If you have ever met me, you would know that the first words that come out of my mouth are "The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov.” Not even “Read The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov” I simply just say “The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov” … Now, if you cannot already tell, The Master and Margarita was a life-changing experience for me. For me, it transcends my ability to discuss it in any kind of scholarly or professional manner, I simply just say “Live, laugh, love, Mikhail Bulgakov” and then all my coworkers at the RWC sigh, and say “Guess we gotta sedate Julie again…”
Jokes aside (they will return), I was introduced to the wonderful world of Mikhail Bulgakov earlier this year by a dear friend who told me about The Master and Margarita; he spoke only of the Jerusalem side plot and did not at any point mention the black cat the size of a hog, or the fact that it will make you laugh so hard you cry. Now, you are probably expecting some kind of review or summary of The Master and Margarita; I will not do that. Instead, I will write about Bulgakov himself.
Born in Odessa, and raised in Kyiv, Mikhail Bulgakov was born to Afanasiy Bulgakov and Varvara Mikhailovna Bulgakova on May 15th, 1891. He was the oldest of seven children. As a child, he loved theater, and would frequently write comedies and act them out with his brothers and sisters. At ten years of age, Bulgakov joined the First Kiev Gymnasium (a secondary school, the American equivalent is high school). Here, he developed an interest in Russian and European literature; his favorite authors at the time were Gogol, Pushkin, Dostoyevsky, Saltykov-Shchedrin, and Dickens. He graduated from the Gymnasium in 1909 and entered the Medical Faculty of Kyiv University. At the start of World War I, he volunteered for the Red Cross. At the
start of the Russian Civil War, Bulgakov was recruited by the White Army and was assigned to the Northern Caucasus. There, he became severely ill with typhus, and barely survived. His illness also prevented him from fleeing Russia. At the end of the civil war, most of his family fled to Paris, and that was the last he ever saw of them. After his illness, he left the medical field and pursued writing. Upon moving to Moscow, he began to work for various newspapers based in Berlin. Simultaneously, he worked on short stories like "Diaboliad", "The Fatal Eggs", and "Heart of a Dog."
Throughout his short life as an author, he was hounded by censorship and literary critics; his short story "Diaboliad" was the only work of his to be successfully published and even receive praise from former Bolshevik, Yevgeny Zamyatin. Bulgakov’s journals tell us much of his early life as a writer, but he stopped journaling after his journals were repeatedly seized by OGPU. His letters to family, friends, colleagues, and even Joseph Stalin reveal much of his personality; he was a kind and loving man, humorous even in the worst of circumstances, and he suffered greatly.
His semi-autobiographical work, Black Snow, a criminally underrated novel that portrays his life in the theater, is my current read of his, and so far has become my personal favorite. It is in this novel that we get not an understanding of his experience with censorship and harsh criticism, for that is The Master and Margarita’s purpose, but rather we see his life as a playwright who suffers at the hands of others' jealousy. Bulgakov portrays himself through the protagonist Sergei Maksudov (or Maxudov in the Glenny translation) who has written a play that is so good that it must be completely changed to appease the actors and directors at the theater. Meanwhile in Bulgakov’s most famous work, The Master and Margarita, he portrays himself through the writer ‘Master’. This portrayal of himself focuses on how he suffered as a writer in the Soviet Union and is rather pitiful (but for good reason, of course ). However, upon further investigation of his journals and letters, it should be noted that both portrayals of himself are true to his character; he was a phenomenal writer who made even his political opposition somehow love his writing. He had a sort of satirical charisma about him that is seen in Maksudov’s character, but he suffered greatly and frequently wrote about his struggles with neurosis, as seen in both Master and Maksudov.
Now, I too am wondering why I wrote all this.
It has nothing to do with the election or Thanksgiving, but all my coworkers told me I should write about Bulgakov. And now I have. It is hardly a review or summary of any of his works, and it certainly is not even a biography; I did not even mention his death! But, regardless, if you have read this far, then perhaps you are interested in his works; my advice is to start with The Master and Margarita, which is everyone’s first Bulgakov, and be prepared for the most inane of situations, and be prepared to laugh so hard you cry if you are into that sort of thing. Truthfully, many people aren't, they find his work ‘’too silly” and cannot take it seriously. Regardless… read the Pevear and Volokhonsky translation, it is supposedly the closest to the original, and it has excellent footnotes.
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