He made fun of the Stalin regime: who is Mikhail Bulgakov?

Mihail Afansyevich Bulgakov, known for his books The Master and Margarita and The Heart of a Dog, was born on May 15, 1891, in Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine today. He is the son of a theology professor father.

Bulgakov graduated from medical school in 1916, during the years of the First World War. At that time, medical graduates were doing their military service as doctors in small and unequipped hospitals in remote corners of the country. Bulgakov also goes to the village of Nikolskoye in the Smolensk region and works as a general practitioner in the hospital there for eighteen months.

Mikhail Afanasyevich Bulgakov (15 May 1891 – 10 March 1940) was a Russian, later Soviet writer, medical doctor, and playwright active in the first half of the 20th century. He is best known for his novel The Master and Margarita, published posthumously, which has been called one of the masterpieces of the 20th century.

In his book, A Young Village Physician, he narrates his memories of that period. Some of them were published in journals between 1925 and 1927. The fantastic elements and surrealistic narration that left their mark on Bulgakov's literature are not seen in these stories. This story universe, which he built on the basis of his experiences, observations, and knowledge, reveals the bare and frightening reality of life before our eyes.

Unlike Anton Chekhov, who sees medicine as his wedded wife and literature as his mistress, Bulgakov does not like being a doctor. While Chekhov draws the characters of doctors who approach his patients with kindness and humanity and try to heal them in his stories about his profession, Bulgakov emphasizes the fear of the doctor rather than the patients. He is indifferent to Chekhov, unaffected by him, and loves Gogol. He sees himself among the writers who were affected not by the coat, but by his Nose story. Young doctor characters in A Young Village Physician regret their medical education. They are afraid of causing death when trying to bring a person back to life. Bulgakov worked as a doctor for four years, after 1920 he left his profession and devoted himself entirely to literature.

Published in 1925, Mikhail Bulgakov's semi-autobiographical debut novel, The White Guard, tells the story of the Turbin family living in the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, who find themselves in the middle of a chaotic civil war. On the axis of the personal loss suffered by the Turbins and the social turmoil that surrounds them, Bulgakov paints a marvelous portrait of the existential crises brought about by the revolution and the uncertainties that have arisen in social, moral, and political life. He plays this novel, which has similarities with Tolstoy's War and Peace, as Turbin Days. Although it was met with great reaction from the Soviet official circles on the grounds that it did not include a communist hero, it was said that Stalin liked the novel very much and that he watched Turbin Days fifteen times. Despite Stalin's interesting interest, Bulgakov is constantly criticized by the administration throughout his life, is constantly censored, and is dragged into the Moscow Art Theatre, where his plays can never be staged.

Although The Mortal Eggs was written in 1924 when Stalin came to power, this science fiction set in 1928 is a brilliant critique of the system that points to the consequences of the abuse of power and knowledge. While a new Russian reality emerged in the turbulent period following the 1917 Russian Revolution, Persikov, a professor of zoology, continues his scientific studies. During these studies, he accidentally discovers a new red ray that increases the reproductive rate of living organisms and makes them giant. Just then, when an epidemic broke out in the Soviet Republic that decimated all the chickens, Persikov's yet untested invention was seen as the solution to this problem. After all, it was the guiding principle of the Stalin era to surpass enemies and rivals with advances in science.

Although he wrote The Heart of a Dog in 1925, it could be published in the West in 1968 and in the USSR in 1987. A world-renowned Moscow surgeon takes a stray dog into his home and implants a deceased man's testicles and part of his brain with an organ transplant. The operation produces unexpected results. A dangerous human-animal has been created and the professor's respectable life has turned into a nightmare. In The Heart of the Dog, he allegorically opposed the new regime that tried to put everything in a system, based on a professor who studies dogs. The book can be read as an absurd and funny story or as a satire about the Russian Revolution. The novel, which can be compared to Frankenstein's story and Kafka's works, displays a surrealist humor genius.

In 1925, he met Lyubov Belozerskaya at a literary evening for Tolstoy, and they soon married. Belozerskaya's well-equipped education, command of the French language, reading and transferring many sources to the author, literary taste, and artistic spirit also affect Mikhail Bulgakov's literature. Lyubov Belozerskaya is the person to whom she dedicates the works of the White Guard, Heart of the Dog, and Master Moliere.

In 1929, a deep crisis period of 3.5 years begins in the writer's life, which will be difficult. The publication ban becomes encompassing all his works. After this year, neither a book nor a play will be staged. He pauses to write for a while. He wants to go abroad and even writes a letter to Stalin, but is not allowed. He is given a backstage job at the Moscow Art Theatre. Moreover, he has a hopeless love for Elena Sergeevna, who is married to him. In 1931, Elena and Bulgakov decided not to see each other again, and separated from each other after the mutual withdrawal of arms with Elena's husband, Silovski.

In A Theatrical Novel (Black Snow), which he started to write in 1936, Mihail Bulgakov sets out from his experiences as a playwright and presents the reader behind the scenes of the theater world of the period. Although Mihail Bulgakov is actually known as a novelist, his work was directed toward the theater while he was alive. However, the plays he wrote since 1920 are censored and not staged. Although he named his novel Theatrical Novel and Notes of a Deceased, it was published under the name Theatrical Bir Novel (Black Snow).

In the play, Sergey Leontevich Maksudov suddenly finds himself in the unbelievable maelstrom of theater when his play is almost randomly selected to be staged at the legendary Independent Theatre. Star actresses raise fanfare after fanfare as the two directors of the Independent Theater vie with each other for control of the production. It seems that the probability of the play being staged decreases with each rehearsal. Maksudov has fallen into chaos from which he does not know how. A Theatrical Novel (Black Snow) describes a broadcasting environment around ignorance, bad taste, and envy by moving from the local to the universal.

His masterpiece, The Master and Margarita, which he began to write in 1930, was completed in 1938, after eighteen years of writing numerous plays and short stories. It is a novel that was censored when it was first published, carries witty sarcasm and a philosophical depth, and examines the problems of universal good and evil. The book, which has an interesting plot, tells about two different times. A man with the ability to read the future approaches two writers who are discussing whether Jesus really lived in Moscow in the 30s, saying that one will die soon and the other will go mad. This foreigner named Woland is none other than the devil who has come to visit Soviet society. Indeed, one of the authors dies shortly after. The other writer, who went crazy and was imprisoned in a mental hospital, meets the Master there. He listens to the Master's novel about the governor Pontius Pilate, who played a major role in the crucifixion of Jesus, and his love for Margarita. Known as one of the best novels of the 20th century, it oscillates between the often sarcastic scenes and the powerful, emotional, and pathetic moments, with a fantastic plot and sharp satirical humor.

Bulgakov's health is deteriorating, and he will spend this period struggling to finish his novel The Master and Margarita with the support of his wife. Elena writes in her diary: “She added to the first chapter and asked me to reread the novel for her. I started reading the part about Berlioz's funeral when he said, "Okay... that's enough... I guess" and didn't want me to read it again."

For The Master and Margarita, it is said to be a work that centers on Stalin's direct intervention in Bulgakov's life, and according to another reading, the three novel heroes Woland, The Master, and Margarita are direct counterparts of the personalities of Stalin, Bulgakov, and Elena, respectively.

He died on March 10, 1940, at the age of 49 from kidney failure. The Master and Margarita could only be published in the Moscow Magazine in 1966-67, years after his death, with the efforts of his wife. Its booklet reaches 1973.

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How Stalin Toyed With Mikhail Bulgakov

The author of The Master and Margarita faced a bewildering mixture of rewards and censorship.

https://reason.com/2022/08/20/the-master-and-margarita/