“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 famous novel Bulgakov is called “The Master and Margarita”, and what is this book really about? It is known that the idea of creation was born to the author after being fascinated by mysticism of the 19th century. Legends about the devil, Jewish and Christian demonology, treatises about God - all this is present in the work. The most important sources that the author consulted were the works “The History of Relations between Man and the Devil” by Mikhail Orlov and Amfiteatrov’s book “The Devil in Everyday 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”, “Juggler with a Hoof”. That is, the central figure and essence of the novel was the Devil - a kind of Russian version of the work “Faust”. Bulgakov personally burned the first manuscript after his play “The Cabal of the Holy One” was banned. The writer informed the government about this: “And I personally, with my own hands, 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 “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.
The Many Faces of 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 human vices and patronizes love and creativity. Some even think that Bulgakov portrayed Stalin in this image! Woland is multifaceted and complex, as befits the Tempter. He is viewed as a classic Satan, which is what the author intended in early versions of the book, as a new Messiah, a reimagined 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 a thousand years of the past, predicted the future, and had a portrait resemblance to Woland. And this is 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 “Vahland.” Remember the episode from the novel when the employees cannot remember the name of the magician: “Perhaps Faland?”
Satan's Retinue
Just as a person cannot exist without a shadow, so Woland is not Woland without his retinue. Azazello, Behemoth and Koroviev-Fagot are instruments of diabolical justice, the most striking heroes of the novel, who have a far from clear past behind them.
Let's take, for example, Azazello - “the demon of the waterless desert, the demon killer.” Bulgakov borrowed this image from the Old Testament books, where this is the name of the fallen angel who taught people how to make weapons and jewelry. Thanks to him, women have mastered the “lascivious art” of painting their faces. Therefore, it is Azazello who gives the cream to Margarita and pushes her onto the “dark path”. In the novel, this is Woland’s right hand, performing “dirty work.” He kills Baron Meigel and poisons the lovers. Its essence is incorporeal, absolute evil in its purest form.
Koroviev-Fagot is the only person in Woland’s retinue. It is not entirely clear who became its prototype, but researchers trace its roots to the Aztec god Vitzliputzli, whose name is mentioned in Berlioz’s conversation with the Bezdomny. This is the god of war, to whom sacrifices were made, and according to the legends about Doctor Faustus, he is the spirit of hell and the first assistant of Satan. His name, carelessly pronounced by the chairman of MASSOLIT, is a signal for Woland’s appearance.
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 I. Ya. Porfiryev’s study “Apocryphal Tales of Old Testament Persons and Events,” which was clearly familiar to Bulgakov, it was mentioned sea monster Behemoth, together with Leviathan, lives in the invisible desert “to the east of the garden where the chosen and the righteous lived.” The author also gleaned information about Behemoth from the story of a certain Anne 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 tusks. His hands were human, and his huge belly, short tail and thick hind legs were like those of a hippopotamus, which reminded him of his name.
Black Queen Margot
Margarita is often considered a model of femininity, a kind of Pushkin’s “Tatyana of the 20th century.” But the prototype of “Queen Margot” was clearly not a modest girl from the Russian hinterland. In addition to the obvious similarity of the heroine with the writer’s last wife, the novel emphasizes Margarita’s connection with two French queens. The first is the same “Queen Margot”, the wife of Henry IV, whose wedding turned bloody St. Bartholomew's night. This event is mentioned on the way to Satan's Great Ball. The fat man, who recognized Margarita, calls her “bright Queen Margot” and babbles “some nonsense about the bloody wedding of his friend in Paris, Hessar.” Gessar is the Parisian publisher of Marguerite Valois's correspondence, whom Bulgakov made a participant in St. Bartholomew's Night. Another queen is also seen in the image of the heroine - Margarita 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 riddles“The Master and Margarita” is the time when events take place. There is not a single absolute date in the novel from which one can count. The action dates back to Holy Week from the first to the seventh of May 1929. This dating provides a parallel with the world of the “Pilate Chapters”, which took place in Yershalaim in the year 29 or 30 during the week that later became Holy Week. “The same apocalyptic weather stands over Moscow in 1929 and Yershalaim on the 29th, the same darkness is approaching the city of sin like a thunderstorm wall, the same Easter full moon floods the alleys of Old Testament Yershalaim and 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
The ideas of Gustav Meyrink, whose works appeared in Russia at the beginning of the 20th century, had a huge impact on Bulgakov. In the novel by the Austrian expressionist "Golem" main character master Anastasius Pernat in the finale reunites with his beloved Miriam “at the wall of the last lantern,” on the border of the real and 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 is said: “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. Just like the burnt manuscript of the master, reviving Woland from oblivion, who restores the true story 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 Meyrink’s “The White Dominican,” the main thing for the heroes is not the goal, but the process of the journey itself—development. But the meaning of this path is different for writers. Gustav, like his heroes, looked for him in creative beginning, Bulgakov strove to achieve a certain “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 the book he'd been writing for a dozen years? Perhaps he believed that he was not sufficiently informed about the issue he was taking 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 he made on February 13, 1940 was Margarita’s phrase: “So this means that the writers are going after the coffin?” A month later he died. Last words Bulgakov, addressed to the novel were: “So that they know, so that they know...”.
This is the literature of trip, drug-induced visions and insights, so characteristic of descendants, be it Tom Wolfe, William Burroughs, Aldous Huxley, Ken Kesey or Stephen King.
I either cried, or laughed, or bristled like a hedgehog.
I read under my pillow - crazy, what can you take!
These are the words of Vysotsky that can characterize the reading of Bulgakov’s text “The Master and Margarita” by the average young man in Soviet times.
This “silent” grows up regularly, becomes wiser, and, having decided to re-read the MiM, suddenly discovers with surprise that now, for his matured consciousness, this “ great novel 20th century” is simply inept, with repetitions and lack of logic, tedious stuff, kilometers of lines about nothing, with minor characters and trivial events, with primitive humor, suitable for a pimply teenager...
Fear and mysticism, the tension of a thriller and empathy for a drama - what stuck out in my youth and made me tremble from surging emotions - these feelings, too, are suddenly gone.
There is a farce and a feeling of disbelief, disappointment, regret about wasted time...
And, by the way, dear Viewers, below you can read the introductory part of the entire series, which reveals the goals and objectives of one of our highest-rated last years material:
Oh, and the author of this unusual conspiracy theory, Alexander Grinin, was torn to shreds by his traditionally minded interlocutors - this is a must see!!! :yahoo:
Well, their soul, brought up on Soviet classics, does not tolerate dissent on such a conceptual issue as the greatness of Mikhail Bulgakov in general, and the novel “The Master and Margarita” in particular... 😥
But great works cannot change like that and change the consciousness of the reader, they remain the same, rather they are obliged to enhance the impact on the brain, on the psyche precisely because the experience of life makes you both more honest and kinder, youthful maximalism and childish ruthlessness go away ...
And then everything died, both technically and ideologically.
Technically, this is a torn, shredded narrative, with repeated repetitions and elaboration of eternal Soviet themes about living space, hunger, food, lordship and informing, about the special services, terrible but good, about party committees, house committees and social security...
It’s not that it’s bad that Bulgakov writes about the current, but that he boringly repeats himself and copy-pastes himself from chapter to chapter - this is technical primitivism...
And ideologically:
- this is complete religious and philosophical eclecticism, the strategic views of Christianity and its movements, now mostly heretical, dumped into an unimaginable heap, which have been diligently destroyed for two millennia by the Bogomils, Paulicians, Manichaeans and Albigenses...
- this is a mishmash of Freemasonry and the teachings of secret conspiracy organizations;
– these are esoteric and mystical revelations and developments associated with them, this is Satanism, after all;
- these are the philosophical exercises of Grigory Skovoroda, the first Russian Rodnover, and, more broadly, the Orthodox, we emphasize, the Orthodox, not Christian, world;
– these were ideas about the God-Man, Frankenstein, Golem and other forerunners of the Terminator that were extremely fashionable at that time;
- after all, this is the literature of trip, drug-induced visions and insights, so characteristic of his descendants, be they Tom Wolfe, William Burroughs, Aldous Huxley, Ken Kesey or Stephen King. After all, no one has canceled his morphine addiction past, although it is believed that he quit at the end of his 1920s, and only the last years of his life passed in complete fog...
By that time, most of the plots for literary innovation had been raped a million times, and the ambitious Bulgakov had no choice but to aim at a global unifying plot about everything and for everyone.
He swung, but it didn’t work - he overstrained himself and died, and the untalented Elena Sergeevna “Margaritova-Nuremberg” found and attracted a whole cohort of semi-literary and literary figures to bake pies from Bulgakov’s immature dough/text, who molded them according to their own understanding from what was “ great novel of the 20th century”… :mail:
However, it is better for you to evaluate the details of this discourse yourself in our large and very versatile series
Briefly:
Khrushchev Thaw – 1955 – 1964
“The Life of Monsieur de Molière” (novel, 1933, published in the USSR in 1962)
“Theatrical Novel” (“Notes of a Dead Man”) (unfinished novel (1936-1937), published in the USSR in 1965)
“The Master and Margarita” (novel, 1929-1940, published in the USSR in 1966-1967, second version in 1973, final version in 1990)
“Heart of a Dog” (story, 1925, published in the USSR in 1987)
“To a Secret Friend” (unfinished story, 1929, published in the USSR in 1987)
BES Bulgakova Elena Sergeevna BES - Bulgakova Elena Sergeevna (nee Nuremberg, in her first marriage Neyolova, by her second husband Shilovskaya; 1893 - 1970) - the third wife of the Russian writer and playwright Mikhail Afanasyevich Bulgakov, the keeper of his literary heritage. The main prototype of Margarita in the novel “The Master and Margarita”. Younger sister of Olga Sergeevna Bokshanskaya (1891-1948), employee of the Moscow Art Theater, personal secretary of Vladimir Ivanovich Nemirovich-Danchenko.
In 1961, philologist A.Z. Vulis was writing a work on Soviet satirists and remembered the half-forgotten author of “Zoyka’s Apartment” and “Crimson Island.” Vulis found out that the writer’s widow was alive and established contact with her. After an initial period of distrust, Elena Sergeevna gave me the manuscript of “The Master” to read. The shocked Vulis shared his impressions with many, after which rumors about a great novel spread throughout literary Moscow. This led to the first publication in the Moscow magazine in 1966-1967. (circulation 150 thousand copies). It should be noted, however, that, despite the picturesqueness of the story about the role of A. Vulis, the key figures in the publication of the novel were still K. M. Simonov and E. S. Bulgakova, who had known each other since the Tashkent winter of 1942. E. S. Bulgakova did a tremendous amount of textual work in preparing the unfinished novel for publication.
“I would give you the manuscript, but I consulted with Him,” she looked at the portrait of an ironically smiling Bulgakov hanging on the wall, “but He does not order.”
A chapter from the monograph “Soviet Satirical Novel,” which outlined the plot of “The Master and Margarita” in detail and examined its characters closely, preceded the first publication of the novel by almost two years.
There is no “novel”, there are a bunch of disparate pieces that can be put together in any order. Storyline no, Margarita is a complete whore, the Master is zero without a stick, well, and the rest is garbage on garbage and contradiction on contradiction.
Where does such success come from then? The answer is obvious: a breath of fresh air. No one could read the musty Soviet “literature” at all, so they rushed to fresh stuff, and even anti-Soviet stuff.
Abram Zinovievich Vulis Abram Zinovievich Vulis (September 7, 1928, Kyiv - 1993, Krasnogorsk, Moscow region) - Soviet writer and literary critic.
Graduated from Central Asian State University(1951). Doctor of Philological Sciences. Member of the USSR Writers' Union (1960).
Author of the first works about the writer Mikhail Bulgakov. In 1961, A. Z. Vulis wrote a work on Soviet satirists and remembered the half-forgotten author of “Zoyka’s Apartment” and “Crimson Island.” Vulis found out that the writer’s widow was alive and established contact with her. After an initial period of distrust, Elena Sergeevna gave me the manuscript of “The Master” to read. The shocked Vulis shared his impressions with many, after which rumors about a great novel spread throughout literary Moscow. This led to the first publication in the Moscow magazine in 1966-1967 (circulation 150 thousand copies). There were two prefaces: by Konstantin Simonov and Vulis.
Vulis was simple Soviet man from Tashkent, and not an esthete, a snob and a literary gourmet - this is a happy fact in the literary fate of The Master and Margarita.
Later, when the wave raised by Vulis had already led to the publication of “Theatrical Novel” in the Novy Mir magazine, Elena Sergeevna began to more often allow people to see the book. In particular, the “Akhmatov youths,” young poets, also read the novel. None of them, including Brodsky, liked the book.
Elena Sergeevna checked Vulis’s work very strictly; fragments of the novel could not be taken with her, notes were erased and taken away. And Vulis came up with a clever move. One day he brought a photographer with him and introduced him as his friend. Quite large chunks of the novel were filmed secretly, “spy-style.”
Vulis told this with great pleasure.
Lidiya Markovna Yanovskaya Lydia Markovna Yanovskaya (née Gurovich; 1926 – 2011) - Soviet (since 1992 - Israeli) Russian writer, literary critic, researcher of the works of Ilya Ilf and Evgeny Petrov, Mikhail Bulgakov. Member of the International PEN Club, Union Russian-speaking writers Israel (SRPI).
Since 1962, Lydia Yanovskaya has been studying the biography and creative heritage of Mikhail Bulgakov. From 1963 to 1968, she worked with M. Bulgakov’s archive at the home of the writer’s widow E. S. Bulgakova (until the transfer of the archive to the State Library named after V. I. Lenin). The first and second editions of Lydia Yanovskaya’s book “Mikhail Bulgakov” (1967 and 1971) were prepared for publication, but for ideological and censorship reasons they were never published. With the assistance of K. M. Simonov, it was possible to publish only Yanovskaya’s third book about Bulgakov “ Creative path Mikhail Bulgakov", which became the first monograph on the writer in the USSR.
In 1988, having again gained access to the main archive of M. Bulgakov in the State Library named after V.I. Lenin, L.M. Yanovskaya discovered the disappearance of Bulgakov’s most important manuscripts and appealed to law enforcement, state and public bodies of the USSR with a request to investigate and search for the missing unique documents. As a result of the ongoing print and public persecution, she was forced to emigrate.
The result of many years of work by L. M. Yanovskaya in Moscow, Kyiv, Caucasus and other archives was the discovery of many unknown or forgotten works of M. Bulgakov. Yanovskaya first opened for the general reader “Khan’s Fire,” “Star Rash,” “The Red Crown,” “Week of Enlightenment,” “It Was May...” and other works, which soon became an integral part of the writer’s collected works.
Among the main textual works of L. Yanovskaya: the first restored original text of the novel “The Master and Margarita” (Kyiv, 1989, Moscow, 1990), the first restored texts of “The White Guard” and “ Heart of a Dog"Mikhail Bulgakov, the first complete edition of Ilya Ilf's Notebooks, compilation and preparation for publication of Elena Bulgakova's Diary (Moscow, 1990).
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No one will argue that Mikhail Bulgakov became truly famous in the country and the world for his main novel, “The Master and Margarita.” This novel irresistibly attracts the reader, takes the reader captive, and then does not let go for the rest of his life. What's the matter? Of course, many are attracted by the original interpretation of the gospel story. Special meaning had Yershalaim chapters of the novel in Soviet times. In a society where the Bible was by no means recommended reading, for many The Master and Margarita became an important source of information about Christianity and its early history.
On the other hand, readers are certainly attracted by the almost detective plot of the novel. The mysterious figure of Woland (although the astute reader, like the Master, will immediately guess who exactly appeared at the Patriarchal Meetings), the mystery of his mission in Moscow, the mystery of the fate of the main characters of the novel, which is determined only on the last pages - all this keeps us in suspense until the very end. end.
The novel “The Master and Margarita” is perceived primarily as a fantastic satire, where ancient Yershalaim miraculously connects with Moscow in 1929 through the world evil spirits, headed by Woland. At the same time, it often becomes clear upon closer examination that scenes that seem to have been born only by a flight of the writer’s imagination are in fact a reflection of the events that took place in contemporary Bulgakov Russia.
According to the author’s plan, his main work should not lose its relevance and freshness of reader perception in 50, 100, and 200 years. The most modern political events and figures are encrypted here in the images of world culture. An ancient gospel legend, seen from an unexpected perspective, becomes not only the highest ethical, but also an aesthetic ideal for the vulgar, servile world surrounding the writer. Love and creativity are protected not only by God, but also by the devil. The all-knowing and strict Woland, together with his retinue, mercilessly reveals human vices, but is in no hurry to correct them. This burden falls on the person himself, in whose soul good and evil, fear and compassion, cruelty and mercy are forever fighting. Otherwise, the world would be flat, and it would be uninteresting to live in it.
Bulgakov’s “sunset” novel originally refracted the views of Russian religious philosophers of the early 20th century. Thus, Nikolai Berdyaev in the “New Middle Ages” argued: “The rational day new history ends, the sun sets, twilight sets in, we are approaching night. All categories of the already experienced sunny day are unsuitable for understanding the events and phenomena of our evening historical hour. By all indications, we had left the daytime historical era and entered the era of night... False veils fall, and good and evil are exposed. The night is no less good than the day, no less divine, the stars shine brightly in the night, there are revelations in the night that the day does not know. The night is more pristine, more elemental than the day. The Abyss (Ungrund) by J. Boehme reveals itself only in the night. The day throws a cover over it... When dusk comes, the clarity of the outlines and the firmness of the boundaries are lost.” In Bulgakov’s “The Master and Margarita,” the forces of darkness do not oppose, but interact in a complex way with the forces of light, and Woland, in his own way, convinces the Master that “the night is no less good than the day,” that his last refuge is prepared for him on the border of light and darkness no worse, and in some ways definitely better than traditional light, for there the author of the novel about Pontius Pilate will be able to learn revelations that are impossible in daylight: “...Oh, thrice romantic master, don’t you really want to walk with your girlfriend under the cherry trees during the day, which begin to bloom, and in the evening listen to Schubert's music? Wouldn't it be nice for you to write by candlelight with a quill pen? Don’t you really want, like Faust, to sit over the retort in the hope that you will be able to fashion a new homunculus? During the last flight, all veils fall and good and evil are exposed. All those flying, including the Master and Margarita, appear in their true essence: “The night thickened, it flew nearby, grabbed those jumping by the cloaks and, tearing them off their shoulders, exposed the deceptions.” Woland and other demons shed their masks and, born of the night, return to the night. And Satan’s spurs turn into “white spots of stars.”
In “The Master and Margarita,” as in many other works, Bulgakov demonstrated the ability to speak simply, with a minimum of verbal means, about complex things, be it the history and moral doctrine of Christianity or the latest discoveries of biology and physics hidden in the subtext of “The Heart of a Dog” or "The Master and Margarita". Also in Bulgakov’s plays, maximum expressiveness is achieved with a minimum of means. The characters, as a rule, are deprived of long Chekhovian monologues, and serious program declarations are accompanied by humorous remarks, as, for example, in the finale of “Days of the Turbins”. This, among other things, is the secret of the wide audience popularity of Bulgakov’s drama, both during his lifetime and posthumously.
It is well known that “The Master and Margarita”, and many other Bulgakov works, occupy one of the first places in Russian literature in terms of the number of literary reminiscences. But this does not mean at all that Bulgakov was a reminiscent writer, and his work was reduced to rehashes of traditional motifs of world culture. No, Bulgakov’s creativity was at the same time highly relevant, touching on the most painful points modern life. This was the reason for Bulgakov’s rejection by official Soviet criticism and the communist authorities. It is not for nothing that the writer said with sadness, but also not without pride, in his famous letter to the Government in 1930: “M. Bulgakov BECAME A SATIRIST and just at a time when no real (penetrating into forbidden zones) satire in the USSR is absolutely unthinkable.” That is why, from the second half of the 20s, they stopped publishing his works in the Soviet Union, and in 1929, productions of three plays were filmed. In the end, in the 30s, only “Days of the Turbins” and the dramatization “ Dead souls" And even then, to resume “Days” it took intervention from the very top.
Mikhail Bulgakov – political writer
After living in the USSR on a literary and theatrical income became absolutely impossible for him from the late 20s, Bulgakov radically changed his fate. The impetus for this was the ban that followed on March 18, 1930. new play“The Cabal of the Holy One”, dedicated to the great French playwright Jean Baptiste Molière. In a letter to the Government dated March 28, 1930, Bulgakov stated: “The fight against censorship, whatever it may be and under whatever government it exists, is my duty as a writer, as well as calls for freedom of the press. I am an ardent admirer of this freedom and believe that if any of the writers decided to prove that he does not need it, he would be like a fish publicly assuring that it does not need water... This is one of the features of my work, and hers alone It is absolutely enough that my works do not exist in the USSR. But with the first feature in connection with all the others that appear in my satirical stories: black and mystical colors (I am a MYSTICAL WRITER), which depict the countless deformities of our life, the poison with which my language is saturated, deep skepticism regarding the revolutionary process taking place in my backward country, and contrasting it with the beloved and Great Evolution, and most importantly, the depiction of the terrible features of my people, those features that long before the revolution caused the deepest suffering of my teacher M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin.”
It is curious that here the writer polemicized with the well-known thoughts of L. D. Trotsky, contained in the book “Literature and Revolution” (1923): “Tsarist censorship was put in charge of fighting syllogism... We fought for the right of syllogism against censorship. A syllogism in itself, we argued, is helpless. Belief in the omnipotence of an abstract idea is naive. An idea must become flesh in order to become a force... And we have censorship, and a very cruel one. It is not directed against syllogism... but against the alliance of capital with prejudice. We fought for a syllogism against autocratic censorship, and we were right. Our syllogism turned out to be not ethereal. He reflected the will of the progressive class and, together with this class, won. On the day when the proletariat firmly wins in the most powerful countries of the West, the censorship of the revolution will disappear as unnecessary...” Here Lev Davydovich predicted: “Decades of struggle lie ahead in Europe and America... The art of this era will be entirely under the sign of revolution. This art needs a new consciousness. It is irreconcilable, first of all, with mysticism, both open and disguised as romance, for the revolution proceeds from the central idea that the only master must be the collective man and that the limits of his power are determined only by the knowledge of natural forces and the ability to use them.”
The novel "Master Margarita" became not only one of the most famous works Mikhail Bulgakov, but also one of the most mysterious books, the interpretation of which researchers have been struggling with for 75 years. Our review contains 7 keys that reveal some key moments of the novel, lifting the veil of mystery and illustrations for different editions of Bulgakov’s novel.
1. Literary hoax
Scientists know for certain that Bulgakov enthusiastically studied German mysticism of the 19th century. It was after becoming acquainted with treatises on God, demonologies of the Christian and Jewish faith, and legends about the devil that the writer decided to create a book, and all this is mentioned in the work. The writer changed his novel several times.
The book was first written in 1928-1929. Several titles were invented for this novel: “The Juggler with a Hoof”, “The Black Magician” and no Master with Margarita. The central character of the first edition of the novel was the Devil and, in fact, the book was very reminiscent of Faust, only written by a Russian author. But his book never saw the light of day, and very little is known about it, since, having received a ban on a play called “The Cabal of the Holy One,” Bulgakov decided to burn the manuscript. The writer informed the government about his new novel about the Devil, who died in the flames.
The second novel was called "Satan, or the Great Chancellor." The main character of the work is a fallen angel. In this edition, Bulgakov had already invented the Master with Margarita, there was also a place for Woland and his retinue, but she also did not see the light of day.
The writer chose the title “The Master and Margarita” for the third manuscript, which was published by publishing houses; unfortunately, Bulgakov was unable to complete the work.
2. The Many Faces of Woland
If you read the novel without thinking too much, you get the impression that Woland is a positive character who has become a patron of creativity and love, a hero who tries to fight the vices inherent in people. But Woland is the Tempter, and upon careful reading, his many faces become noticeable. In reality, Woland represents Satan, a reinterpreted Christ, a new Messiah, the kind of hero that Bulgakov described him as in his first unpublished manuscripts.
You can understand the many faces of Woland only by carefully reading The Master and Margarita. Only then can one notice the hero’s resemblance to the Scandinavian Odin, turned into a devil by Christian traditions, or to the god Wotan, who was worshiped by ancient Germanic pagan tribes. Woland bears a portrait resemblance to the Freemason and great magician Count Cagliostro, who knew how to predict the future and remembered events a thousand years ago.
Attentive readers will definitely remember the moment when the employees remember the name of the magician and suggest that his name is Faland. Indeed, it is in tune with Woland, but that’s not the only interesting thing. Few people know that the devil is called Faland in Germany.
3. Satan's Retinue
Bright heroes with an ambiguous past in The Master and Margarita were Behemoth, Azazello and Karoviev-Fagot. The writer presented them as instruments of justice used by the devil.
The writer took the image of Azazello, the killer demon and the demon of the waterless desert, from the Old Testament. This is the name in these books for the fallen angel who taught people how to create jewelry and weapons. He also taught women to paint their faces, which according to biblical books is considered a lascivious art, and therefore it was this hero of Bulgakov who pushed Margarita onto a dark path by giving her cream. Azazello is an absolute evil who poisons lovers and kills Maigel.
Every reader of the novel remembers Behemoth for the rest of his life. This is a werecat, who is Woland’s favorite jester. The prototype of this character was the mythological beast described in Old Testament, the devil of gluttony from mystical legends. When composing the image of the cat Behemoth, the writer used information that he learned while studying the story of Anne Desanges. She lived in the 17th century and was possessed by seven devils at once. One of them was a demon from the rank of Thrones, named Behemoth. They depicted him as a monster with the head of an elephant and terrible fangs. The demon looked like a hippopotamus with its short tail, huge belly and thick hind legs, but its hands were human.
The only person in Woland's devilish retinue was Koroviev-Fagot. Researchers cannot determine exactly who the prototype of this Bulgakov character is, but they suggest that its roots go back to the god Vitsliputzli. This assumption is based on a conversation between Bezdomny and Berlioz, in which the name of this Aztec god of war, to whom he made sacrifices, is mentioned. If you believe the legends about Faust, then Vitzliputzli is not a simple spirit of hell, but the first assistant of Satan.
4. Queen Margot
This heroine is very similar to Bulgakov’s last wife. The writer also emphasized in the book “The Master and Margarita” the special connection of this heroine with the French Queen Margot, who was the wife of Henry IV. On the way to Satan's ball, the fat man recognizes Margarita and calls her the bright queen, then he mentions the wedding in Paris, which as a result became the bloody St. Bartholomew's Night. Bulgakov also writes about the Parisian publisher Hessar, who in the novel “The Master and Margarita” takes part in St. Bartholomew’s Night. The historical Queen Margarita was a patron of poets and writers. Bulgakov in his book spoke about Margarita’s love for the brilliant writer Master.
5. Moscow – Yershalaim
There are many mysteries in the novel, and one of them is the time in which the events of The Master and Margarita take place. It is impossible to find a single date from which it was possible to continue reporting. The actions date back to May 1-7, 1929, which coincided with Holy Week. In parallel, in the “Pilate Chapters” the actions develop during the week of the 29th or 30th year in Yershalaim, where Holy Week is also described. In the first part of the novel, the actions in these stories develop in parallel; in the second part, they begin to intertwine with each other and then merge into a single story. At this time, history gains integrity and moves into the other world. Yershalaim now goes to Moscow.
6. Kabbalistic roots
When studying the novel, experts came to the conclusion that when writing of this work Bulgakov was interested not only in Kabbalistic teachings. In the mouth of Woland one can sometimes hear the concepts of Jewish mysticism.
There is a moment in the book when Woland says that you should never ask for anything, especially from the strong. In his opinion, people themselves will give and offer. These cabalistic teachings prohibit accepting anything unless it is given by the creator. The Christian faith allows you to ask for alms. Hasidim believe that people are created in the image of God and therefore they are supposed to constantly work.
The concept “about light” can also be traced in the work. He accompanies Woland throughout the book. The moonlight disappears only after Satan and his retinue disappear. Light can be interpreted in different ways; for example, there are teachings about it in the Sermon on the Mount. If you look at everything a little differently, it becomes clear that this concept also coincides with the basic idea of Kabbalistic teachings, according to which the Torah is light. The idea of Kabbalah says that the achievement of the “light of life” depends only on a person’s desires, and this completely coincides with the main idea of the novel about a person’s independent choice.
7. The last manuscript
Bulgakov began writing the latest edition of the book, which was eventually released by publishing houses. Until his death, the writer worked on the creation of this work. The novel took 12 years to complete, and yet it turned out to be unfinished. Scientists cannot figure out the reason. They suggest that the author himself felt little knowledgeable about early Christian texts and Jewish demonology, and an amateur in some matters. Bulgakov gave his last vital energy to his last novel. The last change in the novel was the introduction of Margarita’s phrase about writers following the coffin. It was February 13, 1940, and a month later Mikhail Afanasyevich passed away. His last words to the novel were the phrase “So that they know, so that they know...”.
Continuing the theme of Elena Chernenko, who was able to convey not only the deep images of the characters, but also the mysterious atmosphere that reigns in Bulgakov’s novel.
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25.01.2012
The novel “The Master and Margarita” was Bulgakov’s last; it was the culmination of his work also because he wrote it for 12 years, constantly rewriting it, so that several of its editions survived.
It is clear that Bulgakov wanted to convey to the reader some important thoughts, and indeed to break through Stalin’s censorship, which he never succeeded in doing. In the USSR, the novel was published only half a century after the writer’s death - in 1966 - during the liberal Brezhnev period.
Stalin was, of course, far from stupid and, most likely, realized that the semantic and literal center of the novel was the Yershalaim chapters about Yeshua, which pop up again and again in the narrative. This in itself is a sign of their importance, and the meaning of the ancient chapters is original.
In my opinion, one of Bulgakov’s scholars, Igor Sukhikh, said this very well: “Although Yeshua actually acts only in one large episode, his presence (or significant absence) turns out to be the semantic center of Bulgakov’s entire book.”
Bulgakov brilliantly showed the relevance of spiritual life, directly connecting events from the life of Jesus Christ and modern Moscow, where the devil arrives straight from the ancient chapters, a direct witness to the conversation between Pilate and Yeshua.
Perhaps the realism of the devil and the rest did not please Stalin, who was passionate about raising a generation of atheists who would not be bothered by any “extra” questions about the soul and eternal life.
In addition, Bulgakov “belittled” the moral character of Soviet people, and where - in the capital of our Motherland, Moscow, whose residents are shown for the most part to be “spoiled by the housing problem,” envious, greedy for money, constantly accepting false information and having no idea about the truth state of affairs. Probably, the main characters of the novel - the Master and Margarita - did not correspond much to the moral character of the builders of communism...
If a devil, a magician, a wizard can appear in Soviet society, then he must of course be stupid, funny and weak in comparison with the modern achievements of Soviet education, science and technology, as, for example, in the fairy tale by L. Lagin “Old Man Hottabych”, published under Bulgakov's life, in 1938...
It is interesting that the heroes of the Yershalaim chapters have parallels in modern Moscow, for example, Matthew Levi, who wrote down for Yeshua, resembles the Master, also a languishing writer. But Pilate has no such obvious parallel. In my opinion, Stalin or any other atheistic ruler can be called a modern Pilate, who to a certain extent “judges” spiritual culture, dooming it to execution or destruction “in the name of the people.”
There is also no doubt that Bulgakov wanted to somewhat ridicule modern atheistic beliefs and morals, punishing with the hands of Woland and his retinue modern figures in Moscow right and left, and yet, I think, this is an accompanying idea of the work, not the main one.