Why was the Roman punished? The novel "The Master and Margarita": what Bulgakov encrypted. Varenukha - famous theater administrator

“... At the time the misfortune happened to Nikanor Ivanovich, not far from the house N 302-bis, on the same Sadovaya, in the office of the financial director of the Rimsky Variety, there were two: Rimsky himself and Varenukha, the administrator of the Variety.

As soon as the telephone began to ring, Varenukha would pick up the receiver and lie into it:
- Whom? Varenukha? He is not. Leaving the theater...

In the Moscow chapters of M. Bulgakov's novel "The Master and Margarita", the financial director of the Moscow Variety Rimsky Grigory Danilovich is presented in a number of minor characters who were punished by Woland and his retinue for minor and major sins. Those events that happened to him in a few days not only changed his appearance beyond recognition, but in general his whole life.

It was Rimsky in his own office that the theater administrator Varenukha, turned into a vampire, almost died to death. And before that, Rimsky experienced the stress associated with the sudden mystical transfer to Yalta of Stepa Likhodeev and the scandalous seance of Woland and his retinue on the stage of the theater.

Gray as snow, but alive, thanks to the rooster, which proclaimed the dawn with a triple cry and saved him from evil spirits, Rimsky ran out of the Variety so that he would never return to it again.

The experience turned Rimsky into a decrepit old man with a shaking head. Even treatment at the clinic did not help him, and then in Kislovodsk: Rimsky did not dare to continue working in his old place in his former position where the fateful events had taken place. Rimsky even sent a letter of resignation to take his wife so that he himself would no longer visit Variety.

True, Rimsky could not break completely with the theatrical sphere: the theater of children's puppets in Zamoskvorechye became his new place of work.

Despite the fact that Rimsky was a witness and participant in amazing and fantastic events, even in a stressful situation, he tried to maintain composure and logical thinking. Although he ended up in a state of complete insanity, he still had the strength to escape from Moscow to Leningrad and hide there in the wardrobe of the Astoria Hotel room.

Unlike other heroes, Rimsky had enough common sense when the police returned him under guard to Moscow by the Leningrad train, not to admit that he had become a victim of an attack by evil spirits. Neither about Gella in the window, nor about the vampire gunner Varenukha, who nearly caused his death, did Rimsky begin to tell the truth. Although he looked like a mentally upset old man, he asked to be imprisoned in an armored cell, but he was stubborn in the version that he left for Leningrad simply because he became ill. Apparently, experience told Rimsky that they would not believe his story and would definitively consider him crazy.

Before the appearance of Woland and his retinue, Rimsky showed himself as a man with business acumen, sensitivity like that of a seismograph, he acted and spoke intelligently, which was recognized by those around him. But he used his analytical skills and his talents only for his own benefit: that is what he was punished for.

The image of Grigoriev Rimsky

Rimsky is an image of an inhabitant, through him Bulgakov describes how a simple person is faced with the unknown and terrible. Characteristic is the author's description of the entire cycle of such "impact", that is, Bulgakov presents us with the stages before - during - after.

Before meeting with Woland, Rimsky is a simple financial director of Variety, who dreams of simple metas, like Likhodeev's dismissal and promotion. He is a family man, has an unpleasant voice and look. There are many of them, it is typical and typically unpleasant.

During the meeting with Woland, he easily succumbs to his influence and writes out a large amount for paying for performances, but at the same time he almost immediately understands something was wrong. Woland has an overwhelming effect on him, and after the performance, he immediately begins to change Rimsky in appearance in a negative direction. The apotheosis of this interaction with dark forces is the visit of Gella and the converted Varenukha, only by a miracle Rimsky manages to avoid something amiss, and in this, perhaps, the author gives some kind of divine intervention that protects even a simple person.

After that, Rimsky turns out to be completely gray-haired and reaches mental complexes. He sees something incredible, but turns to the police and asks for an armored camera - the irony of the author, who draws a character who wants to protect himself from the devil with walls.

As a result, Rimsky received treatment at the resort and forgot what happened like a bad dream. Quite funny, he is not afraid of the devil, but of Variety, that is, he simply relies on his own experience and in the end did not really understand anything.

He continues to work in his specialty, but now just at another job in the puppet theater, where he will continue his philistine and nondescript existence.

With this character, Bulgakov probably also distinguishes a simple layman from a believer or simply a thinking and searching person. The believer realizes the good and evil of this world, learns lessons, for the layman, even the devil incarnate does not bring anything special, except for fear and excitement.

3 sample

Rimsky belongs to the list of minor personalities in this work by Bulgakov. Woland punished him for his faults along with his retinue. In just a short period of time, he has changed beyond recognition. And not only outwardly, but also changed its principle of existence.

He worked as a financial director in Moscow, in Variety. Rimsky almost said goodbye to life when administrator Varenukha crept into his office. The fact is that Varenukha was turned into a vampire and attacked Rimsky. But before this incident, the hero experienced an event from which he almost lost his mind. And all because Styopa Likhodeev mysteriously ended up in Yalta.

Rimsky ran out of the theater together with Varenukha, thanks to the triple crow of a rooster. Grigory Danilovich was so frightened by everything he had experienced that he even turned gray. From that moment on, he told himself that he would never return to this now cursed place. After that, Rimsky began to look like an old man, with trembling limbs. No treatment in the hospital helped him. Even a vacation in Kislovodsk did not help to erase from Grigory's memory those terrible events that happened in the Variety. When he was about to leave his job, he sent his wife to take the leave. He himself would never want to go there again.

Then he began to work in Zamoskvorechye, again in the theater. So Rimsky did not succeed in completely tying up his profession. However, even considering the fact that Gregory had experienced terrible events, he still tried his best to remain calm in any situation. Ultimately, he became a completely deranged person, but nevertheless managed to leave Moscow for Leningrad. There, he safely, as it seemed to him, hid in a hotel called "Astoria", climbing into a closet located in the room.

The police nevertheless found him and sent him back to Moscow. He was distinguished from the rest of the characters by the fact that he had the mind not to tell the police that he was attacked by an evil spirit. He was not going to tell either about Gella, whom he saw in the window, or about the incident with Varenukha. When asked why he left, he replied that he felt bad. He knew that if he told about what had happened, he would definitely be mistaken for a psycho.

He was punished for using his abilities solely for his own benefit.

How I envied my girlfriend that she had a little sister! We sometimes walked with her, took her from the kindergarten. I really wanted to have a younger sister too.

Character = Plot Line = Representation* = Guilt Explicit and/or Designated = Punishment Score = Executioner

Berlioz = literature = 2+3 = conformal lying, incompetence. = 10 = Koroviev**

Homeless = literature = 5+5 = conformism, bad poet = 4(?) = Woland**

Likhodeev = Variety, apartment = 1 + 1 = service discrepancy = 1 = Woland, Behemoth **

Nikanor Ivanovich \u003d apartment \u003d 2 + 1 \u003d "burn-out and rogue" \u003d 4 \u003d Koroviev **

Bengali = Variety = 0+2 = conformal lying, bad entertainer = 6 = Behemoth, Koroviev

Varenukha \u003d Variety show \u003d 1 + 2 \u003d lying on the phone, climbing into the affairs of Satan \u003d 3 \u003d Azazello, Behemoth, Gella

Roman = Variety = 2 + 1 = climbed into the affairs of Satan = 8 = Gella, Varenukha

Accountant Lastochkin = Variety show = 1+0 = fault unknown = 4 = ?

Poplavsky = apartment = 1+0 = burnout, molested Satan = 1 = Azazello

Barman Juices = Variety = 1+0 = burnout, molested Satan, service discrepancy = 6 = Koroviev**

Prokhor Petrovich \u003d Variety \u003d 0 + 1 \u003d service discrepancy, cursed \u003d 1 \u003d Behemoth

Sampleyarov = Variety = 0+2 = conformal behavior, molested Satan = 2-3 = Koroviev

Meigel = police = 0+1 = scammer, molested Satan = 9 = Azazello**, Abaddonna

* Representation - an index of attention paid to this character by Bulgakov; the first digit indicates the number of chapters devoted to the character, the second - episodes.

** Punishment was committed by the court or the word of Woland.

In fact, everyone, except for the accountant and financial director, is a bad employee. Berlioz is incompetent, Bezdomny writes bad poetry, the chairman of the house committee takes bribes, Sempleyarov cannot do anything about the theatrical acoustics (806), and so on. ) - most likely because he, a former baron, turned out to be a bad spy ...

Nothing like this can be presented to Lastochkin, just like Rimsky. Now we will analyze this in more detail, but the accountant cannot even be accused of trying, like Rimsky, to interfere in the affairs of Satan.

Let us pay attention to the literary load carried by the accountant: he is a demonstrator. Five scenes are sequentially shown through his eyes.

The last scene, in the bank, is what he really shows.

In fact, something ridiculous is going on there. As soon as Lastochkin tells the employee that he is from Variety, an NKVD agent appears. The accountant presents the true treasure - from the point of view of power - the currency, which is pursued throughout the novel - and for some reason he is arrested! The absurdity is obvious, it is emphasized with diabolical cunning, it is masked by the game with currency. Behind her, behind the package with guilders and everything else slipped by Woland's servants, a simple fact remains unnoticed: the accountant was waiting at the bank to be arrested for involvement in the Variety. For those who know the practice of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the plot is clear: they came to work for Lastochkin, did not find him and ambushed him in a bank. There was enough time while he traveled to leading institutions ...

The load on this low-profile character is thus quite complex. His fate says clearly that, firstly, Woland does not punish Soviet employees for bad service; and, secondly, the element of arrests, repeatedly shown in the "Moscow chapters", is truly the element - something meaningless: a grasping reflex of power. (See the same topic 497, 534, 641. “But for what?” as Rimsky whispers to himself.)

Rimsky, a colleague and immediate superior of Lastochkin, has the same function plus one more: his story shows almost directly what Woland punishes for. Accordingly, Rimsky is a notable character, second only to Bezdomny in representation.

His whole description categorically dismisses the suggestion that he can be punished for bad work. Rimsky fulfills his duty impeccably. We are constantly being convinced that he is a smart and organized person. This is already felt in his telephone conversation with Likhodeev (498). He is prudent in business. “But I don’t like this idea to the extreme ...” - he grumbles about the expected session of black magic (520). He has an outstanding instinct: “... The financial director seemed to have lost weight and even aged, and his eyes ... lost their usual pricklyness and appeared in them not only anxiety, but even, as it were, sadness” (528).

And after all, this is when nothing has happened yet, except for the mysterious transfer of Likhodeev to Yalta! Here, Rimsky does what a rare administrator can do: he dictates a telegram, while he writes down his own words. In the chapter on the séance, Rimsky's foresight is emphasized again. The phone went bad: “for some reason the event completely shocked the financial director” (534). So you expect him to cancel the session, at least until Likhodeev returns. But Rimsky is a business man who does not shy away from responsibility. His mind and sensitivity are emphasized forcefully: "The sensitive financial director was not at all mistaken" (567); it is compared "with a seismograph of any of the best stations in the world" (570). Then Varenukha strengthens his characterization: “I guessed it, damn it! He was always smart…” (573).

This pedaling serves two purposes. In addition to the one already mentioned, there is another one: the position of an impeccable worker is shown in an ideological situation that does not depend on him. It's terrible. The authorities will not later take into account that the criminals who crippled the entertainers, carried inappropriate things from the stage, scattered government banknotes, flooded the street with naked women - that these criminals were formally released onto the stage by Likhodeev. He released - by signing the contract, that's true - but physically he released Rimsky. Remaining in charge of the theater, he failed to “prevent disgrace”, did not stop, did not stop, did not stop! And, of course, there will be a political accusation: how did the Soviet people rush to foreign bourgeois rags?! Rimsky understands all this: “... I had to drink the bitter cup of responsibility. ... It was necessary to call, report what had happened, ask for help, back off, blame everything on Likhodeev, defend himself, and so on. Ugh, you are the devil!" (568). (I ask the reader to mark the last three words.) A person who knows the situation in the 1930s will not even ask: “But for what?” - realizing that Rimsky will not be able to shield himself and he, even a hundred times a good worker, cannot avoid reprisals for someone else's guilt, most likely - the camp.

If the accountant has already been seized, then what can we say about his boss, who remained for the director of the theater!

And reprisal follows. At the end of the novel, "an old, shaking head, financial director" submits a letter of resignation from Variety. That is, history ends exactly as it should have ended without witches and ghouls. “Yes, he was well treated,” as Woland would say about the Master...

The inevitability of such an outcome, obvious to anyone familiar with the "realism of life" of that time, is carefully masked by the whole structure of the story about Rimsky. The paragraph about the bitter cup of responsibility is framed, on the one hand, by a scandal at the Variety entrance - ladies in shirts and pantaloons, the police, “cheerful young people in caps,” and, on the other hand, by a terrible hooligan warning on the phone: “Don’t call, Rimsky, nowhere, it will be bad” (569).

Bulgakov systematically imposes on the reader precisely this answer to the question “why?”: do not react, it will be bad - that version of Rimsky's guilt, which we recorded in the table of sins. Telephones are turned off, both long-distance and Moscow; they warn Varenukha on the phone - in the same boorish tone: “Varenukha ... do you understand Russian? Do not carry telegrams anywhere” (527); then, when beaten in the restroom: “Did they warn you on the phone not to wear them anywhere?” (529). We are beginning to believe that Rimsky was turned into an “old, old man” for actions that could disturb Satan.

This is a substitution. The financial director turned out to be accidentally, involuntarily connected with an ideological scandal - that's his fault. The substitution is exactly the same as with Varenukha. Beaten and turned into a vampire, allegedly for carrying telegrams to the NKVD, he receives a buffoonish explanation: “There is no need to be rude on the phone. You don't have to lie on the phone. Clear? Won't you do it again?" - completely in the style of newspaper "critical" satire, and Varenukha in the same foolish farce style replies: "True ... that is, I want to say, your ve ... right after dinner ..." (708).

He was beaten up and turned into a "vampire gunner" as if he really got to the NKVD. (Azazello’s chatter about his lies, in turn, is commented on by the “artist” from Nikanor Ivanovich’s Dream. He accuses the arrested Dunchil, calling him “an amazing liar and liar” (582).)

Let's consider why complex protective measures were needed for creatures that could both fly and disappear - demons? Why was it necessary, for example, to take away the briefcase with the telegrams from Varenukha (and to warn him in advance not to carry it, that is, not to follow Rimsky's order and turn out to be a poor worker)? Without any noise or violence, documents disappeared from Nikanor Ivanovich's portfolio, even copies of the ill-fated correspondence with Rimsky disappeared from the Yalta criminal investigation - a thousand kilometers from Moscow! Tricks with documents are demonstrated in the chapter "Extracting the Master", and one of them is completely unnecessary. The case history of the Master flies into the fireplace, and Koroviev summarizes: "There is no document, there is no person" (705). (Although this Soviet slogan does not work just for hospitals, and the Masters, of course, "grab".)

In the whole story with Likhodeev and the scandal at the Variety, nothing can be hidden. Likhodeev was seen by dozens of witnesses in Yalta - the case is clear even without telegrams and other things. The scandal with the Variety, no doubt, immediately attracted the attention of the NKVD to Woland. What kind of revelations could be expected from the poor financial director, if there were 2,500 witnesses, among them - police officers, and you never know who else was ex officio in the huge Variety Hall! Bulgakov slyly attaches a hooligan desire for a "covered-up" to the retinue of a powerful magician who does not at all strive for secrecy of actions - on the contrary, he placed his secret name on theater posters (by the way, posters subsequently disappear without a trace from the stands - right, this trick is much more complicated than withdrawal of telegrams from the portfolio).

In other words, all the masks put on by Bulgakov for this plot are lifted by him: the devils treat good workers just like the real police of those years. This is a full-fledged, Shchedrinian satire on the holy of holies of the Soviet system: the ideological-police apparatus. And at the same time, here is the same line that we discussed in previous chapters: do not lay your head on the devil of power. After all, a good worker, striving to meet his official tasks, willy-nilly drawn into the police car. Rimsky and Varenukha were obliged to inform the NKVD about the disappearance of Likhodeev; it doesn't matter that they hated the slacker director: they had to inform to save their own skins. (The latter can be said about Berlioz and Bezdomny when meeting Woland.)

So, we must correct the table of faults. Lastochkin, Rimsky, Varenukha were punished for the same thing as writers - for conformity, for cooperation with the "true devil".

The satanic essence of power is cunningly demonstrated by the story of Varenukha. We just noted that he was turned into a "vampire-gunner" - as the NKVD did with people falling into its orbit. In this capacity, he cracks down on Rimsky - he and the witch Gella. So, the double, human-devilish essence of the witch is clarified for the reader through analogies with Pannochka from Viy, and the same essence of a vampire through the story of A. K. Tolstoy "Ghoul". (The explanation is really useful: not everyone knows that in myths they become a vampire (ghoul, ghoul) and not are born, and they become against their will. This is an infection - like an infectious disease.)

The story of A. K. Tolstoy makes itself known at the moment when Varenukha comes to Rimsky's office with a huge bruise, "unhealthy pallor" and a neck wrapped in a scarf. “If we add to this ... a disgusting manner of sucking and smacking, a sharp change in voice that has become deaf and rude, stealth and cowardice in the eyes, one could safely say that Ivan Savelyevich Varenukha became unrecognizable” (572). After reading these lines, the reader, who remembers the "Ghoul", understands immediately that with the kiss of Gella Varenukha was turned into a ghoul and the muffler covered the mark of the kiss-bite. “... How to recognize ghouls? ... They, meeting with each other, click their tongues. ... A sound similar to that produced by the lips when an orange is sucked.

In another place: "... The clicking of the old official turned into an indefinite sucking" (p. 16), and also: "... clicking and sucking alternately" (p. 26) - is remembered ... The same official says "in a rough voice" when performing, so say, the duties of a ghoul (p. 58). The kiss-bite on the neck is played out several times in the story; Gella's words: "Let me kiss you" - a paraphrase of the cutesy babble of the witch Pepina: "... Let me give you a kiss" (p. 49). Bulgakov also borrowed Varenukha's unhealthy pallor from the heroes of The Ghoul. A deaf voice and a change in gaze are taken from the story "The Family of the Ghoul", in all editions of A.K. Tolstoy published next to the "Ghoul".

The next sign is: "It doesn't cast a shadow!" - desperately mentally cried Rimsky "(573). This is the traditional quality of a ghost, described, in addition to other mystical works, in the second story by A. K. Tolstoy, accompanying the "Ghoul", - "Meeting after three hundred years".

As usual, Bulgakov took care to put a direct mark. Rimsky, who escaped from the ghouls, is described as follows: “An old man gray as snow, without a single black hair” (575). Compare: “... My hair is gray, my eyes are sunken, I became an old man in the color of my years” (p. 36), says the hero of the “Ghoul”, who also miraculously escaped from the bloodsuckers.

Going through Tolstoy's story in memory, the reader, perhaps, will remember that the ghouls were ordinary people: a brigadier and a state adviser, that is, they belonged to the circle of characters usual for literature of the nineteenth century - the same literary inhabitants as a findirector or administrator in the century twentieth.

Of course, nothing bad happens except the devil. In “Ghoul” he appears as “a tall man in a black domino and in a mask” (p. 59), whose gaze is murderous: “... From under the black mask small white eyes flashed at me with an inexpressible brilliance, and this look blow” (p. 49). This is not a “real”, traditional devil-seducer, but a devil-killer, who appears at the moment when people subordinate to him commit atrocities.

Eyes blazing with a murderous gleam from under a black mask - and Abaddon's eyes, the eyes of death itself, hidden under black glasses.

Analogies work, according to Bulgakov's problem, excellently. On the one hand, they mask the essence of what is happening - that they dealt with Rimsky in exactly the same way and with the same result, as if they had been dealt with by the authorities. On the other hand, the same essence is manifested: reprisal against the innocent is not a purely diabolical thing, but a human one.

The hypothesis about the head, which should not be pawned to the devil of power, can be considered confirmed - according to the first test. However, new questions have emerged. How should we now understand the role of Woland? Why do his associates do human evil? Why do they follow here not the judge Woland, but the murderer Abadonna? Finally, if the actions of the authorities are satirically replayed in the novel, then why is this paraphrase given a super-hooligan shade, why do the servants of the lord take on the appearance of beaten, pale, hoarse city scum, primordial enemies of the authorities?

"The Master and Margarita" is one of the most mysterious novels in history, researchers are still struggling with its interpretation. We will give seven keys to this work.

literary hoax

Why is Bulgakov's famous novel called The Master and Margarita, and what is this book really about? It is known that the idea of ​​​​creation was born by the author after a passion for mysticism of the 19th century. Legends about the devil, Jewish and Christian demonology, treatises on God - all this is present in the work. The most important sources consulted by the author were Mikhail Orlov's History of Man's Relations with the Devil and Amfiteatrov's book The Devil in Life, Legend and Literature of the Middle Ages. As you know, The Master and Margarita had several editions.

They say that the first one, on which the author worked in 1928-1929, had nothing to do with either the Master or Margarita, and was called "The Black Magician", "The Juggler with a Hoof". That is, the central figure and essence of the novel was precisely the Devil - a kind of Russian version of the work "Faust". Bulgakov personally burned the first manuscript after the ban on his play The Cabal of the Holy. The writer informed the government about this: “And personally, with my own hands, I threw a draft of a novel about the devil into the stove!” The second edition was also dedicated to the fallen angel and was called "Satan" or "The Great Chancellor". Margarita and the Master have already appeared here, and Woland has acquired his retinue. But, only the third manuscript received its current name, which, in fact, the author never finished.

Many-sided Woland

The Prince of Darkness is perhaps the most popular character in The Master and Margarita. On a superficial reading, the reader gets the impression that Woland is “justice itself”, a judge who fights against human vices and patronizes love and creativity. Someone even thinks that Bulgakov portrayed Stalin in this image! Woland is many-sided and complex, as befits the Tempter. He is regarded as the classic Satan, which is what the author intended in the early versions of the book, as a new Messiah, a rethought Christ, whose coming is described in the novel.

In fact, Woland is not just a devil - he has many prototypes. This is the supreme pagan god - Wotan among the ancient Germans (Odin - among the Scandinavians), the great "magician" and freemason Count Cagliostro, who remembered the events of the thousand-year past, predicted the future, and had a portrait resemblance to Woland. And this is also the “dark horse” Woland from Goethe’s Faust, who is mentioned in the work only once, in an episode that was missed in the Russian translation. By the way, in Germany the devil was called “Faland”. Remember the episode from the novel when the servants can't remember the magician's name: "Maybe Faland?"

Retinue of Satan

Just as a person cannot exist without a shadow, so Woland is not Woland without his retinue. Azazello, Behemoth and Koroviev-Fagot are the tools of diabolical justice, the brightest heroes of the novel, behind whose backs there is by no means an unambiguous past.

Take, for example, Azazello - "the demon of the waterless desert, the killer demon." Bulgakov borrowed this image from the Old Testament books, where this is the name of the fallen angel who taught people to make weapons and jewelry. Thanks to him, women have mastered the "lascivious art" of face painting. Therefore, it is Azazello who gives the cream to Margarita, pushes her onto the “dark path”. In the novel, this is Woland's right hand, performing "dirty work". He kills Baron Meigel, poisons lovers. Its essence is incorporeal, absolute evil in its purest form.

Koroviev-Fagot is the only person in Woland's retinue. It is not completely clear who became its prototype, but researchers trace its roots to the Aztec god Vitsliputsli, whose name is mentioned in Berlioz's conversation with Bezdomny. This is the god of war, to whom sacrifices were made, and according to the legends of Dr. Faust, the spirit of hell and the first helper of Satan. His name, carelessly uttered by the chairman of "MASSOLIT", is a signal for the appearance of Woland.

Behemoth is a werecat and Woland's favorite jester, whose image comes from the legends about the demon of gluttony and the mythological beast of the Old Testament. In the study by I. Ya. Porfiryev "Apocryphal Tales of Old Testament Persons and Events", which was clearly familiar to Bulgakov, the sea monster Behemoth was mentioned, living together with Leviathan in the invisible desert "to the east of the garden where the elect and the righteous lived." The author also drew information about Behemoth from the story of a certain Anna Desange, who lived in the 17th century and was possessed by seven devils, among which Behemoth, a demon from the rank of Thrones, is mentioned. This demon was depicted as a monster with an elephant's head, trunk and fangs. His hands were human, and his huge belly, short tail and thick hind legs - like a hippopotamus, which reminded him of his name.

Black Queen Margo

Margarita is often considered a model of femininity, a kind of Pushkin's "Tatyana of the 20th century." But the prototype of "Queen Margo" was clearly not a modest girl from the Russian hinterland. In addition to the obvious resemblance of the heroine to the writer's last wife, the novel emphasizes Marguerite's connection with two French queens. The first is the same “Queen Margot”, the wife of Henry IV, whose wedding turned into a bloody Bartholomew night. This event is mentioned on the way to the Great Satan's Ball. The fat man, who recognized Margarita, calls her "bright Queen Margot" and mutters "some nonsense about the bloody wedding of his friend in Paris, Gessar." Gessar is the Parisian publisher of the correspondence of Marguerite Valois, whom Bulgakov made a participant in the Bartholomew night. Another queen is also seen in the image of the heroine - Marguerite of Navarre, who was one of the first French women writers, the author of the famous "Heptameron". Both ladies patronized writers and poets, Bulgakov's Margarita loves her brilliant writer - the Master.

Moscow - Yershalaim

One of the most interesting mysteries of The Master and Margarita is the time when the events take place. There is no absolute date in the novel from which to count. The action is attributed to Passion Week from May 1 to May 7, 1929. This dating draws a parallel with the world of the Pilate chapters, which took place in Yershalaim on the year 29 or 30 during the week that later became Passion. “Over Moscow in 1929 and Yershalaim on the 29th there is the same apocalyptic weather, the same darkness is approaching the city of sin with a thunderous wall, the same moon of the Easter full moon floods the lanes of the Old Testament Yershalaim and the New Testament Moscow.” In the first part of the novel, both of these stories develop in parallel, in the second, more and more intertwined, in the end they merge together, gaining integrity and moving from our world to the other world.

Influence of Gustav Meyrink

Of great importance to Bulgakov were the ideas of Gustav Meyrink, whose works appeared in Russia at the beginning of the 20th century. In the novel by the Austrian expressionist "The Golem", the protagonist, master Anastasius Pernat, reunites with his beloved Miriam in the finale "at the wall of the last lantern", on the border of the real and the otherworldly worlds. The connection with the "Master and Margarita" is obvious. Let us recall the famous aphorism of Bulgakov's novel: "Manuscripts do not burn." Most likely, it goes back to The White Dominican, where it says: “Yes, of course, the truth does not burn and cannot be trampled on.” It also tells about the inscription above the altar, because of which the icon of the Mother of God falls. As well as the burnt manuscript of the master, reviving Woland from oblivion, which restores the true history of Yeshua, the inscription symbolizes the connection of truth not only with God, but also with the devil.

In "The Master and Margarita", as in "The White Dominican" by Meyrink, the main thing for the heroes is not the goal, but the process of the path itself - development. Only here the meaning of this path is different for writers. Gustav, like his heroes, was looking for him in the creative beginning, Bulgakov sought to achieve some kind of "esoteric" absolute, the essence of the universe.

last manuscript

The last edition of the novel, which subsequently reached the reader, was begun in 1937. The author continued to work with her until his death. Why couldn't he finish a book he'd been writing for a dozen years? Did he think that he was not sufficiently knowledgeable in the subject he took on, and his understanding of Jewish demonology and early Christian texts was amateurish? Be that as it may, the novel practically “sucked out” the life of the author. The last correction, which he made on February 13, 1940, was Margarita's phrase: “So this, then, is the writers following the coffin?” He died a month later. Bulgakov's last words addressed to the novel were: "To know, to know...".