Russian Empire
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Mikhail Bulgakov
Kyiv, Russian Empire
Archival Overview
Master Soviet novelist and playwright whose satirical masterpiece The Master and Margarita brought Satan and a talking cat to 1930s Moscow.
Biographical Record
Mikhail Afanasyevich Bulgakov (1891–1940) was a Russian writer, physician, and dramatist born in Kyiv. Graduating with honors from the Medical Faculty of Kyiv University, he served as a physician during World War I and the Russian Civil War, experiences that inspired his semi-autobiographical collection A Young Doctor's Notebook and his Civil War epic The White Guard.
Though his plays like The Days of the Turbins were famously admired by Stalin, Bulgakov faced relentless censorship and theatrical bans throughout the 1930s. Working in secret until his dying days, dictated to his devoted wife Elena, he completed The Master and Margarita. Interweaving a visit by the Devil (Woland) and his mischievous retinue (including the gigantic cat Behemoth) to atheist Moscow with the trial of Jesus by Pontius Pilate in Yershalaim, the novel created an immortal testament: 'Manuscripts don't burn'.
Key Life Milestones
The Days of the Turbins
Staged The Days of the Turbins at Stanislavski's Moscow Art Theatre, running for nearly a thousand legendary performances.
Master and Margarita Published
Published in Moskva magazine twenty-six years after his death, instantly acknowledged as one of the supreme novels of the 20th century.
Memorial Guestbook & Tributes
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Final Resting Place
Perpetual MemorialMoscow, Russia