered classics of Russian literature. It is enough to name such novels as “The Master and Margarita”, “The White Guard” and the stories “Diaboliad”, “Heart of a Dog”, “Notes on the Cuffs”. Many of Bulgakov's books and plays have been filmed.

Childhood and youth

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

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

During the First World War, Mikhail Afanasyevich served in the front-line zone as a doctor, after which he practiced medicine in Vyazma, and later in Kyiv, as a venereologist. In the early 20s he moved to Moscow and began literary activity, first as a feuilletonist, later as a playwright and theater director at the Moscow Art Theater and the Central Theater of Working Youth.

Books

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

Mikhail Afanasyevich spoke about the beginning of his medical career in the collection of short stories “Notes of a Young Doctor,” which is still read with great interest today. The story “Morphine” especially stands out. One of the most important famous books author - “Heart of a Dog”, although in reality it is a subtle satire on Bulgakov’s contemporary reality. At the same time it was written fantastic story"Fatal Eggs"

By 1930, Mikhail Afanasyevich’s works were no longer published. For example, “The Heart of a Dog” was first published only in 1987, “The Life of Monsieur de Moliere” and “Theatrical Novel” - in 1965. And the most powerful and incredibly large-scale novel, “The Master and Margarita,” which Bulgakov wrote from 1929 until his death, first saw the light only in the late 60s, and then only in an abbreviated form.

In March 1930, the writer, who had lost his footing, sent a letter to the government in which he asked to decide his fate - either to be allowed to emigrate, or to be given the opportunity to work. As a result, he received a personal call and was told that he would be allowed to stage plays. But the publication of Bulgakov’s books never resumed during his lifetime.

Theater

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

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

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

The only exception was the play “The Cabal of the Holy One,” staged based on Bulgakov’s play “” in 1936 after a five-year series of refusals. The premiere was a huge success, but the troupe managed to give only 7 performances, after which the play was banned. After this, Mikhail Afanasyevich quits the theater and subsequently earns a living as a translator.

Personal life

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

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

And in 1932 he meets Elena Sergeevna Shilovskaya, née Nuremberg. A man leaves his second wife and leads his third down the aisle. By the way, it was Elena who was depicted in his most famous novel in the image of Margarita. Bulgakov lived with his third wife until the end of his life, and it was she who made titanic efforts to ensure that the works of her loved one were subsequently published. Mikhail had no children with any of his wives.

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

Death

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

Mikhail Afanasyevich returned to using morphine to relieve pain symptoms. Since the winter of 1940, the playwright stopped getting out of bed, and on March 10, the great writer passed away. Mikhail Bulgakov was buried on Novodevichy Cemetery, and at the insistence of his wife, a stone was placed on his grave, which was previously installed on the grave.

Bibliography

• 1922 - “The Adventures of Chichikov”
• 1923 - “Notes of a Young Doctor”
• 1923 - “Diaboliad”
• 1923 - “Notes on Cuffs”
• 1924 - “White Guard”
• 1924 - “Fatal Eggs”
• 1925 - “Heart of a Dog”
• 1925 - “Zoyka’s Apartment”
• 1928 - “Running”
• 1929 - “To a Secret Friend”
• 1929 - “Cabal of the Saint”
• 1929-1940 - “The Master and Margarita”
• 1933 - “The Life of Monsieur de Molière”
• 1936 - “Ivan Vasilyevich”
• 1937 - “Theatrical Romance”

Today we will tell you about the life and work of such famous poet and a playwright like Mikhail Bulgakov, a list of whose works you will find at the very end of the article.

This man was born on May 3, 1891 in Kyiv. His parents were educated and his mother worked as a teacher in a secondary school, and his father, who graduated from the theological academy, taught in various educational institutions. At the end of 1893, he began performing the duties of the Kyiv regional censor, which included censorship of literature not only in Russian, but also in other languages. In addition to Mikhail, there were five more children in the family.

Studies

Bulgakov studied at the First Alexander Gymnasium, which was distinguished by a high educational level, and in 1909 he entered Kyiv University to the Faculty of Medicine. Then, in 1914, the First World War began World War. In 1916, after graduation, future writer worked in Cherepovtsy and Kamenets-Podolsky. In September of the same year he was recalled from the front and sent to head a rural hospital located in

Vyazemsky period

In 1917, Mikhail Afanasyevich was transferred to Vyazma. This life period is reflected in the work “Notes of a Young Doctor” created in 1926. Bulgakov's works, the list of which is presented below, cannot be imagined without mentioning this work. Its main character is a talented doctor, an honest worker, often saves people in seemingly hopeless situations, acutely feels the plight of the uneducated peasantry from remote Smolensk villages and feels powerless to change anything for the better.

Revolution

The revolution disrupted the usual way of life. In the essay “Kyiv-Gorod” (1923), the writer expresses his opinion about her. He notes that with revolutionary changes menacingly and suddenly “history has come.” Mikhail Afanasyevich is released from military service after October revolution, and he returns to Kyiv, which was soon occupied by German troops. Here the writer plunges into the whirlpool of the outbreak of the Civil War. Bulgakov's works, the list of which is presented below, also include creations of these years.

Bulgakov - doctor

Since Mikhail Afanasyevich was a good doctor, both warring parties needed his services. Although he remained devoted to humanistic ideals in all situations, indignation gradually began to grow in his soul against the cruelty of the Whites and Petliurists, which was subsequently reflected in the stories “On the Night of the 3rd” and “The Raid”, in the novel “The White Guard” and plays "Running" and "Days of the Turbins". Honestly performing his medical duty, Bulgakov at the end of 1919 became an involuntary witness in Vladikavkaz brutal crimes. Refusing to take part in this war, Bulgakov left Denikin’s army at the beginning of 1920. The works, a list of which you will find in this article, one way or another reflect these and other biographical details.

Writing career

Mikhail Afanasyevich decides to leave his medical studies forever and start writing career from writing articles for local newspapers. He finished his first story in the fall of 1919. In the winter of 1919-1920, several feuilletons and stories were written. One of them, “Tribute of Admiration,” tells the story of street clashes that occurred during the Civil War and Revolution in Kyiv.

Theater plays

Bulgakov, shortly before the Whites retreated from Vladikavkaz, became seriously ill with relapsing fever. He recovered in the spring of 1920, when Red Army units had already occupied the city. From that time on, the writer began to collaborate with the Revolutionary Committee, with the arts department, and wrote plays for Ingush troupes, reflecting his views on the revolution. They were just one-day propaganda campaigns and were created mainly in order to survive in difficult times. Mikhail Afanasyevich’s Vladikavkaz impressions were reflected in his famous story “Notes on Cuffs.”

Moving to Moscow

First in Tiflis, and then in Batumi, Bulgakov had the opportunity to emigrate. However, he understood that he had to be close to the people in this difficult time for the country. Therefore, in 1921, Mikhail Afanasyevich moved to Moscow. Since the spring of 1922, articles under his authorship regularly appear in Moscow magazines and newspapers. Satirical essays and pamphlets reflected the main features of post-revolutionary society. The main objects of the writer’s satire are the nouveau riche NEPmen, whom he called “the scum of the NEP” (short stories “The Cup of Life” and “The Trillionaire”), as well as representatives of the population with a low level of culture: market traders, residents of Moscow communal apartments, bureaucratic employees and others. Mikhail Afanasyevich also notices the features of the new time. In one of his essays, a schoolboy appears (as a symbol of new trends), walking down the street with a new backpack.

"Fatal Eggs"

“Fatal Eggs” was published in 1924 by Bulgakov. It is impossible to imagine the works, the list of which is presented below, without mentioning this story. Its action was transferred to the near imaginary future, more precisely, to 1928. Then the results of the NEP became obvious, including a strong rise in the standard of living of the country's population. Persikov, the main character of the story, made a great discovery that could bring great benefit to humanity. But in the hands of self-confident, semi-literate people, under the nascent bureaucracy, which flourished during the period of war communism and further strengthened its position during the NEP years, this invention turns into a tragedy. Not only Persikov, but almost all the heroes of Bulgakov's stories of the 20s suffer failures. In his works, Mikhail Afanasyevich sought to convey to the reader the idea of ​​unpreparedness modern society adopt new principles of relationships based on respect for work, knowledge and culture.

"Running" and "Days of the Turbins"

In the plays "Running" and "Days of the Turbins" (1925-1928), the writer depicted the fact that all successive authorities in Civil War are hostile to the intelligentsia. The characters in these works are typical representatives the so-called “new intelligentsia”, who initially perceived the revolution either warily or openly fought against it. Mikhail Afanasyevich also considered himself to be a new layer, which he wrote about with humor in his feuilleton “The Capital in a Notebook.”

The plight of the writer

He reacted sensitively to social changes, felt injustice, doubted the necessity of the measures taken, but at the same time he did not cease to believe in the people, in the man Bulgakov. The works we offer you a list of reflect this. The heroes of his creations doubted and worried with him, which was met with unkindness by critics. Attacks on the writer intensified in 1929. All his plays were removed from the stage: “Crimson Island”, “Days of the Turbins” and “Zoyka’s Apartment”. Being in a difficult situation, the writer decides to write a letter to the government, in which he asked for permission to leave the country. Soon a conversation took place with Stalin, after which Mikhail Afanasyevich was appointed assistant director of the Moscow Art Theater. Productions of Bulgakov's plays reappeared on the stage, and after a while, staging " Dead souls"(Bulgakov).

All works, the list of which is presented below, are listed in our article in chronological order, from which you can see that after 1927 not a single line from this author appeared in print, since he was on the list of prohibited ones. Despite this, Mikhail Afanasyevich did not leave his homeland. It was in our country that Bulgakov created all his works. For a list, years of writing and their names, see the end of the article.

"Master and Margarita"

In 1933, the writer attempted to publish a novel in the “ZhZL” series, but again he was unsuccessful. Until his death, Mikhail Afanasyevich no longer tried to publish his works. He devoted this time to working on the work "The Master and Margarita", a novel that became one of greatest achievements world prose of the 20th century. The work took 12 years of Mikhail Afanasyevich’s life.

The early versions of the work seemed to him not successful enough, so for several years he returned to his characters again and again, inventing new conflicts and scenes. Only in 1932 did the novel acquire plot completion.

IN last years Bulgakov, although he continued to work, still did not publish. This broke him and led to an exacerbation of the disease and subsequent rapid death. Bulgakov died on March 10, 1940, and was buried in Moscow, at the Novodevichy cemetery.

List of Bulgakov's works with dates

Stories:

- "Notes on the cuffs":

• 1922 - “The Extraordinary Adventures of the Doctor”, “The Red Crown”, “On the Night of the 3rd”;
• 1923 - Chinese history", "Raid", "Notes on the cuffs";
• 1924 - "La Boheme".

- "Notes of a Young Doctor":

• 1925 - “Baptism by Turning”, “Egyptian Darkness”;
• 1926 - “Towel with a Rooster”, “Blizzard”, “The Missing Eye”, “Star Rash”, as well as the story “I Killed”, adjacent to the cycle;
• 1927 - the story "Morphine" adjacent to the cycle.

Mikhail Bulgakov wrote different works. We will supplement the list, the stories from which we have already listed, with novels and plays.

• 1924 - "White Guard";
• 1962 - “The Life of Monsieur de Moliere”;
• 1965 - “Notes of a Dead Man”;
• - "Master and Margarita".

• 1925 - “Zoyka’s apartment”;
• 1925 - "The Accountant's Fist";
• 1926 - “Days of the Turbins”;
• 1930 - “Cabal of the Saint”;
• 1955 - "Alexander Pushkin";
• 1962 - “Running”;
• 1965 - “Ivan Vasilyevich”;
• 1965 - “Crazy Jourdain”;
• 1966 - “Bliss”;
• 1977 - “Batum”;
• 1986 - "War and Peace";
• 1986 - "Dead Souls".

These are the main creations that Bulgakov created. The works the list of which was presented to you is not limited to those listed. Here we did not include feuilletons, articles, essays and some other works, which would also be useful to read.

Films based on Bulgakov’s works, the list of which was indicated above, were created by many domestic and foreign directors. The most famous film adaptations of "The Master and Margarita" are those by Alexander Petrovich, Yuri Karra and those created in Russia.