Famous works of Bulgakov. The plight of the writer

Biography

Mikhail Bulgakov was born on May 3 (15), 1891 in Kiev in the family of Afanasy Ivanovich Bulgakov (1859-1907), a professor at the Kiev Theological Academy, and his wife Varvara Mikhailovna (nee Pokrovskaya) (1869-1922). There were seven children in the family: Mikhail (1891-1940), Vera (1892-1972), Nadezhda (1893-1971), Varvara (1895-1954), Nikolay (1898-1966), Ivan (1900-1969) and Elena ( 1902-1954).

In 1909, Mikhail Bulgakov graduated from the Kyiv First Gymnasium and entered the medical faculty of Kyiv University. October 31, 1916 - received a diploma of approval "in the degree of a doctor with honors with all the rights and benefits, laws Russian Empire assigned to this degree.

He was sent to work in the village of Nikolskoye, Smolensk province, then worked as a doctor in Vyazma. In 1913, Bulgakov enters into his first marriage - with Tatyana Lappa (1892-1982).

After the outbreak of the First World War, Bulgakov worked as a doctor, first in the frontline zone, then in the reserve. From 1917, he began to regularly use morphine, in order to relieve pain after contracting diphtheria. In December 1917, he first came to Moscow, staying with his uncle, the famous Moscow doctor N. M. Pokrovsky, who became the prototype of Professor Preobrazhensky from the story “Heart of a Dog”. In the spring of 1918, Bulgakov returned to Kyiv, where he began private practice as a venereologist. At this time, M. Bulgakov stopped using morphine.

During civil war, in February 1919, Bulgakov was mobilized as a military doctor in the Ukrainian army People's Republic, but deserts almost immediately [source not specified 316 days]. At the end of August 1919, according to one version, Bulgakov was mobilized into the Red Army as a military doctor; On October 14-16, together with units of the Red Army, he returned to Kiev and, during street fighting, went over to the side of the Armed Forces of the South of Russia (according to another version, he was captured by them) and became a military doctor of the 3rd Terek Cossack Regiment.

In the same year, he manages to visit a doctor of the Red Cross, and then - in the White Guard Armed Forces South of Russia. He spends some time with the Cossack troops in Chechnya, then in Vladikavkaz.

At the end of September 1921, Bulgakov moved to Moscow and began to collaborate as a feuilletonist with the capital's newspapers (Gudok, Rabochy) and magazines (Medical Worker, Rossiya, Vozrozhdenie). At the same time, he publishes individual works in the newspaper Nakanune, published in Berlin. From 1922 to 1926, more than 120 reports, essays and feuilletons by Bulgakov were published in Gudok.

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, and who soon became his new wife.

Since 1926, the play " Days of the Turbins". Its production was allowed for a year, but later it was extended several times, since Stalin liked the play. Note that in his speeches, Stalin agreed: "Days of the Turbins" - "an anti-Soviet thing, and Bulgakov is not ours." At the same time, an intensive and extremely sharp criticism of Bulgakov's work takes place in the Soviet press; according to his own calculations, in 10 years there were 298 abusive reviews and 3 favorable ones. Among the critics were such influential officials and writers as Mayakovsky, Bezymensky, Leopold Averbakh, Viktor Shklovsky, Kerzhentsev and many others.

In 1928, Bulgakov traveled with Lyubov Evgenievna to the Caucasus, visited Tiflis, Batum, Zeleny Mys, Vladikavkaz, Gudermes. The premiere of the play Crimson Island is taking place in Moscow this year. Bulgakov came up with the idea of ​​a novel, later called “The Master and Margarita” (a number of researchers of Bulgakov’s work note the influence of the Austrian writer Gustav Meyrink in the design and writing of this novel, in particular, we can talk about such novels of the latter as “The Golem”, which Bulgakov read translated by D. Vygodsky, and "The Green Face"). The writer also begins work on a play about Molière ("The Cabal of Saints").

In 1929, Bulgakov met Elena Sergeevna Shilovskaya, his future third wife.

In 1930, Bulgakov's works ceased to be published, the plays were withdrawn from the theater repertoire. Prohibited from staging the play "Running", "Zoyka's apartment", "Crimson Island", the play "Days of the Turbins" was withdrawn from the repertoire. In 1930, Bulgakov wrote to his brother Nikolai in Paris about the unfavorable literary and theatrical situation for himself and the difficult financial situation. At the same time, he writes a letter to the Government of the USSR with a request to determine his fate - either to give the right to emigrate, or to provide the opportunity to work at the Moscow Art Theater. Stalin calls Bulgakov, who recommends the playwright to ask to enroll him in the Moscow Art Theater.

In 1930 Bulgakov worked in Central theater working youth(TRAM). From 1930 to 1936 - at the Moscow Art Theater as an assistant director. In 1932, Bulgakov staged Nikolai Gogol's "Dead Souls" on the stage of the Moscow Art Theater. He tried to stage The Cabal of the Holy Ones (1930), but the performance was banned almost immediately. The Cabal of Saints was released only in 1936, passed 7 times with great success, after which it was completely banned, and Pravda published a devastating article about this "false, reactionary and worthless" play. In January 1932, Stalin (formally - Yenukidze) again allowed the production of "Days of the Turbins", and before the war it was no longer prohibited. True, this permission did not apply to any theater, except for the Moscow Art Theater.

In 1936, after an article in Pravda, Bulgakov left the Moscow Art Theater and began working in Bolshoi Theater as a librettist and translator. In 1937, Bulgakov worked on the libretto "Minin and Pozharsky" and "Peter I".

In 1939, Bulgakov worked on the libretto "Rachel", as well as on a play about Stalin ("Batum"). The play was approved by Stalin, but contrary to the writer's expectations, it was banned from publication and staging. Bulgakov's health is deteriorating sharply. Doctors diagnose him with hypertensive nephrosclerosis. The writer begins to dictate to Elena Sergeevna last options novel The Master and Margarita.

Since February 1940, friends and relatives have been constantly on duty at the bedside of Bulgakov, who suffers from uremia. On March 10, 1940, Mikhail Afanasyevich Bulgakov died. On March 11, a civil memorial service was held in the building of the Union Soviet writers. Before the memorial service, the Moscow sculptor SD Merkurov removes the death mask from Bulgakov's face.

Bulgakov is buried at Novodevichy cemetery. On his grave, at the request of his wife E. S. Bulgakova, a stone was installed, nicknamed "calvary", which previously lay on the grave of N. V. Gogol.

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 gymnasium, and his father, who graduated from the theological academy, taught at various educational institutions. At the end of 1893, he began to perform the duties of the Kyiv regional censor, among which was the censorship of literature not only in Russian, but also in other languages. In addition to Michael, 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 the Medical Faculty of Kiev University. Then, in 1914, the First World War began. In 1916, after graduating, the future writer worked in Cherepovets and Kamenetz-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 was reflected in the work created in 1926 "Notes young doctor". Bulgakov's works, a 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 the 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-city" (1923), the writer expresses his opinion about her. He notes that with the revolutionary transformations menacingly and suddenly "history came." Mikhail Afanasyevich is released from military service after October revolution, and he returns to Kyiv, which was soon occupied 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, include the 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 " white guard"and the 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. Works, list 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 with writing articles for local newspapers. He finished his first story in the autumn of 1919. In the winter of 1919-1920, several feuilletons and short stories were written. One of them, "Tribute of Admiration", tells about the street clashes that took place during the Civil War and the revolution in Kyiv.

Theatrical plays

Bulgakov, shortly before the Whites retreated from Vladikavkaz, became seriously ill with relapsing fever. He recovered in the spring of 1920, when units of the Red Army had already occupied the city. Since that time, the writer began to cooperate with the Revolutionary Committee, with a sub-department of arts, wrote plays for Ingush and troupes that reflected his views on the revolution. They were only one-day agitation and were created mainly in order to survive in hard time. 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 should 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. The satirical essays and pamphlets reflected the main features of post-revolutionary society. The main object of the writer's satire are the nouveau riche-nepmen, whom he called "the scum of the NEP" (the short stories "The Cup of Life" and "Trillionaire"), as well as representatives of the population with a low level of culture: bazaar traders, residents of Moscow communal apartments, bureaucrats 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 along the street with a new satchel.

"Fatal Eggs"

"Fatal eggs"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, to 1928. Then the results of the NEP became obvious, including a strong rise in the level life of the population of the country.Persikov, the protagonist of the story, made a great discovery that could be of great benefit to mankind.But in the hands of self-confident, semi-literate people, with the emerging bureaucracy that flourished during the period of war communism and further strengthened its position during the years of the NEP, the invention this turns into a tragedy. Not only Persikov, but almost all the heroes of Bulgakov's stories of the 1920s fail. In his works, Mikhail Afanasyevich tried to convey to the reader the idea of modern society adopt new principles of mutual relations 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 portrayed the fact that all the successive authorities in the Civil War were hostile to the intelligentsia. The characters of these works are typical representatives of the so-called " new intelligentsia", who perceived the revolution at first either warily or openly fought against it. Mikhail Afanasyevich also considered himself a new layer, which he wrote about with humor in his feuilleton "The Capital in a Notebook".

The plight of the writer

He sensitively reacted to social changes, felt injustice, doubted the need for the measures taken, but at the same time did not stop believing in the people, in the Bulgakov man. The works, the list of which we offer you, reflect this. The heroes of his creations doubted and experienced with him, which was met with criticism unkindly. Attacks on the writer in 1929 intensified. 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 asking for 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. They reappeared on the stages of staging Bulgakov's plays, and after a while - and staging" dead souls"(Bulgakov).

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

"Master and Margarita"

In 1933, the writer made an attempt to publish the novel in the ZhZL series, but he again failed. Until his death, Mikhail Afanasyevich no longer tried to publish his writings. He devoted this time to work on the work "The Master and Margarita", a novel that became one of greatest achievements 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 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 completeness.

IN last years Bulgakov, although he continued to work, still did not publish. This broke him down and led to an exacerbation of the disease and then a quick 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 cuffs":

• 1922 - " Extraordinary Adventure doctor", "Red Crown", "On the night of the 3rd";
• 1923 - Chinese History", "Plaque", "Notes on Cuffs";
• 1924 - "La Boheme".

- "Notes of a young doctor":

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

Mikhail Bulgakov wrote different 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 Monsieur de Molière";
• 1965 - "Dead Man's Notes";
• - "Master and Margarita".

• 1925 - "Zoyka's apartment";
• 1925 - "Accountant's Fist";
• 1926 - "Days of the Turbins";
• 1930 - "The Cabal of the Saints";
• 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, are not limited to those indicated. Here we have not included feuilletons, articles, essays and some other writings, which would also be useful to read.

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.

One can bow one's head before the talent of this remarkable Russian and Soviet writer. The most famous works of Bulgakov, almost all of the bones dismantled into quotes. Mikhail Afanasyevich considered Gogol his teacher, he imitated him and also became a mystic. Until now, there is no consensus among writers as to whether Bulgakov was an occultist. But he was a great playwright and theater director, the author of many feuilletons, stories, plays, screenplays, dramatizations and opera librettos. Bulgakov's works were staged in theaters and filmed in films. When his first dramatic experiments appeared, he wrote to his relative that he was four years late with what he should have started long ago - writing.

Mikhail Bulgakov, whose books are almost always heard, has become a true classic, whom posterity will never forget. He predicted the fate of his works with one brilliant phrase: "Manuscripts do not burn!"

Biography

Bulgakov was born on May 3, 1891 in Kyiv in the family of Afanasy Ivanovich Bulgakov, professor of the Theological Academy, and Varvara Mikhailovna, nee Pokrovskaya. Future Writer, after graduating from high school, entered the medical institute hometown, wishing to follow in the footsteps of his famous uncle N. M. Pokrovsky. In 1916, after graduating, he practiced for several months in the frontline zone. Then he worked as a venereologist, and during the civil war he managed to work with both whites and reds and stay alive.

Bulgakov's works

Saturated literary life it began after moving to Moscow. There, in well-known publishing houses, he prints his feuilletons. Then he writes the books "Fatal Eggs" and "The Diaboliad" (1925). Behind them creates the play "Days of the Turbins". Bulgakov's works provoked sharp criticism from many, but be that as it may, with each masterpiece written by him, there were more and more admirers. As a writer, he enjoyed great success. Then, in 1928, he had the idea of ​​writing the novel The Master and Margarita.

In 1939, the writer was working on a play about Stalin "Batum", and when it was already ready for production and Bulgakov went to Georgia with his wife and colleagues, a telegram soon arrived stating that Stalin considered it inappropriate to stage a play about himself. This greatly undermined the health of the writer, he began to lose his sight, and then the doctors diagnosed him with kidney disease. From pain, Bulgakov again began to use morphine, which he had taken back in 1924. At the same time, the writer was dictating to his wife last sheets Manuscripts of The Master and Margarita. A quarter of a century later, traces of the drug were found on the pages.

He died at 48 on March 10, 1940. He was buried at the Novodevichy Cemetery in Moscow. Mikhail Bulgakov, whose books eventually became real bestsellers, to say the least. modern language, and still stir up human minds who are trying to unravel its codes and messages, was really great. It is a fact. Bulgakov's works are still relevant, they have not lost their meaning and fascination.

Master

"The Master and Margarita" is a novel that has become a reference book for millions of readers, and not only for Bulgakov's compatriots, but for the whole world. Several decades have passed, and the plot still excites the minds, attracts with mysticism and mysteries that prompt various philosophical and religious reflections. The Master and Margarita is a novel studied in schools, and this is even though not every literary savvy person can understand the concept of this masterpiece. Bulgakov began to write the novel in the 1920s, then, with all the amendments to the plot and title, the work was finally framed in 1937. But in the USSR complete book came out only in 1973.

Woland

The creation of the novel was influenced by the passion of M. A. Bulgakov for various mystical literature, German mythology of the 19th century, Holy Scripture, Goethe's Faust, as well as many other demonological works.

One of the main characters of the novel, Woland, impresses many. To not particularly thoughtful and gullible readers, this Prince of Darkness may seem like an ardent fighter for justice and goodness, opposing the vices of people. There are also opinions that Bulgakov portrayed Stalin in this image. But Woland is not so easy to understand, this character is very multifaceted and heavy, this is the image that defines the real Tempter. This is the real prototype of the Antichrist, whom people should perceive as the new Messiah.

Tale

"Fatal Eggs" - another one fantasy story Bulgakov, published in 1925. He moves his heroes to 1928. The main character, a brilliant inventor, professor of zoology Persikov, once makes a unique discovery - he discovers a certain phenomenal stimulant, a red ray of life, which, acting on living embryos (embryos), causes them to develop faster, and they become larger than their usual counterparts. They are also aggressive and reproduce incredibly quickly.

Well, further in the work “Fatal Eggs” everything develops exactly as in the words of Bismarck that the revolution is prepared by geniuses, fanatics-romantics make it, but rogues use the fruits. And so it happened: Persikov became the very genius who created a revolutionary idea in biology, Ivanov - a fanatic who brought the professor's ideas to life by building cameras. And the rogue is Rokk, who appeared from nowhere and just as suddenly disappeared.

According to philologists, the prototype of Persikov could be the Russian biologist A. G. Gurvich, who discovered mitogenetic radiation, and, in fact, the leader of the proletariat, V. I. Lenin.

Play

"Days of the Turbins" - a play by Bulgakov, created by him in 1925 (in the Moscow Art Theater they wanted to stage a performance based on his novel "The White Guard"). The plot was based on the memoirs of the writer during the Civil War about the fall of the regime of the Ukrainian hetman Pavlo Skoropadsky, then about the coming to power of Petliura and his expulsion from the city by the Bolshevik revolutionaries. Against the backdrop of constant struggle and change of power, the family tragedy the Turbins, in which the foundations of the old world are breaking down. Bulgakov then lived in Kyiv (1918-1919). A year later, the play was staged, then it was repeatedly edited and changed its name.

"Days of the Turbins" is a play that today's critics consider the pinnacle of the writer's theatrical success. However, at the very beginning of her stage destiny was complex and unpredictable. The play was a huge success, but caused devastating critical reviews. In 1929, she was removed from the repertoire, Bulgakov was accused of philistinism and propaganda of the white movement. But at the direction of Stalin, who fell in love with this play, the performance was restored. For the writer, who was interrupted by odd jobs, staging at the Moscow Art Theater was practically the only source of income.

About myself and the bureaucracy

"Notes on the Cuffs" is a story that is somewhat autobiographical. Bulgakov wrote it between 1922 and 1923. During his lifetime, it was not published, today part of the text is lost. The main motive of the work "Notes on the Cuffs" was the writer's problematic relationship with the authorities. He described in great detail his life in the Caucasus, the dispute about A. S. Pushkin, the first months in Moscow and the desire to emigrate. Bulgakov really intended to flee abroad in 1921, but he did not have the money to pay the captain of a shipping car bound for Constantinople.

"Diaboliad" - a story that was created in 1925. Bulgakov called himself a mystic, but, despite the declared mysticism, the content of this work was made up of pictures of ordinary everyday life, where, following Gogol, he showed the unreasonableness and illogicality of social life. It is from this foundation that Bulgakov's satire consists.

"Diaboliad" is a story in which the plot takes place in a mystical whirlwind of bureaucratic whirlwind with the rustle of papers on the tables and in endless bustle. The protagonist - a small official Korotkov - is chasing through long corridors and floors for a certain mythical head of Pantser, who either appears, or disappears, or even splits into two. In this relentless pursuit, Korotkov loses both himself and his name. And then he turns into a miserable and defenseless little man. As a result, Korotkov, in order to escape from this enchanted cycle, has only one thing left - to throw himself from the roof of a skyscraper.

Molière

The Life of Monsieur de Molière is a novelized biography, which, like many other works, was not published during the author's lifetime. Only in 1962 the publishing house "Young Guard" published it in the cycle of books "ZhZL". In 1932, Bulgakov entered into an agreement with a magazine and newspaper publishing house and wrote about Molière for the ZhZL cycle. A year later, he completed the work and passed. Editor A. N. Tikhonov wrote a review in which he recognized Bulgakov's talent, but in general the review turned out to be negative. He mainly disliked the non-Marxist stance and the fact that the narrative has a narrator ("cheeky young man"). Bulgakov was asked to remake the novel into classical spirit historical narrative, but the writer categorically refused. Gorky also read the manuscript and also spoke negatively about it. Bulgakov wanted to meet with him several times, but all attempts were unsuccessful. Bulgakov's works, for obvious reasons, were often not liked by the Soviet leadership.

Illusion of freedom

In his book, Bulgakov raises a very important topic for him using the example of Moliere: power and art, how free an artist can be. When Molière's patience ran out, he exclaimed that he hated royal tyranny. Similarly, Bulgakov hated Stalin's tyranny. And in order to somehow persuade himself, he writes that, it turns out, evil lies not in the supreme power, but in the environment of the leader, in officials and newspaper Pharisees. In the 1930s, there really was that considerable part of the intelligentsia who believed in the innocence and innocence of Stalin, so Bulgakov fed himself with such illusions. Mikhail Afanasyevich tried to realize one of the features of the artist - fatal loneliness among people.

satire on power

Bulgakov's story "Heart of a Dog" became Bulgakov's next masterpiece, which he wrote in 1925. The most common political interpretation boils down to the idea of ​​a "Russian revolution" and to the "awakening" of the social consciousness of the proletariat. One of the main characters is Sharikov, who received a large number of rights and freedoms. And then his selfish interests are quickly revealed, he betrays and destroys both those who are like him and those who endowed him with all these rights. The end of this work shows that the fate of the creators of Sharikov is sealed. In his story, Bulgakov seems to predict the massive Stalinist repressions of the 1930s.

Bulgakov's story "The Heart of a Dog" is considered by many literary critics to be a political satire on the government of that time. And here are their main roles: Sharikov-Chugunkin is none other than Stalin himself (as the "iron surname" speaks of), Preobrazhensky - Lenin (the one who transformed the country), Dr. Bormental (continuously conflicting with Sharikov) - Trotsky ( Bronstein), Shvonder - Kamenev, Zina - Zinoviev, Daria - Dzerzhinsky, etc.

Pamphlet

At a meeting of writers in Gazetny Lane, where the manuscript was read, an OGPU agent was present, who noted that such things read in the brilliant metropolitan literary circle, can be much more dangerous than the speeches of writers of the 101st grade at meetings of the All-Russian Union of Poets.

Bulgakov hoped to the last that the work would be published in the Nedra almanac, but it was not even allowed to go to Glavlit for reading, but the manuscript was somehow handed over to L. Kamenev, who noted that this work should in no case be printed, since it is a sharp pamphlet on the present. Then in 1926 there was a search at Bulgakov's, the manuscripts of the book and the diary were seized, they were returned to the author only three years after the petition of Maxim Gorky.

Creation

Novels and novels

Plays, librettos, screenplays

stories

Journalism and feuilletons

Screen versions of works

(May 3 (15), 1891, Kyiv - March 10, 1940, Moscow) - Russian Soviet writer, playwright and theater director. Author of novels, short stories, feuilletons, plays, dramatizations, screenplays and opera librettos.

Biography

Mikhail Bulgakov was born on May 3 (15), 1891 in Kiev in the family of Afanasy Ivanovich Bulgakov (1859-1907), a professor at the Kiev Theological Academy, and his wife Varvara Mikhailovna (nee Pokrovskaya) (1869-1922). There were seven children in the family: Mikhail (1891-1940), Vera (1892-1972), Nadezhda (1893-1971), Varvara (1895-1954), Nikolay (1898-1966), Ivan (1900-1969) and Elena ( 1902-1954).

In 1909, Mikhail Bulgakov graduated from the Kyiv First Gymnasium and entered the medical faculty of Kyiv University. October 31, 1916 - received a diploma of approval "in the degree of a doctor with honors with all the rights and benefits assigned by the laws of the Russian Empire to this degree."

In 1913, M. Bulgakov enters into his first marriage - with Tatyana Lappa (1892-1982).

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.

During the Civil War, in February 1919, M. Bulgakov was mobilized as a military doctor in the army of the Ukrainian People's Republic. At the end of August 1919, according to one version, M. Bulgakov was mobilized into the Red Army as a military doctor; On October 14-16, together with units of the Red Army, he returned to Kyiv and, during street fighting, went over to the side of the Armed Forces of the South of Russia and became a 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 - in the White Guard Armed Forces of the South of Russia. He spends some time with the Cossack troops in Chechnya, then in Vladikavkaz.

At the end of September 1921, M. Bulgakov moved to Moscow and began to collaborate as a feuilletonist with the capital's newspapers ("Gudok", "Worker") and magazines ("Medical Worker", "Russia", "Vozrozhdeniye"). At the same time, he publishes individual works in the newspaper Nakanune, published in Berlin. From 1922 to 1926, more than 120 reports, essays and feuilletons by M. Bulgakov were published in Gudok.

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

Since October 1926, the play "Days of the Turbins" has been staged at the Moscow Art Theater with great success. Its production was allowed for a year, but later it was extended several times, since I. Stalin liked the play. However, in his speeches, I. Stalin agreed: “The Days of the Turbins” is “an anti-Soviet thing, and Bulgakov is not ours.” At the same time, intensive and extremely sharp criticism of M. Bulgakov's work takes place in the Soviet press. According to his own calculations, in 10 years there were 298 abusive reviews and 3 favorable ones. Among the critics were such influential officials and writers as V. Mayakovsky, A. Bezymensky, L. Averbakh, V. Shklovsky, P. Kerzhentsev and many others.

At the end of October 1926 at the Theater. Vakhtangov, the premiere of the play based on the play "Zoyka's Apartment" is held with great success.

In 1928, M. Bulgakov traveled with his wife to the Caucasus, visiting Tiflis, Batum, Zeleny Mys, Vladikavkaz, Gudermes. The premiere of the play Crimson Island is taking place in Moscow this year. M. Bulgakov came up with the idea of ​​a novel, later called The Master and Margarita. The writer also begins work on a play about Molière ("The Cabal of Saints").

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

By 1930, the works of M. Bulgakov ceased to be printed, the plays were withdrawn from the theater repertoire. Prohibited from staging the play "Running", "Zoyka's apartment", "Crimson Island", the play "Days of the Turbins" was withdrawn from the repertoire. In 1930, M. Bulgakov wrote to his brother Nikolai in Paris about the unfavorable literary and theatrical situation and difficult financial situation. At the same time, he writes a letter to the Government of the USSR with a request to determine his fate - either to give the right to emigrate, or to provide the opportunity to work at the Moscow Art Theater. M. Bulgakov calls I. Stalin, who recommends the playwright to apply with a request to enroll him in the Moscow Art Theater.

In 1930, M. Bulgakov 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 Theatre, Nikolai Gogol's play "Dead Souls" staged by M. Bulgakov took place. The play "The Cabal of the Saints" was released in 1936, after almost five years of rehearsals. After seven performances, the production was banned, and a devastating article was published in Pravda about this "false, reactionary and worthless" play.

In January 1932, I. Stalin (formally - A. Yenukidze) again allowed the production of "The Days of the Turbins", and before the war it was no longer prohibited. True, this permission did not apply to any theater, except for the Moscow Art Theater.

In 1936, after an article in Pravda, M. 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".

In 1939, M. Bulgakov worked on the libretto "Rachel", as well as on a play about I. Stalin ("Batum"). The play was approved by I. Stalin, but, contrary to the writer's expectations, it was forbidden to be printed and staged. The state of health of M. Bulgakov is deteriorating sharply. Doctors diagnose him with hypertensive nephrosclerosis. Bulgakov continues to use morphine, prescribed to him in 1924, in order to relieve pain symptoms. In the same period, the writer begins to dictate to his wife the latest versions of the novel The Master and Margarita.

Since February 1940, friends and relatives have been constantly on duty at the bedside of M. Bulgakov. On March 10, 1940, Mikhail Afanasyevich Bulgakov died. On March 11, a civil memorial service was held in the building of the Union of Soviet Writers. Before the memorial service, the Moscow sculptor S. D. Merkurov removes the death mask from the face of M. Bulgakov.

M. Bulgakov is buried at the Novodevichy Cemetery. On his grave, at the request of his wife E. S. Bulgakova, a stone was installed, nicknamed "calvary", which previously lay on the grave of N. V. Gogol.

Creation

M. Bulgakov's first story, according to him own words, wrote in 1919.

1922-1923 - publication of Notes on Cuffs.

In 1924 - the publication of the novel "The White Guard", about the tragic events of the struggle for power between various political forces in Ukraine in 1918.

In 1925 a collection was published satirical stories"Diaboliad". In 1925, the story "Fatal Eggs", the story "Steel Throat" (the first of the "Notes of a Young Doctor" cycle) were also published. The writer is working on the story "Heart of a Dog", the plays "Days of the Turbins" and "Zoyka's Apartment".

In 1926, the play "Days of the Turbins" was staged at the Moscow Art Theater.

In 1927, M. Bulgakov completed the drama "Running".

From 1926 to 1929, M. Bulgakov's play "Zoyka's Apartment" was staged at the Studio Theater of Yevgeny Vakhtangov, and "Crimson Island" (1928) was staged at the Moscow Chamber Theater in 1928-1929.

In 1932, the production of The Days of the Turbins was resumed at the Moscow Art Theater.

In 1934, the first complete version of The Master and Margarita was completed, which included 37 chapters.

Works by Mikhail Bulgakov

Novels and novels

• The Adventures of Chichikov (a satirical story, 1922)
• The White Guard (novel, 1922-1924)
• Diaboliad (novel, 1923)
• Notes on cuffs (novel, 1923)
• Crimson Island. Roman tov. Jules Verne. Mikhail A. Bulgakov translated from French into Aesopian (novel, published in Berlin in 1924)
• Fatal Eggs (novel, 1924)
• Heart of a Dog (novel, 1925, published in the USSR in 1987)
• Great chancellor. Prince of Darkness (part draft version novel "The Master and Margarita", 1928-1929)
• 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)
• The life of Monsieur de Molière (novel, 1933)
• Theatrical novel (Notes of a dead man) ( unfinished novel, 1936-1937, published in the USSR in 1965)

Plays, librettos, screenplays

• Zoya's apartment (play, 1925, staged in the USSR in 1926, released in mass circulation in 1982)
• The Days of the Turbins (a play written on the basis of the novel The White Guard, 1925, staged in the USSR in 1925, released in mass circulation in 1955)
• Running (play, 1926-1928)
• Crimson Island (play, 1927, published in the USSR in 1968)
• The Cabal of Saints (a play, 1929, (staged in the USSR in 1936), in 1931 it was allowed by censorship to be staged with a number of cuts called "Molière", but even in this form the production was postponed)
• Adam and Eve (play, 1931)
• Mad 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 Auditor (screenplay, 1934)
• Last days(Alexander Pushkin) (play, 1935 (published in the USSR in 1955)
• An Extraordinary Incident, or the Government Inspector (play based on a comedy by Nikolai Gogol, 1935)
• Ivan Vasilyevich (play, 1936)
• Minin and Pozharsky (opera libretto, 1936, published in the USSR in 1980)
• The Black Sea (opera libretto, 1936, published in the USSR in 1988)
• Rachel (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, originally titled "Shepherd", 1939, published in the USSR in 1988)
• Don Quixote (opera libretto based on the novel by Miguel de Cervantes, 1939)

stories

• No. 13. - House of Elpit-Rabkommun (short story, 1922)
• Arithmetic (short story from Notes and Miniatures, 1922)
• On the night of the 3rd (story from the collection Notes and Miniatures, 1922)
• At the Zimin Theater (story from the collection Notes and Miniatures, 1922)
• How he lost his mind (short story from Notes and Miniatures, 1922)
• Kaenpe and cape (story from Notes and Miniatures, 1922)
• The Red Crown (short story from Notes and Miniatures, 1922)
• Plaque. In a magic lantern (story from the collection Notes and Miniatures, 1922)
• The Extraordinary Adventures of a Doctor (short story from Notes and Miniatures, 1922)
• November 7th day (story from the collection Notes and Miniatures, 1922)
• Beware of fakes! (story from the collection Notes and Miniatures, 1922)
• Birds in the Attic (short story from Notes and Miniatures, 1922)
• Working city-garden (story from the collection Notes and Miniatures, 1922)
• The Soviet Inquisition (story from the collection Notes and Miniatures, 1922)
• Chinese history. 6 Pictures Instead of a Story (short story, 1923)
• Memory... (story, dedicated to death Lenin, 1924)
• Khan's Fire (story, 1924)
• A towel with a rooster (a story from the cycle "Notes of a Young Doctor", 1925)
• Baptism by turning (a story from the cycle "Notes of a Young Doctor", 1925)
• Steel throat (story from the cycle "Notes of a young doctor", 1925)
• Blizzard (story from the cycle "Notes of a young doctor", 1925)
• Egyptian darkness (story from the cycle "Notes of a young doctor", 1925)
• The missing eye (story from the cycle "Notes of a young doctor", 1925)
• Star rash (story from the cycle "Notes of a young doctor", 1925)
• Bohemia (story, 1925)
• Holiday with syphilis humorous story, 1925)
• Tambourine Story (story, 1926)
• I Killed (story, 1926)
• Morphine (story, 1926)
• Treatise on Housing (story from the collection "Treatise on Housing", 1926)
• Psalm (story from the collection "Treatise on Housing", 1926)
• Four portraits (story from the collection Treatise on Housing, 1926)
• Moonshine Lake (story from the collection "Treatise on Housing", 1926)

Journalism and feuilletons

Journalism and feuilletons

Screen versions of works

• Pilate and others (Master and Margarita) (Germany, TV movie, 1972, 90 min.) - dir. Andrzej Wajda
• Master and Margarita (Yugoslavia - Italy, Feature Film, 1972, 95 min.) - dir. Alexander Petrovich
• The Master and Margarita (Poland, TV series, 1989, 4 episodes ~370 min.) - dir. Maczek Wojtyshko
• Incident in Judea (Master and Margarita) (UK, TV movie, 1991) - dir. Paul Briers
• The Master and Margarita (Russia, feature film, 1994, 240 min./125 min.) - dir. Yuri Kara
• The Master and Margarita (Russia, TV show, 1996, 142 min.) - dir. Sergey Desnitsky
• Master and Margarita (Hungary, short film, 2005, 26 min.) - dir. Iboia Fekete
• The Master and Margarita (Russia, TV series, 2005, 10 episodes, ~500 min.) - dir. Vladimir Bortko
• The Master and Margarita, Part One, Chapter 1 (Israel, animated film, 2010, 33 min.) - dir. Terenty Oslyabya
• Heart of a Dog (Russia, feature film, 1988, 131 min.) - dir. Vladimir Bortko
• Cuore di cane (Heart of a Dog) (Italy, feature film, 1975) - dir. Alberto Lattuada
• Running (based on the works: Running, White Guard, Black Sea) (USSR, feature film, 1970, 196 min.) - dir. Alexander Alov, Vladimir Naumov
• Days of the Turbins (USSR, feature film, 1976, 223 min.) - dir. Vladimir Basov
• Ivan Vasilyevich changes profession (Ivan Vasilyevich) (USSR, feature film, 1973, 87 min.) - dir. Leonid Gaidai
• Fatal eggs (Russia, feature film, 1995, 117 min.) - dir. Sergei Lomkin
• Morphine (based on the works: Notes of a young doctor, Morphine) (Russia, feature film, 2008, 112 min.) - dir. Alexey Balabanov
• Notes of a young doctor (based on the works: Notes of a young doctor) (Russia, feature film, 1991, 65 min.) - dir. Mikhail Yakzhen
• Case history (based on the works: “The Red Crown”) (Russia, feature film, 1990, 40 min.) - dir. Alexey Prazdnikov

Theatrical performances based on the works of Mikhail Bulgakov

Museums

• State Museum M. A. Bulgakov in Moscow, "Bad apartment."
• Cultural Center "Bulgakov's House" (Moscow, Bolshaya Sadovaya, 10)
• House of the Turbins, Literary and Memorial Museum. M. Bulgakov in Kyiv: Andreevsky Spusk, 13.
• Museum of One Street (Museum of Andreevsky Spusk) - part of the exposition is dedicated to the life of Mikhail Bulgakov and his work.

Memory

120th anniversary

• On May 15, 2011, celebrations of the 120th anniversary of the birth of M. Bulgakov took place in Kyiv.
• On May 15 at 10:40 pm, the Kultura TV channel showed the feature film Theatrical Romance.
• In Moscow, in the museum-apartment on Bolshaya Sadovaya, three new exhibitions have been prepared:
• "New Arrivals";
• "In the desk drawer";
• "Eight dreams. Run".
• In the park of the Bulgakov estate in Bucha, Kyiv region, the birthday of M. Bulgakov was celebrated. A monument to the writer was unveiled, a garden laid out and an international theater festival held.
• May 18, 2011 at major league The Cheerful and Resourceful Club played the 3rd quarter final of the season, the theme of which was "Bulgakov and his work."

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

Mikhail Bulgakov arrived in Moscow in the autumn of 1921 and already the following year began to publish in fine Moscow magazines - "Rupor", "Red Magazine for Everyone", "Smekhach" and others; got a job as a feuilletonist in the Gudok newspaper 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, short stories and short stories. 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", he gained fame as a playwright and practically left prose. We have selected five Bulgakov stories from the 1920s written in different genres and on various topics. Taken together, they give an idea of ​​Bulgakov as a writer of that time - about how he started and how he worked with his recent past and the new Soviet reality.

Moonshine Lake (1923)

"Moonshine lake" - business card the first Moscow years of Bulgakov. 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. Chief Editor literary application to the Berlin newspaper Nakanune, Alexei Tolstoy 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, who occupies a room in communal apartment No. 50, in the evening, when silence reigned in the “cursed apartment”, intended to read a book calmly, but the reading was interrupted by a rooster crow. As it turned out, the rooster was plucked alive by an absolutely drunk unknown citizen, a companion of the quarter farm Vasily Ivanovich. The protagonist saved the rooster, and for a while it became quiet in the apartment again, but then at night the apartment house itself broke 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 Sidoroar, 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 the junior janitor (“he had drunk a little”), the senior one (“dead drunk”) and the stoker (“in a terrible state”). During the day, the militia covered the moonshine, but in the evening “a fresh source” in the neighborhood “filled up”, and general drunkenness continued on a no lesser scale. The desperate hero and his wife closed the room and left for three days with their sister.

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

Bulgakov’s wife also later recalled the moonshine everyday life of the apartment: “They buy moonshine, get drunk, they will definitely start to fight, women yell:“ Save, help! ” Bulgakov, of course, jumps out, runs to call the police. And the police come - they lock themselves with keys, 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. Bulgakov's diary contains 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 autumn of 1924, and the first separate housing with own office appeared at someone only three years later.

"Chinese History" (1923)

"Chinese History" is 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, which is 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 the Chinese who traded from the stalls (see, for example, in Osip Mandelstam’s “Egyptian stamp”: “At night a Chinese dreamed, hung with ladies’ handbags, like a necklace of hazel grouses”), and then they began to call all the Chinese like that. Sen-Zin-Po yearns for warm China in cold alien Moscow. In the opium parlour, he lost his last money and his sheepskin coat. Later, “in some gigantic hall with semi-circular vaults”, the Chinese gets to the Red Army and he is recorded 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 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 contrasts with the then famous story of Vsevolod Ivanov "Armored train No. 14.69", the hero of which, the Red Army soldier Sin-Bing-U, possesses a class instinct, takes the side of the Red Army and sacrifices himself for the common victory.

Three years later, the heroes Chinese history” turned into Bulgakov’s play “Zoy-kina’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 the laundry in the play.

"Khan 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 almost on a dare:

“The rather sophisticated novelist himself, V.P. Kataev, comparing our writers with O’Henry, somehow complained:
- They write badly, boringly, no fiction. You read the first two paragraphs, and then you can not read. The connection is solved. The story is viewed through to the last point.
Touched to the core, our other novelist, Bulgakov, suddenly intervenes:
“I swear and promise: I’ll write a story, and you won’t untie the plot until you read the last line.”

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

The action of the story takes place in the estate-museum "Khan Stavka". The old caretaker Jonah, who served even before the revolution with its former owners, shows the palace to a group of young sightseers. Among them, he notes two mysterious visitors - "naked" in some shorts and pince-nez and a foreigner in gold glasses. The palace evokes different feelings among visitors - members of the Komsomol, a naked, bourgeois lady with a daughter, a mysterious foreigner. In the end, after escorting the visitors, Jonah is about to close the museum, notices that very mysterious foreigner and suddenly recognizes his face. The finale of the story, as Bulgakov promised, is impossible to predict in advance.

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

In the story, an important topic 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 sightseers). In 1921, Bulgakov 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 along with the Whites, but fell down 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 me? 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, went into exile. The writer asked her about Constantinople when he wrote the play "Running".

"Blizzard" (1926)

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, the almost cinematic-graphic accuracy in the image main stage chases and a happy ending make "Blizzard", as it seems, the main and most exciting story of the cycle.

A young doctor who sees a hundred peasants a day is enjoying unexpected peace and a hot bath: there is a blizzard on the street, and no one has come to the appointment - when suddenly they bring him a note asking him to urgently come to the patient - the bride of the clerk, whose wedding she spoke of the whole neighborhood (“I’m not lucky in my life,” I thought wistfully, 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 the ensuing 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 myself and the ill-fated fireman") and get home - the fight against death this time ended in victory, but this fight is not over: "Get rich for me," I muttered, dozing, "but I can't go anymore ... - You'll go ... en, 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 editorial office with a description of a similar case: “Wolves: from the life of district health workers from. Balaklay, Izyumsky district.

Seven stories of "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 the 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 1916), and main character single, the rest of the stories quite accurately reflect his biography.

A few years later, in a letter to the Government of the USSR, Bulgakov called one of his main tasks "the stubborn image of the Russian intelligentsia as the best layer in our country." One of these Russian intellectuals, no doubt, was the young hero of the Notes of a Young Doctor.

"I Killed" (1926)

One of Bulgakov's most important themes in the first half of the 1920s, connected with understanding the experience of the Civil War, is the theme of collective responsibility. As Marietta Chudakova wrote, "participation - even if it is inaction - in the murder of compatriots, which places an inexcusable burden on the whole further fate each individually and all together - this biographical motif will be laid at the foundation of Bulgakov's artistic world.

Three stories stand out in particular here: the earlier "The Red Crown" and "The Extraordinary Adventures of the Doctor" and the later "I Killed." So, the protagonist 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 a person is hanged, but fear left with me in shaking legs” . He hopelessly tries to go back in time 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 the art world Bulgakov violates this principle of the hero's inaction and the subsequent painful feeling of guilt.

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 Petliurists retreating from Kyiv, 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 rush at him with a penknife. It is here that the same fork passes, which tormented the hero of the story "The Red Crown". The doctor turns from a passive witness into a participant and intervenes in what is happening: “Everything became cloudy before my eyes, even to the point of nausea, and I felt that now the most terrible and amazing events in my ill-fated doctoral life had begun.” Dr. Yashvin shot the colonel and escaped from Petliura's captivity.

Dr. Yashvin, a dapper, brave, successful, calm and secretive person, undoubtedly bears 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 advancing on Kyiv. In captivity at the Petliurists, he witnessed the murder of a man on the bridge. The shocked writer was able to escape at night:

“And at the third hour [of the night] all of a sudden such calls! .. We rushed with Varka Varvara, sister of Mikhail Bulgakov. open the door - well, of course, he. For some reason, he ran hard, trembling all over, and his condition was terrible - he was so nervous. 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:

“The pan of the smoking room did not calculate the blow and with lightning speed lowered the ramrod on his head. Something in it grunted, the black one did not answer“ wow ... as if he wanted to seize more of the trampled and manured land for himself. The fingers curled up and raked the dirty snow. Then, in a dark puddle, the man lying in a spasm twitched several times and fell silent.