GALINA SEDOVA’S BULGAKOV. XVI.

Galina Sedova’s Bulgakov.

Kot-Begemot Continues.

 

So, that’s what: unexpected and unforeseen, a third power appeared on the giant chessboard…

M. A. Bulgakov. White Guard.

 

 

Only Russia stands like some unshakable colossus,

 and the foundation of that colossus is---
Faith Orthodox, Power Autocratic!
D. S. Merezhkovsky. Pavel I.

 

...When Margarita comes to see Woland, and as she enters the room, an absolutely incredible picture strikes her eyes:

“There was also in the room, sitting on a high stool, a colossal black mass of a cat, holding a chess horse (in the English language this piece is called a knight) in his right paw.”

Addressing readers interested in... Russian history (sic!), I will be quoting, in this chapter on Kot-Begemot, the whole game of chess played by Woland and Begemot, just as Bulgakov relates it to us. It is Bulgakov’s enlightened allegory of a key event in Russian history. But even without the historical underpinning, here is the best description of a chess game in literature, at least, in my opinion.---

“…Margarita was fascinated by the game, and amazed to see that the chessmen were alive… On the chessboard meanwhile confusion reigned. Distraught, the white king was stamping about on his square and waving his arms in desperation. Three white pawns-Landsknechts, armed with halberds, were staring in bewilderment at an officer [chess bishop] who was waving his crozier and pointing forward to where in adjacent squares Woland’s black knights could be seen, mounted on two hot-blooded stallions, pawing the ground of their respective squares. (The point is that just before this, Woland checked the white king.)

The cat gently nudged his king in the back, at which the king covered his face in despair. (It must be noted that a check to the king does not mean checkmate, and from the chess point of view the forces on the board, at least as described, were equal. This is exactly how Begemot understands the situation.)

The position is serious, but by no means hopeless. Kot is completely confident of an ultimate victory. All it takes is a careful analysis of the situation.

But as Bulgakov writes, Kot’s method of analysis took the peculiar form of pulling faces and winking at his king.

Next, Kot demonstrates that he has indeed prepared  himself for situations like this, as he uses a distracting maneuver.

Ay!, cried Begemot, all the parrots have flown away, as I predicted they would.'

Koroviev and Azazello, who had been watching the game, rushed out of the room. Meantime, Woland was busy watching the news on his globe. Left one-on-one with his king, Begemot’s winking increased dramatically.

And now the strangest part begins. What Bulgakov writes next wasn’t supposed to happen. I repeat that the forces on the board had been equal.

The white king at last guessed what was required of him. He suddenly pulled off his mantle, dropped it on the square, and ran off the board. This is how Bulgakov allegorically shows his disgust with… Tsar Nicholas II: he should not have abdicated the Russian throne, but ought to have stayed with his people. Bulgakov shows here that Nicholas II wasn’t a Russian patriot, and he followed bad advice, which does not paint him as a wise ruler at all.

Bulgakov now continues with this:

The officer [bishop] picked up the discarded royal mantle, threw it round his shoulders, and took the king’s place.

Thus with the help of a chess game Bulgakov shows the Russian Civil War, where the Russian Army found itself without a head, so to speak. Russian military officers were the ones who organized the White Movement (White Guard), which opposed the “Red” Bolsheviks.

This is an unprecedented event in world literature when a writer shows the history of his country using the medium of chess.

…After the king fled the chessboard, Kot tries to convince Woland that there was no such thing as check to the king, and there couldn’t be.

In puzzlement, Woland started looking at the board, where the officer [bishop], standing in king’s square, turned his head away and covered his face with his hand.

“Ach, you scoundrel!,” said Woland reflectively.

This is how Bulgakov shows that he places the blame for the civil war and the ensuing destruction in Russia not only on Tsar Nicholas II, but also on his royal counselors, whom even Satan calls “scoundrels.” [Cat in this case is merely a means of delivery for Bulgakov’s idea.]

“Messire! I again appeal to logic!” spoke the cat, clasping his paws to the chest, “If a player says check, but there is no king to be seen anywhere on the board, then the check is to be declared null and void!”

Here Bulgakov ridicules the legal tricks employed by the Tsar’s counselors: the Tsar’s abdication, transfer of power to Grand Prince Mikhail Alexandrovich, who turned it down right away, leading to the formation of the Provisional Government, all but forgetting that the Russian motto: For Faith, Tsar, and Fatherland! had been broken. Without the Tsar, as the sole legitimate symbol of state power, the Russian state was going down the tubes!

“Do you resign or not?” yelled Woland in a terrible voice.

[Woland steps into his act even further. He is enraged. The cat, too, plays his role to the hilt. Where is fear? Where is obsequiousness?]

“Give me some time to consider, please,” said the cat meekly. [He is cool, and in no hurry.] He put his elbows on the table, stuck his ears into his paws [so that he would not hear any more yells] and began to think. He thought for a long time [in order to further provoke his watchers], and then said: “I resign.”

“Kill the cursed creature,” whispered Azazello. [This was just the cue Kot had been waiting for.]

“Yes, I resign,” said the cat, “but solely because I find it impossible to play in an atmosphere of hounding on the part of my enviers.”

As you see, Kot always has the last word. The novel would have lost a lot without this cat. He clears up the air, possesses a strong sense of humor, he always finds a way to turn everything around, and even when he appears “offended,” he manages to manipulate any such situation in his favor. We cannot fail to observe a certain reckless audacity in Begemot’s behavior toward Woland himself.

It is amazing how Bulgakov, who had experienced so much during the Civil War, can no matter what stand back from his own sufferings of the time and approach the situation as a cool and unbiased observer.

So, why does Bulgakov assign such a serious role (playing chess with Satan himself) to such a frivolous, at first sight, character as Kot-Begemot? Let us leaf over several pages to the place where he writes about the broken deceptions…

(To be continued tomorrow…)