Boris Vadimovich Sokolov Decrypted Bulgakov. Secrets of The Master and Margarita. The Great Deception of the Master and Margarita - fracking secrets of the "great" novel Influence of Gustav Meyrink

Yesterday I watched Yuri Kara's film The Master and Margarita, which could not be released for 17 years. According to the director, there was enough mysticism on the set. The camera was consecrated by the father before filming, and for half a year everything was in order; but after the camera was changed, problems started. Some of the actors who starred in the film "The Master and Margarita" by Yuri Kara, and in the series of the same name by Vladimir Bortko, died suddenly.
Everything that concerns the novel by Mikhail Bulgakov "The Master and Margarita" is covered with mysticism and secrets.
Why?

Director Yuri Kara said that when they started filming ancient Judea in the famous Sudak fortress in Crimea, it suddenly started snowing, which is extremely rare in October. To top it off, the operator did not come and they forgot to bring the film.
When Yuri Kara went to Moscow for the film and the cameraman, right in front of Bulgakov's house on the Garden Ring, his new Volga broke down, the gearbox flew. After that, the film crew decided to shoot the desired scenes in the Holy Land in Israel.
The most dramatic scene of "The Crucifixion of Yeshua" was filmed in the desert near the Dead Sea in a heat of 50 degrees. Out of curiosity, Yuri Kara himself wanted to hang on the cross, but when, after 20 seconds, the earnest Burlyaev (in the role of Yeshua) began to yell "Take me off!", He decided not to risk it.

Already finished, the film could not be released for 17 years. When the State Duma adopted a law according to which copyright has been protected for 70 years, the childless Bulgakov suddenly had "heirs". Sergei Shilovsky - the grandson of Elena Sergeevna Bulgakova and Yevgeny Alexandrovich Shilovsky - the heir to their property, lives in America and manages the Mikhail Bulgakov Foundation. The one whose grandfather shot Bulgakov when Elena Sergeevna went to Mikhail Afanasyevich demanded, under a plausible pretext, the protection of the work from distortion, royalties for himself ...

Personally, the film “The Master and Margarita” by Yuri Kara seemed to me crumpled (in the film distribution), devoid of tragic depth. Most of all I liked Mikhail Ulyanov in the role of Pontius Pilate. Well, Nikolai Burlyaev as Yeshua Ha-Notsri. All the others were slightly replaying, turning the film adaptation into a comedy.
The music of Alfred Schnittke for the film seemed less expressive than the music of Igor Kornelyuk in the series of the same name by Vladimir Bortko. Yes, and the series "The Master and Margarita" itself, for all the television stretch, I liked more.

I have already watched four episodes of Yuri Kara's films on the Internet for a long time. I thought the movie would look better on the big screen. But, apparently, not all texts can be adequately filmed.
There are so many “shoals” in Yuri Kara's film that I don’t want to list them. It is impossible not to notice the disappearing and now appearing spots on the face of Ivan Homeless, talking with the Master. And the crosses standing in the middle of the deserted desert, made at the Gorky studio ...
And why did Yuri Kara need a gag in the form of Peter the Great, Vladimir Lenin, Joseph Stalin, Adolf Hitler, who were present at the ball at Satan's?
In short, this is a 1994 film.

The novel "The Master and Margarita" is a classic menippea (according to the definition of M.M. Bakhtin, this is a philosophical genre of literature, "experimental fiction" for artistic analysis metaphysical ideas and "last questions of being"; "A genre that includes a" laughing element ", dreams, dreams, madness, scandalousness ...").

In the novel "The Master and Margarita" there is a lot of unsaid, mysteries and mysticism. We can say that the meanings laid down by the author have not yet been deciphered.
So, for example, in the novel there are many actors but only one has no name - the master.
Who is hiding behind this meaningful word?

The first versions of the book did not contain any "inner romance" about Yeshua and Pilate, or the story of the Master and Margarita.
In total, there are six author's editions of the novel (some have eight).

Bulgakov got the idea to write a novel about the devil back in the late 1920s. As a child, he watched the opera Faust 41 times!
Bulgakov began work on the novel (in the final edition called "The Master and Margarita") in 1928.

In the first edition, the novel had variants of titles: "Black Magician", "Engineer's Hoof", "Juggler with a Hoof", "Son V.", "Tour". The role of the master was performed by a humanities scientist named Fesya. According to Bulgakov's plan, he was a professor of the Faculty of History and Philology at the university, who possessed phenomenal erudition in the demonology of the Middle Ages, which made him look like Goethe's Wagner.
In 1929 Bulgakov sent the first edition of "The Engineer's Hoof" to the almanac "Nedra", and, of course, was refused.
On March 18, 1930, after receiving news of the ban on the play "Cabal of the Sanctifiers", he destroyed the first edition of the novel. Bulgakov said this in a letter to the government: “And personally, with my own hands, I threw a draft of the novel about the devil into the stove ...”.

Resumed work on the novel by M. Bulgakov in 1931. In the rough sketches, Margarita also appeared, and her then unnamed companion was the Master, but Woland acquired his own riotous retinue.
While in Leningrad with his wife, the writer took out an oilcloth general notebook and wrote on the title page “M. Bulgakov. Novel. 1932 "... During a few days in Leningrad, Bulgakov wrote and dictated to Elena Sergeevna (his third wife, née Nurenberg) the first seven chapters.
The second edition, which was created before 1936, had the subtitle "Fantastic Novel" and variants of the titles "The Great Chancellor", "Satan", "Here I Am".

Bulgakov destroyed both the first and second editions of the novel.
Why?
Remains from the first two editions are kept in the manuscript department of the Russian State Library.

The third edition, launched in the second half of 1936, was originally called "The Prince of Darkness", but already in 1937 the title "The Master and Margarita" appeared.
The author's editing continued almost until the writer's death. Bulgakov stopped it with Margarita's phrase: “So this is, therefore, the writers are following the coffin?” ...

The dying Bulgakov was worried about only one thing: to finish writing before he died! "To know, to know ..." - he whispered to his wife, barely audible.

The full text of the novel The Master and Margarita was first reprinted on June 25, 1938 by the sister of Elena Sergeevna Bulgakova.

Obviously, in the third version containing “ inner romance»About Pontius Pilate, as well as the story of the master and Margarita, Bulgakov described his life, or the life of someone else.

Like any writer, Bulgakov wrote mainly about what he came across personally. AND " White Guard", And" Theatrical Novel "and" The Master and Margarita "are largely autobiographical works.
The prototype of the Behemoth cat was the big black dog Bulgakov, whose name was Behemoth. This dog was very smart. When Bulgakov celebrated with his wife New Year, after the chimes, his dog barked 12 times, although no one taught her this.
The master's basement was copied mainly from the Topleninov brothers' mansion (9 Mansurovsky per.). The playwright Sergei Alexandrovich Ermolinsky (1900-1984), who served as the prototype for Aloisy Mogarych, also lived there.
Even Annushka s Sadovaya, who spilled the oil, and she really existed. Not to mention the prototypes of the chairman of Massolit Berlioz, critic Latunsky, writer Lavrovich.
Bulgakov said that, they say, all of them will be reckoned with in the new novel "The Master and Margarita".

At the time of the novel, the age of the master ("a man of about thirty-eight") is exactly the age of Bulgakov in May 1929. The newspaper campaign against the Master and his novel is reminiscent of the newspaper campaign against Bulgakov in connection with the novel "Fatal Eggs". The winning in the lottery by the Master of 100 thousand rubles fully corresponds to the 100-thousandth prize, for which Bulgakov worked on the "Course of the History of the USSR".

One of my acquaintances wrote her thesis on the theme "The linguistic personality of the character (based on the" Theatrical novel "by MABulgakov)". As a linguist, she analyzed the language of Bulgakov's characters. The language of each character, as well as the style of each author, is original and unique. Mikhail Bulgakov in the "Theatrical novel" in the image of Sergei Leontievich Maksudov expressed his life story and the production of "Days of the Turbins" on the stage of the Moscow Art Theater, relations with Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko.

Bulgakov worked on the novel The Master and Margarita for twelve years. After his death, for twenty-three years, his last wife, Elena Sergeevna Bulgakova, worked on editing the novel.
Only twenty-six years after the death of the writer in 1966, the novel was published in the Moscow magazine, with a circulation of 150 thousand copies. The magazine "Moscow" was not sold in kiosks and was available only by subscription. Therefore, many typed the text on a typewriter and passed it on to each other.

At that time I was studying at the preparatory department of the Faculty of Philosophy. Mikhail Bulgakov was not studied either at school or at the university. The story " dog's heart"Was banned. Friends in the faculty let me read it in a typewritten reprint.

Like many others, I love Mikhail Afanasyevich Bulgakov's novel The Master and Margarita. For the first time I was able to read a novel in a typed reprint given to me, which I still keep. It seemed that this is the manuscript of Mikhail Afanasevich himself ... I read it in one day and two nights!

Already at the first reading, the novel "The Master and Margarita" surprised me with its versatility and some eclecticism. I was struck by the abundance of historical details, titles, names. However, I later found out that many of them are wrong and nothing to do with true history Dont Have.

In Bulgakov's novel, Pontius Pilate says a phrase that the real Pilate could not utter in any way: "There has never been, is not, and will never be a greater and more beautiful power for people than the power of Emperor Tiberius."
Emperor - means the winner. That was the name of the commander-in-chief of the Roman army. Therefore, the title "emperor" was not considered hereditary, and was not the most honorable.

What rank was Pontius Pilate in? In one case, Bulgakov calls him a tribune (which corresponds to the rank of colonel), in the other case, the commander of a cavalry turma (which corresponds to a lieutenant).

Well, the famous white cloak with a bloody lining, which Bulgakov sometimes calls a mantle. Of course, men, especially military men, wore raincoats, but never a mantle! Because the mantle is in ancient Rome worn by women of brothels (lupanarii).

In Bulgakov's image, a bread shop in Jerusalem of the 1st century AD has nothing to do with historical reality. I saw in Jerusalem that bakers themselves sell bread, and only men, and only whole cakes or breads.

But what was my disappointment when I learned that the main ideas of the novel by Mikhail Bulgakov, to put it mildly, were borrowed from other authors.
This is, of course, not about primitive plagiarism, but about what was the source of inspiration. In the end, the whole culture is based on borrowing.
Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky, as you know, was also a talented interpreter of other people's ideas. The idea of the conversation of the Grand Inquisitor with Christ in the novel "The Brothers Karamazov", the story of a poor student and a prostitute in the book "Crime and Punishment" does not belong to him; as well as the plot with 100 thousand rubles in the novel The Idiot, which Nastasya Filippovna throws into the fire blazing in the fireplace.

But the talent of Dostoevsky, like Mikhail Bulgakov, lies in the fact that they wrote better, expressed the idea better. Therefore, they are read and remembered, but the "fathers of the idea" have been forgotten.

We still do not know for sure who the true author of the tragedies Hamlet and Romeo and Juliet is. They still argue over who the authorship of the novel "Quiet Flows the Don" belongs to.
I, too, preferred not to put my name on the title page, and under the copyright is the name of my friend who helped me publish the novel.

It is curious that Mikhail Bulgakov never mentions the name of the master. Although, was it difficult for him to come up with a "speaking" surname?
Or maybe Bulgakov did not want to reveal the name of the master, and therefore did not name him, leaving us to solve this mystery?

It is believed that Mikhail Bulgakov meant himself by the Master. He was a member of the Writers' Union. MASSOLIT stands for the Master of Socialist Literature.

"Are you a writer?" - asks the poet Homeless.
“I am a master,” the night visitor replies.

Some believe that the prototype of the master was Maxim Gorky. And in the text there are a lot of hints to this. The same is the opinion of Alfred Barkov, the author of the book "The novel by Mikhail Bulgakov" The Master and Margarita ": an alternative reading". He tries to prove that the writer's contemporaries are encrypted in the characters of the novel: Master - Maxim Gorky, Margarita - Maria Andreeva, Levi Matvey - Lev Tolstoy, Woland - Lenin, Ivan Homeless - Bulgakov himself.

Or maybe everything is simple, and Bulgakov really portrayed himself? The madhouse is the USSR, the devil is in the Kremlin, and he - Bulgakov - is a master, unlike many thousands of massolite writers ..?

Bulgakov scholars offer various concepts of reading the novel: historical and social (V.Ya. Lakshin), Marietta Chudakova - biographical; aesthetic with a historical and political context V.I. Nemtsev.

But even such a famous Bulgakov scholar as Marietta Chudakova, who wrote the book "The Biography of Mikhail Bulgakov" and personally knew the writer's wife Elena Sergeevna Bulgakova, will never tell the whole truth, will not reveal the secret of the writer's genius.

Nowadays, many books are devoted to the work of Mikhail Bulgakov. One of them is "The Life of Bulgakov" by Viktor Petelin. In it, he, in particular, writes: "We know nothing about the conception of the second novel" (about Yeshua and Pontius Pilate - NK.)

How was the idea for the story of Yeush Ha-Nozri and Pontius Pilate born - the so-called "Gospel of Michael"?

Priest Andrei Kuraev in his book "The Master and Margarita": for Christ or against? " calls the novel in the novel (the Yershalaim story) "The Gospel of Satan." Indeed, in early drafts of the novel, the first chapter of Woland's story was called "The Gospel of Woland" and "The Gospel of the Devil."

Viktor Petelin (author of the book "The Life of Bulgakov) tells how a familiar artist N.A. Ushakova presented Mikhail Afanasyevich with a book for which she made a cover -" Venediktov, or Memorable Events of My Life. " The author, who has not been discovered anywhere, is Professor Alexander Vasilievich Chayanov.

“N. Ushakova, illustrating the book, was amazed that the hero, on whose behalf the story is being told, bears the surname Bulgakov. Mikhail Afanasyevich was no less amazed by this coincidence.
The whole story is connected with Satan's stay in Moscow, with Bulgakov's struggle for the soul of his beloved woman, who fell under the control of the Devil. "
“I say with full confidence that this little story served as the birth of the idea, the creative impetus for writing the novel“ The Master and Margarita ”.

“L.E.Belozerskaya (the second wife of M.A.Bulgakov), comparing the speech structure of Chayanov's story and the first edition of The Master and Margarita, comes to the conclusion:“ Not only the speech structure is the same, but also the content of the introduction: the same fear, that the author, an unprofessional writer, cannot cope with the description of the "memorable things" of his life. "

“Words have their own conscience,” said Akhmatova and Mandelstam. In the film "Black Snow" Mikhail Bulgakov's confession is heard that he, of course, "got his lips dirty"!

Irina Lvovna Galinskaya (author of the book "Cryptography of the novel" The Master and Margarita "by Mikhail Bulgakov"), analyzing the sources on the Albigensian wars and, in particular, the "Song of the Albigensian Crusade" of the 15th century, finds the construction of the murder of Judas by Bulgakov in the real murder of the Roman legate de Castelnau ".

The text that we all read was edited by AA Sahakyants - editor of the publishing house "Khudozhestvennaya literatura".
As a result of Sahakyants' work, 25 sentences disappeared from the manuscript, 65 new sentences were inserted instead. She changed 317 words of Bulgakov, replaced 115 grammatical constructions and made 500 lexical replacements.
As a result, the text, in my opinion, has acquired more correct artistic view, but lost the author's "breath".

A.A. Sahakyants said: “The novel“ The Master and Margarita ”can be called a story-driven thing, but internally not completely completed, that is, it has been brought to an end, but Bulgakov returned to many of its chapters again and again, because the novel was written for more than ten years ...
Moreover, it is curious that all the corrections, sometimes even completely new pieces, refer only to the "Moscow" pages, that is, living and changing modernity; "Yershalaim" pages - about Pontius Pilate and Yeshua - remained absolutely unchanged, they settled in the mind of the writer once and for all ... "

Already ill in 1939, Bulgakov dictated the last changes to his wife. She entered them in a notebook. “On the margins of the typescript there is a reference to 'notebook No. 2', but this notebook was not found in Bulgakov's archives. ES Bulgakova transferred its archive in ideal (! - NK) order to the Manuscript Department of the Lenin Library. "

Why did notebook number 2 disappear, and what was in it?

Once on a literary forum I read that the image of the Master had a real prototype. This man was an officer in his youth, then he retired, took ordination, began to write a novel about Pontius Pilate, and even got a business trip for a trip to Jerusalem. But the revolution began, he returned to Russia, where he could no longer find a place for himself, and hid in an insane asylum. From there he was taken away by a patronizing woman, from whom he allegedly lived, almost in the same house with Mikhail Bulgakov. Bulgakov, it seems, even knew him, and after his death, he used the remaining manuscripts and the very story of his life.

Known to use real story simpler and easier than imagining.

Why did Bulgakov destroy the first two editions of the novel and many drafts?
It turns out that the manuscripts are burning ?!

I will quote several eloquent facts from the Bulgakov Encyclopedia.

“A major role in the interpretation of the early history of Christ in the novel“ The Master and Margarita ”was played by Sergei Chevkin's play“ Yeshua Ganotsri. An Impartial Discovery of Truth ”(1922) ... Chevkin’s play has numerous parallels with the Yershalaim part of The Master and Margarita. From this source Bulgakov drew the principle of different from the Gospel transcription of names and geographical names ... "

“At the feet of Pontius Pilate, a puddle of red wine from a broken jug is a reminder of Yeshua Ha-Nozri's innocent blood just spilled. The episode associated with the emergence of this puddle has a clear parallel in Chevkin's play. "

“Most likely, like the Falernian, the Cecubian wine was white. But Bulgakov deliberately sacrificed the detail for the sake of the symbol ... The master and Margarita Azazello poisoned with red Falernian wine, which does not exist in nature ”.

"Chevkin and Bulgakov have the same not only symbolism, but also psychological motivation."

"An unconventional interpretation of the behavior of a disciple who betrayed Yeshua, given by Chevkin, was partially reflected in Bulgakov's image of Judas of Kiriath, while in Pontius Pilate of the scenes of Yershalaim, the influence of the poem" Pilate "by Georgy Petrovsky (1893-1894) is noticeable."

"An important role in the interpretation of Christ in" The Master and Margarita "was played by Bulgakov's acquaintance with Anatole France's story" The Procurator of Judea "(1891) ... The cordon of Bald Mountain at Bulgakov's is exactly the same as the cordon of Mount Gazim in The Procurator of Judea."

"... came into Bulgakov's novel from Flaubert's novel" Herodias "(1877) ..., probably, such a significant detail of Pontius Pilate's clothing as a bloody lining on a white cloak - a harbinger of the forthcoming shedding of innocent blood."

"The very construction of the scene of the interrogation of Yeshua by Pilate in Bulgakov's novel is also connected with the work of DF Strauss" The Life of Jesus ".

"In" The Master and Margarita "there are surprising overlaps with the book of the famous Russian writer, poet and thinker Dmitry Sergeevich Merezhkovsky (1865-1941)" Jesus Unknown ", published in Belgrade in 1932"

“… A number of specific coincidences with Merezhkovsky's book appeared in The Master and Margarita in the mid-1930s, probably under the influence of his acquaintance with Jesus the Unknown.
The image of Pontius Pilate in Merezhkovsky and Bulgakov turned out to be practically identical. "

"A quote from Goethe's" Faust: "... so who are you, finally? “I am part of the power that always wants evil and always does good," came to Bulgakov's novel as an epigraph also from "Jesus the Unknown."

“The author of The Master and Margarita borrows from Merezhkovsky some of the realities of the era, such as the mosaic in the praetorium, where the procurator is interrogating, or the marching chair of the centurion, on which Afranius sits during the execution. The order of the procurator to untie Jesus' hands is also from "Jesus the Unknown".

The purpose of this article of mine was not to expose the plagiarist, but to understand the mechanisms of the origin of the idea and how it is embodied in a finished work.

I read the novel "The Master and Margarita" several times, and was so inspired by it that ten years later I wrote my own novel-research "Alien, Strange Incomprehensible Extraordinary Stranger". It also has a story about Jesus Christ. I have kept all eleven editions of a novel that I have been writing for six years.

From the mass of books read, I, like Mikhail Bulgakov, most liked the work of the English researcher F. Farrar "The Life of Jesus Christ." This book convinces with its historical facts. But in this book I was attracted by the fact that both the robber Bar-Rabban and the preacher Ha-Nozri had the same name - Jesus (as Farrar claims). On this I built the conflict of my plot.

Of course, I was impressed not only by the novel "The Master and Margarita", but also by Dostoevsky's "legend about the Grand Inquisitor" from the novel "The Brothers Karamazov", watched many films about Jesus Christ, attended the play by Yuri Lyubimov "The Master and Margarita" .. ...
But I deliberately did not read other people's novels about Jesus Christ, so that it would not affect my own vision. I read the story "Judas Iscariot" by Leonid Andreev later.

And so, when, on the night of Good Friday before Easter, a story about two Jesus was written in one breath, putting an end to it, I felt that the novel would definitely see the light of day. Although there was no reason for this - after the disaster I was a lonely invalid with broken legs.
And it's still a miracle for me that the novel has been published!

“Alien, strange, incomprehensible, extraordinary alien” is also a menippea, but not a classical one, although it is devoted to the eternal question - Why does a person live ?!
The conclusion that I came to as a result of writing the novel - LOVE TO CREATE A NECESSITY!

But to understand this, it was necessary to die, rise, pass long way co-crucifixion with Christ ...

“My spirit hovers over the fallen people crowding around the cross of shame. Calvary and suffering are behind, but salvation and freedom are ahead. I love, loving, I am saved by love, only because I believed in her. Like a bird, I am inspired by love, because I have entrusted my soul to God. I believed without a doubt in my soul that God would hear all my prayers, and would not leave one in trouble, giving me a cross instead of a battlefield. A miracle has happened! The shameful cross became the Triumph of Love instead of humiliation. Jesus Christ, take me with you, freeing my spirit for Ascension. "
(from my novel "A strange strange strange strange unusual stranger" on the site New Russian Literature

Before his death, Mikhail Afanasevich said: "I wanted to serve the people ... I wanted to live and serve in my corner ... I did no harm to anyone ...".

P.S. I would be grateful to everyone who will add or clarify the content of this article of mine.

The immortal novel by M.A. Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita is experiencing its rebirth. A new rethinking of the world masterpiece belongs to Boris Sokolov. His fascinating detective story "Secrets of the Master and Margarita". Deciphered Bulgakov "aroused great interest and rapidly growing popularity among fans of Mikhail Afanasyevich.

Mikhail Bulgakov gained worldwide fame, undoubtedly, thanks to his novel The Master and Margarita. Few people did not hold the legendary work in their hands. We get to know him as schoolchildren, but he attracts us so much that it simply takes us prisoner and never lets go.

True, many, opposing its power, call the novel fantastic nonsense and seek to quickly throw it out of their heads. But true connoisseurs of Mikhail Afanasyevich's work return to the pages of The Master and Margarita again and again. His heroes entered our lives, and his words became winged.

M. Bulgakov became famous almost immediately after the release of the novel, but the author received universal gratitude only after his death. For a long time, the work was banned, censors constantly forced M. Bulgakov to cut out more or less suspicious episodes from the work.

For the first time an abridged version of the novel appeared in 1967 in the Moscow magazine. In the future, the book has undergone about 8 editions. There is no strictly canonical novel, since it was not completed by the author, the endings were added by the editors.

But they also had to work on this text - it is impossible to publish everything one to one. The 70s were marked by the peak of the popularity of "The Master and Margarita", everyone just read this work. This was also due to the fact that Soviet literature seemed exotic.

In 1967, Boris Sokolov also read the famous novel for the first time. From that moment on, he began to study the work of M. Bulgakov. In 1981, he found an interesting source for the play "Running", wrote an article on this subject, which he published only in 1985. And since then he has become quite closely engaged in research life path and the work of the great writer.

First, he mastered the topic "Bulgakov and the Civil War", then mainly - "The Master and Margarita". But B. Sokolov studied all the works of Mikhail Afanasyevich to one degree or another, even published some of them.

For example, the editions of screenplays for the works of Nikolai Gogol "The Inspector General" and " Dead Souls". In 1988, the publishing house graduate School"Ordered B. Sokolov to write a commentary on the novel" The Master and Margarita ", which prompted the creation in 1991 of his first book" The novel "The Master and Margarita": sketches creative history».

This work was soon forgotten, and most of its editions were sent to Hungary, where there was tremendous interest in The Master and Margarita. Only by the end of the 70s, the novel was reprinted 5 times and was released in two languages. In the same year B. Sokolov published short biography M. Bulgakov.

In his new book B. Sokolov reveals the secrets of The Master and Margarita.

After all, everything that happens in M. Bulgakov's novel is not a continuous fiction of the author. This is an encrypted symbolic romance. In it, Mikhail Afanasyevich shows a complex interweaving of real prototypes, literary and historical sources.

Throughout his life, he read about ten thousand books. He embodied all his knowledge in the novel. While writing it, Mikhail Afanasyevich could not even imagine that someday his riddles would be solved.

B. Sokolov reveals that V. I. Lenin served as Woland's prototype. The famous police bloodhound Tuzbuben was looking for Woland based on the work “The Master and Margarita”.

In Bulgakov's archive B. Sokolov found a clipping from the newspaper Pravda dated November 6-7, 1921, which tells how Lenin and Zinoviev were hiding from the provisional government in Finland. At that moment, the entire bourgeois press wrote that the well-known police bloodhound Tref had been brought in to capture them. MA Bulgakov removes direct names and dates, but everyone understood what the author wanted to say by this.

Mentioned in the novel and about I.V. Stalin, about whom Woland spoke with respect: "He is doing his job right ... it's time for us to leave Moscow." But later M. Bulgakov cut out this paragraph from the novel, believing that it would not pass the censorship.

“Someone is now proving that Woland’s words were not addressed to Joseph Stalin, but to an unnamed fighter pilot. Funny. But I have studied M. Bulgakov enough not to take seriously such assumptions, ”said Boris Sokolov at the presentation of his book.

The next secret that reveals contemporary author, Is the structure of the work. B. Sokolov claims that the novel is strictly threefold. Throughout the book, there is the number “three”. First of all, this is the existence in the novel of three worlds: modern Moscow, ancient Yershalaim, otherworldly timeless. But the author does not deny the existence of a fourth world, imaginary, associated with minor characters.

The main discovery of B. Solovyov is the discovery of the internal chronology of the novel, which he found confirmation in the many drafts of M. Bulgakov. It has been proven quite convincingly that the scenes of Yershalaim take place during the four April days of 29 AD. And the action of the Moscow scenes - from May 1-5, 1929 (if according to the old style, then this is April). The interval between them is exactly 1900 years.

Irrespective of B. Sokolov, this was also discovered by Olga Soloukhina. She published her work much earlier, so the author of The Secrets of The Master and Margarita had to mention her name in the list of references.

In his book B. Sokolov convincingly proved that the novel "The Master and Margarita", perceived by everyone as a fantastic satire, is nothing more than a complex interweaving of historical plots and prototypes.

Alena Kulikova

The Master and Margarita is one of the most mysterious novels in history, and researchers are still struggling to interpret it. We will give seven keys to this piece.

Literary hoax

Why is Bulgakov's famous novel called The Master and Margarita, and what, in fact, is this book about? It is known that the idea of creation was born to the author after being carried away by mysticism of the 19th century. Legends of the devil, Jewish and Christian demonology, treatises about God - all this is present in the work. The most important sources consulted by the author were Mikhail Orlov's The History of Man's Relationship with the Devil and Amfitheatrov'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 "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 the ban on his play "The Cabal of the Saints". The writer told the government about this: "And personally, with my own hands, I threw a draft of the 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 had already appeared here, and Woland acquired his own retinue. But, only the third manuscript received its current name, which, in fact, the author never finished.

The many-faced Woland

The Prince of Darkness is perhaps the most popular character in The Master and Margarita. A superficial reading gives the reader the impression that Woland is “justice itself,” a judge who fights against human vices and protects love and creativity. Someone generally believes that Bulgakov portrayed Stalin in this image! Woland is multifaceted and complex, as befits a Tempter. He is considered as the classic Satan, which the author intended in the early versions of the book, as a new Messiah, a reinterpreted Christ, whose coming is described in the novel.
In fact, Woland is not just the 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 the millennial past, predicted the future, and had a portrait resemblance to Woland. And it is also the "dark horse" Woland from Goethe's "Faust", which 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 "Faland". Remember the episode from the novel when the employees cannot remember the magician's name: "Maybe Faland?"

Satan's retinue

Just as a person cannot exist without a shadow, so Woland is not Woland without his retinue. Azazello, Begemot and Koroviev-Fagot are instruments of diabolical justice, the brightest heroes of the novel, behind which have a far from unambiguous past.
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 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, pushes her to the "dark path". In the novel, this is Woland's right hand doing the "dirty work". He kills Baron Meigel, poisons lovers. Its essence is incorporeal, absolute evil in its purest form.
Koroviev-Fagot is the only person in Woland's retinue. It is not completely clear who became its prototype, but researchers trace its roots to the Aztec god Witsliputsli, whose name is mentioned in Berlioz's conversation with Homeless. This is the god of war, to whom sacrifices were made, and according to the legends about Doctor Faust, he is the spirit of hell and the first helper of Satan. His name, inadvertently uttered by the chairman of MASSOLIT, is a signal for Woland's appearance.
Hippopotamus is a werewolf cat 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 the study of I. Ya. Porfiriev "Apocryphal legends about Old Testament persons and events", which was clearly familiar to Bulgakov, the sea monster Behemoth was mentioned, along with Leviathan living in the invisible desert "to the east of the garden, where the chosen and the righteous lived." The author also drew information about the Behemoth from the story of a certain Anna Desange, who lived in the 17th century and was possessed by seven devils, among which the Behemoth is mentioned, a demon from the rank of Thrones. This demon was depicted as a monster with an elephant's head, trunk and fangs. 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 "Tatiana of the XX 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 last wife of the writer, the novel emphasizes the connection between Marguerite and two French queens. The first is the same "Queen Margot", the wife of Henry IV, whose wedding turned into a 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 "the bright queen Margot" and mutters "some nonsense about the bloody wedding of his friend in Paris, Gessar." Gessard is the Parisian publisher of the correspondence of Marguerite Valois, whom Bulgakov made a participant in the St. Bartholomew's Night. Another queen is also seen in the image of the heroine - Marguerite 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 genius writer- Masters.

Moscow - Yershalaim

One of the most interesting mysteries of The Master and Margarita is the time when the events take place. There is not a single absolute date in the novel from which to count. The action is attributed to Holy Week from May 1 to May 7, 1929. This dating gives 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 Passionate. "Over Moscow in 1929 and Yershalaim on the 29th is the same apocalyptic weather, the same darkness is approaching the city of sin like a thunderous 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 intertwining, in the end they merge together, gaining integrity and passing from our world to the other world.

Influence of Gustav Meyrink

Bulgakov was greatly influenced by the ideas of Gustav Meyrink, whose works appeared in Russia at the beginning of the 20th century. In the novel by the Austrian expressionist "Golem" the 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", which says: "Yes, of course, the truth does not burn and it is impossible to trample it." It also tells about the inscription above the altar, because of which the icon of the Mother of God falls. As well as the burned manuscript of the master, resurrecting Woland from oblivion, which restores the true history 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 The White Dominican by Meyrink, the main thing for the heroes is not the goal, but the process of the path itself - development. But the meaning of this path is different for writers. Gustav, like his heroes, looked for him in creativity Bulgakov strove to achieve a certain "esoteric" absolute, the essence of the universe.

The 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 had been writing for a dozen years? Perhaps he believed that he was not sufficiently knowledgeable about the issue he was tackling, and his understanding of Jewish demonology and early Christian texts was amateurish? Be that as it may, the novel practically "sucked" the life of the author. The last correction, which he made on February 13, 1940, was the phrase of Margarita: "So this is, therefore, the writers are following the coffin?" He died a month later. With the last words Bulgakov, addressed to the novel were: "To know, to know ...".

Director Yuri Kara said that when they started filming ancient Judea in the famous Sudak fortress in Crimea, it suddenly started snowing, which is extremely rare in October. To top it off, the operator did not come and they forgot to bring the film.
When Yuri Kara went to Moscow for the film and the cameraman, right in front of Bulgakov's house on the Garden Ring, his new Volga broke down, the gearbox flew. After that, the film crew decided to shoot the desired scenes in the Holy Land in Israel.
The most dramatic scene of "The Crucifixion of Yeshua" was filmed in the desert near the Dead Sea in a 50-degree heat. Out of curiosity, Yuri Kara himself wanted to hang on the cross, but when after 20 seconds the earnest Burlyaev (in the role of Yeshua) began to yell “Take me off!”, He decided not to risk it.

Already finished, the film could not be released for 17 years. When the State Duma adopted a law according to which copyright has been protected for 70 years, the childless Bulgakov suddenly had “heirs”. Sergei Shilovsky - the grandson of Elena Sergeevna Bulgakova and Yevgeny Alexandrovich Shilovsky - the heir to their property, lives in America and manages the Mikhail Bulgakov Foundation. The one whose grandfather shot Bulgakov when Elena Sergeevna went to Mikhail Afanasyevich demanded, under a plausible pretext, the protection of the work from distortion, royalties for himself ...

The novel "The Master and Margarita" is a classic menippea (according to M.M. Bakhtin's definition, it is a philosophical genre of literature, "experimental fiction" for artistic analysis of metaphysical ideas and "the last questions of being"; "a genre that includes a" laughing element ", dreams , dreams, madness, scandalousness ... ").

In the novel "The Master and Margarita" there is a lot of unsaid, mysteries and mysticism. We can say that the meanings laid down by the author have not yet been deciphered.
So, for example, in the novel there are many characters, but only one has no name - the master.
Who is hiding behind this meaningful word?

Bulgakov destroyed both the first and second editions of the novel.
Why?
Remains from the first two editions are kept in the manuscript department of the Russian State Library.

The dying Bulgakov was worried about only one thing: to finish writing before he died! "To know, to know ..." - he whispered to his wife, barely audible.

The full text of the novel The Master and Margarita was first reprinted on June 25, 1938 by the sister of Elena Sergeevna Bulgakova.

Obviously, in the third version, containing an "inner romance" about Pontius Pilate, as well as the story of the master and Margarita, Bulgakov described his life, or the life of someone else.

Like any writer, Bulgakov wrote mainly about what he came across personally. The White Guard, Theatrical Novel, The Master and Margarita are largely autobiographical works.
The prototype of the Behemoth cat was the big black dog Bulgakov, whose name was Behemoth. This dog was very smart. When Bulgakov celebrated the New Year with his wife, after the chimes, his dog barked 12 times, although no one taught her this.
The master's basement was copied mainly from the Topleninov brothers' mansion (9 Mansurovsky per.). The playwright Sergei Alexandrovich Ermolinsky (1900-1984), who served as the prototype for Aloisy Mogarych, also lived there.
Even Annushka s Sadovaya, who spilled the oil, and she really existed. Not to mention the prototypes of the chairman of Massolit Berlioz, critic Latunsky, writer Lavrovich.
Bulgakov said that, they say, all of them will be reckoned with in the new novel "The Master and Margarita".

At the time of the novel, the age of the master (“a man of about thirty-eight”) is exactly the age of Bulgakov in May 1929. The newspaper campaign against the Master and his novel resembles the newspaper campaign against Bulgakov in connection with the novel “Fatal Eggs”. The winning in the lottery by the Master of 100 thousand rubles fully corresponds to the 100-thousandth prize, for which Bulgakov worked on the "Course of the History of the USSR".

At that time I was studying at the preparatory department of the Faculty of Philosophy. Mikhail Bulgakov was not studied either at school or at the university. The story "Heart of a Dog" was banned. Friends in the faculty let me read it in a typewritten reprint.

Already at the first reading, the novel "The Master and Margarita" surprised me with its versatility and some eclecticism. I was struck by the abundance of historical details, titles, names. However, later I found out that many of them are wrong and have nothing to do with the true history.

Well, the famous white cloak with a bloody lining, which Bulgakov sometimes calls a mantle. Of course, men, especially military men, wore raincoats, but never a mantle! Because the mantle in ancient Rome was worn by women of brothels (lupanarii).

It is believed that Mikhail Bulgakov meant himself by the Master. He was a member of the Writers' Union. MASSOLIT stands for the Master of Socialist Literature.

"Are you a writer?" - asks the poet Homeless.
“I am a master,” the night visitor replies.

Some believe that the prototype of the master was Maxim Gorky. And in the text there are a lot of hints to this. The same is the opinion of Alfred Barkov, the author of the book “The novel by Mikhail Bulgakov“ The Master and Margarita ”: an alternative reading”. He tries to prove that the writer's contemporaries are encrypted in the characters of the novel: Master - Maxim Gorky, Margarita - Maria Andreeva, Levi Matvey - Lev Tolstoy, Woland - Lenin, Ivan Homeless - Bulgakov himself.

How was the idea for the story of Yeush Ha-Nozri and Pontius Pilate born - the so-called "Gospel of Michael"?

Priest Andrei Kuraev in his book "The Master and Margarita": for Christ or against? " calls the novel in the novel (the Yershalaim story) "The Gospel of Satan." Indeed, in the early editions of the novel, the first chapter of Woland's story was called "The Gospel of Woland" and "The Gospel of the Devil."

“Words have their own conscience,” said Akhmatova and Mandelstam. In the film "Black Snow" Mikhail Bulgakov's confession is heard that he, of course, "got his lips dirty"!

The text that we all read was edited by AA Sahakyants - editor of the publishing house "Khudozhestvennaya literatura".
As a result of Sahakyants' work, 25 sentences disappeared from the manuscript, 65 new sentences were inserted instead. She changed 317 words of Bulgakov, replaced 115 grammatical constructions and made 500 lexical replacements.
As a result, the text, in my opinion, acquired a more correct artistic form, but lost the author's "breath".

Why did notebook number 2 disappear, and what was in it?

It is known that it is easier and easier to use a real story than to make it up.

Why did Bulgakov destroy the first two editions of the novel and many drafts?
It turns out that the manuscripts are burning ?!

I will quote several eloquent facts from the Bulgakov Encyclopedia.

“A major role in the interpretation of the early history of Christ in the novel“ The Master and Margarita ”was played by Sergei Chevkin’s play“ Yeshua Ganotsri. An Impartial Discovery of Truth (1922) ... Chevkin's play has numerous parallels with the Yershalaim part of The Master and Margarita. From this source Bulgakov drew the principle of different from the Gospel transcription of names and geographical names ... "

"Chevkin and Bulgakov have the same not only symbolism, but also psychological motivation."

"An important role in the interpretation of Christ in" The Master and Margarita "was played by Bulgakov's acquaintance with the story of Anatole France" The Procurator of Judea "(1891) ... The cordon of Bald Mountain near Bulgakov exactly repeats the cordon of Mount Gazim in The Procurator of Judea."

"The very construction of the scene of the interrogation of Yeshua by Pilate in Bulgakov's novel is also connected with the work of DF Strauss" The Life of Jesus ".

"In" The Master and Margarita "there are surprising echoes with the book of the famous Russian writer, poet and thinker Dmitry Sergeevich Merezhkovsky (1865-1941)" Jesus the Unknown ", published in Belgrade in 1932"

“A quote from Goethe's Faust:“ ... so who are you, finally? “I am part of the power that always wants evil and always does good,” came into Bulgakov’s novel as an epigraph also from “Jesus the Unknown”.

“The author of“ The Master and Margarita ”borrows from Merezhkovsky some of the realities of the era, such as the mosaic in the praetorium, where the procurator is interrogating, or the marching chair of the centurion, on which Afranius sits during the execution. The order of the procurator to untie Jesus' hands is also from "Jesus the Unknown".

The purpose of this article of mine was not to expose the plagiarist, but to understand the mechanisms of the origin of the idea and how it is embodied in a finished work.

Of course, I was impressed not only by the novel "The Master and Margarita", but also by Dostoevsky's "legend about the Grand Inquisitor" from the novel "The Brothers Karamazov", watched many films about Jesus Christ, attended the play by Yuri Lyubimov "The Master and Margarita" ...
But I deliberately did not read other people's novels about Jesus Christ, so that it would not affect my own vision. I read the story "Judas Iscariot" by Leonid Andreev later.

But to understand this, one had to die, be resurrected, go a long way of being crucified with Christ ...

“My spirit hovers over the fallen people crowding around the cross of shame. Calvary and suffering are behind, but salvation and freedom are ahead. I love, loving, I am saved by love, only because I believed in her. Like a bird, I am inspired by love, because I have entrusted my soul to God. I believed without a doubt in my soul that God would hear all my prayers, and would not leave one in trouble, giving me a cross instead of a battlefield. A miracle has happened! The shameful cross became the Triumph of Love instead of humiliation. Jesus Christ, take me with you, freeing my spirit for Ascension. "
(from my novel "A strange strange strange unusual stranger" on the site New Russian Literature. You can follow the discussion of this entry using. Comments and notifications are now closed.

The most mysterious novel domestic literature"The Master and Margarita" by M. Bulgakov amazes the imagination. And everyone wants to understand what its meaning is.

The novel "The Master and Margarita" is one of greatest works world literature. Two storylines are intertwined in it, two worlds: the real and the otherworldly. Bulgakov worked on this work from 1928 until the end of his life. He read it to friends, but understood that publishing a novel in conditions modern era unrealistic. Why did he think so?

Many critics say that the work is deeply philosophical. Bulgakov's main goal was to show a person before a moral choice. Based on this, some critics came to the conclusion that Woland and Yeshua live according to the same moral laws, that they do not oppose each other. If it's not funny, then it's stupid. Why then were two storylines needed in the novel, when the source of good is everywhere. This compositional structure of the work is meaningless.

If Bulgakov in his novel, first of all, would draw human souls, probably his novel would have been published much earlier. But the Soviet government hid "The Master and Margarita" for a long time, because they well understood what kind of weapon it was against it.

I think that Bulgakov wrote the novel with the aim of showing two political regimes: communist and democratic. And the moral choice of his heroes took place within the framework of the morality of this or that regime.

As for the exciting plot, everything is clear. Distracting maneuvers were supposed to confuse critics, so that they did not notice how the author ridicules the power in the country.

The main characters of the novel are the Master, Margarita and Woland. Who do we see in their images?
Woland personifies the communism of the Stalin era. He is also omnipotent, whoever he wants, he punishes. Woland, meeting with Berlioz, predicts his death in detail. This is a hint of repression. Stalin repressed many people whose cases were fabricated. Therefore, he knew how they would die. And Woland knew it.

The tragic fate of Bulgakov, his difficult relationship with the authorities could not but be reflected in his work. Every writer writes about painful things in his works. And for Mikhail Afanasevich the main problem in life there was a struggle with the authorities for the right to speak. He was not allowed to publish his works. Therefore, his best novel was a reflection of his life.

His first feature, the writer called adherence to the idea of creative freedom, creative thought, opposition to the deception of the individual, the upbringing of slaves, sycophants and panegyrists. These concepts were hostile to the Soviet regime, since they were democratic.

The novel "The Master and Margarita" was written about the meaning of life under two different political regimes. All ingenious is simple - judge for yourself.

Margarita personifies the ideology of communism. At the ball everyone kisses her knee, she is the queen. In a communist society, ideology is above all, everyone should bow before it. There is one point in the novel that indicates that Margarita has absorbed the image of the communist ideology.

She carried hideous, disturbing yellow flowers in her hands. ... ... For some reason they are the first to appear in Moscow. ... ... She was carrying yellow flowers! Bad color. As we know, the first revolution of the proletariat took place in Russia. Disturbing flowers in the hands of Margarita is a revolution in the hands of ideology. A yellow is probably due to the fact that October Revolution 1917 was autumn, and the color of autumn is yellow.

The Master is the image of a common man who succumbs to the influence of the communist ideology.
- Obeying this yellow sign, I also turned into an alley and followed in her footsteps. And what could await people who submitted to communism?

Bulgakov, in the finale of the novel, writes about what would await people if real communism were built.

The Master and Margarita die, finding peace and happiness. But they paid too high a price for happiness - life.

I think that this suggests that people under communism, perhaps, would have lived in prosperity and peace, but they would be dead as individuals. This political system completely suppressed the person.

Yeshua does not take the Master to himself, because he refuses the great gift of writing, he betrays his soul, his humanity. The life that awaited the Master was passive and monotonous. She could not be an incentive to new beginnings. And we know that a person who is able to act and change life for the better has always been appreciated. Bulgakov hints at the weakness of the communist society, at its limitations.

In Soviet society, man has two roads. One is to submit to ideology, not to show oneself as a person, and to acquire imaginary happiness. Another is to disobey the ideology and end up in a concentration camp. Ivan Bezdomny, telling the truth about Woland, the personification of communism, ends up in a psychiatric hospital, as in reality dissenters ended up in prisons and concentration camps.

Why is the novel called The Master and Margarita? Master is a synonym for the word craftsman, a person who does something himself, with his own hands. We can say that the word worker is a very close word in meaning. And the working class was the main instrument of the revolution. In another way, the title of the work can be read like this: "Worker and Ideology".

Mediocrity from MASSOLIT hound the Master, drive him to a madhouse and completely abandon his brainchild - a novel. Literary critics agree on the autobiographical character of the Master. Bulgakov and his hero are very similar. But the Master, like many artists in Russia, fell silent in the era of totalitarianism, but his creator did not.

Pontius Pilate and Yeshua Ha - Nozri. Who are they? Why were these images needed?
Yeshua personifies democracy. He is the bearer of goodness and high moral concepts of life. But people may or may not accept his ideology. No one is required to believe what Yeshua believes. There is freedom of thought and action in his world.

Pontius Pilate is an important person in Yershalaim. He is free in his actions, smart. But the procurator is a slave to his passions. Fear for my career, for own life suppresses in him a sense of goodness and justice. The people found Yeshua guilty, Pilate saw in him only a philosopher. But he did not have the courage to stand up for the right person. You can blame him for this, but there are more terrible actions. There are very few people who are able to sacrifice their own peace and happiness in the name of justice. And Pilate can be understood, so, probably, he was forgiven. It's human nature to love yourself above all else.

But Bulgakov does not idealize a democratic society. The opinion of the people may be wrong. Will the error be fixed? It depends on the person at the helm. Mikhail Afanasyevich makes it clear to us that democracy is better for a person than communism. In a free society, a person manifests himself as pleasing to his soul and conscience. And no political regime can be ideal.

The novel "The Master and Margarita" is really mysterious. Unrevealed secrets will always remain in it. But the main thing that Bulgakov wanted to say was heard. And everyone will always remember that a person cannot be happy when he is controlled all the time, when he is not allowed to speak. Communism cannot be a favorable environment for human life, no matter how tempting its promises are.