The novel by M. A. Bulgakov is a masterpiece of world and domestic literature. This work remained unfinished, which gives each reader the opportunity to come up with their own ending, to some extent feeling like a real writer.
The next topic of conversation between Ivan Bezdomny and Mikhail Berlioz was Jesus Christ. They argued heatedly, which attracted the attention of a stranger who decided to have the audacity to interfere in their dialogue. The man resembled a foreigner both in appearance and speech.
Ivan's work was an anti-religious poem. Woland (the name of a stranger who is also the devil himself) tried to prove the opposite to them, assuring that Christ exists, but the men remained adamant in their convictions.
Then the foreigner, as proof, warns Berlioz that he will die from sunflower oil spilled on the tram rails. The tram will be driven by a girl in a red scarf. She will cut off his head, not having time to slow down.
At the hour of the hot spring sunset At the hour of the hot spring sunset... - The action of the novel about the Master lasts a little more than three days: from sunset on some Wednesday in May to complete darkness on the night from Saturday to Sunday, and the meaning shows that this Sunday is the beginning of Orthodox Easter. These three days are painted scrupulously accurately. However, it is impossible to identify this novel time with the historical one: between 1917 and 1940. the latest Easter fell on May 5 (in 1929), and in this case the events at the Patriarch's Ponds would have to take place on May 1, which is completely excluded by all other conditions of action. If, in order to determine the time of action, we turn to some material facts and events described in the novel, then it is easy to see that the action of this novel is ambivalent in terms of time: the author deliberately combines facts from different times - thus, the Cathedral of Christ the Savior (1931) has not yet been blown up, but passports have already been introduced (1932), trolleybuses are running (1934), food cards have been abolished (1935), and at the same time, torgsins, etc., are still functioning. at the Patriarch's Ponds Patriarch's Ponds- Pioneers. In ancient times, this place was called Goat Boloto (a trace remained in the names of Kozikhinsky Lane); in the 17th century here was a settlement that belonged to Patriarch Filaret - hence the name of the three ponds (cf. Trekhprudny Lane), of which only one remains today. Thus, the toponymy itself combines the themes of the Lord and the devil (Patriarch's Ponds - Goat Swamp). // From 1918 there was a massive renaming of cities, streets, etc. By 1972, only 693 names out of 1344 listed in the guidebook of 1912 were preserved in Moscow. This was the erasure of the memory of the past. For Bulgakov's position and the style of his book, the use of old titles is essential. These old names are given with new replacements, although after 1987 some of them have been restored. there were two citizens. The first of them - about forty years old, dressed in a gray summer pair - was short, dark-haired, well-fed, bald, carried his decent hat with a pie in his hand, and his neatly shaven face was decorated with supernaturally large black horn-rimmed glasses. The other, a broad-shouldered, reddish, shaggy young man with a checkered cap folded at the back of his head, was wearing a cowboy shirt, chewed white trousers, and black slippers.
The first was none other than Mikhail Alexandrovich Berlioz, Berlioz. - In the image of Berlioz, they find similarities with such prominent figures of those years as the head of the RAPP and the editor of the magazine. "On duty" L. L. Averbakh, editor of the journal. "Red New" F. F. Raskolnikov, prof. Reisner, editor of theater magazines V. I. Blum, D. Bedny and others. This list can be supplemented by the figure of the “commissariat of education” A. V. Lunacharsky (cf. his dispute with Metropolitan Vvedensky and Berlioz’s conversation with Bezdomny) and other ideologists of that time. Not without reason, like Jesus Christ, Berlioz has twelve deputy apostles, members of the board of Massolit, who are waiting for him to appear at a kind of “evening” at “Griboedov”. The theme of Christ and the Devil is also introduced by a surname, reminiscent of the French romantic composer Hector Berlioz, author of the Fantastic Symphony (1830), with his Procession to the Execution and The Infernal Sabbath (the names of the second and third parts of the symphony) (see. Gasparov B. From Observations on the Motivational Structure of M.A. Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita // Daugava, 1988. No. 10–12; 1989. No. 1). At the same time, the image of Berlioz emphasizes the spiritual emptiness and superficial education of the sworn official atheist, who did not even have time and did not know how to think about the “extraordinary” (i.e., non-banal) “phenomena” of being. editor of a thick art magazine and chairman of the board of one of the largest Moscow literary associations, abbreviated as Massolit, Massolite. - Abbreviations of all kinds (abbreviations) were in great fashion in 1914-1940 - it was a kind of "language disease". The word Massolit, coined by Bulgakov, is on a par with such real abbreviations as VAPP or MAPP (All-Union and Moscow Association of Proletarian Writers), MODPIK (Moscow Society of Dramatic Writers and Composers) and Mastkomdram (Workshop of Communist Drama), etc. and his young companion is the poet Ivan Nikolaevich Ponyrev, who writes under the pseudonym Bezdomny. Homeless. - Ivan Nikolaevich Ponyrev, who writes "monstrous" poems under the pseudonym Bezdomny (in early editions - Antosha Bezrodny, Ivanushka Popov, Ivanushka Bezrodny), is typical of the era, like his pseudonym, formed according to the popular ideological template: Maxim Gorky (Alexey Peshkov), Demyan Poor (Efim Pridvorov), Hungry (Epshtein), Merciless (Ivanov), Pribludny (Ovcharenko), etc. They see the features of many people in him: D. Poor, Bezymensky, Iv. Iv. Startseva and others. But the spiritual evolution of this hero is quite unusual and resembles the fate of another Bulgakov character - the poet Ivan Rusakov from The White Guard.
Once in the shade of slightly green lindens, the writers first rushed to the colorfully painted booth with the inscription "Beer and water."
Yes, the first strangeness of this terrible May evening should be noted. Not only at the booth, but in the entire alley parallel to Malaya Bronnaya Street, there was not a single person. At that hour, when, it seemed, there was no strength to breathe, when the sun, having heated Moscow, was falling in a dry fog somewhere beyond the Garden Ring, no one came under the lindens, no one sat on the bench, the alley was empty.
"Give me the narzan," Berlioz asked.
“Narzan is gone,” the woman in the booth answered, and for some reason took offense.
“The beer will be delivered by evening,” the woman replied.
– What is there? Berlioz asked.
“Apricot, but warm,” the woman said.
- Come on, come on, come on, come on!
The apricot gave a rich yellow foam, and the air smelled of a barbershop. Having drunk, the writers immediately began to hiccup, paid off and sat down on a bench facing the pond and with their backs to Bronnaya.
Here a second oddity happened, concerning Berlioz alone. He suddenly stopped hiccuping, his heart thumped and fell somewhere for a moment, then returned, but with a blunt needle stuck in it. In addition, Berlioz was seized by an unreasonable, but such a strong fear that he wanted to immediately run away from the Patriarchs without looking back.
Berlioz looked around sadly, not understanding what had frightened him. He turned pale, wiped his forehead with a handkerchief, thought: “What is the matter with me? This has never happened ... my heart is naughty ... I'm overtired ... Perhaps it's time to throw everything to hell and to Kislovodsk ... "
And then the sultry air thickened in front of him, and a transparent citizen of a most strange appearance was woven from this air. On a small head there is a jockey cap, a checkered, short, airy jacket ... A citizen of a sazhen's height, but narrow in the shoulders, incredibly thin, and a physiognomy, please note, mocking.
Berlioz's life developed in such a way that he was not accustomed to unusual phenomena. Even more pale, he goggled his eyes and thought in dismay: “This cannot be! ..”
But, alas, it was, and a long, through which one can see, a citizen, without touching the ground, swayed in front of him both to the left and to the right.
Here terror seized Berlioz to such an extent that he closed his eyes. And when he opened them, he saw that everything was over, the haze dissolved, the checkered one disappeared, and at the same time a blunt needle jumped out of the heart.
- Damn you! the editor exclaimed. - You know, Ivan, I almost have a stroke from the heat now! It was even something like a hallucination…” He tried to grin, but his eyes were still filled with anxiety, and his hands were trembling. However, he gradually calmed down, fanned himself with a handkerchief and, saying quite cheerfully: “Well, so ...” - he began his speech, interrupted by drinking apricot.
This speech, as they later learned, was about Jesus Christ. The fact is that the editor ordered the poet for the next book of the magazine a large anti-religious poem. … anti-religious poem. – Anti-religious poems, poems, caricatures, etc. were then and later very widespread. A prominent place in the literature of this kind was occupied by the production of D. Bedny, who published in 1925 his "New Testament without a flaw Evangelist Demyan", written, according to the author, in "Passion Week". Such timing of such things for religious holidays was a common method of anti-religious propaganda. It was for the upcoming Easter that Berlioz ordered a poem to Homeless. Bezdomny gave a negative portrait of Jesus Christ in the poem, as did D. Poor: “a liar, a drunkard, a womanizer” (Poor D. Full. collected works. T. VIII. M .; L., 1926. C 232). Ivan Nikolaevich composed this poem, and in a very short time, but, unfortunately, the editor was not at all satisfied with it. Bezdomny outlined the main character of his poem, that is, Jesus, with very black colors, and yet, according to the editor, the whole poem had to be written anew. And now the editor was giving the poet a kind of lecture about Jesus, in order to emphasize the poet's basic mistake.
It is difficult to say what exactly let Ivan Nikolaevich down - whether the pictorial power of his talent or complete ignorance of the issue on which he wrote - but Jesus turned out to be, well, completely alive, Jesus who once existed, only, however, Jesus is equipped with all the negative features .
Berlioz wanted to prove to the poet that the main thing was not what Jesus was like, whether he was good or bad, but that this Jesus, as a person, did not exist at all in the world and that all the stories about him were mere inventions, the most common myth.
It should be noted that the editor was a well-read man and very skillfully pointed in his speech to ancient historians, for example, to the famous Philo of Alexandria, Philo of Alexandria- philosopher and religious thinker (c. 25 BC - c. 50 AD). He had a great influence on subsequent theology with his doctrine of the logos. on the brilliantly educated Flavius Josephus, Josephus Flavius (37 - after 100) - author of the books "Jewish War", "Jewish Antiquities", "Life". Whether out of ignorance or consciously, Berlioz is telling a lie: Christ is mentioned in Antiquities of the Jews, although this mention is so sustained in the spirit of Christian orthodoxy that this circumstance seemed to make it possible to consider this place a later insert. However, in the Arabic text of Bishop Agapius' "World Chronicle", this text is preserved in a different version, which makes it possible to recognize the authorship of I. Flavius. According to B. V. Sokolov (comments in the book: Bulgakov M. Master and Margarita. L .: Higher School, 1989), Bulgakov was aware of this option, other researchers (M. Iovanovich) it is rejected. never mentioned the existence of Jesus in a single word. Displaying solid erudition, Mikhail Alexandrovich informed the poet, among other things, that that place in the fifteenth book, in chapter 44 of the famous Tacitus Annals, which refers to the execution of Jesus, is nothing more than a later fake insert . Tacitus. – Berlioz's statement that the mention of Christ by the Roman historian Cornelius Tacitus (c. 55 - after 117) is a later insertion was a stereotyped device of atheistic propaganda (the so-called "hypercriticism"). Modern historical science does not adhere to this version.
The poet, for whom everything reported by the editor was news, listened attentively to Mikhail Alexandrovich, fixing his lively green eyes on him, and only occasionally hiccupped, cursing apricot water in a whisper.
- There is not a single Eastern religion, - said Berlioz, - in which, as a rule, an immaculate maiden would not give birth to a god. And Christians, without inventing anything new, created their own Jesus in the same way, who in fact never lived. This is where the main focus should be...
The high tenor of Berlioz resounded in the desert alley, and as Mikhail Alexandrovich climbed into the jungle, into which he could climb without the risk of breaking his neck, only a very educated person, the poet learned more and more interesting and useful things about the Egyptian Osiris , blessed god and son of Heaven and Earth, Osiris (e g and p. Usir) - the son of the god of the earth Geb, brother and husband of Isis, father of Horus; the god of the productive forces of nature and the king of the underworld; personifies goodness and light; killed by the evil god Seth, resurrected by Isis or Horus. and about the Phoenician god Tammuz, Tammuz (e in the river Tamuz) is the god of fertility among the peoples of Western Asia, the beloved and husband of the goddess Inanna; spends six months underground. and about Marduk, Marduk is the main deity of the Babylonian pantheon; god of healing, vegetation and water. and even about the lesser-known formidable god Vitzliputzli, who was once highly revered by the Aztecs in Mexico. Vitzliputsli (right. Huitzilopochtli) - "left-handed caliber", the supreme deity of the Aztecs; human sacrifices were made to him.
And just at the time when Mikhail Alexandrovich was telling the poet about how the Aztecs sculpted the figurine of Vitsliputsli from dough, the first person appeared in the alley.
Subsequently, when, frankly speaking, it was already too late, various institutions submitted their reports describing this person. Their comparison cannot but cause astonishment. So, in the first of them it is said that this man was small in stature, had golden teeth and limped on his right leg. In the second - that the man was of enormous growth, had platinum crowns, limped on his left leg. The third succinctly reports that the person had no special signs.
We have to admit that none of these reports is good for anything.
First of all: the described person did not limp on any leg, and his height was neither small nor huge, but simply tall. As for his teeth, he had platinum crowns on the left side, and gold crowns on the right. He was in an expensive gray suit, in foreign shoes, matching the color of the suit. He famously twisted his gray beret over his ear, and under his arm he carried a cane with a black knob in the shape of a poodle's head. He looks to be over forty years old. The mouth is kind of crooked. Shaved smoothly. Brunette. The right eye is black, the left one is green for some reason. The eyebrows are black, but one is higher than the other. In a word, a foreigner. ... a foreigner ... - Moscow people look at foreigners as special people, communication with whom is dangerous. This attitude is plausibly imitated by Koroviev: “He will come ... and either nashpionit like the last son of a bitch, or he will exhaust all the nerves with whims.” The house manager Bosom and the head of the Moscow writers Berlioz are equally terrified at the thought that a foreigner will live in a private apartment. Margarita assures Azazello that she never sees foreigners and does not want to communicate with them.
Passing by the bench on which the editor and the poet were seated, the foreigner glanced sideways at them, stopped, and suddenly sat down on a neighboring bench, two paces from his friends.
"German..." thought Berlioz.
“Englishman…” Homeless thought. “Look, it’s not hot with gloves on.”
And the foreigner looked around at the tall houses that bordered the pond in a square, and it became noticeable that he was seeing this place for the first time and that it interested him.
He fixed his gaze on the upper floors, which dazzlingly reflected in the glass the broken and forever departing sun from Mikhail Alexandrovich, then turned it down, where the glass began to darken in the evening, smiled condescendingly at something, screwed up his eyes, put his hands on the knob, and his chin on his hands.
- You, Ivan, - said Berlioz, - very well and satirically depicted, for example, the birth of Jesus, the son of God, but the point is that even before Jesus, a number of sons of God were born, like, say, the Phoenician Adonis, the Phrygian Attis , Attis (Greek m and f.) is a god of Phrygian origin (Phrygia is an ancient country in the north-western part of M. Asia), associated with the orgiastic cult of the great mother of the gods, Cybele. Persian Mithra. In short, not one of them was born and there was no one, including Jesus, and it is necessary that you, instead of the birth or, let's say, the arrival of the Magi, Magi - sages, soothsayers, magicians. According to the Gospel, the Magi came from the East to worship the newborn Christ and brought him gifts: gold as for a king, frankincense as for God, and myrrh as for a mortal man (Matthew 2:1-11). would depict ridiculous rumors about this parish. And it turns out from your story that he was really born! ..
Here Bezdomny made an attempt to stop the hiccups that had tormented him by holding his breath, which made him hiccup more painfully and louder, and at the same moment Berlioz interrupted his speech, because the foreigner suddenly got up and went towards the writers.
They looked at him in surprise.
- Excuse me, please, - the one who came up with a foreign accent, but without distorting the words, spoke up, - that I, not being familiar, allow myself ... but the subject of your learned conversation is so interesting that ...
Here he politely took off his beret, and the friends had no choice but to rise and bow.
"No, more like a Frenchman..." thought Berlioz.
“A Pole?..” thought Bezdomny.
It must be added that the foreigner made a disgusting impression on the poet from the very first words, but Berlioz rather liked it, that is, not exactly liked it, but ... how to put it ... interested, or something.
- May I sit down? the foreigner politely asked, and the friends somehow involuntarily parted; the foreigner deftly sat down between them and immediately entered into conversation:
- If I heard right, you deigned to say that Jesus was not in the world? the foreigner asked, turning his green left eye to Berlioz.
“No, you heard right,” Berlioz answered courteously, “that is exactly what I said.
- Oh, how interesting! exclaimed the foreigner.
"What the hell does he want?" Homeless thought and frowned.
- Did you agree with your interlocutor? the stranger inquired, turning to the right to Homeless.
- One hundred percent! - he confirmed, loving to express himself pretentiously and figuratively.
- Amazing! - the uninvited interlocutor exclaimed and, for some reason, looking around like a thief and muffling his low voice, he said: - Forgive my obsession, but I understand that, among other things, you still don’t believe in God? He made frightened eyes and added: “I swear I won’t tell anyone.”
“Yes, we don’t believe in God,” Berlioz replied, smiling slightly at the fear of the foreign tourist, “but one can talk about this quite freely.
The foreigner leaned back on the bench and asked, even squealing with curiosity:
- Are you atheists?
“Yes, we are atheists,” Berlioz replied smiling, while Bezdomny thought, getting angry: “Here you are, a foreign goose!”
- Oh, what a delight! cried the astonishing foreigner, and turned his head, looking first at one writer, then at another.
“In our country, atheism surprises no one,” Berlioz said diplomatically politely. “The majority of our population has consciously and long ago ceased to believe in fairy tales about God.
Here the foreigner broke off such a thing: he stood up and shook hands with the astonished editor, while uttering the following words:
Let me thank you from the bottom of my heart!
What are you thanking him for? Blinking, Homeless inquired.
“For a very important piece of information, which I, as a traveler, am extremely interested in,” the foreign eccentric explained, raising his finger meaningfully.
The important information, apparently, really made a strong impression on the traveler, because he frightenedly looked around at the houses, as if fearing to see an atheist in every window.
"No, he's not an Englishman..." thought Berlioz, while Bezdomny thought: "Where did he get so good at speaking Russian, that's what's interesting!" – and frowned again.
“But, let me ask you,” the foreign guest spoke after anxious reflection, “what about the proofs of the existence of God, of which, as is known, there are exactly five? … What about the evidence for the existence of God?... - The question of the existence of God is one of the central problems of The Master and Margarita (as well as the White Guard). Not only Berlioz’s dispute with Woland is connected with it, but also the entire plot of the work in both its parts - modern and ancient: Yeshua and the Master are the bearers of divine truth, Pilate and Berlioz are pragmatists and relativists. In this place, Bulgakov used the article by V. S. Solovyov about Kant, placed in the Encyclopedic Dictionary of Brockhaus and Efron. Instead of the four proofs listed there (cosmological, teleological, ontological and historical), Woland names five, and then the Kantian proof (moral) turns out to be the sixth. The "seventh proof" is nothing more than Woland's joke, proving not the existence of God, but Woland's ability to foresee events.
- Alas! Berlioz answered with regret. “None of these proofs are worth anything, and mankind has long since handed them over to the archives. After all, you must admit that in the field of reason there can be no proof of the existence of God.
– Bravo! cried the foreigner. – Bravo! You completely repeated the thought of the restless old man Immanuel on this matter. But here's a curiosity: he completely destroyed all five proofs, and then, as if in mockery of himself, built his own sixth proof!
– Kant's proof, Kant's proof... - Immanuel Kant argued that "only three ways of proving the existence of God on the basis of speculative reason are possible" (Kant Imm. Soch. in 6 volumes. Vol. 3. M., 1964. P. 516); rejecting them, he deduced the proof of the existence of God from the postulate of the existence of the moral law.– the educated editor objected with a thin smile, – also unconvincingly. And it was not for nothing that Schiller said that Kantian reasoning on this issue could only satisfy slaves, while Strauss simply laughed at this proof. Strauss. – David Friedrich Strauss (1808–1874), a German theologian, in the book “The Life of Jesus” (1835–1836), used by Bulgakov (Russian edition – St. Petersburg, 1907), denied the authenticity of the Gospel, but not the person of Christ himself.
Berlioz was talking, and at the same time he was thinking: “But, all the same, who is he? And why does he speak Russian so well?”
- Take this Kant, but for such evidence for three years in Solovki! Solovki is the household name of the Solovetsky Islands in the White Sea, where in the 15th century. monastery was founded. From the beginning of the 20s of the XX century. there were located the "Solovki Special Purpose Camps" (SLON), which received terrible fame among the people. In 1939, the last Solovki prisoners were loaded onto the Clara barge, which “went out into the open sea and disappeared” (see Ogonyok, 1988, no. 50, p. 18).- Ivan Nikolaevich thumped quite unexpectedly.
- Ivan! whispered Berlioz, embarrassed.
But the proposal to send Kant to Solovki not only failed to impress the foreigner, but even delighted him.
“Exactly, exactly,” he shouted, and his green left eye, turned to Berlioz, flashed, “there is a place for him!” After all, I told him then at breakfast: “You, professor, your will, came up with something awkward! It may be clever, but painfully incomprehensible. They will make fun of you."
Berlioz bulged his eyes. “At breakfast… Cantu?… What is he weaving?” he thought.
“But,” continued the foreigner, not embarrassed by Berlioz’s astonishment and turning to the poet, “it is impossible to send him to Solovki for the reason that he has been in places much more remote than Solovki for more than a hundred years, and there is no way to get him out of there.” , trust me!
- It's a pity! said the bully poet.
- And I'm sorry, - the unknown person confirmed, his eye flashing, and continued: - But here's the question that worries me: if there is no God, then, one asks, who controls human life and the whole routine on earth?
“The man himself governs,” Bezdomny hastened to angrily answer this, admittedly, not very clear question.
- I'm sorry, - the unknown responded softly, - in order to manage, you need, after all, to have an exact plan for some, at least somewhat decent time. Let me ask you, how can a person manage if he is not only deprived of the opportunity to draw up any plan even for a ridiculously short period, well, let's say a thousand years, but he cannot even vouch for his own tomorrow? And really,” the stranger turned to Berlioz, “imagine, for example, that you, for example, begin to manage, dispose of both others and yourself, in general, so to speak, get a taste, and suddenly you have ... kheh ... kheh ... sarcoma of the lung ... - here the foreigner smiled sweetly, as if the thought of lung sarcoma gave him pleasure, - yes, sarcoma, - he repeated the sonorous word, squinting like a cat, - and now your control is over! Nobody's fate but your own interests you no more. Your family will start lying to you. You, sensing something was wrong, rush to learned doctors, then to charlatans, and sometimes even to fortune-tellers. Both the first and second, and the third are completely meaningless, you yourself understand. And all this ends tragically: the one who until recently believed that he was in control of something suddenly finds himself lying motionless in a wooden box, and those around him, realizing that there is no longer any sense from the lying person, burn him in the furnace. And it happens even worse: as soon as a person is about to go to Kislovodsk, - here the foreigner narrowed his eyes at Berlioz, - a trifling matter, it would seem, but he cannot do this either, because it is not known why he will suddenly slip and fall under a tram! Can you really say that it was he who controlled himself in this way? Wouldn't it be more correct to think that someone else did it? - and here the stranger laughed a strange laugh.
Berlioz listened with great attention to the unpleasant story about the sarcoma and the tram, and some disturbing thoughts began to torment him. “He is not a foreigner… he is not a foreigner…,” he thought, “he is a strange fellow… but wait, who is he?…”
- Do you want to smoke, I see? - suddenly turned to the Homeless unknown. - Which one do you prefer?
- Do you have different ones, or what? asked the poet gloomily, whose cigarettes had run out.
– What do you prefer? repeated the stranger.
- Well, "Our brand", "Our brand". - In the 20s there were three varieties of cigarettes with this name: from the cheapest (9 pack) to the most expensive (45 pack) - with the image of the Mosselprom building on the box. Woland's suggestion to choose any brand of cigarettes is comparable to Goethe's Mephistopheles' suggestion to name the type of wine desired (Ya novskaya L. Creative path of Mikhail Bulgakov. M., 1983, p. 270). Homeless replied angrily.
The stranger immediately pulled a cigarette case out of his pocket and offered it to Homeless:
- Our brand.
Both the editor and the poet were not so much struck by the fact that “Our brand” was found in the cigarette case, but by the cigarette case itself. It was of enormous size, pure gold, and on its lid, when opened, a diamond triangle sparkled with blue and white fire. … diamond triangle. – The triangle is a very common symbol, and in different sign systems it has a wide variety of meanings. For example, it can be seen as a symbol of the Christian Trinity and as a symbol of pre-Christian culture; the corners of a triangle can symbolize will, thought, feeling; directed upwards, it means good, downwards - evil - thus, it indicates the connection of these moral concepts. In A. V. Chayanov’s story “Venediktov, or Memorable Events of My Life”, well known to Bulgakov, gold-platinum triangles symbolize the possession of human souls. Some researchers (B. V. Sokolov, E. Bazzarelli, M. Iovanovich) associate this sign in Bulgakov with Freemasonry, but there are no sufficient grounds for this.
Here the writers thought differently. Berlioz: “No, a foreigner!”, and Bezdomny: “Damn him, eh! ..”
The poet and the owner of the cigarette case lit up, but the non-smoker Berlioz refused.
“It will be necessary to object to him thus,” Berlioz decided, “yes, man is mortal, no one argues against that. But the point is…”
However, he did not have time to utter these words, as the foreigner spoke:
- Yes, a person is mortal, but that would be half the trouble. The bad thing is that he is sometimes suddenly mortal, that's the trick! And he can’t say at all what he will do tonight.
“Some kind of absurd posing of the question…” thought Berlioz and objected:
Well, that's an exaggeration. Tonight I know more or less exactly. It goes without saying that if a brick falls on my head on Bronnaya...
“A brick for no reason,” the stranger interrupted impressively, “will never fall on anyone's head. In particular, I assure you, he does not threaten you in any way. You will die a different death.
“Maybe you know which one?” Berlioz inquired with perfectly natural irony, getting involved in some really absurd conversation. - And tell me?
“Willingly,” said the stranger. He looked Berlioz up and down as if he were going to make him a suit, muttered through his teeth something like: "One, two ... Mercury in the second house ... the moon is gone ... six - misfortune ... evening - seven ..." “One, two… Mercury…”- Woland pretends that he learns the fate of Berlioz according to the rules of astrology (for these rules, see: With about about in B. Decree. Op.); but in fact he knew her and even informed Berlioz before he asked him to. Thus, his astrological calculations turn out to be a farce and buffoonery.- and loudly and joyfully announced: - They will cut off your head!
The homeless man stared wildly and angrily at the cheeky stranger, and Berlioz asked with a wry smile:
– And who exactly? Enemies? Interventions?
- No, - the interlocutor answered, - a Russian woman, a Komsomol member.
“Hm…” muttered Berlioz, irritated by the joke of the unknown, “well, excuse me, this is unlikely.
“I beg your pardon, too,” replied the foreigner, “but it is so. Yes, I would like to ask you, what are you going to do tonight if it's not a secret?
- There is no secret. Now I will go to my place on Sadovaya, and then at ten o'clock in the evening there will be a meeting in Massolit, and I will preside over it.
“No, that cannot possibly be,” the foreigner retorted firmly.
- Why?
“Because,” the foreigner answered, and with half-closed eyes looked up at the sky, where, anticipating the coolness of the evening, black birds were drawing noiselessly, “because Annushka has already bought sunflower oil, and not only bought it, but even spilled it. Annushka ... and spilled ... - V. Levshin, who lived in the 20s in the same apartment with Bulgakov, believes that the prototype of the “Annushka plague” was their “housekeeper Annushka - a grumpy woman, always dropping and breaking something, most likely the reason for his lopsided eyes (Annushka’s left eye, covered with a thorn, is half-covered by a paresis eyelid) ”(see: Memories of Mikhail Bulgakov. P. 173). So the meeting will not take place.
Here, as is quite understandable, there was silence under the lindens.
“Forgive me,” Berlioz spoke after a pause, looking at the foreigner talking nonsense, “what does sunflower oil have to do with it ... and what kind of Annushka?
“That’s what sunflower oil has to do with it,” Bezdomny suddenly spoke up, obviously deciding to declare war on an uninvited interlocutor, “didn’t you, citizen, ever go to a hospital for the mentally ill?”
“Ivan!” exclaimed Mikhail Alexandrovich quietly.
But the foreigner was not at all offended and laughed merrily.
- I've been, I've been, and more than once! he cried, laughing, but without taking his unlaughing eyes from the poet. - Where I just have not been! My only regret is that I didn't bother to ask the professor what schizophrenia is. So you yourself will find out from him, Ivan Nikolayevich!
- How do you know my name?
- Excuse me, Ivan Nikolaevich, who does not know you? - Here the foreigner pulled out yesterday's issue of the Literaturnaya Gazeta from his pocket, and Ivan Nikolaevich saw his own image on the very first page, and under it his own poems. But yesterday, the still pleasing proof of fame and popularity this time did not please the poet at all.
“I'm sorry,” he said, and his face darkened, “can you wait a minute? I want to say a few words to my friend.
- Oh, with pleasure! exclaimed the stranger. - It's so good here under the lindens, and by the way, I'm not in a hurry anywhere.
“Look here, Misha,” the poet whispered, pulling Berlioz aside, “he is not a foreign tourist at all, but a spy.” This is a Russian emigrant who moved to us. Ask him for documents, otherwise he will leave ...
- You think? whispered Berlioz anxiously, and he thought to himself: “But he’s right…”
“Believe me,” the poet hissed in his ear, “he is pretending to be a fool in order to ask something. You hear how he speaks in Russian, - the poet spoke and looked askance, making sure that the unknown person did not run away, - let's go, detain him, otherwise he will leave ...
And the poet pulled Berlioz by the hand to the bench.
The stranger did not sit, but stood near her, holding in his hands some little book in a dark gray cover, a thick envelope of good paper and a business card.
“Forgive me that, in the heat of our argument, I forgot to introduce myself to you. Here is my card, passport and an invitation to come to Moscow for a consultation,” the stranger said weightily, looking shrewdly at both writers.
They got confused. "Damn, I've heard everything..." thought Berlioz, and with a polite gesture showed that there was no need to present documents. While the foreigner shoved them to the editor, the poet managed to make out the word “professor” printed in foreign letters on the card and the initial letter of the surname - a double “B” - “W”. … double "B" - "W". – According to L. M. Yanovskaya, Bulgakov replaced the Latin letter “ve” with the letter “double ve” in order to graphically connect the name of this character with the names of the protagonist and heroine: the inverted letter “double ve” is similar to the Russian letter “em”.
“Very nice,” meanwhile the editor muttered in embarrassment, and the foreigner hid the documents in his pocket.
Relations were thus restored, and all three sat down again on the bench.
- Are you invited to us as a consultant, professor? Berlioz asked.
Yes, a consultant.
- Are you German? Homeless asked.
- I something? .. - the professor asked again and suddenly thought. Yes, probably a German... Yes, probably German... - These words of Woland are another detail that brings him closer to Goethe's (that is, German) Mephistopheles.- he said.
“You speak great Russian,” Bezdomny remarked.
“Oh, I’m generally a polyglot and I know a very large number of languages,” the professor replied.
- What is your specialty? Berlioz inquired.
“I am a specialist in black magic. … black magic specialist- that is, sorcery associated with hellish forces, in contrast to white magic, associated with heavenly forces.
"On you! .." - knocked in the head of Mikhail Alexandrovich.
- And ... and you were invited to us for this specialty? he asked, stuttering.
“Yes, they invited me to this one,” the professor confirmed and explained: “The original manuscripts of the warlock Herbert of Avrilaksky, tenth century, were found here in the state library. Herbert Avrilaksky- a prominent representative of the intellectual movement of the X century. (938-1003), scientist and theologian, since 999 - Pope Sylvester II; was known as an alchemist and sorcerer. So I need to take them apart. I am the only specialist in the world.
- Ah! Are you a historian? Berlioz asked with great relief and respect.
And again both the editor and the poet were extremely surprised, and the professor beckoned both to him and, when they leaned towards him, whispered:
“Keep in mind that Jesus existed.
“You see, professor,” Berlioz replied with a forced smile, “we respect your great knowledge, but we ourselves adhere to a different point of view on this issue.
“There is no need for any points of view,” answered the strange professor, “he simply existed, and nothing more.
“But some kind of proof is required…” began Berlioz.
“And no evidence is required,” the professor answered and spoke quietly, his accent somehow disappearing: “It’s simple: in a white cloak with bloody lining, shuffling cavalry gait, in the early morning of the fourteenth day of the spring month of Nisan ... Nisan is the first synagogue and the seventh civil month of the lunar Jewish calendar; consists of 29 days and corresponds approximately to the end of March - April. On the evening of this day (i.e., Nisan 15), the beginning of the Jewish Passover (or the Feast of Unleavened Bread), established in memory of the exodus from Egypt and lasting seven days, falls.
The novel "The Master and Margarita" is a work that reflects philosophical, and therefore eternal themes. Love and betrayal, good and evil, truth and lies, amaze with their duality, reflecting the inconsistency and, at the same time, the fullness of human nature. Mystification and romanticism, framed in the writer's elegant language, captivate with a depth of thought that requires repeated reading.
Tragically and ruthlessly, a difficult period of Russian history appears in the novel, unfolding in such a homespun side that the devil himself visits the halls of the capital in order to once again become a prisoner of the Faustian thesis about a force that always wants evil, but does good.
In the first edition of 1928 (according to some sources, 1929), the novel was flatter, and it was not difficult to single out specific topics, but after almost a decade and as a result of difficult work, Bulgakov came to a complexly structured, fantastic, but because of this no less life story.
Along with this, being a man overcoming difficulties hand in hand with his beloved woman, the writer managed to find a place for the nature of feelings more subtle than vanity. Fireflies of hope leading the main characters through diabolical trials. So the novel in 1937 was given the final title: The Master and Margarita. And that was the third edition.
But the work continued almost until the death of Mikhail Afanasyevich, he made the last revision on February 13, 1940, and died on March 10 of the same year. The novel is considered unfinished, as evidenced by numerous notes in the drafts kept by the writer's third wife. It was thanks to her that the world saw the work, albeit in an abridged magazine version, in 1966.
The author's attempts to bring the novel to its logical conclusion testify to how important it was for him. Bulgakov burned out the last of his strength into the idea of creating a wonderful and tragic phantasmagoria. It clearly and harmoniously reflected his own life in a narrow room, like a stocking, where he fought the disease and came to realize the true values of human existence.
(Berlioz, Ivan the homeless and Woland between them)
The action begins with a description of the meeting of two Moscow writers with the devil. Of course, neither Mikhail Alexandrovich Berlioz nor Ivan the homeless even suspect who they are talking to on a May day at the Patriarch's Ponds. In the future, Berlioz dies according to Woland's prophecy, and Messire himself occupies his apartment in order to continue his practical jokes and hoaxes.
Ivan the homeless, in turn, becomes a patient in a psychiatric hospital, unable to cope with the impressions of meeting with Woland and his retinue. In the house of sorrow, the poet meets the Master, who wrote a novel about the procurator of Judea, Pilate. Ivan learns that the metropolitan world of critics is cruel to objectionable writers and begins to understand a lot about literature.
Margarita, a childless woman of thirty, the wife of a prominent specialist, yearns for the disappeared Master. Ignorance brings her to despair, in which she admits to herself that she is ready to give her soul to the devil, just to find out about the fate of her beloved. One of the members of Woland's retinue, the waterless desert demon Azazello, delivers a miraculous cream to Margarita, thanks to which the heroine turns into a witch in order to play the role of a queen at Satan's ball. Having overcome some torment with dignity, the woman receives the fulfillment of her desire - a meeting with the Master. Woland returns to the writer the manuscript burned during the persecution, proclaiming a deeply philosophical thesis that "manuscripts do not burn."
In parallel, a storyline develops about Pilate, a novel written by the Master. The story tells of the arrested wandering philosopher Yeshua Ha-Nozri, who was betrayed by Judas of Kiriath, handing over to the authorities. The procurator of Judea administers court within the walls of the palace of Herod the Great and is forced to execute a man whose ideas that are disdainful of the power of Caesar, and power in general, seem to him interesting and worthy of discussion, if not fair. Having coped with his duty, Pilate orders Aphranius, the head of the secret service, to kill Judas.
The plot lines are combined in the last chapters of the novel. One of Yeshua's disciples, Levi Matthew, visits Woland with a petition to grant peace to those in love. That same night, Satan and his retinue leave the capital, and the devil gives the Master and Margarita eternal shelter.
Let's start with the dark forces appearing in the first chapters.
Woland's character is somewhat different from the canonical embodiment of evil in its purest form, although in the first edition he was assigned the role of a tempter. In the process of processing material on satanic topics, Bulgakov molded the image of a player with unlimited power to decide fate, endowed, at the same time, with omniscience, skepticism and a bit of playful curiosity. The author deprived the hero of any props, such as hooves or horns, and also removed most of the description of the appearance that took place in the second edition.
Moscow serves Woland as a stage on which, by the way, he does not leave any fatal destruction. Woland is called by Bulgakov as a higher power, a measure of human actions. He is a mirror that reflects the essence of other characters and society, mired in denunciations, deceit, greed and hypocrisy. And, like any mirror, messire gives people who think and tend to justice the opportunity to change for the better.
An image with an elusive portrait. Outwardly, the features of Faust, Gogol and Bulgakov himself intertwined in him, since the mental pain caused by harsh criticism and non-recognition caused the writer a lot of problems. The master is conceived by the author as a character whom the reader rather feels as if he is dealing with a close, dear person, and does not see him as an outsider through the prism of a deceptive appearance.
The master remembers little about life before meeting his love - Margarita, as if he did not really live. The biography of the hero bears a clear imprint of the events of the life of Mikhail Afanasyevich. Only the ending the writer came up with for the hero is lighter than he himself experienced.
A collective image that embodies the female courage to love in spite of circumstances. Margarita is attractive, brash and desperate in her quest to reunite with the Master. Without her, nothing would have happened, because through her prayers, so to speak, a meeting with Satan took place, her determination led to a great ball, and only thanks to her uncompromising dignity did the two main tragic heroes meet.
If you look back at Bulgakov’s life again, it’s easy to note that without Elena Sergeevna, the writer’s third wife, who worked on his manuscripts for twenty years and followed him during his lifetime, like a faithful, but expressive shadow, ready to put enemies and ill-wishers out of the light, it wouldn’t have happened either. publication of the novel.
(Woland and his retinue)
The retinue includes Azazello, Koroviev-Fagot, Behemoth Cat and Hella. The latter is a female vampire and occupies the lowest rung in the demonic hierarchy, a minor character.
The first is the prototype of the demon of the desert, he plays the role of Woland's right hand. So Azazello ruthlessly kills Baron Meigel. In addition to the ability to kill, Azazello skillfully seduces Margarita. In some way, this character was introduced by Bulgakov in order to remove characteristic behavioral habits from the image of Satan. In the first edition, the author wanted to name Woland Azazel, but changed his mind.
(Bad apartment)
Koroviev-Fagot is also a demon, and an older one, but a buffoon and a clown. His task is to confuse and mislead the venerable public. The character helps the author provide the novel with a satirical component, ridiculing the vices of society, crawling into such cracks where the seducer Azazello will not get. At the same time, in the finale, he turns out to be not at all a joker in essence, but a knight punished for an unsuccessful pun.
The cat Behemoth is the best of jesters, a werewolf, a demon prone to gluttony, every now and then making a stir in the life of Muscovites with his comical adventures. The prototypes were definitely cats, both mythological and quite real. For example, Flyushka, who lived in the Bulgakovs' house. The writer's love for the animal, on behalf of which he sometimes wrote notes to his second wife, migrated to the pages of the novel. The werewolf reflects the tendency of the intelligentsia to transform, as the writer himself did, receiving a fee and spending it on buying delicacies in the Torgsin store.
"The Master and Margarita" is a unique literary creation that has become a weapon in the hands of the writer. With his help, Bulgakov dealt with the hated social vices, including those to which he himself was subject. He was able to express his experience through the phrases of the characters, which became a household name. In particular, the statement about manuscripts goes back to the Latin proverb "Verba volant, scripta manent" - "words fly away, what is written remains." After all, burning the manuscript of the novel, Mikhail Afanasyevich could not forget what he had previously created and returned to work on the work.
The idea of a novel in a novel allows the author to lead two large storylines, gradually bringing them together in the timeline until they intersect "beyond", where fiction and reality are already indistinguishable. Which, in turn, raises the philosophical question of the significance of human thoughts, against the background of the emptiness of words that fly away with the noise of bird wings during the game of Behemoth and Woland.
Roman Bulgakov is destined to go through time, like the heroes themselves, in order to again and again touch on important aspects of human social life, religion, issues of moral and ethical choice and the eternal struggle between good and evil.
The Master and Margarita is the legendary work of Bulgakov, a novel that became his ticket to immortality. He thought, planned and wrote the novel for 12 years, and he went through many changes that are now difficult to imagine, because the book has acquired an amazing compositional unity. Alas, Mikhail Afanasyevich did not have time to finish the work of his whole life, no final corrections were made. He himself assessed his offspring as the main message to mankind, as a testament to posterity. What did Bulgakov want to tell us?
The novel opens to us the world of Moscow in the 1930s. The master, together with his beloved Margarita, writes a brilliant novel about Pontius Pilate. He is not allowed to publish, and the author himself is overwhelmed by an unbearable mountain of criticism. In a fit of despair, the hero burns his novel and ends up in a psychiatric hospital, leaving Margarita alone. In parallel with this, Woland, the devil, arrives in Moscow, along with his retinue. They cause disturbances in the city, such as séances of black magic, a performance at the Variety and Griboyedov, etc. The heroine, meanwhile, is looking for a way to get her Master back; subsequently makes a deal with Satan, becomes a witch and is present at the ball of the dead. Woland is delighted with Margarita's love and devotion and decides to return her beloved to her. A novel about Pontius Pilate also rises from the ashes. And the reunited couple retires to a world of peace and tranquility.
The text contains chapters from the Master's novel itself, telling about the events in the world of Yershalaim. This is a story about the wandering philosopher Ga-Notsri, the interrogation of Yeshua by Pilate, the subsequent execution of the latter. Insert chapters are of direct importance to the novel, as understanding them is the key to revealing the author's idea. All parts form a single whole, closely intertwined.
Bulgakov reflected his thoughts on creativity on the pages of the work. He understood that the artist is not free, he cannot create only at the behest of his soul. Society fetters it, ascribes certain limits to it. Literature in the 30s was subjected to the strictest censorship, books were often written under the order of the authorities, a reflection of which we will see in MASSOLIT. The master could not get permission to publish his novel about Pontius Pilate and spoke of his stay among the literary society of that time as a living hell. The hero, inspired and talented, could not understand his members, corrupt and absorbed in petty material concerns, so they, in turn, could not understand him. Therefore, the Master found himself outside this bohemian circle with the work of his entire life not allowed for publication.
The second aspect of the problem of creativity in the novel is the responsibility of the author for his work, his fate. The master, disappointed and finally desperate, burns the manuscript. The writer, according to Bulgakov, must seek the truth through his work, it must be of benefit to society and act for the good. The hero, on the contrary, acted cowardly.
The problem of choice is reflected in the chapters on Pilate and Yeshua. Pontius Pilate, realizing the unusualness and value of such a person as Yeshua, sends him to execution. Cowardice is the worst vice. The procurator was afraid of responsibility, afraid of punishment. This fear absolutely drowned out in him both sympathy for the preacher, and the voice of reason, speaking about the uniqueness and purity of Yeshua's intentions, and conscience. The latter tormented him for the rest of his life, as well as after death. Only at the end of the novel was Pilate allowed to speak to Him and be set free.
Bulgakov in the novel used such a compositional device as a novel in a novel. The "Moscow" chapters are combined with the "Pilatian" ones, that is, with the work of the Master himself. The author draws a parallel between them, showing that it is not time that changes a person, but only he himself is able to change himself. Constant work on oneself is a titanic work that Pilate did not cope with, for which he was doomed to eternal spiritual suffering. The motives of both novels are the search for freedom, truth, the struggle between good and evil in the soul. Everyone can make mistakes, but a person must constantly reach for the light; only this can make him truly free.
In many ways, this hero is like Goethe's Mephistopheles. His very name is taken from his poem, the scene of Walpurgis Night, where the devil was once called by that name. The image of Woland in The Master and Margarita is very ambiguous: he is the embodiment of evil, and at the same time a defender of justice and a preacher of true moral values. Against the background of cruelty, greed and viciousness of ordinary Muscovites, the hero looks rather like a positive character. He, seeing this historical paradox (he has something to compare with), concludes that people are like people, the most ordinary, the same, only the housing problem spoiled them.
The punishment of the devil overtakes only those who deserve it. Thus, his retribution is very selective and built on the principle of justice. Bribers, inept hacks who only care about their material well-being, catering workers who steal and sell expired products, insensitive relatives who fight for an inheritance after the death of a loved one - these are those who are punished by Woland. He does not push them to sin, he only denounces the vices of society. So the author, using satirical and phantasmagoric techniques, describes the order and customs of the Muscovites of the 30s.
The master is a truly talented writer who was not given the opportunity to realize himself, the novel was simply “strangled” by Massolit officials. He didn't look like his fellow writers; he lived by his creativity, giving him all of himself, and sincerely worrying about the fate of his work. The master kept a pure heart and soul, for which he was awarded Woland. The destroyed manuscript was restored and returned to its author. For her boundless love, Margarita was forgiven for her weaknesses by the devil, to whom Satan even granted the right to ask him for the fulfillment of one of her desires.
Bulgakov expressed his attitude towards Woland in the epigraph: “I am part of that force that always wants evil and always does good” (“Faust” by Goethe). Indeed, having unlimited possibilities, the hero punishes human vices, but this can be considered an instruction on the true path. He is a mirror in which everyone can see their sins and change. His most diabolical feature is the corrosive irony with which he treats everything earthly. By his example, we are convinced that it is possible to maintain one's convictions along with self-control and not go crazy only with the help of humor. You can't take life too close to your heart, because what seems to us an unshakable stronghold crumbles so easily at the slightest criticism. Woland is indifferent to everything, and this separates him from people.
Good and evil are inseparable; when people stop doing good, evil immediately arises in its place. It is the absence of light, the shadow that replaces it. In Bulgakov's novel, two opposing forces are embodied in the images of Woland and Yeshua. The author, in order to show that the participation of these abstract categories in life is always relevant and occupies important positions, Yeshua places in the era as far as possible from us, on the pages of the Master's novel, and Woland - in modern times. Yeshua preaches, tells people about his ideas and understanding of the world, its creation. Later, for the open expression of thoughts, he will be judged by the procurator of Judea. His death is not a triumph of evil over good, but rather a betrayal of good, because Pilate was unable to do the right thing, which means he opened the door to evil. Ga-Notsri dies unbroken and not defeated, his soul retains the light in itself, opposed to the darkness of the cowardly act of Pontius Pilate.
The devil, called to do evil, arrives in Moscow and sees that people's hearts are filled with darkness without him. He can only rebuke and mock them; by virtue of his dark essence, Woland cannot do justice in any other way. But he does not push people to sin, he does not force the evil in them to overcome the good. According to Bulgakov, the devil is not absolute darkness, he performs acts of justice, which is very difficult to consider a bad deed. This is one of the main ideas of Bulgakov, embodied in The Master and Margarita - nothing but the person himself can force him to act one way or another, the choice of good or evil lies with him.
You can also talk about the relativity of good and evil. And good people act wrongly, cowardly, selfishly. So the Master surrenders and burns his novel, and Margarita cruelly takes revenge on criticism of Latunsky. However, kindness does not consist in not making mistakes, but in a constant craving for light and their correction. Therefore, a couple in love is waiting for forgiveness and peace.
There are many interpretations of the meanings of this work. Of course, it is impossible to speak unambiguously. In the center of the novel is the eternal struggle between good and evil. In the understanding of the author, these two components are on an equal footing both in nature and in human hearts. This explains the appearance of Woland, as the concentration of evil by definition, and Yeshua, who believed in natural human kindness. Light and darkness are closely intertwined, constantly interacting with each other, and it is no longer possible to draw clear boundaries. Woland punishes people according to the laws of justice, and Yeshua forgives them despite. Such is the balance.
The struggle takes place not only directly for the souls of men. The need for a person to reach for the light runs like a red thread through the whole story. True freedom can only be obtained through this. It is very important to understand that the heroes, shackled by worldly petty passions, the author always punishes, either like Pilate - with eternal torments of conscience, or like Moscow inhabitants - through the tricks of the devil. He exalts others; Gives Margarita and the Master peace; Yeshua deserves the Light for his devotion and faithfulness to beliefs and words.
Also this novel is about love. Margarita appears as an ideal woman who is able to love to the very end, despite all obstacles and difficulties. The master and his beloved are collective images of a man devoted to his work and a woman faithful to her feelings.
The master lives in the capital of the 30s. During this period, socialism is being built, new orders are being established, and moral and moral norms are sharply reset. A new literature is also born here, which we get acquainted with on the pages of the novel through Berlioz, Ivan Bezdomny, members of Massolit. The path of the protagonist is difficult and thorny, like that of Bulgakov himself, but he retains a pure heart, kindness, honesty, the ability to love and writes a novel about Pontius Pilate, containing all those important problems that every person of the current or future generation must solve for himself . It is based on the moral law hidden within every person; and only he, and not the fear of God's retribution, is able to determine the actions of people. The spiritual world of the Master is subtle and beautiful, because he is a true artist.
However, true creativity is persecuted and often becomes recognized only after the death of the author. The repressions against an independent artist in the USSR are striking in their cruelty: from ideological persecution to the actual recognition of a person as crazy. So many of Bulgakov's friends were silenced, and he himself had a hard time. Freedom of speech turned into imprisonment, or even the death penalty, as in Judea. This parallel with the ancient world emphasizes the backwardness and primitive savagery of the "new" society. The well-forgotten old became the basis of art policy.
The worlds of Yeshua and the Master are more closely connected than it seems at first glance. In both layers of the narrative, the same problems are touched upon: freedom and responsibility, conscience and loyalty to one's convictions, understanding good and evil. No wonder there are so many heroes of doubles, parallels and antitheses.
The Master and Margarita violates the urgent canon of the novel. This story is not about the fate of individuals or their groups, it is about all of humanity, its fate. Therefore, the author connects two epochs that are as far apart as possible from each other. People in the time of Yeshua and Pilate did not differ much from the people of Moscow, the contemporaries of the Master. They also care about personal problems, power and money. Master in Moscow, Yeshua in Judea. Both carry the truth to the masses, for this both suffer; the first is persecuted by critics, crushed by society and doomed to end his life in a psychiatric hospital, the second is subjected to a more terrible punishment - a demonstration execution.
The chapters devoted to Pilate differ sharply from the chapters in Moscow. The style of the inserted text is distinguished by evenness, monotony, and only at the chapter of the execution does it turn into sublime tragedy. The description of Moscow is full of grotesque, phantasmagoric scenes, satire and mockery of its inhabitants, lyrical moments dedicated to the Master and Margarita, which, of course, also determines the presence of various styles of narration. Vocabulary also varies: it can be low and primitive, filled with even swearing and jargon, or it can be sublime and poetic, filled with colorful metaphors.
Although both narratives differ significantly from each other, when reading the novel, there is a sense of integrity, so strong is the thread connecting the past with the present in Bulgakov.
Interesting? Save it on your wall!70 years ago, on February 13, 1940, Mikhail Bulgakov finished the novel The Master and Margarita.
Mikhail Bulgakov wrote his novel The Master and Margarita for a total of 12 years. The concept of the book took shape gradually. Bulgakov himself dated the time when work on the novel began in different manuscripts either 1928 or 1929.
It is known that the idea of the novel came from the writer in 1928, and in 1929 Bulgakov began the novel The Master and Margarita (which did not yet have this title).
After Bulgakov's death, eight editions of the novel remained in his archive.
In the first edition of the novel "The Master and Margarita" had variants of the names "Black Magician", "Engineer's Hoof", "Juggler with a Hoof", "Son B", "Tour".
On March 18, 1930, after receiving the news about the ban on the play "The Cabal of the Saints", the first edition of the novel, brought to the 15th chapter, was destroyed by the author himself.
The second edition of The Master and Margarita, which was created until 1936, had the subtitle "Fantastic novel" and variants of the names "The Great Chancellor", "Satan", "Here I am", "Hat with a Feather", "Black Theologian", " He Appeared", "The Foreigner's Horseshoe", "He Appeared", "The Coming", "The Black Magician" and "The Counselor's Hoof".
In the second edition of the novel, Margarita and the Master already appeared, and Woland acquired his retinue.
The third edition of the novel, begun in the second half of 1936 or in 1937, was originally called The Prince of Darkness. In 1937, returning once again to the beginning of the novel, the author first wrote on the title page the title "Master and Margarita", which became final, put the dates 1928-1937 and no longer left work on it.
In May - June 1938, the full text of the novel was reprinted for the first time, the author's editing continued almost until the writer's death. In 1939, important changes were made to the end of the novel and an epilogue was added. But then the terminally ill Bulgakov dictated to his wife, Elena Sergeevna, amendments to the text. The extensiveness of inserts and amendments in the first part and at the beginning of the second suggests that no less work was to be done further, but the author did not have time to complete it. Bulgakov stopped work on the novel on February 13, 1940, less than four weeks before his death.
