GALINA SEDOVA. A CHAPTER ON BULGAKOV. DXCVII

The Bard.

Bezdomny’s Progress.

Posting #2.

“His Moscow is his anguish. Longing for

what is not to be, where he is not to live.

The unreachable dream of a foreigner...”

Marina Tsvetaeva. On Balmont.

The question remains: why is it K. D. Balmont who is chosen to play the psychiatrist? Even without knowing whether Bulgakov had ever met Balmont in person, I am left with the supposition that Bulgakov must have heard something about the poet that turned him in this direction. Considering that Marina Tsvetaeva wrote her memoirs after the death of V. Ya. Bryusov in 1925, it is quite likely that Bulgakov may have learned about Balmont from the same memoirs.

Marina Tsvetaeva pictures Balmont as not of this world:

“…Having been born, Balmont revealed the fourth dimension: Balmont!, the fifth element” Balmont!, the sixth sense and the sixth continent of the world: Balmont! He lived in them. His love for Russia was the infatuation of a foreigner…”

Marina Tsvetaeva also calls Balmont “an enchanted traveler never to return home.” She also had “a feeling that Balmont was speaking some kind of foreign language – which one, I don’t know – the Balmontian language.” And also considering the fact that the action in the novel Master and Margarita takes place in Moscow, it is relevant to mention here what Tsvetaeva writes about it:

“His Moscow is his anguish. Longing for what is not to be, where he is not to live. The unreachable dream of a foreigner...”

But the most important thing is that only Bulgakov could reconstruct from Marina Tsvetaeva’s memoirs a psychological profile of Balmont, and thus, for reasons known to him only, make him now a doctor of neuropathology, now a psychiatrist. Bulgakov probably thought that Balmont had a calming effect on the people surrounding him.

Marina Tsvetaeva also seems to testify to this:

“And so will Balmont remain in Russian poetry – as a guest from overseas – bearing gifts, sweet-talking, enchanting it – by storm – and likewise sunk.”

This is exactly why Bulgakov introduces the scene of hypnosis into the 8^th chapter of Master and Margarita: A Duel Between the Professor and the Poet:

“Do you hear me? – suddenly and meaningfully inquired Stravinsky, taking hold of both hands of Ivan Nikolayevich. Having gripped them in his, he peered into Ivan’s eyes for a long time, repeating: You will be helped here. Can you hear me? You are going to be helped here. You are going to get relief. It’s quiet in here, all is calm. You will be helped here. Ivan Nikolayevich suddenly yawned, the expression of his face smoothened. Yes, yes, he said softly.”

This is how Bulgakov describes the last hours of the life of the Russian poet Sergei Yesenin, who serves as the prototype of both the poet Ivan Bezdomny and the demon-assassin Azazello. Having fled from the psychiatric clinic where he was supposed to get help, to Peterburg, Yesenin committed suicide by cutting his wrists in a hotel there, hence the name Azazello and also Azazello’s preference: “I prefer Rome [to Moscow].”

Here we have a double-meaning in Bulgakov. The Russian Orthodox consider Moscow the Third (and the last) Rome, thus putting Moscow above all other cities of the world, including Peterburg and Rome itself – the First Rome that had fallen. P. I. Tchaikovsky wrote a cantata on this subject, where the singers proclaim the supremacy of the Third Rome, “and a Fourth is not to be!”

This is how Bulgakov reconciles the perished poet with Orthodox Christianity. [See my subchapter A Taste of Bulgakov’s History. Posting XXXVI.]

It is also important to note that just like Azazello (whose prototype is Sergei Yesenin) is offering Andrei Fokich Sokov a “taburet” to sit on, there is a sole taburet in Ivan’s room, which Professor Stravinsky takes for himself.

This “taburet” miraculously changes into an armchair for master in Chapter 13: The Appearance of the Hero. That’s how it is, as Koroviev would say. (See my chapter Who Is Who In Master.)

By the way, returning to Koroviev, it is precisely because of Marina Tsvetaeva’s discourse about the Balmontian world with its “4^th dimension, 5^th element, 6^th sense, and 6^th part of the world,” in which he lived.

In Chapter 22 With Candles Bulgakov gives Koroviev [Pushkin] the following tirade, when Margarita expresses her bewilderment as to how such a spacious hall can fit into a normal Moscow flat. –

“Koroviev sweetly grinned. [The explanation] couldn’t be simpler, he replied. Those who are familiar with the fifth dimension [sic!] can easily expand any given space to the required limits. I can say even more, dear lady, to devil knows what limits!”

It is clear now why Bulgakov introduces this discourse coming from Koroviev. They are talking about poetry where Pushkin has no equals. All roads of Russian literature lead to Pushkin.

To be continued…

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