GALINA SEDOVA’S BULGAKOV. XXIV.

Galina Sedova’s Bulgakov.

The Fantastic Love Story of Master and Margarita Continues.

 

The young face is hiding

At will both joy and grief.

Her eyes are bright like the sky,

Her soul is dark like the sea!

 

M. Yu. Lermontov

 

…Before we move on from here, let us summarize a few things.

1.      Bulgakov is Russian = a Russian nationalist.
2.      Bulgakov mentions only two historical dates in Master and Margarita: the sixteenth century and the year 1571, which happens to be in the sixteenth century.
3.      In connection with Margarita, Bulgakov introduces a very important historical personage, namely, Malyuta Skuratov.
4.      Woland’s knee has been hurting incessantly ever since the year 1571 (which was in the sixteenth century).
5.      Bulgakov keeps comparing Margarita to a cat.
6.      Margarita is not on very good terms with Kot-Begemot.
7.      Before Margarita becomes involved with the demonic force, she wants to poison herself, and on a different occasion to poison the critic Latunsky. Thereafter she wishes to drown herself rather than to use poison. She is of “cat” stock, and drowning is the manner of death associated with cats.
8.      Woland is a collector of celebrities. He is reported to have had a breakfast with Kant, he witnessed the crucifixion of Christ, he was present when Medea fed hers and Jason’s children to Jason, etc.

Whom would Woland want to add to his collection in Russia?

Thus Bulgakov points to the sixteenth century three times, and one of these has a real historical name attached to it. [Not merely a mention of some French queen of the sixteenth century or of a “charming witch” in 1571, which is also a date in the sixteenth century.] Malyuta Skuratov was a favorite of Tsar Ivan Grozny. But even without his name, ask any Russian what the sixteenth century is most famous for, and he will tell you: Ivan Grozny.

It makes sense to dwell on Russian history now for a short while, which Bulgakov knew well, and inserted into his works. (I. e., the chess game between Kot-Begemot and Satan, illustrating the disastrous abdication of the Emperor Nicholas II, etc.) It had to be Russian history and Russia’s foremost celebrities, that Woland could be interested in, on his visit to Moscow.

Why would Bulgakov be so much interested in Russian history in Master and Margarita? Here is Bulgakov’s own answer:

“Historian by education, just two years before, he [Master] had been working at one of Moscow’s museums.”

Bulgakov makes his main character a historian not only to explain why he had been chosen to write a novel about Pontius Pilate, but also to deliver a very transparent hint to the reader that in Master and Margarita, Bulgakov incorporates, albeit in his own inimitable way, much of Russian history.

Now, we have come to dwell on the person of Tsar Ivan Grozny, at whose birth, as the annals of history put it, “thunder rolled across the Russian land and lightning glared; the earth shook.” [Kostomarov.] We are later going to observe the high significance of thunderstorm in Bulgakov’s narrative.

(Incidentally, only one more Russian prince of the early 12^th century, Dimitri Mikhailovich Tverskoy, has a nickname which includes the word Grozny: Fearsome Eyes.)

Now, how does Bulgakov trace his heroine from Ivan Grozny?-- Through Grozny’s beloved wife Anastasia Romanovna, whom he chose as his wife when he was sixteen years of age, and later called her a ewe, taken from him by the Boyars whom he would accuse of poisoning her. Anastasia Romanovna was from Koshkin (“Cat’s”) clan.

Alluding to the legend about the presumably surviving daughter of Tsar Nicholas II, Anastasia Nikolaevna Romanova, Bulgakov traces his Margarita Nikolaevna to the Romanovs, whose royal dynasty had ruled Russia for more than three hundred years.

The first Romanov Russian Tsar Mikhail Fedorovich Romanov called Ivan Grozny his grandfather, in his official papers, because Anastasia Romanovna [Romanova] had been Grozny’s first and favorite wife, who was chosen by the young tsar when he was sixteen. Mikhail’s other grandfather was Nikita Romanovich [Romanov], the tsaritsa’s brother, the only boyar of the 16^th century who is featured in a folk epic “bylina,” as a “benevolent intercessor between the people and the angry tsar.” [Klyuchevsky: A Course of Russian History.]

Tsaritsa Anastasia and her famous brother came from the “Koshkin clan.” Here is another piece of evidence which explains why in two places in Master and Margarita, Bulgakov compares Margarita to a cat [koshka in Russian]. I will be talking more about this later in this chapter.

(To be continued tomorrow…)