Biography of Bulgakov personal life. The best works of Bulgakov: list and brief overview. Education of Mikhail Bulgakov

A concise description of Bulgakov’s life can briefly explain the phenomenon of a brilliant writer who went through all life’s difficulties and trials, while remaining a true humanist. Mikhail Afanasyevich is the author of more than 170 works, including novels, plays, feuilletons, essays, short stories, novellas, and theatrical performances. Dry facts from his life can be found in Wikipedia, textbooks, the writer’s biography is well studied, but only in his work is life realism, decorated with satire and humor, revealed.

To understand what kind of person Mikhail Bulgakov is, you need to understand his origins. The future writer was born on May 15, 1891 in Kyiv in the family of Afanasy Ivanovich and Varvara Mikhailovna Bulgakov - a teacher at the Theological Academy, a state councilor and the daughter of an archpriest. A large family, where six more children were growing up besides Mikhail, had enough money for a comfortable existence.

The children were raised by Varvara Mikhailovna, a sophisticated intellectual who instilled in the children a love of art, music, and reading. Even the untimely death of the father of the family did not prevent the future author from graduating from the First Alexander Gymnasium - the cradle of the Kyiv intelligentsia.

In 1909, Bulgakov entered the Faculty of Medicine at Kiev University. In the works “Fatal Eggs,” the author’s sympathy for professors Persikov and Filipp Filippovich can be traced for a reason, since Bulgakov was a doctor by profession.

Years of wars and revolutions

According to information about Bulgakov from Wikipedia, in 1913 his personal life improved. The future author married Tatyana Nikolaevna Lappa, the daughter of a leading nobleman.

The newlyweds settled in a rented apartment on Andreevsky Spusk and loved to attend theater plays, premieres, and music concerts. Several times the young man went to Chaliapin’s concerts. An interesting fact in Bulgakov’s work was that the features of Chaliapin’s Mephistopheles were reflected in Woland, the hero of the writer’s last novel.

In 1914, after the outbreak of the First World War, Mikhail went to the front to serve as what he was by training - a doctor. The future author served in the field hospital until the fall of 1916.

Returning from the front, Bulgakov went to the Smolensk province to take the post of head of a rural hospital in Nikolino, Sychevsky district. A year later, the doctor was sent to serve as the head of the infectious diseases and venereology department of a hospital in the city of Vyazma.

According to documents from the archives of the zemstvo government, the young man showed himself to be a good doctor, as evidenced by the facts:

• in the admission log, the total number of patients was 15 thousand;
• all surgical operations performed by Bulgakov were successful.

Bulgakov's life and work were influenced by the February Revolution. The writer described this event verbatim like this: “Suddenly, history began menacingly.” After the events of the October Revolution, the doctor received an exemption from military service and was able to return to Kyiv, where he was overwhelmed by the wave of civil war. The authorities were constantly changing, and each one needed the services of a good doctor. So Mikhail Afanasyevich served in the following armies:

1. Hetman Skoropadsky;
2. Leader of the nationalist movement Petliura;
3. In the Red Army;
4. In Denikin's troops.

The events experienced from Bulgakov’s biography were briefly reflected in “The White Guard”, in the stories “Raid” and “On the Night of the 3rd”, in “Days of the Turbins”, in “Run”. To understand the historical situation of those times, it is worth reading these works.

White Guard

Creation

Wikipedia claims that at the end of 1919 or at the beginning of 1920, Bulgakov’s life changed dramatically: he left the ranks of Denikin’s army. The good doctor changed his medical activity, who Bulgakov was in his main profession and education, and began to collaborate as an author in local newspapers. The writer’s first works were included in the collection “Tribute of Admiration” and were published in the spring of 1920 in local newspapers in the North Caucasus.

Interesting! The writer’s sister recalled that Mikhail Bulgakov began writing in his first year at the university - the story was called “The Fiery Serpent.” This work is about a man with alcoholism.

Staying in the Caucasus, authorbegan to defend the latterherlegacyeclassics, entering into controversy withfiguresculturethose times. As a result, he was expelled from the arts department in the fall of 1920. Bulgakov was left without work and without a livelihood. In the spring of 1921, the aspiring writer’s life changed thanks to the successful dramatization of the play “Sons of the Mullah.” U young man the opportunity arose to move to Tiflis and then to Batumi.

Moving to Moscow

In the fall of 1921, Bulgakov decided to move to Moscow. Mikhail Afanasyevich worked as secretary of the literary department of the Glavkomitprosvet for two months, then was left without work. Attempts at cooperation in private newspapers were unsuccessful.

The time of unemployment ended in the spring of 1922 - the author began to regularly publish on the pages of Moscow newspapers and magazines.

Chronological table of Bulgakov's works:

The crowning achievement of Mikhail Afanasyevich’s work is the brilliant novel “The Master and Margarita.” Written over the course of 10 years, it is a must read, because it contains all the life experience of the writer and conveys his vision of the meaning of life.

Useful video: documentary film Romance with a secret

Years of criticism and persecution

Nsince 1914 authorlived through difficult years of life, seen a lot of wars, injustice, cruelty, but always remained a supporter of universal human values, he tried to convey them to people in his work. In the 20s, Bulgakov's position was condemned. The works of Mikhail Afanasyevich were prohibited, were not published and were not staged on the theater stage.

In 1929, the attacks of critics reached their climax. The plays “Days of the Turbins”, “Crimson Island” and the comedy “Zoyka’s Apartment” were withdrawn from the dramatization. The Main Repertoire Committee banned the new play “Molière” in the spring of 1930. Then Mikhail Bulgakov briefly wrote a letter to the government asking him to travel abroad due to the impossibility of existing in his homeland. Soon Stalin called him. So the writer, a doctor by training, was appointed assistant director at the Moscow Art Theater.

In 1932, screenings of “Days of the Turbins” were resumed, and the play “ Dead souls"according to Gogol. In 1936, the author moved from the Art Theater to the Bolshoi Theater to the position of librettist.

In 1924, changes occurred in Bulgakov’s personal life - he divorced Tatyana Nikolaevna Lappa and married Lyubov Evgenievna Belozerskaya. And in 1932, he divorced his second wife and entered into a third marriage with Elena Sergeevna Shilovskaya, who took her husband’s surname. It was her image that became the prototype of Margarita from the novel. Shilovskaya saved the author from loneliness in last years his life, and after his death she achieved the publication of the main works of the writer.

Bulgakov made his last attempt to publish his work in 1933 (the play “The Life of Monsieur de Molière”) and failed. Until his death on March 10, 1940, the master was no longer published. Before his death, Bulgakov went blind; doctors diagnosed a hereditary kidney disease, from which Mikhail Afanasyevich’s father died. The final version of the novel “The Master and Margarita” was completed by Elena Sergeevna Bulgakova under the dictation of a writer who had not even seen a draft of his work.

The autobiography is collected in several of his works “To a Secret Friend”, “Notes on Cuffs”, “Notes of a Young Doctor”, in “Molière”, in “The White Guard”. These creations help to look into inner world writer, to see through his eyes the historical situation of that time.

To better understand who Mikhail Afanasyevich is, you should know that having a reputation as a semi-disgraced writer, he wrote to Stalin, asking not for himself, but for others. So, he asked for the arrested son and husband of Anna Akhmatova, for the exiled friend Nikolai Erdman.

Interesting! After meeting Elena Sergeevna in 1929, the author dedicated the unfinished story “To a Secret Friend” to her. The work describes Bulgakov’s years of life in Moscow and work on the novel “The White Guard.” A kind of autobiography for a loved one with whom it was impossible to connect at that time.

Useful video: 10 Facts Mikhail Bulgakov

Conclusion

Who was Bulgakov? A writer who rooted for a person, be it an extraordinary Master or an unremarkable clerk. Mikhail Afanasyevich did not perceive literature with abstract pain and suffering, unrealistic heroes passing by the truth of life. For Bulgakov, mysticism in works is a literary device that shades reality in a satirical light, showing negative traits modern life. With his creativity, he showed genuine humanism, which is close to us today.

In contact with

One can bow one’s head low before the talent of this wonderful Russian and Soviet writer. The most famous works Almost all of Bulgakov’s work has been disassembled into quotes. Mikhail Afanasyevich considered Gogol to be his teacher, he imitated him and also became a mystic. Until now, writers do not have a common opinion on whether Bulgakov was an occultist. But he was a great playwright and theater director, the author of many feuilletons, stories, plays, film scripts, dramatizations and opera librettos. Bulgakov's works were staged in theaters and filmed. 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 descendants will never forget. He predicted the fate of his works with one brilliant phrase: “Manuscripts don’t burn!”

Biography

Bulgakov was born on May 3, 1891 in Kyiv in the family of professor of the Theological Academy Afanasy Ivanovich Bulgakov and Varvara Mikhailovna, nee Pokrovskaya. The future writer, having graduated from high school, entered the medical school hometown, wanting to follow in the footsteps of his famous uncle N.M. Pokrovsky. In 1916, after graduating, he practiced for several months in the front-line zone. Then he worked as a venereologist, and during the civil war he managed to work for both the whites and the reds and survive.

Works of Bulgakov

His rich literary life began after moving to Moscow. There, in well-known publishing houses, he publishes his feuilletons. Then he writes the books “Fatal Eggs” and “Diaboliad” (1925). Behind them he creates the play “Days of the Turbins”. Bulgakov's works provoked sharp criticism from many, but be that as it may, with each masterpiece he wrote, there were more and more admirers. As a writer he enjoyed enormous 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 ready for production and Bulgakov went with his wife and colleagues to Georgia, a telegram soon arrived saying that Stalin considered it inappropriate to stage a play about himself. This greatly undermined the writer’s health, he began to lose his vision, and then doctors diagnosed him with kidney disease. For pain, Bulgakov again began to use morphine, which he had taken back in 1924. At the same time, the writer was dictating the last pages of the “Master and Margarita” manuscript to his wife. 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 over time became real bestsellers, if we say modern language, and still stirs the minds of people who are trying to unravel his codes and messages, was truly 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 Bulgakov’s compatriots, but throughout the whole world. Several decades have passed, and the plot still excites minds, attracts with mysticism and riddles that prompt various philosophical and religious thoughts. “The Master and Margarita” is a novel studied in schools, and this is even though not every literature-savvy person can understand the intent of this masterpiece. Bulgakov began writing the novel in the 20s, then with all the amendments to the plot and title, the work was finally formalized in 1937. But in the USSR the complete book was published only in 1973.

Woland

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

Many are impressed by one of the main characters of the novel - Woland. To not particularly thoughtful and trusting 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 is a very multifaceted and difficult character, 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” is another fantastic story by Bulgakov, published in 1925. He moves his heroes to 1928. Main character- a brilliant inventor, professor of zoology Persikov, one day makes a unique discovery - he discovers a certain phenomenal stimulant, a red ray of life, which, acting on living embryos (embryos), makes them 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 Bismarck’s words that the revolution is prepared by geniuses, carried out by romantic fanatics, but the fruits are enjoyed by scoundrels. And so it happened: Persikov became the genius who created the revolutionary idea in biology, Ivanov became the 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” is a play by Bulgakov, created by him in 1925 (at the Moscow Art Theater they wanted to stage a play based on his novel “The White Guard”). The plot was based on the writer's memoirs during the civil war about the fall of the regime of Ukrainian hetman Pavel Skoropadsky, then about Petliura's rise to power and his expulsion from the city by Bolshevik revolutionaries. Against the backdrop of constant struggle and change of power, the family tragedy of the Turbin couple appears in parallel, in which the foundations of the old world are broken. Bulgakov then lived in Kyiv (1918-1919). A year later the play was staged, then it was repeatedly edited and the name was changed.

“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, her stage fate was difficult and unpredictable. The play was a huge success, but received devastating critical reviews. In 1929, it was removed from the repertoire, Bulgakov began to be accused of philistinism and propaganda white movement. But on the instructions of Stalin, who loved this play, the performance was restored. For the writer, who did odd jobs, the production at the Moscow Art Theater was practically the only source of income.

About myself and the bureaucracy

“Notes on Cuffs” is a story that is somewhat autobiographical. Bulgakov wrote it between 1922 and 1923. It was not published during his lifetime; today part of the text is lost. The main motive of the work “Notes on Cuffs” was the writer’s problematic relationship with the authorities. He described in great detail his life in the Caucasus, the debate 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 the shipping machine going to Constantinople.

“Diaboliada” is a story that was created in 1925. Bulgakov called himself a mystic, but, despite the declared mysticism, the content of this work consisted of pictures of ordinary everyday life, where, following Gogol, he showed irrationality and illogicality social existence. It is from this foundation that Bulgakov’s satire consists.

“Diaboliada” is a story in which the plot takes place in a mystical whirlwind of bureaucratic whirlwind with the rustling of papers on tables and in endless bustle. The main character - the little official Korotkov - is chasing along long corridors and floors after a certain mythical manager, Long John, who either appears, then disappears, or even splits into two. In this relentless pursuit, Korotkov loses both himself and his name. And then he turns into a pitiful and defenseless little man. As a result, Korotkov, in order to escape from this enchanted cycle, has only one thing left to do - throw himself from the roof of a skyscraper.

Moliere

"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 did the Young Guard publishing house publish it in the ZhZL book series. In 1932, Bulgakov entered into an agreement with a magazine and newspaper publishing house and wrote about Moliere for the ZhZL series. A year later he finished the work and passed it. Editor A. N. Tikhonov wrote a review in which he recognized Bulgakov’s talent, but in general the review was negative. Mainly he did not like the non-Marxist position and the fact that the story has a narrator (“a cheeky young man”). Bulgakov was offered to remake the novel in the classical spirit of historical storytelling, 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 remained unsuccessful. For obvious reasons, the Soviet leadership often did not like Bulgakov's works.

The 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 Moliere's patience ran out, he exclaimed that he hated royal tyranny. In the same way, 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 those around the leader, in officials and newspaper Pharisees. In the 30s, there really was a large part of the intelligentsia who believed in Stalin’s innocence and innocence, so Bulgakov fed himself with similar illusions. Mikhail Afanasyevich tried to understand one of the characteristics of the artist - fatal loneliness among people.

Satire on power

Bulgakov’s story “The Heart of a Dog” became another of Bulgakov’s masterpieces, which he wrote in 1925. The most common political interpretation boils down to the idea of ​​the “Russian revolution” and 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 he quickly reveals selfish interests, 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 Sharikov’s creators is predetermined. In his story, Bulgakov seems to predict massive Stalin's repressions 1930s.

Many literary scholars consider Bulgakov’s story “The Heart of a Dog” 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 evidenced by the “iron surname”), Preobrazhensky is Lenin (the one who transformed the country), Doctor Bormental (who is constantly in conflict with Sharikov) is 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 a brilliant metropolitan literary circle could be much more dangerous than speeches by 101st grade writers at meetings of the All-Russian Union of Poets.

Bulgakov hoped to the last that the work would be published in the almanac "Nedra", but it was not even allowed into Glavlit for reading, but the manuscript was somehow handed over to L. Kamenev, who noted that this work should under no circumstances be published, since it is a poignant pamphlet on modern times. Then in 1926 there was a search of Bulgakov, the manuscripts of the book and the diary were confiscated, they were returned to the author only three years after the petition of Maxim Gorky.

For many, Mikhail Bulgakov is their favorite writer. His biography is interpreted differently by people of different directions. The reason is how certain researchers relate his name to 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 is what we will do.

The writer's parents, brothers and sisters

Mikhail Afanasyevich was born in Kiev in the family of a theology professor Afanasy Ivanovich, who taught at the Theological Academy. His mother, Varvara Mikhailovna Pokrovskaya, also taught at the Karachay gymnasium. Both parents were hereditary bell nobles; their priest grandfathers 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.

Education and character of Mikhail

Bulgakov received his education in his hometown. His biography contains information about graduating from the First Kyiv Gymnasium at the age of eighteen and from the medical faculty of Kyiv 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 comrade Boris Bogdanov because of love for Varya Bulgakova, the sister of Mikhail Afanasyevich - all these circumstances determined the character of Bulgakov: suspicious, prone to neuroses.

First wife

At twenty-two, the future writer married his first wife, Tatyana Lappa, a year younger than him. Judging by the memoirs of Tatyana Nikolaevna (she lived until 1982), a film could be made about this short marriage. The newlyweds managed to spend the money sent by their parents on a veil and wedding dress before the wedding. For some reason they laughed at the wedding. Of the flowers given to the newlyweds, the majority were daffodils. The bride was wearing a linen skirt, and her mother, who arrived and was horrified, managed to buy her a blouse for the wedding. Bulgakov's biography by date, thus, culminated in the wedding date of 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 money, he was not distinguished by prudence in spending money. For him, for example, it was in the order of things to order a taxi with his last money. Valuable items were often pawned in pawn shops. Although Tatiana’s father helped the young couple with money, the funds constantly disappeared.

Medical practice

Fate rather cruelly prevented him from becoming a doctor, even though Bulgakov had talent and professional flair. The biography mentions that he had the misfortune of contracting dangerous diseases while engaging in professional activities. Mikhail Afanasyevich, wanting to realize himself as a specialist, was active as a doctor. Over the course of a year, Dr. Bulgakov saw 15,361 patients at outpatient appointments (forty people a day!). 211 people were treated in his hospital. However, as you can see, Fate itself prevented him from becoming a doctor. In 1917, having become infected with diphtheria, Mikhail Afanasyevich took a serum against it. The result was a severe allergy. He relieved her painful symptoms with morphine, but then became addicted to this drug.

Bulgakov's recovery

His admirers owe the healing of Mikhail Bulgakov to Tatyana Lappa, who deliberately limited 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 hysterics, although he once threw a burning Primus stove 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...

Bulgakov's short biography contains the fact of high love and sacrifice. In 1918, it was thanks to Tatyana Lappa that 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, the successful gynecologist N. M. Pokrovsky (later the prototype of Professor Preobrazhensky from “The Heart of a Dog”).

Then he returned to Kyiv, 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 moves for Bulgakov: at first he worked as a doctor near the front line, then he was sent to work in the Smolensk province, and then to Vyazma. During the Civil War from 1919 to 1921, he was mobilized twice as a doctor. First - to the army of the Ukrainian People's Republic, then - to 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, presented the gloomy forebodings of a White Guard officer. The Red Army at Yegorlytskaya station in 1921 defeated the advanced forces of the White Guards - the Cossack cavalry... His comrades are riding beyond the cordon. However, fate prevents Mikhail Afanasyevich from emigrating: he falls ill with typhus. In Vladikavkaz, Bulgakov is being treated for a fatal illness and is recovering. His biography records the reorientation of life goals, creativity takes over.

Playwright

Mikhail Afanasyevich, emaciated, in the uniform of a white officer, but with torn shoulder straps, in Tersky Narobraz works in the theater section of the arts department, in the Russian theater. During this period, a severe crisis occurred in Bulgakov’s life. There is no money at all. She and Tatyana Lappa live by selling the severed parts of a miraculously surviving gold chain. Bulgakov made a difficult decision for himself - never to return to medical practice. With a tormented heart, in 1920 Mikhail Bulgakov wrote the most talented play “Days of the Turbins”. The writer’s biography testifies to the first repressions against him: in the same 1920, the Bolshevik commission expelled him from work as a “former”. Bulgakov is trampled, 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, and Conscience and in 1921 writes the conformist play “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 cruelly takes revenge on him for betraying his conscience and talent (meaning the above-mentioned play, for which he received a fee of 200,000 rubles (33 pieces of silver). This situation will repeat again in his life).

Bulgakovs in Moscow

The spouses still do not emigrate. In August 1921, Tatyana Lappa left alone for Moscow through Odessa and Kyiv.

Soon, following his wife, Mikhail Afanasyevich 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 moving, instability... Bulgakov’s biography is not easy. Summary its subsequent period is the desperate attempts of a talented person to realize himself. Mikhail and Tatyana live in the apartment (described in the novel “The Master and Margarita” - house number 10 on Bolshaya Sadovaya Street (Pigit’s house), number 302 bis, which was kindly provided to them by their brother-in-law, philologist A.M. Zemsky, who left for Kyiv to his wife). The house was inhabited by rowdy and drinking proletarians. The couple felt uncomfortable, hungry, and penniless. This is where their breakup occurred...

In 1922, Mikhail Afanasyevich suffered a personal blow - his mother died. He feverishly 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 a remarkable intellect, were simply torn onto paper. short biography Bulgakova records his work as a feuilletonist in Moscow newspapers ("Worker") and magazines ("Revival", "Russia", "Medical Worker").

Life, distorted by the war, begins to improve. Since 1923, Bulgakov was accepted as a member of the Writers' Union.

In 1923, Bulgakov began working on the novel The White Guard. He creates his famous works:

• "Diaboliad";
• "Fatal Eggs";
• "Dog's heart".

• "Adam and Eve";
• "Alexander Pushkin";
• "Crimson Island";
• "Run";
• "Bliss";
• “Zoyka’s apartment”;
• "Ivan Vasilievich."

And in 1925 he married Lyubov Evgenievna Belozerskaya.

He also became successful as a playwright. Even then, the Soviet state’s paradoxical perception of the classic’s work was evident. 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 declared that “Bulgakov is not ours.” However, in 1932, he ordered its return, and in the only theater in the USSR - the Moscow Art Theater, noting that after all, “the impression of the play on the communists” was positive.

Moreover, Joseph Stalin subsequently, in his historical address to the people on July 3, 1941, uses the phraseology of Alexei Turbin’s words: “I am addressing you, my friends...”

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

The writer's short and fragile second marriage

The first wife, Tatyana Lappa, recalls that, while married to her, Mikhail Afanasyevich repeated more than once that he should marry three times. He repeated this after the writer Alexei Tolstoy, who believed that family life the key to a 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 far-fetched scenario? Interesting Facts and mysteries are not uncommon in it! However, Bulgakov’s second wife, Belozerskaya, a socialite, actually married a wealthy, promising writer.

However, the writer lived in perfect harmony with his new wife for only three years. Until in 1928, the writer’s third wife, Elena Sergeevna Shilovskaya, “appeared on the horizon.” Bulgakov was still in his second official marriage when this whirlwind romance began. The writer described his feelings for his third wife with great artistic force in The Master and Margarita. Mikhail Afanasyevich’s affection for the new woman with whom he felt a spiritual connection is evidenced by the fact that on 10/03/1932 the registry office dissolved his marriage with Belozerskaya, and on 10/04/1932 an alliance was concluded with Shilovskaya. It was the third marriage that became the main thing in his life for the writer.

Bulgakov and Stalin: the writer’s lost game

In 1928, inspired by his acquaintance with “his Margarita” - Elena Sergeevna Shilovskaya, Mikhail Bulgakov began creating his novel “The Master and Margarita”. A short biography of the writer, however, testifies to the onset of a creative crisis. He needs space for creativity, which does not exist in the USSR. Moreover, there was a ban on the publication and production of Bulgakov. Despite his fame, his plays were not staged in theaters.

Joseph Vissarionovich, an excellent psychologist, knew very well the weak sides of the personality of this talented author: suspiciousness, a tendency to depression. He played with the writer like a cat plays with a mouse, having an indisputable dossier against him. On 05/07/1926, the only search of all time was carried out at the Bulgakovs’ apartment. The personal diaries of Mikhail Afanasyevich and the seditious story “The Heart of a Dog” fell into Stalin’s hands. In Stalin's game against the writer, a trump card was obtained that fatally led to the disaster of the writer Bulgakov. Here's the answer to your question: " Interesting biography Is it Bulgakov?" Not at all. Until the age of thirty, his adult life was filled with suffering from poverty and instability; then, indeed, six years of more or less measured prosperous life followed, but this was followed by a violent break in Bulgakov’s personality, illness and death.

Refusal to leave the USSR. The leader's fatal call

In July 1929, the writer addressed a Letter to Joseph Stalin, asking to leave the USSR, and on March 28, 1930, he addressed the Soviet government with the same request. Permission was not given.

Bulgakov suffered, he understood that his grown talent was being ruined. Contemporaries remembered the phrase he uttered after yet another failure to receive permission to leave: “I was blinded!”

However, this was not the final blow. And he was expected... Everything changed with Stalin’s call on April 18, 1930. At that moment, Mikhail Bulgakov and his third wife, Elena Sergeevna, were laughing as they drove to Batum (where Bulgakov was going to write a play about Stalin’s young years). At the Serpukhov station, a woman who entered their carriage announced: “Telegram for the accountant!”

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

The day before, Mayakovsky was buried. Obviously, the leader’s call could equally be called a kind of prevention (he respected Bulgakov, but still put gentle pressure) and a trick: in a confidential conversation, extract an unfavorable promise from the interlocutor.

In it, Bulgakov voluntarily refused to go abroad, which he could not forgive himself for the rest of his life. This was his tragic loss.

A very complex knot of relationships connects Stalin and Bulgakov. We can say that seminarian Dzhdugashvili outplayed and broke both the will and life of the great writer.

Last years of creativity

Subsequently, the author concentrated all his talent, all his skill on the novel “The Master and Margarita,” which he wrote for the table, without any hope of publication.

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

In fact, Joseph Vissarionovich was jealous, so to speak, of the writer of his own charisma. From then on, Bulgakov was allowed to work only as a theater director.

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

Everything he wrote, unspoken and biased, was “impossible.” 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 an all-powerful autocrat who is secretly afraid.

Moreover, the first version of this novel was burned by the author. It was called differently - “Devil's Hoof”. In Moscow, after writing it, there were rumors that Bulgakov wrote about Stalin (Iosif Vissarionovich was born with two fused toes. People call this the hoof of Satan). Panicking, the author burned the first version of the novel. This is where the phrase “Manuscripts don’t burn!” was subsequently born.

Instead of a conclusion

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

In the fall of 1939, his vision deteriorated critically: he was practically blind. On March 10, 1940, the writer passed away. Mikhail Bulgakov was buried on March 12, 1940 at the Novodevichy cemetery.

Bulgakov's full biography is still a subject of debate. The reason is that the Soviet, emasculated version presents the reader with an embellished picture of the author’s loyalty to Soviet power. Therefore, if you are interested in the life of a writer, you should critically analyze several sources.

1891 , May 3 (15) - born in Kyiv in the family of Associate Professor of the Kyiv Theological Academy Afanasy Ivanovich Bulgakov and his wife Varvara Mikhailovna (nee Pokrovskaya).

1901 , August 22 – enters the first grade of the First (Alexandrovskaya) Kyiv Gymnasium.

1909 – graduated from the Kyiv First Gymnasium and entered the medical faculty of Kyiv University.

1913 - enters into his first marriage - with Tatyana Lappa (1892–1982).

1916 , October 31 - received a medical diploma, was sent to work in the village of Nikolskoye, Smolensk province, then worked as a doctor in the city of Vyazma.
December – trip to Moscow.

1918 - returned to Kyiv, where he began private practice as a venereologist in a house on Andreevsky Spusk.
December – events take place in Kyiv, later described in the novel “The White Guard”.

1919 , February - mobilized as a military doctor in the army of the Ukrainian People's Republic.
Mobilized into the White Armed Forces of the South of Russia and appointed military doctor of the 3rd Terek Cossack Regiment.
November 26 – the first publication of M. A. Bulgakov: the feuilleton “Future Prospects” in the newspaper “Grozny”.

1920 , January 18 – publication of the feuilleton “In the Cafe” in the “Caucasian Newspaper”.
February 15 - the first issue of the newspaper "Caucasus" is published, of which Bulgakov becomes an employee.
Late February - Bulgakov falls ill with relapsing fever and remains in Vladikavkaz, captured by the Red Army.
Beginning of April - goes to work as head of the literary section of the arts subdepartment in the Vladikavkaz Revolutionary Committee (from the end of May he heads the theater section).
October 21 – premiere of the play “The Turbine Brothers”.

1921 , end of June - leaves for Batum. Meeting O. E. Mandelstam.
End of September - moves to Moscow and begins collaborating as a feuilletonist with metropolitan newspapers (Gudok, Rabochiy) and magazines (Medical Worker, Rossiya, Vozrozhdenie).
He publishes individual works in the newspaper Nakanune, published in Berlin.
November-December - acquaintance with the typist I. S. Raaben (nee Count Kamenskaya), to whom Bulgakov dictates the first part of “Notes on Cuffs”.

1922 , March - works as a reporter for the Rabochiy newspaper and for the Scientific and Technical Committee of the Air Force Academy.
Beginning of April - he becomes a letter processor for the newspaper "Gudok".
June 18 – chapters from the story “Notes on Cuffs” were published in the Literary Supplement to the Berlin newspaper “Nakanune”.
October - Bulgakov becomes a feuilletonist in "Gudok" with a salary of 200 million rubles. Takes part in the activities of the literary circle "Green Lamp".
November - Bulgakov’s failed attempt to compile a “Dictionary of Russian Writers” and an announcement on this topic in the Berlin “New Russian Book” lead to the author coming to the attention of the OGPU.

1923 - joins the All-Russian Writers Union.
End of May - Bulgakov meets Alexei Tolstoy.

1924 - meets Lyubov Evgenievna Belozerskaya (1895–1987), who recently returned from abroad, who became his wife in 1925.
October - Bulgakov and his wife moved to Obukhov Lane. Getting to know the Prechistensky circle.
The end of December - the first part of the novel "The White Guard" was published in the fourth issue of the magazine "Russia".

1925 , January – publication of the story “Bohemia”, start of work on the story “Heart of a Dog”.
February – publication of the story “Fatal Eggs” in the sixth issue of the almanac “Nedra”.
March 7 – reads “The Heart of a Dog” at the Nikitin subbotniks, which results in a detailed report from a secret informant in the OGPU about the content of the story and the public’s reaction to it.
April 3 – Bulgakov receives an invitation to collaborate with the Moscow Art Theater.
End of April - the second part of the novel "The White Guard" was published in the fifth issue of the magazine "Russia".
June - early July - M.A. Bulgakov and L.E. Belozerskaya rest in Koktebel at the invitation of M.A. Voloshin.
Summer - work on the play "The White Guard".
September 1 – reading of the first version of the play by K. S. Stanislavsky in his apartment.
September 11 - Bulgakov receives news that the story “The Heart of a Dog” was rejected by L. B. Kamenev.

1926 , January – conclusion of an agreement with E. B. Vakhtangov’s studio for the play “Zoyka’s Apartment”; concluding an agreement with the Moscow Chamber Theater for the play "Crimson Island".
May 7 – The OGPU conducts a search of Bulgakov, as a result of which the manuscript of the story “Heart of a Dog” and Personal diary writer.
Since October, the play “Days of the Turbins” has been running at the Moscow Art Theater with great success. Its production was allowed only for a year, but was later extended several times. I. Stalin liked the play and watched it more than 14 times.
At the end of October at the Theater. Vakhtangov, the premiere of the play based on M. A. Bulgakov’s play “Zoyka’s Apartment” was a great success.
Intensive and harsh criticism of M. A. Bulgakov’s work begins in the Soviet press. According to his own calculations, over 10 years there were 298 abusive reviews and 3 favorable ones. Among the critics were influential writers (Mayakovsky, Bezymensky, Averbakh, Shklovsky, Kerzhentsev and others).

1927 , February 7 – Bulgakov participates in a debate on the topic “Days of the Turbins” and “Yarovaya’s Love” at the Meyerhold Theater.”
March – the contract for the play “Heart of a Dog” was terminated and the contract for the play “Knights of the Seraphim” (“Running”) was concluded.
August - M.A. Bulgakov and L.E. Belozerskaya move to a separate rented apartment on Bolshaya Pirogovskaya Street.
December – the first volume of the novel “The White Guard” is published in Paris by the Concord publishing house.

1928 – Bulgakov travels with his wife to the Caucasus, where they visited Tiflis, Batum, Cape Verde, Vladikavkaz, Gudermes.
The premiere of the play “Crimson Island” took place in Moscow.
The idea of ​​the novel, later called “The Master and Margarita”.
The writer begins work on a play about Moliere (“The Cabal of the Holy One”).
December 11 – premiere of the play “Crimson Island” at the Moscow Chamber Theater.

1929 , February 28 - Bulgakov met Elena Sergeevna Shilovskaya, née Nuremberg. Mention of the new novel by M. A. Bulgakov (the future “The Master and Margarita”) in one of the intelligence reports.
March 17 – the last performance of “Zoyka’s Apartment”.
April – “Days of the Turbins” was removed from the repertoire.
May 8 – Bulgakov submits the chapter “Mania Furibunda” from the novel “The Engineer’s Hoof” to the Nedra publishing house.
The beginning of June is the last performance of “Crimson Island”.
July 30 - Bulgakov sends a letter of application to I.V. Stalin, M.I. Kalinin and others with a request to leave the USSR and meets with the head of the Main Art Department A.I. Svidersky, who informs the Secretary of the Central Committee A.P. Smirnov about this conversation .
October - Bulgakov's books are removed from libraries.
Start of work on the play "The Cabal of the Holy One".

1930 , February 11 – public reading of the play “The Cabal of the Saint” at the Drama Union.
March 18 – The General Repertoire Committee bans the play “The Cabal of the Saint.”
March 28 – Bulgakov writes a letter to the USSR Government.
April 18 (Friday of Holy Week) - telephone conversation between M. A. Bulgakov and I. V. Stalin.
May 10 – enters the Moscow Art Theater as an assistant director.
May – work began on a dramatization of N.V. Gogol’s poem “Dead Souls”.
October – V.I. Nemirovich-Danchenko rejects Bulgakov’s version of “Dead Souls.”

1931 , February – K. S. Stanislavsky joins the rehearsals of “Dead Souls”.
October 12 – a contract for the production of “Molière” was signed with the BDT.
November 19 – decision of the Artistic and Political Council of the Bolshoi Drama Theater on the inappropriateness of staging the play “Molière”.
He begins work on the novel "The Master and Margarita" again. The novel “The Master and Margarita” was first published in the magazine “Moscow” in No. 11 for 1966 and in No. 1 for 1967.

1932 – on the stage of the Moscow Art Theater there was a production of the play “Dead Souls” by Nikolai Gogol, staged by Bulgakov.

1934 , June - Bulgakov was admitted to the Union of Soviet Writers.

1935 - performed on the stage of the Moscow Art Theater as an actor - in the role of the Judge in the play “The Pickwick Club” based on Dickens.

1936 , February – premiere of the play “The Cabal of the Holy One” (“Molière”, a play in four acts, written in 1929) on the stage of the Moscow Art Theater. The performance was performed seven times and after the article “External splendor and false content” in Pravda of March 9, 1936, it was banned.

1940 , March 10 - Bulgakov died in Moscow and was buried at the Novodevichy cemetery. At his grave, at the request of his widow E. S. Bulgakova, a stone nicknamed “Golgotha” was installed, which previously lay on the grave of N. V. Gogol.

Bulgakov Mikhail Afanasyevich (1891-1940) - Russian writer and playwright, theater actor and director. Many of his works today belong to the classics of Russian literature.

Family and childhood

Mikhail was born on May 15, 1891 in the city of Kyiv. On the third day after birth, he was baptized in Podil in the Church of the Exaltation of the Cross. His grandmother Anfisa Ivanovna Pokrovskaya (maiden name Turbina) became his godmother.
His father, Afanasy Ivanovich, was a teacher at the Kyiv Theological Academy, had the academic degree of associate professor, and later professor.

Mom, Varvara Mikhailovna, (maiden name Pokrovskaya) taught at a girls’ gymnasium. She was originally from the city of Karachaev, Oryol province, her father served as an archpriest in the Kazan Cathedral Church. Varvara was a very energetic woman, she had a strong-willed character, but along with these qualities she had extraordinary kindness and tact.

In 1890, Varvara married Afanasy Ivanovich and since then was engaged in housekeeping and raising children, of whom there were seven in the family. Misha was the eldest child; later two more brothers and four sisters were born.

All children inherited a love of music and reading from their mother. It was thanks to his mother that Misha himself became a writer, his younger brother Ivan became a balalaika musician, another brother Nikolai was a Russian scientist, biologist and doctor of philosophy.

The Bulgakov family belonged to the Russian intelligentsia, sort of provincial nobles. They lived well in terms of material security; their father’s salary was enough for a large family to exist comfortably.

In 1902, tragedy struck; father Afanasy Ivanovich passed away untimely. His early death complicated the situation in the family, but his mother, Varvara Mikhailovna, knew how to run the house so well that she was able to get out and, despite everyday hardships, give her children a decent education.

Studies

Misha studied at the First Kyiv Gymnasium, from which he graduated in 1909.

Then he continued his studies at Kiev University, choosing the Faculty of Medicine. This choice was not accidental; both of his maternal uncles were doctors and earned very good money. Uncle Mikhail Pokrovsky had a therapeutic practice in Warsaw and was Patriarch Tikhon’s doctor. Uncle Nikolai Pokrovsky was known as one of the best gynecologists in Moscow.

Mikhail studied at the university for 7 years. He had kidney failure and was therefore exempt from military service. But Mikhail himself wrote a report to be sent to the fleet as a doctor. Medical commission refused, then he asked to go to the hospital as a Red Cross volunteer.

In the fall of 1916, Mikhail Bulgakov was awarded a diploma of excellent completion of the university with the degree of doctor.

Medical practice

The first began in 1914 World War. Young Bulgakov, like millions of his peers, had hopes for peace and prosperity, but wars destroy everything, although in Kyiv its breath was not immediately felt.

After graduating from the university, Mikhail was sent to a field hospital in Kamenets-Podolsky, then to Chernivtsi. Before his eyes, a breakthrough of the Austrian front took place, the Russian army suffered colossal losses, he saw hundreds, thousands of mutilated human bodies and destinies.

In the early autumn of 1916, Mikhail was recalled from the front and sent to the Smolensk province, where in the village of Nikolskoye he was in charge of the zemstvo hospital. He was a very good doctor; during the year that he worked at the Nikolskaya Hospital, he saw about 15 thousand patients and performed many successful operations.

A year later, he was transferred to the Vyazma city hospital to the position of head of the venereal and infectious diseases department. This entire period of healing was later reflected in Mikhail’s work “Notes of a Young Doctor.”

In 1918, Mikhail returned to Kyiv, where he took up private practice as a venereologist.

He went through the civil war as a doctor in the army of the Ukrainian People's Republic, in the Red Cross, in the army Armed Forces South of Russia and in the Terek Cossack Regiment. He visited the North Caucasus, Tiflis and Batumi, suffered from typhus, and at the same time began writing articles and publishing in newspapers. He had the opportunity to emigrate, but did not do so, adhering to the firm belief that a Russian person should live and work in Russia.

Moscow

Mikhail wrote in a letter to his brother: “I’m exactly four years late, I should have started doing this a long time ago - writing.” He decided to give up medicine completely.

At the end of 1917, Bulgakov managed to visit Moscow for the first time; he came to visit his uncle Nikolai Pokrovsky, from whom he later copied the image of his professor Preobrazhensky in “Heart of a Dog.”

And in the fall of 1921, Mikhail decided to finally settle in Moscow. He got a job in the literary department of Glavpolitprosvet as a secretary, worked there for two months, after which a difficult time of unemployment began. He gradually began publishing in private newspapers and worked part-time in a troupe of traveling actors. And all this time he continued to write uncontrollably, as if he had broken through many years of silence. By the spring of 1922, he had already written enough feuilletons and stories to begin a successful collaboration with capital publishing houses. His works were published in the newspapers “Rabochiy” and “Gudok”, magazines:

• "Red Magazine for Everyone";
• "Medical worker";
• "Renaissance";
• "Russia".

Over four years, the Gudok newspaper published more than 100 feuilletons, reports and essays by Mikhail Bulgakov. Several of his works were even published in the newspaper Nakanune, which was published in Berlin.

Creation

In 1923, Mikhail Afanasyevich became a member of the All-Russian Writers Union.

• autobiographical work “Notes on Cuffs”;
• "Diaboliada" (social drama);
• the novel “The White Guard” is the writer’s first major work;
• one of the most famous books “Heart of a Dog”;
• “Fatal eggs” (fantastic story).

Since 1925, Moscow theaters have staged performances based on Bulgakov’s works: “Zoyka’s Apartment”, “Running”, “Days of the Turbins”, “Crimson Island”.

But by 1930, Bulgakov’s works were banned from publication and all theatrical productions were canceled. This was explained by the fact that his work discredits the “ideological purity” of Soviet culture and literature. The writer plucked up courage and turned to Stalin himself - either to allow him to write, or to give him a chance to travel abroad. The leader answered him personally, saying that the performances would resume; although he considered “Days of the Turbins” an “anti-Soviet thing,” he himself adored this performance and visited it 14 times.

Bulgakov was restored as a playwright and theater director, but no more books were published during his lifetime.

From 1929 until his death, Mikhail worked on the work of his entire life - the novel “The Master and Margarita”. This is an immortal classic of Russian literature. The work was published only in the late 60s, but immediately became a triumph.

Personal life

While a university student, Mikhail got married for the first time. His wife was Tatyana Lappa. Her father ran the state chamber in Saratov and at first was very wary of the relationship between the young people. The Lappa family belonged to the pillar nobles, they were well-born aristocrats, high officials and a completely different world than the one in which Mikhail was brought up and grew up.

The romance between Tatiana and Mikhail began back in 1908, lasted five years, but eventually ended with a wedding. In 1913 they got married. Tatyana's mother, who came to the wedding, was horrified by the bride's outfit; there was no veil or wedding dress. The newlywed wore a linen skirt and blouse at the wedding, which her mother managed to buy for her.

Over time, Tatyana’s parents came to terms with their daughter’s choice; her father sent her 50 rubles a month, a decent amount at that time. Tanya and Misha rented an apartment on Andreevsky Spusk. At the beginning of the twentieth century, Kyiv was considered a fairly large theater center, and young people often went to premieres. Bulgakov had an excellent understanding of music, loved to attend concerts, and several times he had the opportunity to attend Chaliapin’s performances.

Bulgakov did not like to save; he could use his last money to take a taxi to get from the theater to his home. He decided on such actions without much thought, he didn’t care much that he didn’t have a penny for the next day and, perhaps, there would be nothing to eat, he was a man of impulse. Tatyana’s mother, when she came to visit them, often noticed that her daughter was missing either a ring or a chain and realized that everything was again pawned at the pawnshop.

When he became a writer, Bulgakov based the image of Anna Kirillovna in the work “Morphine” on his first wife Tatyana.

In 1924, he met Lyubov Evgenievna Belozerskaya, who had recently returned from abroad. She came from an old princely family, was well versed in literature and fully supported the writer in his work. In 1925, he divorced Tatyana Lappa and married Belozerskaya.

He lived with his second wife for 4 years; in 1929 he met Elena Sergeevna Shilovskaya. In 1932 they got married.

Elena is the prototype of Margarita in his most famous work. She lived until 1970 and was the custodian of the writer’s literary heritage.

Death

In 1939, Bulgakov began work on the play “Batum” about the great leader, Comrade Stalin. When almost everything was ready for the production, a decree came to stop rehearsals. This undermined the writer’s health, his vision deteriorated sharply, and congenital renal failure worsened. To relieve pain, Mikhail began taking morphine in large doses. In the winter of 1940, he stopped getting out of bed, and on March 10, the great writer and playwright passed away. Bulgakov was buried at the Novodevichy cemetery.