
Versailles, France
Woland, or Satan himself holds a ball at the 50 of the Sadovaia street in Moscow. In this ceremony Gaïus Caesar Caligula, Messaline and Maliouta Skouratov, the former commander of the Oprichnina pay homage to Margarita.
This sums up the universe of Master and Margarita, a universe where distant places and times are intertwined.
Sometimes the lines seem blurred between what is real, unreal, surreal and fantastic, yet Master and Margarita is deeply anchored in realities : Bulgakov’s personal reality and and the historical reality.
Astride distant times and places
Bulgakov transposes his realities into the fiction. The flat of the Sadovaïa street has the same number as the flat where Bulgakov actually lived, the number 50, and that became a memorial to the writer. Bulgakov also transposes his own days of torments at the hands of critics into the demise of Master.
But Bulgakov’s transposition has a much further historical reach. The events are astride Moscow and Jerusalem, from Herod’s palace to the Bald Mountain of the slavic folklore – likely near Kiev – as a substitution to Golgotha.
Beyond this historical astride, Bulgakov’s masterpiece is deeply rooted in the historical context of the 30s.
The disappearance of tenant symbolises the political purges and trials where the defendant took an active role by testifying against himself. It is a testimony to the context and struggles of the time : struggle between intellectuals and true revolutionaries, depending on how those intellectuals leant toward action :
We must admit, that among the intellectuals, we sometimes, exceptionally, come across intelligent people
Master and Margarita, Bulgakov
There is also a struggle against some of the usual ennemies in times of trouble : foreigners, currency traffickers and usurers rotten to the bone marrow.
At last we will try to awake some humane feelings in her. Who knows ? All cords might not be rotten in her horrible usurer’s soul
Master and Margarita, Bulgakov
Dialogues often take a psychological turn, and sometimes end up breaking a will and a soul, be it in a questioning room or a psychiatric clinic.
Something peculiar happened in Ivan Nikolaïevich. It seemed to him that his will broke in one stroke. He felt weak, and ready to beg for advice » « Now only one thing can save you : complete rest. And it is vital that you remain here… Avoid too strong of tension in youк mind, try to think less about Pontius Pilate. The less you talk the better…
Master and Margarita, Bulgakov
Give him paper and a small pencil… but I recommend you do not write anything today… Don’t exhaust yourself. If you can’t write, you will be able to do it tomorrow… And remember, here we will all help you by all means, and without it, you wouldn’t be able to do anything… Here, we will help you, step by step, you will feel relieved… Here it is calmness, peace… we will help you… » « Ivan Nikolaïevich started unexpectedly to yawn, and his face weakened…
Master and Margarita, Bulgakov
In these times of the arbitrary, or ludic principle that snatches man out of necessity » as the translator of my edition puts it and as Koroviev glorifies it as luck, demises can be really fast.
All of this is changing and is a convention. Today, I am not in an official capacity, and tomorrow, hop, here I am turned an official ! When it is not the other way around, which, let us admit, occurs frequently enough
Master and Margarita, Bulgakov
Love is never too far
Naturally, Bulgakov had to describe the love between Master and a Margarita with words and representations that match his literary greatness. In the memory of a lover, the souvenir of this love slipping away is engraved by something from the material world, here a light ray beneath a door in a house close to the Arbat.
An unknown Master became agitated and twisted his hands in despair, as he was staring at the moon and remembering the last autumn night of his life, a ray of light beneath the door of the basement and her hair messed by the wind
Master and Margarita, Bulgakov
Bulgakov had to describe love with a particular depth in all its dimensions. He celebrated the encounter between Master and Margarita on the Tver Boulevard in Moscow it as a result of a fate written long ago, bringing a soul back to its truthful essence while also bearing the uniquely destructive power of love :
Love appears before us as appears from the ground an assassin, at the corner of a dark street and he hits us both with a stroke. So hits the thunder, so hits the dagger
Master and Margarita, Bulgakov
She said afterwards that the events didn’t occur this way, since we have loved each other, obviously, for a very long time, always, without knowing each other
Master and Margarita, Bulgakov
As the fire that is present along the book, love is symbolic of the end and the renewal, of destruction and rebirth.
Literature marvel
Of all the beauty of Bulgakov’s writing, I picked a passage about Maragrita’s flight from Moscow to a place near the Yenisei, a mighty siberian river.
She said afterwards that the events didn’t occur this way, since we have loved each other, obviously, forConsiderably slowing down her pace, she went down towards the earth’s surface. This slide, like one in cart of a rolelr coaster, gave her the most intense pleasure. The land, dark and blurred until that moment, rised towards her, and she saw the secret beauties of the earth under the moonlight. The erath got closer, and Margarita received waves of the fragrance of the green forests. Further below, she flew over the fog’s trails that strecthed over meadows made wet by the dew and then she flew over a pond. At her feet, frogs were singing, She perceived, from afar, the roar of a train. Soon, she could see it. It streched like a caterpilar, and threw sparks in the air. Margarita flew past it, flew again above a body of water where a second moon floated. a very long time, always, without knowing each other
Master and Margarita, Bulgakov