Who is Professor Persikov in Reality?
Posting #3.
“Lying among the
newborn were corpses
of those killed in the fight for existence.”
M. Bulgakov. Fateful Eggs.
Why
is Bulgakov so much interested in Bryusov? Not only on account of the memoirs
of the Russian poetess Marina Tsvetaeva, but a considerably major factor in it
was the fact ha Bryusov did not flee abroad like Balmont did. Even though
Bryusov was a leading expert on French poetry, he did not wish to flee the
country of his birth.
This
is how Bulgakov portrays Professor Persikov in his novella Fateful Eggs. Regardless of the difficulties he experienced in the
post-Revolution Russia, he stayed on in it. Even though he would have had little
trouble settling in Europe. After all, he read in four languages besides
Russian, and spoke French and German like his native Russian.
Apparently,
Bryusov also must have been fluent in foreign languages. Otherwise, he would
not have been able to excite Russia with French Symbolism or pass off his novel
Fiery Angel as a piece of German folklore
which he had allegedly translated.
Now
that not only have I acquainted myself with this Russian poet, but also
understood how valuable he must have been to Bulgakov, considering to how many
of his characters Bryusov serves as their prototype – I am not in the least
surprised that he picked this particular poet whom he knew personally, having
come to live in Moscow, as Professor Persikov’s prototype.
And
this is how he masks the poet, so that he can present the real picture of the
state of Russian literature and stay alive at the same time. Bryusov died in
1924. Bulgakov shows his death in the 18h chapter of Master and Margarita: The Hapless Visitors, through the character
of Professor Kuzmin:
“Two hours later Professor Kuzmin was
sitting on his bed in the bedroom with leeches hanging from his temples, behind
his ears, and on his neck.”
[See
my chapter The Bard: A Barbarian at the
Gate: Professor Kuzmin.]
What
M. Bulgakov has in mind here is the “poetry vermin,” which he so brilliantly
depicts in his novella Fateful Eggs in
the guise of the “grayish amoebae.” This is how one must understand the
following sentence:
“Lying among the newborn were corpses of those killed in the fight
for existence.”
Such
victims before Bryusov in 1924, were Blok and Gumilev, and after Bryusov –
Yesenin in 1925.
Bulgakov
also shows in his novella Fateful Eggs
that Professor Persikov’s prototype has to be a poet, as in chapter 5, The Chicken Story, he makes the
professor purr: “murr
– murr – murr…”
I
have already noted before that Blok saw poets as dogs, while Marina Tsvetaeva
saw them as cats.
And
also Bulgakov already in Fateful Eggs indicates
that Professor Persikov’s prototype must be the very same poet as that of M. A.
Berlioz in Master and Margarita,
namely, V. Ya. Bryusov. in chapter 4 of the novella Fateful Eggs, Bulgakov writes:
“Professor Persikov with
kiddies were slaughtered on Malaya Bronnaya [Street]!
I’ve got no kiddies! – yelled Persikov.”
But
wasn’t it precisely the place where, in the 3rd chapter of Master and Margarita: The 7th Proof, Bulgakov had Berlioz slaughtered by a
tram?
“The tram covered Berlioz, and hurled under
the grid of the Patriarch Alley over to the cobblestone slope was a
round-shaped dark object. Having rolled down the slope, it started jumping from
stone to stone of Bronnaya [Street]. It was the severed head of Berlioz.”
For
those who know that N. S. Gumilev was writing of Bryusov’s “lunar femininity”
it would be interesting to find out that in the 4th chapter of Master and Margarita: The Chase, Bulgakov presents proof that the case
in point is indeed V. Ya. Bryusov. Finding himself in Apartment 47 of the
Building 13, Ivan was expecting to find Woland there, but “found himself in the kitchen. There was nobody there… One
lunar beam seeping through the dusty window was skimpily illuminating he corner
where covered by dust and cobwebs a forgotten icon was hanging. Under the large
icon, a small paper icon was attached. He appropriated one of the candles, and
also that small paper icon…”
It
is only in the 5th chapter that Bulgakov explains why Ivan has done
it:
“[Ivan] shouted: Brothers in
literature! Listen to me all! He has appeared! The Consultant! And this Consultant
has just killed Misha Berlioz on Patriarch [Ponds]…”
Considering
that in Ivan’s hands was a burning candle and pinned to his chest was a small
paper icon with a faded impression of some unknown saint, it wasn’t so much
that Ivan was trying to protect himself from the “Consultant” whom he was trying to catch anyway, but that he was
thus mourning his friend and colleague M. A. Berlioz. After all, in 1924 Sergei
Yesenin [Ivan Bezdomny] wrote a poem In
Memoriam V. Bryusov [Berlioz], whom he followed the very next year, in
1925. This is how Bulgakov commemorates both these deaths.
Writing
about the “lunar beam,” Bulgakov is pointing to Bryusov, at the same time
pointing to his novella Fateful Eggs.
4th chapter: Priest’s Wife Drozdova.
What
a coincidence! Priest’s wife in the 4th chapter of Fateful Eggs. An icon with a candle in
the 4th chapter of Master and
Margarita.
In
the same 4th chapter of Fateful
Eggs the word “beam [of light]” also appears in newspaper headlines:
“Nightmarish discovery of the
beam of light by Professor Persikov!!”
“Discovery of the X-beam!!”
“V. I. Persikov has
discovered the mysterious red beam!!”
Why
is this beam so important? This word points toward another Bulgakovian
personage in the subnovel Pontius Pilate of
the novel Master and Margarita,
namely to Pontius Pilate in the 26th chapter The Burial, talking to Afranius who is reporting to him on Yeshua’s
burial and also on the killing of Judas. Pilate is apologetic to the chief of secret
guard:
“Forgive
me, Afranius, replied Pilate. – I
haven’t woken up properly yet. I sleep badly, – the procurator smirked. – And all the time I see a moonbeam in my
dream, as though I am taking a walk upon that beam,”
And
in the same 26th chapter Bulgakov writes:
“From the steps of the porch toward the bed lay the lunar ribbon.
And as soon as the procurator lost connection with what was around him in
reality, he immediately set off along the radiant path up toward the moon.”
By
the same token as Pontius Pilate’s prototype in Bulgakov happens to be the
Russian poet V. Bryusov, I successfully proved that Professor Persikov’s
prototype is likewise Valery Bryusov.
To
be continued…
***
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