Bulgakov, Mikhail Afanasievich

BULGAKOV, MIKHAIL AFANASIEVICH

(1891–1940), twentieth-century novelist, journalist, short story writer, and playwright; author of internationally acclaimed novel Master and Margarita.

Mikhail Afanasievich Bulgakov was born in Kiev. He graduated from the Kiev University Medical School in 1916 and married Tatiana Lappa, his first of three wives. He practiced medicine in provincial villages, then in Kiev, where he witnessed the outbreak of the Russian Civil War and struggled with morphine addiction. In 1920 he abandoned medicine for a writing career and moved to Vladikavkaz, Caucasus, where he wrote feuilletons and studied theater.

Bulgakov moved to Moscow in 1921. There his troubles with censorship began. His satirical (patently science fiction) novel Heart of a Dog (Sobache serdtse ) was deemed unpublishable. His play Days of the Turbins (Dni Turbinykh ), based on his autobiographical novel White Guardu (Belaya Gvardiya ), premiered in 1926 and was banned after its 289th performance (although it supposedly numbered among Josef Stalin's favorite plays). Subsequent plays were banned much earlier in the production process. His short story "Morphine" (1927) was his last publication in his lifetime. In 1930 he wrote a long letter (his second) to the Soviet government requesting permission to emigrate. He received in response a telephone call from Stalin, who offered him an assignment as assistant producer at the Moscow Art Theater. Although not subjected to forced labor or confinement, Bulgakov hardly enjoyed privilege. His work remained unpublished and unperformed. His attempts to appease the censors by tackling relatively safe subjects (historical fiction and adaptations) proved futile.

Bulgakov's novel Master and Margarita was written between 1928 and 1940. Resonant with the influence of Nikolai Gogol, it concerns the Devil, who, disguised as a professor, travels to Moscow to wreak havoc. This exuberantly irreverent work swirls with fierce wit, narrative inventiveness, and a myriad of historical, literary, and religious references.

Bulgakov's last play, Batum (1939), written in honor of Stalin's sixtieth jubilee, was banned. Bulgakov died of kidney disease in 1940.

See also: gogol, nikolai vasilievich; moscow art theater; theater

bibliography

Bulgakov, Mikhail. (1987). Heart of a Dog, reprint ed., tr. Mirra Ginsburg. New York: Grove.

Bulgakov, Mikhail. (1996). The Master and Margarita, reprint ed., tr. Diana Burgin and Katherine Tiernan O'Connor. New York: Vintage.

Milne, Lesley. (1990). Bulgakov: A Critical Biography. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

Proffer, Ellendea. (1984). Bulgakov: Life and Work. Ann Arbor, MI: Ardis.

Diana Senechal