Feb
Writers Who Matter: The Master and his Moscow Devil
Mikhail Bulgakov lived and wrote in the painfully tightening noose of Stalinist Russia. He wrote his first major work about his experiences fighting the Russian civil war, and the book, called White Guard, went on to become a successful play in 1926 Moscow. In fact, Stalin, recently ascendant to the leadership of the Communist Party after Lenin’s death, named the play one of his favorites.
But as the 1920s waned and the 30s passed, Moscow and Russia became a terrifying place. Stalin instituted a deadly totalitarian regime, one where people disappeared nightly into black vehicles, where neighbors and family members spied on each other, where the country was pushed mercilessly into industrialization, where millions died in the countryside, in crowded city apartments, and in secret prisons and work camps. For writers, the mandate was “socialist realism,” the government term for funneling all creative efforts to support the ongoing workers revolution, and deliberating ignoring the bumps and screams in the night. Any variation from this strict ideological orthodoxy was met with critical lashings, and the potential for much worse.
Despite critical pummeling Bulgakov kept writing his own brand of humor, satire and drama, all ambivalent to the greater glory of the Communist regime, through the 20s. Then in 1929 his plays were officially banned. Following the lead of his colleagues prevented from making a living, he wrote a letter appealing to the government. Stalin himself appointed Bulgakov to the Moscow Art Theater. Bulgakov knew how close he had come to poverty and disappearing to a camp reserved for “intellectuals.” So he played it safe for a time, focusing on steady ground of play adaptations and historical fiction.
But as time wore on, the talented writer could stay silent no longer. He adapted a play about Moliere, focusing on the position of a writer living in an autocratic regime, and a later play about Pushkin and the same themes. Simultaneously, he began writing an expansive novel about the Devil coming to Moscow. Bulgakov became increasingly pessimistic about the chances of the novel ever existing outside his desk drawer, especially as his plays were banned one by one. The writer died in 1940 after dictating the final portions of the novel to his wife. It wasn’t until 1967 that Bulgakov’s widow, Elena, published the novel from the drawer as The Master and the Margarita. Much of the novel was excised due to Soviet censorship, but the full text made its way to Paris and was published in its entirety. The book caused a sensation upon its initial censored publication, and cast an even wider net for international audiences getting an unprecedented glimpse into Stalinist Russia.
The book is a shocking, hilarious, magical, and scathing work that takes on everything that scared, disgusted and electrified the author about his country. The Devil comes to Moscow to wreak havoc, meeting with heartless Russians surviving in a totalitarian wasteland and the rebellious survivors cast to the outer edges of society. Bulgakov created a fantastical fairy tale with the very real monsters of the 20th century, illuminating the very modern yet timeless ways in which people can destroy one another. And in the process, Bulgakov showed the power of the written word, even if it’s only for future generations.
