Friday, May 11, 2018

GALINA SEDOVA. A CHAPTER ON BULGAKOV. DCC



Guests At Satan’s Great Ball.
The Green Lady.
Posting #4.


Nothing in this life can I understand,
I only repeat, Yes I have it hard,
But my God had it harder,
And God’s Mother felt more pain.

Nikolai Gumilev.


If Steve Oblonsky in Tolstoy’s novel Anna Karenina had a sister Anna Karenina, then the poetess Natalia Poplavskaya had a younger brother Boris Poplavsky, who was particularly close to his father Yulian Poplavsky.
Apparently, Bulgakov somehow learned about a connection between N. S. Gumilev and the Poplavsky family. Perhaps they had meetings abroad, where the whole Poplavsky family frequently traveled. But considering that both brother and sister were poets, they may have known each other in Russia as well.
The information about them is quite sketchy. The whole story about Berlioz’s apartment is most likely an invention of Bulgakov.
The poet Boris Poplavsky was not married. Which is why, in case Bulgakov is using the real name, it had to be Poplavsky the father, and not the son. The story about Poplavsky’s passport indicates that this man was “vyezdnoi,” which means that he was allowed to travel abroad. This fact must have evoked such a violent reaction from Kot Begemot, because Lermontov, like Pushkin, had been denied the permission to travel freely. Incidentally, Bulgakov found himself in the same boat with these two.
As I said before, the information about the Poplavsky family on the Internet is very scarce. But seeing that Bulgakov connects Poplavsky to Gumilev in his novel, and so does Tsvetaeva in her memoirs, I deduce from it that such a connection in real life is possible.
As Bulgakov inserts a real Poplavsky into his novel Master and Margarita, I am inclined to believe that it must be the father, Yulian Ignatievich Poplavsky, about whom nothing relevant to the story is known.
Bulgakov introduces his daughter, the Russian poetess Natalia Poplavskaya, author of the 1917 poetry collection Verses of a Green Lady, as one of the female guests at Satan’s Great Ball, pointing to her by his use of the word “green,” which is the same as what Marina Tsvetaeva does in her memoirs.
When Madame Tofana, the historically famous professional poisoner, is introduced to Margarita at the ball, Bulgakov writes:

“Margarita was next approached by a lady [sic!] hobbling in a strange-looking wooden boot on her left leg. Her eyes were lowered, nun-style; she was thin, modest, and, for some reason, had a wide green [sic!] band around her neck. How green! – Margarita asked automatically…”

To begin with, I must make a note to the reader that the first guests at Satan’s Great Ball are all doubles. Apart from being explicitly historical personalities, like Madame Tofana, for instance, they “double” as prototypes of either certain Russian poets, or at the very least, characters from their poems.
If Marina Tsvetaeva, describing the poetess Natalia Poplavskaya, writes about her “slipper,” perhaps hinting at her Cinderella story, having married a baron, then Bulgakov writes about “a strange-looking wooden boot” on one of her legs. Even though he is ostensibly depicting an erstwhile convicted mass murderer, he still calls her a “lady,” while the reader must remember that Natalia Poplavskaya’s poetry collection is titled “Verses of a Green Lady.
M. Bulgakov draws the reader’s attention to this fact twice in a row. First, he introduces the “wide green band” with an important qualifier: “for some reason.” The unusualness of the situation is then reinforced through Margarita’s surprised reaction: “How green!” –

How green! – Margarita asked automatically…”

As for Natalia Poplavskaya’s brother, the Russian poet Boris Poplavsky, it is from him that M. Bulgakov borrows those “dark glasses” for the character of Abadonna, whose prototype also happens to be N. S. Gumilev.
When Margarita says: “I wouldn’t like to be on the side whom this Abadonna is against!” Woland summons him right away: “Abadonna!” –

“And here out of the wall appeared the figure of some thin man in dark glasses.”

According to the information I was able to glean from the Wikipedia, I learned that Boris Poplavsky used to wear dark glasses, never taking them off even at night.
The poet Boris Poplavsky died in Paris in 1935 allegedly of a drug overdose. His sister Natalia died in the 1920’s. There are no details as to where and how.
I do not know to what extent these people may have been instrumental in the death of N. S. Gumilev, if at all. Gumilev never kept secret his political views, and always expressed them openly, as if daring death in those hard, unforgiving times.

***



No comments:

Post a Comment