GALINA SEDOVA’S BULGAKOV. XX.

Galina Sedova’s Bulgakov.

Kot-Begemot Continues.

 

“I do believe that you and I

Were born under a common star,

We walked along a common path,

And were deceived by the same dreams.”

 

M. Yu. Lermontov

 

Returning to Lermontov’s biography, he received a Gold Sabre award for the expedition Greater Chechnya for the distinction of “fulfilling the entrusted mission [of observing the activities of the advance storm column, which entailed a colossal risk to life on account of the enemy, concealed behind the trees and bushes] with an uncommon courage and sangfroid, and for being among the first of the bravest who stormed the enemy fortifications…”

Dmitri Merezhkovsky’s Nighttime Luminary.

“I challenge you to a duel!”--- such was the battle-cry of Kot-Begemot to the agents of state security, in one of the most exciting and outright funny episodes in the novel Master and Margarita. For some reason, Kot-Begemot appears holding a primus in his paws. At first the cat arguably allows himself to be killed, like he had been killed in Lermontov’s actual life. Lermontov basically allowed himself to be killed, having made his own shot into the air. However, Bulgakov’s Kot does not die, but having sipped gasoline from the primus, which for some reason he had never been separated from, he is revived. Thus gaining “immortality,” the flying bullets can no longer do him any harm.

Since Bulgakov is keen on using allegory in virtually all his works, I was bent on finding out why Bulgakov would introduce the primus and gasoline in these passages.

The word primus is of great interest here. I have already mentioned on several occasions the Russian Tsar Ivan Grozny, who will be featured in Master and Margarita’s fantastic novel. In Grozny’s honor, the 19^th century fortress was named in Chechnya [as of today, it is still the capital of Chechnya], where both Lermontov and Bulgakov saw action.

The next famous Tsar after Ivan Grozny was Petrus Primus, alias Peter I, alias Peter the Great. [Yes, a long time had passed since the grandfather of Ivan Grozny, namely Ivan III, had tried this title, “the Great” upon himself, and, curiously, the title of Tsar as well!]

Because Lermontov in hell has attached himself to Pushkin, so that the two of them have become virtually inseparable (more on this in my chapter on Bulgakov), Bulgakov thus tells us ,that without Pushkin, Lermontov would have hardly adjusted himself to a life in hell. Most likely, he would have been unable to get himself at home in hell society, just as he had failed to fit in the society of his contemporary world.

Pushkin was his idol. Like everybody else in Russia, Lermontov grieved the untimely death of the nation’s preeminent poet, according to the reminiscences of his contemporaries. As a spontaneous reaction to Pushkin’s death, Lermontov responded with his celebrated poem On the Death of a Poet.

The poet’s dead, a prisoner of honor,

Fallen, foul-mouthed by the gossip…

…But let us get back to Peter I. St. Petersburg has a monument intimately known to every Russian. Pushkin wrote the poem Bronze Horseman about it.---

I love you, Peter’s great creation.

I love your solemn, shapely look…

The French sculptor Falconet, commissioned by Empress Catherine the Great [the enlightened correspondent of Voltaire and Diderot, the latter was invited by her to Russia and practically saved by her from the poorhouse; although he was one of the great treasures of Western Civilization, and the renowned encyclopedist, and his exceptional service to France and humanity in general notwithstanding, it was Russia who gave him a new lease on life and allowed him to return home a well-to-do man] depicted Peter the Great as a horseman upon a stallion standing on hind legs and trampling a killed serpent under one hoof. The inscription on the monument says: Petro Primo Catarina Secunda.

In his Bronze Horseman, Pushkin glorifies Peter the Great, the builder of the new Russian capital in 1703, a city of uncommon beauty…

The meaning of Begemot’s “primus” in Master and Margarita must now emerge with some clarity. In such a manner Bulgakov glorifies the two greatest Russian poets: Pushkin the Primus and Lermontov the Secundus. The two of them have truly created Russian poetry… One cannot stop marveling how skillfully Bulgakov infuses Russian history into his works. According to him, Pushkin the Primus inspires Lermontov. Thanks to Pushkin and his “primus gasoline”, Lermontov receives a second breath in hell.

…For Bulgakov himself, Pushkin was a psychiatrist of sorts, in the nicer meaning of this word. I can easily visualize Bulgakov with a little book of Pushkin’s poems in hand, each time he is having a hard time.

“…Pushkin’s poems wondrously soften embittered souls. Away with spite, Russian writers!” That’s what he writes in his Notes on the Cuffs.

Pushkin used to be accused of dodging the punishment he was supposed to be subjected to, along with the Decembrists. (Following the failed uprising, he burned his diaries of three-plus years, from 1821 to 1825, in order to minimize the negative information concerning his friends the Decembrists). It was said that he was good only as an inciter. Bulgakov therefore suggests that when Begemot “splashed down” benzene from his primus, “and that benzene caught fire by itself, causing a wave of flame to rise up to the ceiling,” there has to be a connection here with the power of Pushkin’s verses to enflame the hearts of the Russian people. Pushkin was a poet, not a revolutionary. Which is why Begemot says: “I’m not fooling around,  not doing harm to anyone, just repairing the primus.”

In this manner Bulgakov shows that Lermontov was absolutely necessary to Pushkin, as only Lermontov could lighten him up. Bulgakov shows a genuine friendship between men, admixed with not a single bit of envy [“But I am not a regent,” replied Begemot with dignity and ostensibly taking offense, when suddenly he winked to Margarita]; without betrayal, in other words, a friendship he must never had experienced in his life, because, most likely, neither of them could ever find such a match for themselves in real life. Thus Bulgakov unites them postmortem in his fantasy.

Not only does Lermontov save Pushkin by his unfailing humor, but he also saves himself by his friendship with Pushkin. In our case, Bulgakov expresses this like only he can: Rather than a breath of fresh air, Lermontov requires a gulp of self-igniting benzene from his “Primus”. Thus his friendship with Pushkin, and Pushkin’s poetry, ignite Lermontov himself.

(To be continued…)