Alpha And Omega.
Posting #38.
“Strange is the
behavior of beauties! – observed Woland.”
M. Bulgakov. Master
and Margarita.
But
the most amazing portrait of N. S. Gumilev is presented by Mme. Nevedomskaya.
(See my chapter A Swallow’s Nest of
Luminaries: Mr. Lastochkin.)
“Onto the veranda where we were drinking tea, Gumilev came from the
garden. On his head – a lemon-color fez, on his feet – lemon-color socks and
sandals, and with all of that a Russian-style shirt… He had a very unusual
face, either a Bi-Ba-Bo, or Pierrot, or a Mongol, but his eyes and hair were of
light color… Intelligent probing eyes, slightly squinting. With all that,
accentuatedly ceremonial manners, while his eyes and mouth show a sly grin. It
feels like he wants to do some mischief.”
I
am by no means insisting that Bulgakov was familiar with the memoirs of Mme.
Nevedomskaya at the time when he was writing White Guard. But he could have heard about it from some other
sources. After all, Gumilev had been a big star, and his death had shaken the whole
Russian literary world. There could also be other people who may have called
Gumilev a “Mongol.” It is quite possible that knowing about Gumilev’s
strabismus, Bulgakov decided to call him a “Mongol” in the dream of Alexei
Turbin, as Bulgakov’s first novel White
Guard was exquisitely polished and I find it impossible even to suggest
that the author may not have redacted it to the full extent.
And
so, I have established at least to my own satisfaction, that Bulgakov has in
mind none other than N. S. Gumilev. The main proof of course is not so much in
the word “Mongol” as in the fact that M. A. Bulgakov masks Gumilev within a
nightmare which apparently no one has paid enough attention to. I am going much
further with my comment on Gumilev’s long poem which Bulgakov was apparently
familiar with.
To
begin with, Gumilev introduces into his poem poets long dead. Isn’t it from
here that Bulgakov takes the idea of the dead poets from? Gumilev was of great
interest to Bulgakov as his contemporary poet and writer, author of the Notes of a Cavalryman, Gumilev’s
personal experiences of World War I, which Bulgakov was using in his works, and
also as a martyr dying for his faith and convictions.
Bulgakov
also introduces features of dead Russian poets in his first novel White Guard. The only “mysterious”
personality there, that of the colonel calling Colonel Malyshev is indeed mysterious
because he happens to be that selfsame “Mongol” from Alexei Turbin’s (the
pivotal character of the novel White
Guard) dream.
It
is through Alexei Turbin that Bulgakov tells the reader that the “mysterious”
character could by no means be M. S. Shpolyansky who met Dr. Turbin on the road
and to whom Alexei said: “Ours is not the
same road!” Remember that Shpolyansky’s prototype is V. B. Shklovsky who
switched sides in the Russian Civil War, joining the “Reds.” It was he who was
calling all remaining White outposts to open fire from all their cannons at the time when Petlura was already about to
take the City of Kiev. According to Bulgakov, who detested Shklovsky, all these
military men placed in different locations around Kiev were slaughtered, cut to
pieces by Petlura’s troops.
I
was quite struck that in the scene with the two colonels Bulgakov writes the
following sentence:
“When [after the meeting] by five [o’clock in the morning] the
colonel returned to Mme. Anjou’s [ladies’ store, presently the headquarters of
the mortar division], he in a similar fashion anxiously and sternly in a combat
frowning thought knit his eyebrows just like that other colonel inside the
palace was calling the mortar division from the apparatus [communications]
room.”
The
word “frown” is repeated several times in Bulgakov, thus catching the
researcher’s attention, about which shortly.
The
word “grimacing” (Petronie, you are
grimacing… in Gumilev’s poem The
Prodigal Son) is very close to “frowning” in its meaning. All the more so
that throughout my work A Chapter on
Bulgakov I have been noticing and emphasizing the fact that quite
frequently Bulgakov replaces certain words with other words close in their
meaning, so that the origins of these words would not be easy to figure out,
and consequently, the prototypes behind them.
Thus
in the 17th chapter of White
Guard Bulgakov writes:
“Nikolka anxiously turned back to his company, as she was walking
close to him unperturbed, and only her face was pale and eyebrows were frowning
[sic!]. Frowning to such an extent that she reminded Nikolka of Nai-Turs [the
Serbian Colonel of the Belgrade Hussar Regiment], although the similarity was
fleeting: Nai had a face of iron, simple and manly, while this one was a
beauty, not the Russian kind, but a foreign beauty.”
And
this is what Bulgakov writes about Colonel Nai-Turs in the 11th
chapter of White Guard:
“His long-unshaven, bristly face was threatening, his eyes
squinting toward the nose…”
***
In
so far as colonels are concerned, there are plenty of them in Bulgakov’s White Guard. For instance, the
mysterious figure of Colonel Nai-Turs whom the reader meets already in the 2nd
chapter, as Lieutenant Myshlayevsky tells the Turbins about the replacement of
200 cadets commanded by Colonel Nai-Turs. Next the reader meets him in the 5th
chapter, in Alexei Turbin’s dream.
The
reader meets Nai-Turs directly in the 10th chapter, while this
character is killed already in the 11th chapter.
Nai-Turs
is an interesting figure, a participant of World War I. His name is Felix
Felixovich. His mother Maria Frantsevna has for 4 years each day been expecting
news of her son’s death. The events of White
Guard take place in 1918, which corroborates the fact that Nai-Turs took
part in World War I.
Bulgakov
does not offer too many details about the Nai-Turs family. It is known that the
colonel has a sister about Nikolka’s age. Her name is Irina. “An astonishingly remarkable girl!”
There
is already some kind of resemblance here with the colonel in the narrow small
room with a telephone. On the other hand, Colonel Malyshev also had a frowning
face. Such were the times. The White Movement lost.
I
cannot help remembering in this connection the poem by A. S. Pushkin To a Foreigner:
“...But
in a pleasant delusion
I am asking for your
attention:
My friend, until I wilt away,
Having ruined my feeling in
separation,
I shall worship incessantly
You, my friend, only you…”
Nikolka
has undoubtedly fallen in love with Irina Nai-Turs. The word “beauty” Bulgakov
obviously also borrows from Pushkin’s discussion of another foreigner: Marina
Mnishek of Poland, whom he calls a “strange beauty,” which word combination
travels to M. Bulgakov’s Master and
Margarita’s Chapter 22: With Candles.
–
“Messire, let me tell you. We
have two interlopers: a beauty who wants and pleads to be allowed to stay with
her mistress [Margarita], and besides, with her is, I apologize, her hog.
Strange is the behavior of
beauties! – observed Woland.”
In
his Sketches for a Foreword to Boris
Godunov, Pushkin writes about Marina Mnishek:
“She was by all means a strange beauty. She had just one passion:
ambition, but strong and furious to an extent which is hard to imagine. Look
how having tasted royal power, intoxicated with an unfulfillable whim, she
gives herself to one scoundrel after another, sharing now the repulsive bed of
a Jew, now a Cossack’s tent, always willing to give herself to whosoever can
give her the slightest hope for the already unattainable throne. Observe how
bravely she endures war, poverty, shame…”
It
is impossible not to be reminded of Bulgakov’s third wife Yelena Sergeevna,
who, probably, inspired by her husband, said that she would sleep with anyone
who would publish her husband.
But
this topic will be discussed in a more appropriate place in my future chapter Varia.
To
be continued…
***
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