GALINA SEDOVA’S BULGAKOV. XXXVIII.

The Fantastic Novel. Arrests and Cannibalism. Part II.

 

He sustains himself by earthly food,

He greedily gulps the smoke of battle,

And vapor from spilled blood.

 

M. Yu. Lermontov.

 

 As we have determined that the demonic force is behind the disappearances of a number of people in Moscow (Bulgakov gives us three cases of 1) the nameless tenant of the jeweler’s widow; 2) Timofey Kvastsov the snitch; and 3) board member Pyatnazhko, plus quite probably the wives of Berlioz and Likhodeev), it’s time for us to get more closely acquainted with the principal players, Woland and Azazello.

Bulgakov splits the devil (and not only him!) in two, in Master and Margarita.---

Azazello is the killer demon--- the real pure unadorned evil. He does not tolerate contradiction, he is violent and totally devoid of the sense of humor. He gives his victims horrific lethal ideas.

Bulgakov’s Woland is a far more interesting, multifaceted figure. He is a fallen angel. Woland is just, in his own way. Bulgakov attributes to him the principle “to each according to his faith.” As a genuine sovereign, Woland can afford being merciful without turning himself into a soft rag of cloth.

Bulgakov more or less follows the Christian tradition with his Woland. He is Lucifer, creator of light, which is why he and Matthew the Levite are having that jocular conversation about shadows. Although calling Matthew a slave, Woland is well aware that he himself has no choice in his fate. Everything is being done in accordance with the will of God. “Surely, he alone can cut the thread who hung it there.” In Bulgakov’s scheme, God looked down on earth and, seeing a triumph of unconcealed utter evil, decided to balance the situation using the angels’ revolt. In Bulgakov, God places Woland above Azazello the scapegoat. Being a Christian, Bulgakov elevates the New Testament over the Old Testament in his writings.

Two affects are fighting in Woland: his interest in everything unusual [usually mortals submit to his power, which thus runs contrary to his fancy for novelty] and on the other hand his will to victory, which demands winning souls of the “disobedient ones,” who are thus beyond his powerful reach. (For instance, Margarita refuses to sanction the murder of the critic whom she truly hates and wishes to revenge on for his treatment of Master, while Master resolutely turns down everything tempting that is being offered to him.)

Bulgakov treats evil unconventionally, which is how he also treats the struggle of good and evil. Even Azazello “softens up” in the presence of Woland. The latter loves entertainment and possesses a macabre sense of humor bordering on cruelty. Woland is a lover of rarities, he collects celebrities. Having had a breakfast with Kant, he dispatches him “farther than Solovki,” to a place from which there is no return. Woland is a witness of the Crucifixion of Christ. He is personally present when Medea feeds their own children to an unsuspecting Jason…If we go by Bulgakov’s idea, it means that Woland is a participant in all extraordinary events without exception, be that St. Bartholomew’s Night or the French Revolution, or the American Civil War or the German Night of Long Knives. Woland is present during every fit of indigestion suffered by the great Napoleon, during Hitler’s writing of the second version of Mein Kampf, he personally collects the souls of Trotsky, Petlura, and Churchill.

I suspect that Woland is easily susceptible to boredom, that’s why he is such a seeker of company, although he does complain that “among the people who sat with me around a festive table were sometimes singular scoundrels.”

Woland is a great disciplinarian; his retinue very well realizes what his “disfavor” would mean to each of them. In so far as the buffet vendor of the Variety Theater Andrei Fokich Sokov insists on seeing the citizen artist personally, no one of Woland’s group, although all of them are at home in the apartment #50, says a word during the one-on-one conversation between Woland and the vendor, the latter being Woland’s exclusive quarry, which everybody understands. Koroviev’s voice is only heard from the study when he gives information about Sokov to his master. Indeed, Woland runs a tight ship with his crew.

There are two interesting stories involving Woland and Azazello. Azazello’s concerns Varenukha, while that of Woland, as we have just mentioned, relates to the vendor Sokov. It is this last story which we are about to discuss in some detail.

(To be continued…)