GALINA SEDOVA’S BULGAKOV. III.

Galina Sedova’s Bulgakov.

The Spy Novel Continues.

NATASHA THE SPY.

Natasha, the housemaid, naturally gossiped in her circle about Margarita and Master, and occasionally shared some details about her boss, Margarita’s husband.

And imagine that circle closing. No matter how much secrecy existed around Margarita’s husband, who had made a nationally important discovery, something, somewhere, somehow seeped out, and a group of expert foreign spies was dispatched to Moscow [our trio of “Azazello,” “Koroviev,” and “Begemot.”]. Their mission was to pinpoint the whereabouts of the scientist and to eliminate him. All these efforts had been in vain until the hounding of Master started in full swing. Natasha obviously recognized Master from a photograph, and now there were suddenly two VIP’s in her life. The foreign spies were now actively interested in Master’s story, which was now all over the papers, making it safe to show such an interest, their cover story. The spies expected to spread their net so wide, thanks to Master, that some much bigger fish would get caught in it. Va banque! Through her circle of similarly employed people, Natasha gets caught in the net. State security officials are now worried even more, but their kind of work forces them to accept the challenge. And Natasha, thus “caught in the net,” is being used for counterintelligence. Everybody involved, without exception, is under suspicion, and that includes Master. That’s how he gets arrested. Masterfully, Bulgakov shows that in Soviet Russia nobody got arrested for no reason, and all of them were arrested for a reason.

In his own life, Bulgakov had been interrogated on account of his participation in the White movement. [He served in the White Army as a military surgeon.] Besides, two of his brothers had fled abroad. Yes, he had been interrogated, but never arrested or jailed.

It wasn’t on Pontius Pilate’s account that Master got himself arrested, although Pilate may have been an excuse. Master was just unlucky in his choice of the mistress.

  

If we remember Bulgakov’s “Aesopian language,” everything becomes clear from Margarita’s conversation with Azazello: “Natasha is also bribed, yes?”

…“‘Housemaids know everything,’ remarked Kot [he was part of the “foreigner’s” retinue, as Woland was originally introduced to Margarita], meaningfully raising his paw. ‘It’s a mistake to think that they are blind.’”

Natasha herself confesses: “She started nodding to Master and addressed Margarita: ‘Yes, I know everything about where you’ve been going.’”

And then this: “Natasha opened her fist and showed some gold coins.”

Had it not been a “cat,” but a foreigner in a foreigner’s retinue, wouldn’t the reader have suspected something, knowing who Margarita’s husband was?

…There is another side to Natasha, of course. Although she is indeed an uneducated woman working as a housemaid, we ought to realize that she is working in the house of a very important person for the Soviet state [that nameless husband of Margarita]. Such people are always protected by the state, and the help that works for them also works for the security organs. These people become the eyes and ears of the state, they report about everything that they see and hear. The fact that foreigners have access to Natasha and that she maintains her contact with them, and even accepts their money (M. Jacque) need not be found surprising. Everything is done with the knowledge and permission, and under the control of the proper organs. Thus, Natasha is officially allowed to remain true to herself: gossip-mongering, eavesdropping, spying, and reporting all that she has learned.

She is even allowed to procure “clients” to Woland and Company with “important papers.” Remember?---

“…I can lose important papers, Natalia Prokofievna, I protest!”

“Go to the devil with your papers!”--- impertinently cracking up with laughter, yelled Natasha.

“What are you up to, Natalia Prokofievna! Someone may hear us!”--- pleadingly yelled the hog.

Apparently, the papers were not “important” for the spies (for that’s who Woland and his company were, this story will be discussed later in this chapter), as they exhibited no interest in Nikanor Ivanovich (Margarita’s neighbor in the mansion).

“‘I won’t be marrying some engineer or some technician! Monsieur Jacque proposed to me at the ball last night.’ Natasha opened her fist and showed some gold coins.”

We already know quite enough about Monsieur Jacque. Koroviev at the ball introduced him to Margarita as “one of the most interesting men. Dedicated money counterfeiter, traitor to the state, but a very decent alchemist.”

Although Monsieur Jacque is not part of Woland’s immediate retinue, he is also a spy. Bulgakov uses the word counterfeiter for him. He bribes potential clients, serving, as we might say, as the banker of the company.

Well, Natasha has been quite successful in her role. She has not done any damage to her state, while earning trust and money of the spies.

When Margarita suddenly collapses with a fatal heart attack in her drawing room, she cries out: “Natasha! Somebody… come to me!”

But Natasha is not there, and no more will she appear in the novel Master and Margarita. Her subsequent fate remains unknown, but two suppositions can be made. One is that she may have been transferred with a new identity to a different location, such as, say, Leningrad. The other supposition is somewhat more complicated, but only because a situation like this does indeed occur in real life.

Natasha may have been “arrested,” together with the gang, and sent to “prison,” where in reality she would be groomed for her subsequent work in the West.

In this fashion, Russian intelligence gets itself yet another undercover agent working abroad.