The Fantastic Novel. Arrests and
Cannibalism.
I must see death, I must have
blood,
To pour over the fire in my
breast.
M. Yu. Lermontov.
The
story of a “tiny man with an incredibly sad face,” namely,
of Andrei Fokich Sokov, who worked as the buffet vendor at the Variety Theater, is probably the darkest
one in the novel Master and Margarita.
Andrei Fokich [the name meaning brave
and manly] insisted on being received
by the “citizen artist,” that is, by
Woland, personally. Learning who has come to see him, Woland wastes no time to
attack the “tiny man” for spending his whole professional life on poisoning his
customers, by selling them rotten food.
“Feta cheese does
not come in green color…There is only one category of freshness: first, which
is also the last.”
As
soon as Woland learns that the vendor has come to see him on a “different
matter,” he feigns surprise:
“But what other matter could bring me to you? If memory serves me
right, among the persons close to you by profession, I only dealt with one
cantiniere, but that was a long time ago, when you weren’t even born.”
Next
Woland offers the vendor to taste some of the meat currently being roasted on
the fire by Azazello.
“Here, in the scarlet light of the fireplace a sword glistened in
front of the vendor, and Azazello put a piece of sizzling meat on a golden
plate and sprinkled it with lemon juice. ‘Freshness,
freshness, and freshness,-- that’s what ought to be the motto of every food
vendor,’ told him Woland…”
Well, le roi s’amuse. Only now it becomes clear why the apartment smells
of “strongest perfume and incense.” Andrei Fokich is being treated to a freshly
slaughtered human--- that selfsame “board member Pyatnazhko,” second deputy to
the previously arrested Nikanor Ivanovich Bosoy, who was led away from his
office by a certain “citizen” who had whispered something in Pyatnazhko’s ear a
short time before our vendor Sokov came to visit Woland.
Incidentally,
Woland displays his “devilish” sense of humor when he tells Andrei Fokich about
that cantiniere acquaintance of his. This cantiniere had been present in the
apartment before the arrival of the vendor, being the owner of that “smell of
strongest perfume.” She is the one who is always there when human meat is being
served… Sokov highly praises the meat he eats: “fresh, aromatic, juicy.” This is exactly how Jason once praised the
meat he was eating, served to him by his “cantiniere” wife Medea.
It
is not for the deceased Berlioz that Woland serves the mass for the dead, but
for the still alive vendor A. F. Sokov, who has the macabre privilege of
participating in his own dead mass. This is why he shudders on seeing the table
covered with church brocade. Bulgakov gives the vendor nine months to live,
precisely as much as was necessary for him to come into life. Another curious
detail is that of all characters in Master
and Margarita, Bulgakov describes only two of them as small: Azazello and the vendor. Both are killers, each in his own
way, but both of them kill people.
[The
idea of eating human flesh comes to Bulgakov once again from Russian history.
Ivan Grozny used to be known for his exceptional cruelty. When he entered the
Russian city of Pskov, where a full-scale massacre was now expected, he was met
by the local yurodivy (holy fool) Nikola, who offered the Tsar a piece of raw
meat.
“I am a Christian, I do not
eat meat during the Lent,” Ivan Grozny told the yurodivy.
“You do worse,” Nikola
said to him. “You eat human flesh.”
From N. I. Kostomarov’s Russian
History.
The
yurodivy was an untouchable species in Russia, another word for him being “the
blessed.” Incidentally it was Ivan Grozny who commissioned the spectacular St. Basil the Blessed’s Cathedral on Red Square, in Moscow, in
honor of another yurodivy: St. Vasili of Moscow…
As
for the fate of the Russian city of Pskov, following that historic exchange,
Tsar Ivan Grozny left Pskov carrying the city’s coffers to Moscow with him, but
on the bright side, he did not dare to kill a single person in Pskov, which
must tell you something about the power of the Russian madman.]
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