GALINA SEDOVA’S BULGAKOV. LX.

Yeshua and Woland Continued.

“His brow is among the clouds,

He is the somber dweller of two elements,

And aside from the storm and thunders,

He will entrust none with his thoughts.”

 

M. Yu. Lermontov.

 

Thus Bulgakov deliberately confuses the reader by the Spring Ball of the Full Moon, which is in fact secondary to “Master’s composition.” Woland’s words on seeing Levi Matthew---

“So, what matter brings you here, you, uninvited, albeit expected, guest?”

---reveal the fact that Matthew and Woland, despite mutual hatred and disdain, have been in communication since times immemorial, with Matthew serving as an intermediary between Yeshua and Woland. Although, as I have said, Woland ostensibly despises Matthew and calls him Yeshua’s “slave,” he is flattered by the attention he is getting from Yeshua and by the fact itself of his request, and, judging by this episode, Woland never turns down Yeshua’s requests, even though obeying them makes the devil Yeshua’s subsidiary.

And so, this highly unusual relationship between the devil and Christ becomes the focus of our attention in this chapter.

To repeat this important point, Woland shows his disdain for Matthew by calling him Yeshua’s “slave.” (Compare this to Lermontov’s Demon saying: “I am the scourge of my earthly slaves.”) But Woland has none of that disdain toward Yeshua, on the contrary, he reveres Him.

“Pass it on [to Yeshua] that it shall be done,” tells Woland to Matthew, military-style.

Bulgakov very skillfully conceals the fact of Woland commissioning Azazello and company (he, Azazello, had taken along with him the two outstanding Russians, whose identities are known to my reader by now) to Moscow two years before the events described in Master and Margarita, as well as the purpose of their stay in Moscow: the “Master’s composition,” commissioned by Yeshua. Bulgakov however reveals it by an indirect detail. Yes, two years have passed by now, or otherwise how can we explain the incredible happenings having already taken place in Moscow, particularly centering on the infamous apartment number 50, belonging to the widow of the jeweler De Fouger, and set to become the location of Woland’s Ball of the Spring Full Moon.

There is a reason, indeed, that in his Notes of a Young Physician Bulgakov writes that he had become a Sherlock Holmes. In his immortal novel Master and Margarita he managed to hide not just a spy novel, but a detective novel as well.

Woland’s great interest in the Russian people can only be explained by the fact that Yeshua Himself was interested in Russia. A Russian, Bulgakov paints a Russian Yeshua, depicting him as a blessed Yurodivy, who calls all people “”good people, in accordance with the Russian Orthodox Christian tradition.

Bulgakov seldom uses the word “chelovek” [meaning man, person; in the Russian language, both a man and a woman can be a chelovek.] in his works. Yeshua in Pontius Pilate is given this title. Such an approach might seem strange, had we not been familiar with M. Yu. Lermontov’s amazing poem Prediction, where some eighty years in advance, the great poet predicts the Russian calamities of the early twentieth century: the Revolution and the Civil War.---

“And on that day a mighty man [chelovek] will come,

Him you will recognize, and understand

Why he is holding in his hand a knife:

And woe is you! Your tears, your groan,

Will be appearing laughable to him;

And everything in him will be as terrible and dark

As his dark cloak with elevated brow.”

 

Having lived through the terrible times predicted by Lermontov, Bulgakov creates, in opposition to Lermontov’s “mighty man,” his own “mighty man,” whom he calls “bright man,” as, having lived through the horrors, Bulgakov believes in the bright future for Russia.

In the poem Prediction Lermontov does not call the devil Demon, but uses the word mighty man, yet there can be no doubt that he is talking about the devil, as he is giving him those same characteristics that he had been giving to his Demon in his other poems.---

“Out of the depths soared the spirit of hell,

He was mighty, like a loud whirlwind.”

Here is the mighty man from Lermontov’s Prediction:

“And everything in him will be as terrible and dark

As his dark cloak with elevated brow.”

How come the devil has an “elevated brow”?, we may ask. This is what Lermontov says in his great long poem Demon:

“Those days, when in the dwelling place of light

He glittered, pure cherub…”

In the Christian tradition, the devil [Lucifer] is a fallen angel, rebelling against God, and for this act cast down from the highest, to earth. [“…And the black stallion fell to earth…”] The appearance of Lucifer has not changed, though. Bulgakov, too, gives Woland a “high brow,” only his face is skewed to one side from the impact of his fall on hard ground.

Here is Lermontov’s Demon again:

“God’s world around him was wild

And wondrous, but the proud Spirit

Cast a disdainful glance around

At the Creation of his God,

And on his high brow

Nothing was reflected.”

The reader must have noticed already how much Bulgakov’s Woland and Lermontov’s Demon have in common. Woland has a high brow, and he is dressed in black soutane. He is most certainly proud and mighty. [“Nothing is difficult to do for me,” he tells Levi Matthew.] It is Woland of course who uses the word “Light” in his conversation with Matthew:

[Woland to Levi Matthew:] “Why don’t you take him to your place, to Light?”

“He hasn’t deserved Light; he has deserved Rest,” said Levi Matthew in a sad voice.

Adding to the special features of Woland are his desire to delegate, his interest in the questions of “blood,” the idea of “Light,” a macabre sense of humor, his personal interest in Christ,--- all this a result of the influence on Bulgakov of Lermontov’s poetry of genius.

(To be continued…)