Mikhail Bulgakov

Mikhail Bulgakov

Mikhail Afanas'evich Bulgakov (1891-1940), a prominent Russian author and playwright, was born in Kiev on May 3 (15), 1891, into the family of an assistant professor at the Kiev Theological Academy, A.I. Bulgakov. Mikhail was one of seven children, the oldest of three brothers. After the death of his father in 1907, Mikhail's mother — a well-educated and extraordinary diligent person, assumed responsibility for his education.



From 1901 to 1904, Mikhail attended the First Kiev Gymnasium. The teachers of the Gymnasium exerted a great influence on the formation of Mikhail's literary taste, and his favorite authors became Gogol, Pushkin, Dostoevsky, Saltykov-Shchedrin, and Dickens. After graduation, Bulgakov entered the Medical Faculty of St. Vladimir University, which he finished with special commendation. He became a physician at the Kiev Military Hospital. After serving as a surgeon at Chernovtsy hospital, he was appointed provincial physician to Smolensk province. His life in those days were is reflected in his Notes of a Young Physician.



In 1918, Mikhail Bulgakov returned to Kiev where he opened a private practice at his home at no. 13 Andreyevsky Descent. Here he experienced the dreadful years of the Russian Civil War and witnessed ten coups. Several times successive governments drafted the young doctor into their service. In 1919, he was drafted by the White Army, again as an army physician and then transferred to the Northern Caucasus. There he became seriously ill and barely survived. After this illness he abandoned his career as a doctor for that of a writer. In his autobiography, Bulgakov recalls how he started writing : "Once in 1919 when I was traveling at night by train I wrote a short story. In the town where the train stopped, I took the story to the publisher of the newspaper who published the story".



His first plays, Self-defense and Turbin Brothers, were written in Vladikavkaz and shown there on the city stage with great success. After short travels in Vladikavkaz, Piatigorsk, Tiflis, and Batum, Bulgakov went to Moscow in the 1921, intending "to remain here forever". It was difficult to find work in the capital, but he was fortunate — he was appointed secretary to the literary section of Glavpolitprosvet. To make a living, he worked as a correspondent and wrote feuilletons for the newspapers Gudok, Krasnaia Panorama and the Berlin newspaper Nakanune. For the almanac Nedra, he wrote The Heart of a Dog (1925), The Fatal Eggs, Diaboliad (1924), and The Adventures of a Chichikov.



Bulgakov's began writing the story about the Civil War in Ukraine in 1923, which he published in the journal Rossiia under the title The White Guard. At the request of Moscow Art Theater (MKHAT), Bulgakov wrote on the basis of this story the play The Days of the Turbins (1926), which was staged on the stage of MKHAT with great success.



In 1928, Moscow theaters presented his comedies Zoya's apartment and The Purple Island. Although both comedies were accepted by public with great enthusiasm, the critics gave them bad reviews.



In the play Beg, Bulgakov treated the horrors of a fratricidal war. The Glavrepertkom, which had the power to sanction or prohibit the play, decided that Beg glorified emigration and White generals. Although rehearsals were continued, Stalin prohibited Beg on the Soviet stage.



In the play Molier (The Cabal of Hypocrites), Bulgakov plunges "into fairy Paris of the XVII century". The duel of the great dramatist and actor, Moliere, with a royal palace hypocrite was the theme around which the action took place. After the review by Pravda of the play's premiere, the play was banned from the theater repertoire. Bulgakov's play Batum about the revolutionary years of Joseph Stalin, was prohibited by Stalin himself. His plays Ivan Vasilievich, Last Days (Pushkin), and Don Quixote were also banned. In despair that his works could not be published and his plays not performed in theaters, Bulgakov wrote a letter to Stalin requesting that he be allowed to go abroad. His request was in vain; he did not receive permission.



Bulgakov's personal life was not a fortunate one, yet during his student years he fell in love and married Tat'iana Lappa. Together they experienced the Civil War, enthusiasm and disappointment, joy and sorrow, happiness, and bitterness at the time of parting when they were divorced. Bulgakov married a second and a third time.



Bulgakov envisioned and began his beloved novel The Master and Margarita in 1928, and did the last editing two weeks before his death. The refusal of the authorities to let him work in the theater and the provocations of the critics seemed to damage his health. He became seriously ill and died on March 10, 1940.



Source: loc.gov