The Master and Margarita () is a novel by Mikhail Bulgakov, written in the Soviet Union between 1928 and 1940. A censored version, with several chapters cut by editors, was published posthumously in Moscow magazine in 1966–1967 by his widow Elena Bulgakova. The manuscript was first published as a book in 1967, in Paris, France. A samizdat version circulated that included parts cut out by official censors, and these were incorporated in a 1969 version published in Frankfurt. The novel has since been published in several languages and editions. It satirizes Soviet bureaucracy and atheism.
The story concerns a visit by the devil and his entourage to the officially atheist Soviet Union. The devil, manifested as one Professor Woland, challenges the Soviet citizens' beliefs about religion and condemns their behavior throughout the book. The Master and Margarita combines supernatural elements with satirical dark comedy and Christian philosophy, defying categorization within a single genre. Many critics consider it to be one of the best novels of the 20th century, as well as the foremost of Soviet satires.
History Mikhail Bulgakov was born in Kiev on May 15, 1891. He moved to Moscow in 1921. It was in Moscow that he would begin work on The Master and Margarita. Bulgakov was first trained as a physician, which influenced his subsequent works. This is especially evident in The Master and Margarita when the body is described or when characters receive certain injuries. Only later did Bulgakov become a playwright and author. He started writing The Master and Margarita in 1928, but burned the first manuscript in 1930 (just as his character the Master does) facing the harsh reality that he could not see a future as a writer in the Soviet Union at a time of widespread political repression. He restarted the novel in 1931. In the early 1920s, Bulgakov had visited an editorial meeting of an atheist journal. He is believed to have drawn from this to create the Walpurgis Night ball of the novel. He completed his second draft in 1936, by which point he had devised the major plot lines of the final version. He wrote another four versions. When Bulgakov stopped writing four weeks before his death in 1940, the novel had some unfinished sentences and loose ends. His novel was also written amidst heavy criticism for his other works and plays. During this time, he wrote to Stalin asking to be allowed to leave Russia because he felt that the literature critics at the time were proving that Bulgakov's writing did not belong in Russia. This was not approved, which greatly affected the writing of the piece including the descriptions of the Master and his works.
A censored version, with about 12 percent of the text removed and more changed, was first published in Moskva magazine (no. 11, 1966 and no. 1, 1967). A manuscript was smuggled out of the Soviet Union to Paris, where the YMCA Press, celebrated for publishing the banned work of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, published the first book edition in 1967. The text, as published in the magazine Moskva, was swiftly translated into Estonian and printed in 1967 by the company Eesti Raamat. This version included many scenes and themes that had previously been censoredfor example, Bulgakov's commentary on Soviet moral and governmental corruption. The Italian publisher Einaudi published the book in Russian in 1967 as well. For decades this remained the only printed edition of the novel in book form available in the Soviet Union. The original text of all the omitted and changed parts, with indications of the places of modification, was printed and distributed by hand in the Soviet Union (in the dissident practice known as samizdat). In 1969, the publisher Posev printed a version produced with the aid of these inserts.
The first complete version, prepared by Anna Sahakyants, was published in Russian by Khudozhestvennaya Literatura in 1973. This was based on Bulgakov's last 1940 version, as proofread by the publisher. This version remained the canonical edition until 1989. It is unknown how much of this version was influenced by Elena Shilovskaya, Bulgakov's third and final wife, as she had been in possession of the remaining manuscript notes. Due to the high quantity of manuscripts and drafts, it is near impossible to state which, if any, version of the novel is truly canonical. The last version, based on all available manuscripts, was prepared by Lidiya Yanovskaya.
Plot The novel has two settings. The first is Moscow during the 1930s, where Satan appears as Professor Woland. He is accompanied by Koroviev, a grotesquely dressed valet; Behemoth, a black cat; Azazello, a hitman; and Hella, a succubus. They target the literary elite and their association "Massolit",MASSOLIT may be a Soviet-style abbreviation for "Moscow Association of Writers" (Московская ассоциация литераторов), or "Literature for the Masses". According to one translation, it may be a play on words in Russian, translatable into English as "Lotsalit".. Massolit consists of corrupt social climbers: bureaucrats, profiteers, and cynics. The second setting is the Jerusalem of Pontius Pilate, centred around Pilate's trial of Yeshua Ha-Notsri, his recognition of an affinity with (and spiritual need for) Yeshua, and his reluctant acquiescence to Yeshua's execution. The Jerusalem plot of the novel is later revealed to be the novel written by the Master.
Book One
In Moscow, the atheist Massolit chairman Mikhail Berlioz and the young poet Ivan "Homeless" Ponyrev encounter the mysterious Woland. During a debate about the existence of God and the supernatural, Woland tells a story about Pilate's condemnation of Yeshua in Jerusalem. Woland then prophesises Berlioz's imminent death, which comes true. Homeless attempts to report Woland for murder, but his claims about Woland's supernatural powers of prophecy are disbelieved and he is confined to a psychiatric clinic. There, Homeless meets fellow patient "the Master", whose real name is not revealed. The Master is an author whose reputation was ruined after his novel on Pilate and Yeshua was shunned by Moscow's literary elite. The mentally unwell Master admitted himself to the clinic, leaving his heartbroken mistress.
Meanwhile in Moscow, Woland and his retinue secure themselves a show at the Variety Theatre, billing themselves as practitioners of black magic. The audience is amazed when Woland's retinue distribute conjured money and luxury fashion items. Later, the money and clothes disappear, causing chaos and embarrassment. Woland remarks on the Moscovites' pettiness, reflecting the lack of moral progress in Soviet society despite technological advances. Outside the show, Woland's retinue play further supernatural tricks on the Variety Theatre staff, on acquaintances of the deceased Berlioz, and on other unfortunate Muscovites.
Book Two
The Master's lover is revealed to be Margarita, who is despondent after the Master's sudden disappearance. She encounters Azazello, who offers her a magical skin ointment and invites her to meet Satan. Margarita applies the ointment and gains witchlike powers of flight and invisibility. She agrees to be the hostess for Satan's great ball, where she welcomes dark historical figures as they arrive from Hell. In return for her services as hostess, Satan offers to grant her a wish. She asks to be reunited with the Master, who is promptly extracted from the clinic. The couple return to the Master's apartment.
Yeshua, who has read the Master's work, renders judgement that the Master and Margarita should be granted "peace", and Woland is instructed to facilitate this. He sends Azazello to deliver poisoned wine to the Master and Margarita. Their souls journey with Woland's retinue through the afterlife. They encounter Pilate in purgatory, whom the Master frees to join with Yeshua. The Master and Margarita then settle in their eternal, peaceful home.
Epilogue
In Moscow, the havoc wreaked by Woland's retinue is attributed to mass hysteria and hypnosis. Normalcy returns after their departure, although those unfortunate enough to have crossed paths with Woland's retinue (such as the now-professor Ponyrev) experience disquiet every May at full moon, the anniversary of Woland's visit.
Interpretations
Response to aggressive atheistic propaganda Some critics suggest that Bulgakov was responding to poets and writers who he believed were spreading atheist propaganda in the Soviet Union, and denying Jesus Christ as a historical person. He particularly objected to the anti-religious poems of Demyan Bedny. The novel can be seen as a rebuke to aggressively "godless people". There is justification in both the Moscow and the Judaea sections of the novel for the entire image of the devil. Bulgakov uses characters from Jewish demonology as a retort to the denial of God in the USSR.
Literary critic and assistant professor at the Russian State Institute of Performing Arts Nadezhda Dozhdikova notes that the image of Jesus as a harmless madman presented in ″Master and Margarita″ has its source in the literature of the USSR of the 1920s, which, following the tradition of the demythologization of Jesus in the works of Strauss, Renan, Nietzsche and Binet-Sanglé, put forward two main themes—mental illness and deception. The mythological option, namely the denial of the historical existence of Jesus, only prevailed in the Soviet propaganda at the turn of the 1920s and 1930s.
Reflection of Bulgakov's experiences as a Soviet writer Commentators often note autobiographical elements in the novel. Beyond parallels between fictional characters and Bulgakov's acquaintances, the work has been examined as a reflection of Bulgakov's own psychological troubles spurred by the oppression he faced in his creative career. Some also interpret Ivan and the Master as prototypes of the extremities of Soviet attitudes towards writers. Whereas Ivan is a celebrated rising star supported by MASSOLIT, the Master is a literary outsider who is at once denounced and cast away after submitting his novel for publishing. As a Soviet writer, Bulgakov walked a fine line between the two. Professor of religion and peace studies Alexandra Carroll analyzes Woland through the lens of Jungian psychology, suggesting that Woland serves as a "shadow archetype", which she defines as a "paradoxical figure of evil that appears malevolent, yet works towards an individual's psychological renewal". Other commentators note that Bulgakov's life experiences have also likely influenced the Yershalaim narrative of the novel; Haber and Weeks argue that it is Bulgakov's father's academic work that influenced the narrative, rather than Bulgakov's own view of evil. Weeks interprets this as "Bulgakov's return to elements of his own childhood".
Occlusive interpretation Bulgakov portrays evil as being as inseparable from our world, as light is from darkness. Both Satan and Jesus Christ dwell mostly inside people. Jesus was unable to see Judas's treachery, despite Pilate's hints, because he saw only good in people. He could not protect himself, because he did not know how, nor from whom. This interpretation presumes that Bulgakov had his own vision of Tolstoy's idea of resistance to evil through non-violence, by creating this image of Yeshua.
The Spring Festival Ball at Spaso House