Who is Mikhail Bulgakov. Bulgakov's works

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

The writer's parents, brothers and sisters

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

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

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

Michael's education and character

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

First wife

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

Medical practice

Fate rather cruelly prevented him from becoming a doctor, although Bulgakov possessed both talent and professional flair. The biography mentions that he had the misfortune of contracting dangerous diseases while engaging in professional activities. Mikhail Afanasyevich, wishing to realize himself as a specialist, was actively involved in medical practice. During the year, Dr. Bulgakov received 15 361 patients (forty people a day!) At an outpatient appointment. 211 people were treated in his hospital. However, as you can see, Fate itself prevented him from being a doctor. In 1917, having become infected with diphtheria, Mikhail Afanasevich took serum against it. The result is a severe allergy. He weakened her painful symptoms with morphine, but then became addicted to this drug.

Recovering Bulgakov

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

A short biography of Bulgakov contains the fact of high love and sacrifice. In 1918, thanks to Tatiana Lappa, he stopped being a morphine addict. From December 1917 to March 1918 Bulgakov lived and practiced in Moscow with his uncle on his mother’s side, a successful gynecologist N. M. Pokrovsky (later - the prototype of Professor Preobrazhensky from "Heart of a Dog").

Then he returned to Kiev, where he again began working as a venereologist. The practice was interrupted by the war. He never returned to medical practice ...

World War I and Civil War

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

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

Playwright

Mikhail Afanasyevich, emaciated, in the uniform of a white officer, but with his shoulder straps torn off, in Tersk Narobraz works in the theatrical section of the arts subdivision, in the Russian theater. During this period in the life of Bulgakov, a grave crisis occurs. There is no money at all. She and Tatyana Lappa live by selling the severed parts of the miraculously survived gold chain. Bulgakov made a difficult decision for himself - never to return to medical practice. With an anguished heart, in 1920 Mikhail Bulgakov wrote the most talented play "Days of the Turbins". The biography of the writer testifies to the first repressions against him: in the same 1920, the Bolshevik commission expelled him from work as a “former”. Bulgakov is trampled and broken. Then the writer decides to flee the country: first to Turkey, then to France, he moves from Vladikavkaz to Tiflis via Baku. In order to survive, he betrays himself, Truth, Conscience, and in 1921 wrote the komomist play The Sons of the Mullah, which the Bolshevik theaters of Vladikavkaz willingly include in their repertoire. At the end of May 1921, while in Batumi, Mikhail Bulgakov summoned his wife. His biography contains information about the gravest crisis in the writer's life. Fate takes cruel revenge on him for betraying his conscience and talent (meaning the aforementioned play, for which he received 200,000 rubles of royalties (33 pieces of silver). This situation will repeat itself once again in his life).

Bulgakovs in Moscow

The spouses still do not emigrate. In August 1921 Tatiana Lappa left for Moscow via Odessa and Kiev alone.

Soon, following his wife, Mikhail Afanasevich also returned to Moscow (it was during this period that N. Gumilyov was shot and A. Blok died). Their life in the capital is accompanied by travel, disorder ... Bulgakov's biography is not easy. The summary of her subsequent period is the desperate attempts of a talented person to realize himself. Mikhail and Tatiana live in an apartment (in the apartment described in the novel "The Master and Margarita" - house number 10 on Bolshaya Sadovaya street (Pigit's house), at number 302-bis, which was kindly provided to them by brother-in-law philologist A.M. Zemsky, who left for Kiev to his wife). Scandalous and drinking proletarians lived in the house. The spouses were uncomfortable in him, hungry, lack of money. Here was their break ...

In 1922, Mikhail Afanasyevich will face a personal blow - his mother dies. He frantically begins to work as a journalist, putting his sarcasm into feuilletons.

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

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

Life, warped by the war, begins to improve. Since 1923 Bulgakov was admitted to the Writers' Union.

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

• "The Devil";
• "Fatal Eggs";
• "Dog's heart".

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

And in 1925 he married Belozerskaya Lyubov Evgenievna.

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

Moreover, Joseph Stalin later, in his historical address to the people on July 3, 1941, used the phraseology of the words of Aleksey Turbin: "I am addressing you, my friends ..."

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

The short and fragile second marriage of the writer

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

However, the writer lived in perfect harmony with his new wife for only three years. Until in 1928, the third wife of the writer, Elena Sergeevna Shilovskaya, “did not appear on the horizon”. Bulgakov was still in his second official marriage when this stormy romance began. The writer described his feelings for his third wife with great artistic force in The Master and Margarita. The attachment of Mikhail Afanasyevich to the newfound woman, with whom he felt a spiritual connection, is evidenced by the fact that on 03/10/1932 the registry office terminated his marriage to Belozerskaya, and on 04/10/1932 an alliance was concluded with Shilovskaya. It was the third marriage that became the main thing for the writer in his life.

Bulgakov and Stalin: the lost game of the writer

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

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

Refusal to leave the USSR. Fatal call of the leader

In July 1929, the writer addressed a Letter to Joseph Stalin, asking him to leave the USSR, and on March 28, 1930, he turned to the Soviet government with the same request. No permission was given.

Bulgakov suffered, he understood that his growing talent was being ruined. Contemporaries remembered the phrase he dropped after the next not received permission to leave: "I was blinded!"

However, this was not yet the final blow. And he was expected ... Everything was changed by Stalin's call on April 18, 1930. At that moment, Mikhail Bulgakov and his third wife Elena Sergeevna, laughing, went to Batum (there, on the spot, Bulgakov was going to write a play about Stalin's young years). At the Serpukhov station, a woman entering their carriage announced: "A telegram to the accountant!"

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

Mayakovsky was buried the day before. Obviously, the call of the leader could equally be called a kind of prevention (he respected Bulgakov, but nevertheless pressed gently), and cunning: in a confidential conversation, pulling an unfavorable promise from the interlocutor.

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

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

The last years of creativity

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

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

In fact, Joseph Vissarionovich was jealous, if I may say so, of the writer for his own charisma. From that time on, Bulgakov was allowed to work only as a theater director.

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

Everything he wrote - tacitly and biasedly, was "impassable." Stalin consistently destroyed him as a writer.

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

Moreover, the first version of this novel was burned by the author. It was called differently - "Devil's Hoof". After writing it, rumors circulated in Moscow that Bulgakov wrote about Stalin (Joseph Vissarionovich was born with two fused toes on his foot. People call it Satan's hoof). Panicking, the author burned the first version of the novel. Hence the phrase "Manuscripts do not burn!" Was subsequently born.

Instead of a conclusion

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

In the fall of 1939, his eyesight deteriorated critically: he was practically blind. 03/10/1940 the writer died. Mikhail Bulgakov was buried on 03/12/1940 at the Novodevichy cemetery.

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

Even on the verge of death, Mikhail Afanasevich did not stop polishing one of the most mysterious works of Russian literature of the 20th century, making edits to the manuscript of the novel. The last phrase, edited by the author, was Margarita's remark: "So, this means that the writers are following the coffin?"

In the early days of the New Year, the condition was grave. On January 6, he makes notes for the play, which had been pondered over the past year, - “was conceived in the fall of 1939. Per began on 6.1.1940. Play. Wardrobe, exit. Bird home. Alhambra. Musketeers. A monologue about impudence. Grenada. Death of Grenada. Richard I. Nothing is written, my head is like a cauldron ... I am sick, sick ... "

From the book "Biography of Mikhail Bulgakov" by Marietta Chudakova

As a doctor, he understood that his days were numbered, as a writer and philosopher did not believe that death is the end: “I sometimes dream that death is the continuation of life. We just cannot imagine how this happens. But somehow it happens ... "(from the memoirs of Sergei Ermolinsky).

1. Mikhail Bulgakov wrote his first literary work - the story "The Adventures of Svetlana" at the age of seven. In the fifth grade of the gymnasium, he wrote a feuilleton "The Day of the Chief Physician" from his pen, and the future writer also wrote epigrams and satirical poems. But his real life vocation young Bulgakov considered medicine and dreamed of becoming a doctor.

Children's play "Princess Pea". On the reverse side there is an explanatory inscription of N.A. Bulgakova: “Syngaevskies, Bulgakovs and others. Misha brilliantly plays the role of Leshy. " (Lies on the right). 1903

2. Bulgakov collected theater tickets from every performance and concert he ever attended.

Mikhail Bulgakov and director Leonid Baratov, 1928

3. The writer collected newspaper and magazine clippings with critical reviews of his works, primarily plays, in a special album. Among the published reviews, according to Bulgakov's calculations, there were 298 negative reviews and only three rated the master's work positively.

Mikhail Bulgakov with the artists of the Moscow Art Theater in the Moscow radio studio. 1934

4. The first production of Days of the Turbins at the Moscow Art Theater (the original title “White Guard” had to be changed for ideological reasons) was saved by Konstantin Stanislavsky, who said that if the play was banned, he would close the theater. But the important scene of the beating of a Jew by Petliurists had to be removed from the work, in the finale to introduce the “ever-growing” sounds of the “Internationale” and toast to the Bolsheviks and the Red Army from the lips of Myshlaevsky.

5. Stalin was very fond of the Turbins, watched the performance at least 15 times, enthusiastically applauding the actors from the government box. Eight times the "father of peoples" was at the "Zoyka apartment" at the Theater. E. Vakhtangov. Encouraging the intensity of the political struggle in literature (individual blows reached Bulgakov, painfully affecting his creative and personal fate), Stalin at the same time patronized the writer.

6. In 1926, during the landmark debate “Theatrical policy of Soviet power”, which opened with Lunacharsky’s report, Vladimir Mayakovsky made noise at the Moscow Art Theater: “… they started with Aunt Manya and Uncle Vanya and ended up with the White Guard! We accidentally gave Bulgakov an opportunity to squeak under the arm of the bourgeoisie - and squeaked. And we will not give further. (Voice from the seat: "Forbid?") No, not forbid. What do you gain by banning? That this literature will be carried to the corners and read with the same pleasure as I have read two hundred times in a rewritten form of Yesenin's poem ... "
Mayakovsky suggested simply booing "Days of the Turbins" in the theater. At the same time, the singer of the revolution was often Bulgakov's partner in billiards, but the "civil war" of their views continued until the poet's tragic death.

7. In 1934, Mikhail Afanasyevich Bulgakov wrote a comedy play "Ivan Vasilyevich" about how the Moscow inventor Nikolai Ivanovich Timofeev creates a time machine and with its help transports Tsar Ivan the Terrible to the 30s of the XX century. In turn, the manager of the Bunsha-Koretsky house, like two drops of water similar to the formidable ruler of all Russia, and the swindler Georges Miloslavsky, enter the past. Since the similarities between the character of Ivan Vasilyevich and the personality of Joseph Stalin were obvious, during the life of the author the play was never published.

In 1973, the screened by Leonid Gaidai "Ivan Vasilyevich" was shown in cinemas of the country with a triumphant success. The director carefully handled Bulgakov's idea, changing only some details, in particular, he moved the action to the 70s of the twentieth century and modernized the situation - for example, the place of the gramophone was taken by the tape recorder, which was more appropriate for the time of the film's release.

8. In 1937, when the hundredth anniversary of the tragic death of Pushkin was celebrated, several authors presented plays dedicated to the poet. Among them was Bulgakov's play "Alexander Pushkin", which was distinguished from the works of other playwrights by the absence of the main character. The writer believed that the appearance of allegedly Alexander Sergeevich on the stage would look vulgar and tasteless.

9. The famous assistant Woland, the cat Behemoth, had a real prototype. Mikhail Bulgakov had a black dog named Behemoth. This dog was very smart.

Stone from the grave of Nikolai Gogol at the grave of Mikhail Bulgakov

10. After the death of the writer, his widow Elena Shilovskaya chose as a tombstone a huge granite block - "Golgotha", so named for its resemblance to a mountain. For a hundred years this stone was the foot of the cross on the grave of Gogol, the writer whom Bulgakov idolized. But when it was decided to erect a bust at the burial site of Nikolai Gogol, the stone, fulfilling Bulgakov's dying will (“Cover me with your cast-iron greatcoat,” he wrote in one of his last letters), was moved to the Novodevichy cemetery.

One of the last photos. Mikhail Bulgakov with his wife Elena Shilovskaya.

Today we will tell you about the life and work of such a famous poet and playwright as 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 Kiev. His parents were educated and his mother worked as a teacher in a gymnasium, and his father, who graduated from the theological academy, taught in various educational institutions. At the end of 1893, he began to perform the duties of the Kiev regional censor, among which was the censorship of literature not only in Russian, but also in other languages. In addition to Mikhail, the family had five more children.

Studies

Bulgakov studied at the First Alexander Gymnasium, which was distinguished by a high educational level, and in 1909 he entered the Medical Faculty of Kiev University. Then, in 1914, the First World War broke out. In 1916, after graduation, the future writer worked in Cherepovets and Kamenets-Podolsk. 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 was reflected in the creation of the "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 his powerlessness to change anything for the better.

The revolution

The revolution disrupted the usual way of life. In the essay "Kiev-city" (1923) the writer expresses his opinion about it. He notes that with the revolutionary transformations ominously and suddenly "history has come." Mikhail Afanasyevich was released from military service after the October Revolution, and he returned to Kiev, 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, includes the creations of these years.

Bulgakov - doctor

Since Mikhail Afanasyevich was a good doctor, both warring parties needed his services. Although he remained faithful to humanistic ideals in all situations, his soul gradually began to grow indignant against the cruelty of whites and Petliurites, which was later reflected in the stories "On the Night of the 3rd Day" and "Raid", in the novel "The White Guard" and plays "Running" and "Days of the Turbins". Honestly fulfilling his medical duty, Bulgakov at the end of 1919 became an unwitting witness to cruel crimes in Vladikavkaz. Refusing to take part in this war, Bulgakov left Denikin's army in early 1920. The works, the list of which you will find in this article, somehow reflect these and other biographical details.

Writing career

Mikhail Afanasyevich decides to leave his studies in medicine forever and start his writing career by 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, "A Tribute to Admiration", tells the story of street clashes that took place during the Civil War and Revolution in Kiev.

Theater plays

Bulgakov, shortly before the Whites retreated from Vladikavkaz, became seriously ill with relapsing fever. He recovered in the spring of 1920, when the Red Army had already occupied the city. Since that time, the writer began to cooperate with the Revolutionary Committee, with the subdivision of arts, wrote plays for the Ingush and troupes reflecting his views on the revolution. They were only one-day propaganda campaigns and were created mainly in order to survive in difficult times. Vladikavkaz impressions of Mikhail Afanasyevich were reflected in his famous story "Notes on the 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 with the people at this difficult time for the country. Therefore, in 1921, Mikhail Afanasevich moved to Moscow. Beginning in the spring of 1922, articles under his authorship regularly appear in Moscow magazines and newspapers. In satirical essays and pamphlets, the main features of the post-revolutionary society were reflected. The main objects of the writer's satire are the nouveau riche-Nepmen, whom he called the "scum of the NEP" (the short stories "The Chalice of Life" and "The Trillionaire"), as well as representatives of the population with a low level of culture: bazaar traders, residents of Moscow communal apartments, bureaucratic employees and others. Mikhail Afanasevich also notices the features of the new era. In one of his essays, a schoolboy appears (as a symbol of new trends) walking down the street with a new knapsack.

"Fatal eggs"

"Fatal Eggs" was published in 1924 by Bulgakov. The works, the list of which is presented below, cannot be imagined without mentioning this story. Its action was transferred to the near imaginary future, more precisely, in 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 protagonist of the story, made a great discovery that could bring great benefit to mankind. But in the hands of self-confident, semi-literate people, with a nascent bureaucracy that 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 1920s fail. In his works, Mikhail Afanasevich tried to convey to the reader the idea of ​​the unpreparedness of modern society to accept new principles of relationships based on respect for work, knowledge and culture.

"Running" and "Days of the Turbins"

In the plays "The Run" and "Days of the Turbins" (1925-1928), the writer depicted the fact that all successive powers in the Civil War are hostile to the intelligentsia. The characters in these works are typical representatives of the so-called "new intelligentsia", who at first perceived the revolution either cautiously or openly fought against it. Mikhail Afanasyevich also referred to himself as a new layer, about which he wrote with humor in his feuilleton "The Capital in a Notepad".

The plight of the writer

He reacted sensitively to social changes, felt injustice, doubted the need for measures taken, but at the same time he did not stop believing in the people, in the person Bulgakov. The works, the list of which we offer you, reflect this. The heroes of his creations doubted and worried along with him, which was greeted by criticism with hostility. The attacks on the writer intensified in 1929. All his plays were removed from the stage: "Crimson Island", "Days of the Turbins" and "Zoykina's apartment". In a difficult situation, the writer decides to write a letter to the government in which he asked permission to leave the country. Soon a conversation took place with Stalin, after which Mikhail Afanasyevich was appointed director-assistant of the Moscow Art Theater. The performances of Bulgakov's plays reappeared on the stage, and after a while - and the dramatization of "Dead Souls" (Bulgakov).

All the 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 of this author appeared in print, since he was included in 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.

"The Master and Margarita"

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

The early versions of the work seemed to him insufficiently successful, so over the course of several years he returned to his characters again and again, invented new conflicts and scenes. Only in 1932 did the novel acquire plot completion.

In recent years, Bulgakov, although he continued to work, was still not published. This broke him down and led to an exacerbation of the disease and subsequent imminent 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 a Doctor", "The Red Crown", "On the Night of the 3rd Day";
• 1923 - Chinese History "," Plaque "," Notes on the Cuffs ";
• 1924 - La Bohème.

- "Notes of a Young Doctor":

• 1925 - "Baptism by turning", "Egyptian darkness";
• 1926 - "Towel with a Rooster", "Blizzard", "The Lost Eye", "Star Rash", as well as the story "I killed" adjoining the cycle;
• 1927 - the story "Morphine" adjoining the cycle.

Mikhail Bulgakov wrote various works. The list, the stories from which we have already listed, will be supplemented with novels and plays.

• 1924 - "White Guard";
• 1962 - "The Life of M. de Moliere";
• 1965 - Notes of the Dead Man;
• - "The Master and Margarita".

• 1925 - "Zoyka's apartment";
• 1925 - "The Fist of the Accountant";
• 1926 - "Days of the Turbins";
• 1930 - "Kabbalah holy man";
• 1955 - "Alexander Pushkin";
• 1962 - "Running";
• 1965 - "Ivan Vasilievich";
• 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, are not limited to those indicated. Here we have not included feuilletons, articles, essays and some other works, which would also be useful to familiarize yourself with.

Films based on the works of Bulgakov, 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" - Alexander Petrovich, Yuri Karra and created in Russia.

Michael Bulgakov. 1920s M.A.Bulgakov Museum

Mikhail Bulgakov arrived in Moscow in the autumn of 1921 and the very next year he began to publish in thin Moscow magazines - "Rupor", "Red magazine for everyone", "Smekhach" and others; got a job as a feuilletonist in the newspaper "Gudok" and became a regular contributor to the Berlin newspaper "Nakanune". The first Moscow years of Bulgakov were marked by the appearance of a large number of essays, notes, reporters' reports, feuilletons, stories and stories. Until the mid-1920s, Mikhail Bulgakov was known as a metropolitan writer, and only in the second half of the 1920s, after the enormous success of the play Days of the Turbins, he gained fame as a playwright and practically abandoned prose. We have selected five short stories by Bulgakov of the 1920s, written in different genres and on different topics. Together they give an idea of ​​Bulgakov as a 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" is a visiting card of Bulgakov's first Moscow years. Having moved to the capital, he quickly gained fame as a subtle observer and witty chronicler of Moscow life in the first half of the 1920s. Alexei Tolstoy, editor-in-chief of the literary supplement to the Berlin newspaper Nakanune, asked Moscow employees: "Send more Bulgakov!" "Moonshine Lake" is the most characteristic and funny of this series of stories and essays.

The protagonist of the story, occupying a room in communal apartment no. 50, in the evening, when silence reigned in the "damned apartment", intended to read a book calmly, but the reading was interrupted by the cry of a rooster. As it turned out, the rooster was plucked alive by an absolutely drunk unknown citizen, the co-owner 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 quarterkhoz himself knocked out all the windows and beat his wife. The drunken chairman of the board was summoned to the noise, and at three o'clock in the morning, Ivan Sido-roar, the second person in 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 the junior janitor ("slightly drunk"), the senior ("dead drunk") and the stoker ("in a terrible state"). During the day the moonshine point was covered by the militia, but in the evening a fresh spring came in the neighborhood, and the general drunkenness continued on an equal scale. The desperate hero and his wife closed the room and left for three days to visit their sister.

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

Mikhail Bulgakov, apparently, almost literally describes his life in communal apartment No. 50 at 10 Bolshaya Sadovaya Street, where he lived with his wife Tatyana Lappa since the fall of 1921. Together with them, 16 more people lived in the communal apartment, most of whom were workers from the neighboring printing house. Many of Bulgakov's neighbors on communal networks are easily recognizable in the heroes of Moonshine Lake. So, Annushka is Anna Fedorovna Goryacheva, who will also be the prototype of the famous An-nushka-plague from The Master and Margarita, and the apartment farm of apartment No. 50 Vasily Ivanovich is Vasily Ivanovich Boltyrev, 35-year-old paint maker of the 2nd Moscow factory Goznak, who repeatedly threatened Bulgakov with eviction and pretty much ruffled his nerves.

Bulgakov's wife later recalled the moonshine everyday life of the apartment: “They will buy moonshine, get drunk, they will definitely start fighting, the women yell:“ Save, help! ”Bulgakov, of course, jumps out, runs to call the police. And the police come - they are locked with keys, they sit quietly. They even wanted to fine him. " And Bulgakov himself constantly complained about the noisy apartment, dreaming to move out as soon as possible. Bulgakov's diary contains an entry dated October 29, 1923: "I definitely 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 the first separate housing with his own office appeared in her only three years later.

"Chinese History" (1923)

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

A Chinese man who accidentally ended up in Soviet Russia walking Walking- nickname Chinese people who sold from stalls (see, for example, in Osip Mandelstam's “Egyptian mark”: “At night I dreamed about a Chinese man, hung with handbags like a necklace of hazel grouses”), and then they began to call all the Chinese that way. Sen-Zing-Po yearns for a warm China in a cold foreign Moscow. In the opium salon, he lost his last money and a sheepskin coat. Later, "in some gigantic hall with semi-circular vaults" the Chinese gets to the Red Army and is recorded as a volunteer: it turns out that Saint-Zin-Po is a great shooter and a wonderful sighting panorama sat in his "agate slanting eyes from birth." In the very first battle ("brilliant debut"), Sen-Zing-Po dies without fully realizing what is happening.

The story of the tragic death of a Chinese in the fire of the Civil War, which he does not understand and in which he finds himself by pure chance, Bulgakov clearly opposes the famous at that time Vsevolod Ivanov's story "Armor Train No. 14.69", the hero of which, the Red Army soldier Sin-Bin-Wu, possesses a class flair, takes the side of the Red Army and sacrifices himself for the sake of a common victory.

Three years later, the heroes of "Chinese history" switched to Bulgakov's play "Zoi-kina's apartment" - the lonely lost Sen-Zing-Po turned into a Chinese bandit and murderer, and an old Chinese man, the owner of an opium brothel, became the owner of a laundry in the play.

"Khan's Fire" (1924)

"Khan's Fire" also stands apart in a series of Bulgakov's stories: it is a completely fictional story with a strong plot and an unexpected ending, written by Bulgakov practically on a dispute:

“A rather sophisticated short story writer himself, V. P. Kataev, comparing our writers with O'Gen-ri, once complained:
- They write badly, boringly, no invention. You read the first two paragraphs, and then you can skip reading. The denouement has been solved. The story is scanned through to the last point.
Touched to the quick, another of our short stories, Bulgakov, suddenly intervenes:
"I swear and promise: I will write a story, and you will not untie the tie until you read the last line."

Ivan Ovchinnikov."In the edition of" Gudok ""

The story takes place in the estate-museum "Khan's Headquarters". The old smo-triter Iona, 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 the same shorts and pince-nez and a foreigner in gold glasses. The palace evokes different feelings among visitors - Komsomol members, a naked, bourgeois lady with her daughter, a mysterious foreigner. In the end, having escorted the visitors, Iona is going to close the museum, notices that same mysterious foreigner and suddenly recognizes his face. The ending of the story, as promised by Bulgakov, is impossible to predict in advance.

The interior of the Oval Hall in the Arkhangelskoye Estate Museum. 1954 year Photo chronicle TASS

The prototype of the palace was probably the Arkhangelskoye estate, which Bulgakov visited in 1923. An interesting detail: Bulgakov then used the name of the protagonist Tugai-Beg as his pseudonym.

In the story, an important for Bulgakov theme of emigration and the confrontation between the pre-revolutionary world (a mysterious foreigner in golden glasses) and the new Soviet reality (young Komsomol excursionists) appears. In 1921, Bul-gakov himself almost left Russia on a steamer from Batum to Constantinople, and before that, in 1920, in Vladikavkaz, he was going to leave the city with the whites, but fell 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 very first stop, how could I have taken? They told me so: 'What do you want - to take him to Kazbek and bury him?'

The second wife of Mikhail Bulgakov, Lyubov Evgenievna Belozerskaya, visited emigration. The writer asked her about Constantinople when he wrote the play "Running".

"Blizzard" (1926)

Michael Bulgakov. Around 1918 M.A.Bulgakov Museum

The story "Blizzard" is included in the famous cycle "Notes of a Young Doctor" - and the symbolic depth of the story, the tension of the action, almost cinematic-graphic accuracy in the depiction of the main chase scene and the happy ending make the "Blizzard", as it seems, the main and the most exciting story of the cycle.

A young doctor, who receives a hundred peasants a day, enjoys unexpected peace and a hot bath: there is a blizzard on the street, and no one has come to the reception, when suddenly he is brought a note with a request to urgently come to the patient - the clerk's bride, whose wedding she was talking about the whole district (““ I’m not lucky in my life, ”I thought sadly, looking at the hot firewood in the stove”). Cursing everything in the world, the doctor agrees to go, hopelessly observes the death of a young girl, and on the way home in a blizzard, he loses his way. The hero and the firefighter accompanying him escape from a pack of wolves (“Mentally I saw a short message in the newspaper about myself and the unfortunate firefighter”) and get home - the fight against death this time ended in victory, but this struggle is not over: “Make me gold, - Dozing off, I muttered, - but I'm not going to ... - Go ... en, 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 editorial office with a description of a similar case: “Wolves: from the life of district health workers p. Balaklaya, Izium District ".

Seven stories "Notes of a Young Doctor" were published in 1925-1926 in the journal "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 sketches of stories about his life in Nikolskoye. Although the writer shifts the narrative by one year (the action begins in 1917, not in 1916), and the main character is single, the rest of the stories quite accurately reflect his biography.

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

I Killed (1926)

One of the most important Bulgakov's themes of the first half of the 1920s, connected with the comprehension of the experience of the Civil War, is the theme of collective responsibility. As Marietta Chudakova wrote, "participation, even if by inaction, in the murder of compatriots, which imposes an inexorable burden on the entire future fate of each separately and all together, this bio-graphic motif will form the basis of Bulgakov's artistic world."

Three stories stand out especially here: the earlier "Red Crown" and "The Extraordinary Adventures of a Doctor" and the later "I Have Killed". So, the main character of "The Red Crown" is unable to prevent murder and death, and this literally drives him crazy: "I left so as not to see how people are being hanged, but the fear went away with me in shaking legs." ... He desperately tries to go back in time and change the course of events.

The story "I killed" is interesting precisely because it seems to violate this principle of the hero's inaction and the subsequent agonizing feeling of guilt for the first and last time in Bulgakov's artistic world.

The protagonist of the story, Dr. Yashvin, in the company of friends, tells how he deliberately killed a patient seven years ago. In the winter of 1919, he was forcibly mobilized by the Petliurites retreating from Kiev, he witnessed the atrocities and cruelties of Colonel Leshchenko. Once the doctor was called to the colonel to bandage the wound: some unfortunate tortured man managed to throw himself at him with a penknife. It is here that the same fork 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 before my eyes became dim, even to the point of nausea, and I felt that now the most terrible and amazing events in my ill-fated doctor's life began." Doctor Yashvin shot the colonel and escaped from Petliura's captivity.

Dr. Yashvin, a dapper, brave, successful, calm and secretive person, undoubtedly carries the features 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 Kiev. In captivity with the Petliurites, he witnessed the murder of a man on the bridge. The shocked writer was able to escape at night:

“And then at three o'clock [in the night] suddenly there were such calls! .. We rushed with Varka Varvara, sister of Mikhail Bulgakov. open the door - well, of course, he. For some reason, he was running violently, trembling all over, and his condition was terrible - such a nervous one. They put him to bed, and after that he lay for a whole week, he was sick. "

Tatiana Lappa

Painful memories of what he saw in captivity were reflected in the work of Bulgakov. So, in the novel "The White Guard" there is a scene of the murder of a Jew at the Chain Bridge:

“Pan kurennoy did not calculate the blow and immediately lowered the ramrod on his head. Something grunted in her, the black one didn’t answer already 'wow' ... Turning his hand and shaking his head, he fell to one side from his knees and, swinging widely with his other hand, threw it back, as if he wanted to seize more trampled and manured land for himself. His fingers bent hookedly and scooped up the muddy snow. Then in a dark puddle several times the lying in convulsion twitched and died. "

Mikhail Afanasevich Bulgakov. Born May 3 (May 15) 1891 in Kiev, Russian Empire - died March 10, 1940 in Moscow. Russian and Soviet writer, playwright, theater director and actor.

Mikhail Bulgakov was born on May 3 (15), 1891 in the family of an associate professor of the Kiev Theological Academy at 28 Vozdvizhenskaya Street in Kiev.

Father - Afanasy Ivanovich Bulgakov (1859-1907), Russian theologian and church historian.

Mother - Varvara Mikhailovna Bulgakova (nee - Pokrovskaya; 1869-1922).

Sister - Vera Afanasyevna Bulgakova (1892-1972), married Davydov.

Sister - Nadezhda Afanasyevna Bulgakova (1893-1971), married Zemskaya.

Sister - Varvara Afanasyevna Bulgakova (1895-1956), the prototype of the character Elena Turbina-Talberg in the novel "The White Guard".

Brother - Nikolai Afanasevich Bulgakov (1898-1966), Russian scientist, biologist, bacteriologist, Ph.D.

Brother - Ivan Afanasevich Bulgakov (1900-1969), musician-balalaika player, since 1921 in exile, first in Varna, then in Paris.

Sister - Elena Afanasyevna Bulgakova (1902-1954), the prototype of "blue eyes" in V. Kataev's story "My Diamond Crown".

Uncle - Nikolai Ivanovich Bulgakov, taught at the Tiflis Theological Seminary.

Niece - Elena Andreevna Zemskaya (1926-2012), a famous Russian linguist, researcher of Russian colloquial speech.

In 1909, Mikhail Bulgakov graduated from the First Kiev Gymnasium and entered the medical faculty of Kiev University. The choice of the profession of a doctor was explained by the fact that both mother's brothers, Nikolai and Mikhail Pokrovsky, were doctors, one in Moscow, the other in Warsaw, both earned good money. Mikhail, a therapist, was the doctor of Patriarch Tikhon, Nikolai, a gynecologist, had an excellent practice in Moscow. Bulgakov studied at the university for 7 years - having been exempted for health reasons (renal failure), he submitted a report to serve as a doctor in the navy and, after the refusal of the medical commission, asked to be sent as a Red Cross volunteer to the hospital.

On October 31, 1916, he received a diploma of approval "in the degree of a doctor with honors with all the rights and advantages assigned to this degree by the laws of the Russian Empire."

In 1913 M. Bulgakov married Tatiana Lappa (1892-1982). Money difficulties began on the wedding day. This can be seen in the memoirs of Tatyana Nikolaevna: “Of course, I didn't have any veil, neither did I have a wedding dress — I’ve got all the money that my father sent somewhere. Mom came to the wedding - she was horrified. I had a pleated linen skirt, my mother bought a blouse. Fr. Alexander. ... For some reason, they laughed terribly under the aisle. We rode home in a carriage. There were few guests. I remember there were a lot of flowers, most of all - daffodils ... ". Tatyana's father sent 50 rubles a month, a decent amount at that time. But money quickly disappeared: M. A. Bulgakov did not like to save and was a man of impulse. If he wanted to take a taxi ride for the last money, he decided to take this step without hesitation. “Mother scolded me for frivolity. We will come to her dinner, she sees - no rings, no chain of mine. "Well, then everything is in the pawnshop!"

After the outbreak of the First World War, M. Bulgakov worked as a doctor in the frontline 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, M. A. Bulgakov began to use morphine, first with the aim of alleviating allergic reactions to an anti-diphtheria drug, which he took, fearing diphtheria after the operation. Then morphine intake became regular.

In December 1917, M. A. Bulgakov first arrived in Moscow. He stayed with his uncle, the famous Moscow gynecologist N. M. Pokrovsky, who became the prototype of Professor Preobrazhensky from the story "Heart of a Dog".

In the spring of 1918, M. A. Bulgakov returned to Kiev, where he began his private practice as a venereologist - at this time he 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. Then, judging by his recollections, he was mobilized into the White Armed Forces of the South of Russia and was appointed military doctor of the 3rd Terek Cossack Regiment. In the same year he managed to work as a doctor of the Red Cross, and then again in the White Armed Forces of the South of Russia. As part of the 3rd Terek Cossack regiment he was in the North Caucasus. He was published in newspapers (article "Coming Prospects"). During the retreat of the Volunteer Army in early 1920, he was sick with typhus and therefore did not have to leave the country. After his recovery, in Vladikavkaz, his first dramatic experiments appeared - he wrote to his cousin on February 1, 1921: “I was 4 years late with what I should have started doing long ago - to write”.

At the end of September 1921, Mikhail Bulgakov moved to Moscow and began to collaborate as a feuilletonist with metropolitan newspapers (Gudok, Rabochy) and magazines (Medical Worker, Russia, Vozrozhdenie, Red Journal for all "). At the same time, he published some of his works in the newspaper Nakanune, published in Berlin. From 1922 to 1926, the newspaper "Gudok" published more than 120 reports, essays and feuilletons by M. Bulgakov.

In 1923 Bulgakov joined the All-Russian Union of Writers. In 1924 he met Lyubov Evgenievna Belozerskaya (1898-1987), who had recently returned from abroad, who became his wife in 1925.

Since October 1926, the play "Days of the Turbins" was performed at the Moscow Art Theater with great success. Its production was allowed only for a year, but later it was extended several times. The play was liked by I. Stalin himself, who watched it more than 14 times. In his speeches, I. Stalin said that "The Days of the Turbins" is "an anti-Soviet thing, and Bulgakov is not ours," and when the play was banned, Stalin ordered to return it (in January 1932) and before the war it was no longer banned. However, this permission did not apply to any theater, except for the Moscow Art Theater. Stalin noted that the impression of Days of the Turbins was ultimately positive for the communists (letter to V. Bill-Belotserkovsky, published by Stalin himself in 1949).

At the same time, an intense and extremely harsh criticism of M. A. Bulgakov's work is being carried out in the Soviet press. According to his own calculations, in 10 years there were 298 abusive reviews and 3 benevolent ones. Among the critics were influential writers and officials from literature (Mayakovsky, Bezymensky, Averbakh, Shklovsky, Kerzhentsev and others).

At the end of October 1926 at the Theater. Vakhtangov's premiere of the play "Zoykina's apartment" based on the play by Mikhail Bulgakov was held with great success.

In 1928, M. A. Bulgakov traveled with his wife to the Caucasus, where they visited Tiflis, Batum, Cape Zeleny, Vladikavkaz, Gudermes. The premiere of the play "Crimson Island" took place in Moscow this year. MA Bulgakov conceived the idea of ​​a novel, later called "The Master and Margarita". The writer also began work on a play about Moliere (The Cabal of the Sanctifier).

In 1929, Bulgakov met Elena Sergeevna Shilovskaya, who became his third and last wife in 1932.

By 1930, Bulgakov's works were no longer published, his plays were withdrawn from the theater repertoire. The plays "Running", "Zoykina's Apartment", "Crimson Island" were banned from staging, the play "Days of the Turbins" was removed from the repertoire. In 1930, Bulgakov wrote to his brother Nikolai in Paris about an unfavorable literary and theatrical situation for himself and a difficult financial situation. Then he wrote a letter to the Government of the USSR, dated March 28, 1930, with a request to determine his fate - either to give the right to emigrate, or to provide an opportunity to work at the Moscow Art Theater. On April 18, 1930, Bulgakov phoned, who recommended that the playwright apply with a request to enroll him in the Moscow Art Theater.

In 1930 he worked as a director at the Central Theater of Working Youth (TRAM). From 1930 to 1936 - at the Moscow Art Theater as an assistant director. In 1932, on the stage of the Moscow Art Theater, the play "Dead Souls" by Nikolai Gogol was staged based on the stage version of Bulgakov. In 1934, Bulgakov was twice denied travel abroad, and in June he was admitted to the Union of Soviet Writers. In 1935 Bulgakov appeared on the stage of the Moscow Art Theater as an actor - in the role of Judge in the play "The Pickwick Club" by Dickens. Experience in the Moscow Art Theater was reflected in the work of Bulgakov "Notes of the Dead" ("Theatrical Novel"), the material for the images of which were many employees of the theater.

The play "Cabala Sanctuary" ("Moliere") was released in February 1936, after almost five years of rehearsals. Although E. Bulgakova noted that the premiere, on February 16, was a tremendous success, after seven performances the production was banned, and Pravda published a devastating article about this “fake, reactionary and worthless” play. After an article in Pravda, Bulgakov left the Moscow Art Theater and began working at the Bolshoi Theater as a librettist and translator. In 1937 M. Bulgakov worked on the libretto "Minin and Pozharsky" and "Peter I". He was friends with Isaac Dunaevsky.

In 1939, Mikhail Bulgakov worked on the libretto "Rachel", as well as on the play about I. Stalin ("Batum"). The play was already being prepared for staging, and Bulgakov with his wife and colleagues left for Georgia to work on the play, when a telegram arrived about the cancellation of the play: Stalin considered it inappropriate to stage the 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. Doctors diagnosed Bulgakov with hypertensive nephrosclerosis enru - a hereditary kidney disease. Bulgakov continued to use morphine, prescribed to him in 1924, in order to relieve pain symptoms.

In the same period, the writer began to dictate to his wife the latest version of the novel The Master and Margarita.

Before the war, two Soviet theaters staged performances based on Mikhail Bulgakov's play Don Quixote.

Since February 1940, friends and relatives were constantly on duty at the bedside of M. Bulgakov. On March 10, 1940, Mikhail Afanasyevich Bulgakov died. On March 11, a civil funeral service was held in the building of the Union of Soviet Writers.

Before the funeral service, the Moscow sculptor S. D. Merkurov removed the death mask from M. Bulgakov's face.

M. Bulgakov was buried at the Novodevichy cemetery. At his grave, at the request of his widow E. S. Bulgakova, a stone was installed, nicknamed "Golgotha", which had previously been lying on the grave.

Bulgakov was respectful of. Once at the birthday of the wife of the playwright Trenev, his neighbor in the writer's house, Bulgakov and Pasternak found themselves at the same table. Pasternak read his translations of poems from Georgian with some special aspiration. After the first toast to the hostess, Pasternak announced: "I want to drink to Bulgakov!" In response to the objection of the birthday lady-hostess: “No, no! Now we will drink to Vikenty Vikentyevich, and then to Bulgakov! " - Pasternak exclaimed: “No, I want for Bulgakov! Veresaev, of course, is a very big person, but he is a legitimate phenomenon. And Bulgakov is illegal! "

After the death of the writer, she wrote a poem "In memory of M. A. Bulgakov" (March 1940).

Michael Bulgakov. Romance with mystery

Personal life of Mikhail Bulgakov:

The first wife is Tatiana Nikolaevna Lappa (1892-1982), the first wife, the main prototype of Anna Kirillovna's character in the story "Morphine". They were married in the period 1913-1924.

Tatyana Lappa - the first wife of Mikhail Bulgakov

The second wife is Lyubov Evgenievna Belozerskaya (1895-1987). They were married in the years 1925-1931.

Lyubov Belozerskaya - the second wife of Mikhail Bulgakov

Third wife - Elena Sergeevna Shilovskaya (1893-1970). They got married in 1932. She was the main prototype for the character of Margarita in The Master and Margarita. After the death of the writer, she is the keeper of his literary heritage.

Stories and novels by Mikhail Bulgakov:

"The Adventures of Chichikov" (10-point poem with a prologue and epilogue, October 5, 1922)
The White Guard (novel, 1922-1924)
"The Devil" (story, 1923)
"Notes on the Cuffs" (novel, 1923)
"The Crimson Island" (story, published in Berlin in 1924)
"Fatal Eggs" (novel, 1924)
"Heart of a Dog" (story, 1925, published in the USSR in 1987)
“Great Chancellor. Prince of Darkness "(part of the draft version of the novel" The Master and Margarita ", 1928-1929)
The Engineer's Hoof (novel, 1928-1929)
"To a secret friend" (unfinished story, 1929, published in the USSR in 1987)
"The Master and Margarita" (novel, 1929-1940, published in the USSR in 1966-1967, second version in 1973, final version in 1990)
"The Life of M. de Moliere" (novel, 1933, published in the USSR in 1962)
"Theatrical Novel" ("Notes of a Dead Man") (unfinished novel (1936-1937), published in the USSR in 1965).

Plays, librettos, screenplays by Mikhail Bulgakov:

"Zoykina's apartment" (play, 1925, staged in the USSR in 1926, published in mass circulation in 1982)
"Days of the Turbins" (a play based on the novel "White Guard", 1925, staged in the USSR in 1925, was published in mass circulation in 1955)
The Run (play, 1926-1928)
"Crimson Island" (play, 1927, published in the USSR in 1968)
"Cabal of the holy" (play, 1929, (staged in the USSR in 1936), in 1931 was admitted by the censor to be staged with a number of bills called "Moliere", but in this form the production was postponed)
Dead Souls (adaptation of the novel, 1930)
Adam and Eve (play, 1931)
"Crazy Jourdain" (play, 1932, published in the USSR in 1965)
"Bliss (the dream of the engineer Rhine)" (play, 1934, published in the USSR in 1966)
"The Inspector General" (screenplay, 1934)
"Alexander Pushkin" (play, 1935 (published in the USSR in 1955)
"An unusual incident, or the Inspector General" (play based on the comedy of Nikolai Gogol, 1935)
"Ivan Vasilievich" (play, 1936)
"Minin and Pozharsky" (opera libretto, 1936, published in the USSR in 1980)
"Black Sea" (opera libretto, 1936, published in the USSR in 1988)
"Rachelle" (libretto of the opera based on the story "Mademoiselle Fifi" by Guy de Maupassant, 1937-1939, published in the USSR in 1988)
"Batum" (a play about the youth of I. V. Stalin, the original title "Shepherd", 1939, published in the USSR in 1988)
Don Quixote (libretto of the opera based on the novel by Miguel de Cervantes, 1939).