GALINA SEDOVA’S BULGAKOV. XIV.

Galina Sedova’s Bulgakov.

The Dark-Violet Knight Concludes.

 

“...И сердце бросил в море жизни шумной,

И свет не пощадил --- и Бог не спас!”

“…And threw his heart into the noisy see of life,

No mercy from the world --- and God would save him not!”

Mikhail Yurievich Lermontov.

In his play Alexander Pushkin, Bulgakov pursues three ideas important for the understanding of Master and Margarita.

1.      The idea of “rest,” originating from Pushkin himself, is often employed in Master and Margarita, as well as in other Bulgakovian works. “Rest” is the reward of those who have not committed any crimes, but for some reason have not deserved the “light.” (Master receives rest, and Margarita with him.)

2.      The idea of “forgiveness” is also very prominent in Master and Margarita. By ascribing hateful words to the Russian Tsar Nicholas I, Bulgakov responds to all such spiteful little people that there is a forgiveness to those who carry no spite, no malice toward others. Tsar Nicholas I, in this case, becomes the epitome of malice.

3.      The idea of leader, “regent” [conductor], originating with the Russian people. Out of all the names which Bulgakov has given to this character, regent is the highest compliment.

It wasn’t by accident that in the 1990’s, those terrible years for Russia and for everything Russian that exists in the world, Pushkin came under attack. Such a thing had already happened in the 1920’s, described by Bulgakov in his Notes on the Cuffs. This last time, there were accusations that the Soviet system had been using Pushkin for its own… propaganda (sic!).

A base trick of base people, to pull through their own worthless trash. Pushkin was, is, and will always be the mind, the conscience, and the honor of Russia, no matter what political system be in place there at the time.

Which is why Bulgakov puts this quite clearly in his Notes on the Cuffs:

“Pushkin’s poems wondrously soften embittered souls [sic!]. Away with spite, Russian writers!”

This of course refers not only to the writers, but to all categories of people.

Bulgakov goes on to compare his contemporaries the writers to hothouse plants, removed from and unfamiliar with the real life. [As for himself, Bulgakov knew the real life having worked as a surgeon-physician in World War I and during the Civil War in Russia.] Thus, Bulgakov believed that his contemporaries were incapable of creating anything worthwhile.

Hence the fire at the Writers’ House. It’s an allegory. Probably having served all this time in hell, Koroviev and Begemot acquainted themselves with Bakunin, and decided that the only way to save Russian literature was by destroying everything in existence and creating anew.

Woland has his own reason to be interested in the fire at the Writers’ House. From the beginning of the book, Bulgakov makes it all clear: the devil does not like atheists, who do not recognize Satan as well.

Have you ever asked yourself the question why already in the second chapter, that is just seven pages into the novel, Woland shoots Master’s novel about Pontius Pilate straight from memory? (This question will be answered in the chapter on Kot-Begemot.) When Koroviev and Kot-Begemot assure him that a new house will be built on that spot, Woland comments: “One is left to wish that it will be a better one than the last.”

There is yet another interesting thing here that proves that Koroviev is Pushkin.---

“…And a sweet eeriness reaches your heart when you think that right now, in this building, there ripens on the vine a future author of Don Quixote, or of Faust, [what a satire!], or--- devil take me!--- of Dead Souls. Eh?”

It is a well-known fact that it was Pushkin who suggested the idea of Dead Souls to Gogol. Gogol is a great Russian writer, and he would be rightfully standing in the first rank of Russian literary geniuses even without Dead Souls. Still, Dead Souls is the most celebrated of Gogol’s creations.

Bulgakov deliberately words this passage in Koroviev’s monologue in this fashion, to give us a hint that his Koroviev is Pushkin. Secondly, it seems to me that Bulgakov, like many others, often contemplated on the kind of Dead Souls that Pushkin could have written. And thirdly, it is quite possible that Bulgakov thought that Pushkin may in some measure have regretted offering this idea to Gogol.

Bulgakov has a second go with Gogol and Pushkin in one sentence this time:

“Can you imagine what kind of noise would be made if one of them, for starters, offers to the public an Inspector, or, at worst, a Eugene Onegin,” continued Koroviev.

 

In his sketch Red-Stone Moscow, Bulgakov writes:

“Lowering his head, Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin attentively watches Tverskoy Boulevard buzzing at his feet. What he is thinking--- nobody knows…”

Thus it is for a very good reason that Tverskoy Boulevard plays such an important role in the novel Master and Margarita. (I will be writing more about this in my fantastic novel.)

What is he thinking about? Well, that’s easy. Thanks to Bulgakov, we do know very well what Pushkin has been thinking about. He is thinking about Russian history “which he promised” to Zhukovsky (see the play Alexander Pushkin), and how he will now have unlimited time for his toils. “But he isn’t working now!” (ibid.) Yes, now he will soon be writing about anything he likes, and he doesn’t have to pass his ideas on to other people anymore, for the lack of time. Now he will have all the time in the world, and he is calm…

It is his house that Woland describes to Master: “There waits for you the house and the old servant…” Yes, once again Bulgakov uses his magnificent Aesopian language. Why does Woland describe it to Master as his to live in? Because Koroviev is Woland’s advisor in these matters, and he is merely suggesting an ideal house for Master, and what else could he suggest for him rather than a house like his own?

Yes, such will indeed be Pushkin’s own home of ‘rest.’ And the old manservant Nikita will be living in this house with Alexander Sergeevich, and he will be reading his master’s poems, which he likes so much… Do you remember? The already quoted play Alexander Pushkin, here it is again.---

Nikita (reads)---

No happiness in life… true, we have no happiness.. But there is rest and freedom… No, what isn’t there, isn’t there: doesn’t sleep at night, what kind of rest is that anyway!.. A tired slave, I’ve long been plotting my escape... Escape where? What is he plotting?.. A tired slave, I’ve long been plotting my escape... Can’t make this out…

Enters Bitkov. (He is a clock repairman who has been assigned to Pushkin by the police to spy on him. His profession and skill allows him to get into all houses to spy under the guise of doing repair work.)

…To a faraway retreat of toils and purest pleasures… Hello, Nikita Andreevich!

As we see from this exchange, Bulgakov uses it to convey the idea that Pushkin’s verses were known to all Russians , including the snitches and the police.

...So, in this house he will be now creating all those works that he had conceived but had had no time for, during his lifetime. His rest and sleep will be guarded now by his old manservant Nikita Andreevich. Yes, this is the time of Pushkin that Bulgakov describes in Master and Margarita: the candles, the goose quills, the music of Schubert… Nevermore will he have to play the role of “vtirusha” and “shtukar,’” in other words, trickster. Nevermore will he have to wear broken glasses or monocles, that is in Russian slang, to rub in other people’s glasses, meaning to deceive. He is free!..

“…Tonight is such a night [the eve of Russian Orthodox Easter] when all accounts are being settled. The knight has paid up on his account, and closed it.”

Do ask yourself, will you, what kind of “foreign” knight could possibly be brought to Moscow by Satan on Russian Orthodox Easter’s eve, to “close his account”?!