A Swallow’s
Nest of Luminaries.
Mr. Lastochkin:
The Magnificent Third.
“There on earth I was given a penny,
And
they hung millstones on my neck.
My
beloved! – Don’t you recognize me?
I
am your swallow – Psyche!”
Marina Tsvetaeva. April 1918.
By far the most mysterious character for me in all of Master and Margarita, was the accountant
Vasily Stepanovich Lastochkin. (The name comes from the Russian word
“Lastochka,” translated into English as “Swallow.”)
For a very long time I was deadlocked, until I
realized that the name points to Woland. It is precisely Woland who is
associated with a swallow in
Bulgakov. [See my posted segment LII.] And considering that only poets are
associated with birds in Bulgakov’s Master
and Margarita, probably due to the poets’ out-of-this-world imagination,
and hence their flight of thought, it follows that Vasily Stepanovich
Lastochkin has to be a poet as well.
I’ve found proof of this both in the Theatrical Novel and in Marina
Tsvetaeva’s poetry. The main push for this discovery was that the accountant
Vasily Stepanovich Lastochkin, having appeared in the 17th chapter
of Master and Margarita, Troublesome Day, disappears without a
trace right after that. He is even absent from the Epilogue of the novel, where
Bulgakov tells us what happened later to various, mostly episodical characters.
This particular character leaves the novel completely. It is however clear that
he was arrested right after bringing foreign currency instead of rubles to the
bank.
The time has come for the reader to find out how
Bulgakov introduces Lastochkin into his novel. This happens, as I already said
before, in the 17th chapter of Master
and Margarita, Troublesome Day,
where Lastochkin comes and goes, never to return.
“On Friday morning, that is, on the next day
after the cursed séance, all the present personnel of the Variety Theater – the
accountant Vasily Stepanovich Lastochkin, two assistant accountants, three
typists, both cashiers, the couriers, the valets and the cleaning maids, in
other words, everybody who was accounted for – were out of their workplaces…”
Working on my chapter A Dress Rehearsal For Master and Margarita, I was rereading the Theatrical Novel, and my attention was
drawn to a rather strange phrase already on the 4th page of the 2nd
chapter A Fit of Neurasthenia:
“One said that the 17th chapter
was overly drawn-out, another that Vasenka’s character was not written distinctly
enough. Both criticisms were fair.”
Bulgakov writes here about the critical remarks made
by a number of colleagues and litterateurs to whom the hero of the Theatrical Novel was reading his novel Black Snow.
Considering that the Theatrical Novel is cut off on chapter 16, I decided to look for an
answer in Bulgakov’s novella Fateful
Eggs, as it is precisely here that we find a very interesting and enigmatic
character named Vasenka.
[I already wrote about him in my chapter Cats, see my posted segment CXXI.
Together with two more GPU agents, he comes to Professor Persikov who had
telephoned GPU, outraged by one of his visitors offering him a bribe.
Of these three, Vasenka is the most remarkable
character. He is obviously a counterintelligence agent, and Bulgakov describes
him with his characteristic humor, nevertheless giving him his due for his
superior professionalism. Incidentally, I already wrote elsewhere that the name
Vasenka or Vas’ka, is frequently given to male cats in Russia.]
“The third guest behaved in a peculiar
manner; he did not enter Professor Persikov’s study, but remained in the
semi-dark anteroom… Meanwhile, the well-lit and filled with streams of tobacco
smoke study could be observed by him throughout. The face of the third [agent],
who was also dressed in civilian clothes, was adorned by a smoked-glass
pince-nez.”
When after a while the first two agents inside
Professor Persikov’s study need the third one’s help – Bulgakov’s text becomes
exceedingly interesting.
“Vasenka!
– softly called Angel (the first agent) addressing the one sitting in the
anteroom. That one got up sluggishly and, as though unhinged, dragged
himself into the study. The smoky glasses had completely consumed his eyes. Nu? He asked laconically and sleepily…”
In response, Vasenka gets a single word: “Galoshes!”
Apparently this pair of galoshes is the only evidence allowing to identify the
culprit.
“…The smoky eyes slid over the galoshes,
and at that moment Persikov felt as though from under the glasses, askance, for
just a short moment, there sparkled by no means sleepy, but on the contrary
amazingly prickly eyes. But they were extinguished [sic!] right
away.”
With what mastery had Bulgakov painted this and the
next scene in his early, 1925, work Fateful
Eggs! One can only marvel at such skill!
The quotes here are extremely important, and I will be
referring to them quite often throughout this chapter.
Professor Persikov’s question “Is it possible that you shoot [all]
reporters? – amused the guests exceedingly. Not only the gloomy shorty, but
even the smoky smiled in the anteroom. The Angel, sparkling and glowing,
explained…”
[We will return to Angel, Vasenka, and Mr. X in my
chapter Alpha and Omega.]
Like in the Theatrical
Novel, there is no chapter 17 in Fateful
Eggs.
And so, we have “Vasenka” from Fateful Eggs going to the Theatrical
Novel.
In Master and
Margarita, we have both chapter 17, Troublesome
Day, which can be called not just “dragged-out,” but even chaotic, and also
Vasily Stepanovich Lastochkin, who first appears in the first paragraph of
chapter 17, and this chapter ends with his arrest and complete disappearance
from the rest of the novel.
“When he unpacked his package, there was a
ruffle in his eyes... He saw a succession of foreign money… Here he is, one of those Variety crooks, a
loud voice sounded over the dumbstruck accountant, and Vasily Stepanovich was
arrested on the spot.” (End of chapter
17.)
Calling Lastochkin “one of those Variety crooks,” Bulgakov also gives us an indication
that Vasily Stepanovich happens to be a Russian poet. Judging by how Bulgakov
describes Lastochkin’s story and the circumstances of his arrest, it becomes
clear that an innocent man has been arrested. Bulgakov is a master of allegory,
showing us through the use of foreign currency that the accountant Lastochkin
was arrested for an alleged tie with foreigners.
Introducing words like “17th chapter” and
“Vasenka” into the Theatrical Novel,
Bulgakov shows by whom Vasili Stepanovich Lastochkin was arrested, namely, by
Soviet counterintelligence.
The fact that the accountant Lastochkin was delivering
the money to the bank, despite the conversation with the cab driver, gives the
reader to understand that this man had been set up.
The “Judas” who set Lastochkin up by asking his
provocative questions went free, unless Bulgakov shows this Judas in the person
of Baron Meigel, who worked as a “stool pigeon and spy” for the
counterintelligence, and judging by the title “Baron” given to him by Bulgakov,
the man must have been of noble birth.
The role of Meigel cannot be explained otherwise,
unless we see it as the Russian poets’ revenge for the demise of one of their
own.
Bulgakov does not leave any loose ends in his works.
Drawing the reader’s attention in the Theatrical
Novel, Bulgakov was hoping that he had given a sufficient clue in Fateful Eggs for the reader to
understand what goes on in chapter 17 of Master
and Margarita. It is for a reason that I am calling the Theatrical Novel “A Dress Rehearsal for Master and Margarita.”
We will return to that 17th chapter later
on in this chapter.
To be continued…
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