GALINA SEDOVA’S BULGAKOV. LVI.

Woland in Disguise.

A Beardo with a Rolly.

“How often by the power of thought in one short hour

I lived through ages with a different life…”

M. Yu. Lermontov.

It’s been convincingly established that Woland likes to appear “incognito,” that is, not recognized as himself, not only at his own ball, where he appears as a red-tuxedoed swallow-tailed wild jazz band leader and as a shaggy-sideburned ape, but also in other places. We have already identified him as the deep man’s voice singing a Schubert song in Varenukha’s phone receiver. There is yet another thoroughly disguised appearance of his, to Ivanushka very early in the novel, which will be now the subject of our discussion in this segment, But before we get to the particular incident, here is its pre-history, which we are reconstructing due to the incident’s importance.

Having been utterly horrified by the literally predicted gruesome death of Berlioz, and convinced that foul play was somehow involved, Ivanushka organizes a single-handed chase after the “villains.” Having paid too much attention to the Regent and the cat, and having lost them anyway, Ivan now concentrates on the chief villain, the professor. (It is very important to note that Ivanushka never sees Azazello, either in that first scene on Patriarch Ponds, or anywhere else on the pages of the novel. The importance of this fact will be revealed to the reader later on, in my separate chapter on Ivanushka.)

Ivan is “stunned by the supernatural speed of the chase.” Street after street were left behind in a matter of seconds, and still Ivan was unable to gain on the professor by “as much as a centimeter.” Nobody seems to be asking the question how did all those people react walking along the boulevard from Nikitskiye Gates to Arbatskaya Square. The passersby could not possibly be removed from there, and besides, Ivan’s sprint was giving way to a trot, during which, he was pushing the passersby aside. The only thing that can be imagined is that although “Ivan saw the gray beret [of the professor] in the crowd of people at the beginning of Bolshaya Nikitskaya [Street],” neither Ivan nor the professor were visible to other people. Being invisible is easy in Bulgakov. Didn’t Azazello tell Margarita that once she says the word “Invisible!” she would become such right away? We need not be surprised at Woland’s extraordinary powers, and making people invisible (or dumbstruck, for that matter) is just one of these.

Yet another case involving Azazello reveals the remarkable ability of the demonic force to control people and situations, such as the use of breath:

“Right at the exit door of entrance number six, Azazello breathed upwards, and [they] saw a man in high boots and a cap, sleeping on the porch, and that must have been a very deep sleep.”

It is obvious that the sleeping man was a security agent watching the apartment #50. Azazello had put him to sleep by merely breathing upwards toward him. The reason why he directed his breath upwards was to avoid affecting Master and Margarita.

We do not know how Woland made Ivan invisible in the street, but this must have been important to him to avoid catching people’s attention. And also, the supernatural speed with which Ivan was moving, was also a result of Woland’s influence.

While chasing Woland, Ivanushka finds himself “in a dark side street with slanting sidewalks.” He stumbles and falls down, hurting his knee. Woland is trying to scare him by both physical and mental intimidation: the darkness, the blood, and of course the unknown, especially considering that “the professor had vanished.”

And here, apart from the supernatural speed of his movement, a hell-storm breaks out in Ivan’s head. Those thoughts now appearing in his head are surely not his own, such as, for instance, the address of the building and the apartment number, where, instead of the professor, Ivan finds a naked woman in the bathroom. In such a fashion, Bulgakov for the first time plays out a theme from Faust. However, instead of falling into a temptation, Ivanushka chastises the woman for being “depraved,” and from the bathroom he walks straight into the kitchen, where he is being “seduced” by a small icon and a candle. (More about his adventure in this apartment in my chapter on Ivanushka.)

Well, the numbers of the building and of the apartment are by no means as important as understanding how these thoughts get into Ivan’s head. Poor Ivan now sincerely believes that the icon is protecting him from the demonic force, not realizing that Woland is controlling his thoughts and that he is probably the one who led him on to the icon in the first place. But anyway, Ivan now has no doubt that he must run down to the Moskva River, where he will find the professor by all means.

(To be continued…)