Alpha And Omega.
Posting #16.
“…I cannot stand this
word socialist. And of all
socialists I hate A. F.
Kerensky the most…”
M. Bulgakov. White Guard.
As
for Fedor Nikolayevich Stepanov, nicknamed Karas, in Bulgakov’s White Guard, Bulgakov here is in our
face with full force because of the 1921 death of N. S. Gumilev, to the point
that he simply juggles with the name Nikolai
Stepanovich [Gumilev] turning it into [Fedor] Nikolayevich Stepanov.
Curiously,
it is not apparent from Gumilev’s biography what he was doing after finishing
high school, however, his first wife Anna Andreevna Gumileva, later renowned as
the poetess Anna Akhmatova, writes that, in accordance with the wish of his father
Stepan Yakovlevich Gumilev, a Russian Navy Surgeon, N.S. Gumilev joined the
Navy Corps and spent one summer at sea. Hence the nickname “Karas” given to
navy freshmen.
When
Bulgakov writes the following lines about N. S. Gumilev, his phrasing is very
careful as he turns the whole situation into a mystical one:
“The small-statured, neatly shaped, and indeed looking very much
like a Crucian carp, Karas collided with Shervinsky at the very entrance door
to the Turbins...”
To
begin with, by the time this novel was written, both these poets were dead: M.
Yu. Lermontov was killed in a duel in 1841, and N. S. Gumilev was executed by a
firing squad in 1921. The last known redaction of White Guard, written in 1923-1924, was done in 1925. That’s why
they met “at the very entrance door to the Turbins,”
in accordance with the wish of the author himself, who gives his main character
Alexei Turbin the maiden name of his maternal grandmother.
It
is for a reason that Bulgakov compares Karas with Shervinsky in his novel White Guard, as N. S. Gumilev followed
in Lermontov’s footsteps, volunteering for military service. Being a poet, he
considered poets as the highest category of “warrior-clerks” and, following
Lermontov, saw himself as such.
Karas
is also the most level-headed of the personages connected with Alexei Turbin.
Thus in the scene of Chapter 7, when the commander of the mortar division
Colonel Malyshev announces to the officers and artillerymen that the division
has been “disbanded,” and a ruckus begins with the demands to arrest the
commander, only Karas remains cool and collect in the ensuing chaos:
“Gentlemen, wait! –
shouted the slowly but confidently thinking Karas.”
Struck
by Karas’ composure, Myshlayevsky takes his side.
From
the published reminiscences of people serving with Gumilev, published by G. P.
Struve, I’d like to quote a few examples. There is an interesting reminiscence
of Yu. A. Toporkov:
“He was of small height, I would say disproportionately built, slow
in movement. At first, he appeared to us a somber man, unsocial and shy. But he
was always drawing attention to himself by his upbringing, considerateness,
impeccable diligence and modesty... He was always talking softly, slowly and in
a drawl.”
And
here is a passage from Staff Captain V. A. Karamzin:
“During dinner, there was suddenly knocking of a knife on the edge
of a plate, and Gumilev rose slowly. In a measured tone, without any outcries,
he started reciting his poem: We shall
glorify Colonel Radetzky in song... The poem was long and masterfully
written. We were all in rapture. Gumilev solemnly lowered himself into his seat
and equally measuredly continued his participation in the festivity. Everything
that Gumilev was doing was like a sacred rite…”
This
very interesting excerpt must have been familiar to Bulgakov from other
sources. I am making this conclusion on the basis of a very important detail.
Staff Captain V. A. Karamzin writes:
“By autumn 1916, Lieutenant-Colonel von Radetzky was passing his
fourth squadron to Captain Malik-Shahnazarov. I was there too (and so was
Gumilev) at the solemn dinner on that occasion.”
The
point is that although V. A. Karamzin calls Radetzky “Lieutenant-Colonel,” he
remembers the words of Gumilev’s poem differently:
“We
shall glorify Colonel Radetzky in song...”
When
in the 6th chapter of White
Guard Karas brings his friends Myshlayevsky and Dr. Turbin to sign up as
volunteers with the Mortar Division, Bulgakov writes:
“Mr. Colonel was holding a quill in his hand, and he was in fact
not a colonel, but a lieutenant-colonel, wearing broad golden shoulder-straps
with two spaces and three stars and with crossed golden cannons on them.”
Still
Bulgakov keeps calling the division commander colonel both before this sentence
and after, thus drawing the researcher’s attention to this fact. I think that
since the friends learned about the mortar division and about the “colonel”
from Karas, whose prototype is N. S. Gumilev, there is a parallel here with
Gumilev who made the same mistake calling a lieutenant-colonel a colonel.
Karas
does not appear too often in White Guard.
Apparently, Bulgakov does not want to overdo it. (The reader may turn to my posted
chapter The Garden: Afranius, where
there is much more on this subject.)
One
more example is necessary. At the meeting of V. Myshlayevsky and Alexei Turbin
with the colonel to whom Karas had brought them, the colonel’s question whether
Turbin is a socialist has caught the doctor unprepared. Bulgakov writes:
“The colonel’s little eyes slipped sideways, and all his figure,
lips, and the sweet voice expressed the liveliest desire that Dr. Turbin should
turn out to be precisely a “socialist,” and by no means anybody else.
Turbin was highly disappointed and surprised: Hell! How come Karas was saying…?”
The
most curious part is that whatever Karas was saying remains behind the frame.
Bulgakov’s next sentence cannot be understood (at least in my case) without the
help of Marina Tsvetaeva, who is Margarita’s prototype in Master and Margarita. Bulgakov writes:
“At that moment he felt Karas somewhere behind his right shoulder,
and, without looking, understood that [Karas] was incessantly trying to make
him understand something, but what it was, was impossible to know.
I – suddenly boomed Turbin, his cheek
twitching, – I am unfortunately not a
socialist, but a monarchist. And I
must even tell you that I cannot stand this word socialist. And of all
socialists I hate A. F. Kerensky the most.
Some kind of sound escaped from Karas’ mouth from the back, behind
Turbin’s right shoulder. [sic!]”
Reading
Marina Tsvetaeva’s reminiscence of her first meeting with Valery Yakovlevich
Bryusov in a bookstore, I was struck and therefore particularly remembered one
sentence. –
“I am standing [in the bookstore] no longer looking for a
substitute [of the needed book which she did not find in the store], when
suddenly behind my left shoulder [and here it comes!], where an Angel is
supposed to be…”
So,
this is what it means to stand behind the left shoulder or the right shoulder –
your Guardian Angel who is helping you. In the case of Dr. Turbin, it was his
friend Karas. In the case of the 16-year-old Marina Tsvetaeva, it was her idol
the poet Bryusov.
Tsvetaeva
continues:
“...Jerky barking, never heard before, instantly recognized. I
raise my eyes, a strike in the heart: Bryusov!”
This
is some important information about V. Bryusov. Thanks to Marina Tsvetaeva, I
had already determined that this Russian poet is Bulgakov’s prototype of
Pontius Pilate. (See my chapter The
Garden). I will return to this information later on in this chapter.
To
be continued…
***
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