Biography of Mikhail Bulgakov
March 19, 1940
Mikhail Bulgakov was born on 15 may 1891 in Kiev, Ukraine (then part of the Russian Empire), the first of seven children (two boys and four girls), the son of a Professor of the history and criticism of Western religions and a former teacher. Since childhood is passionate about the theater and playwright that his brothers put in scene. In 1901 he began to attend the gymnasium of Kiev, where he developed an interest in Russian and European literature: his favorite authors are Dickens, Saltykov-Shchedrin, Dostoevsky and Gogol. After his father's death in 1907, Mikhail is homeschooled by his mother.
He married Tatjana Lappèa in 1913, at the outbreak of World War I he enlisted as a volunteer for the Red Cross and is shipped to the front, where he was severely wounded twice, but manages to overcome pain thanks to injections of morphine. He graduated in medicine in 1916 (seven years after enrolling in the course) at the University of Kiev, earning an honorable mention. Shipped as MD in Smolensk governorate, Nikolskoe, to work in the Hospital of the Su, he begins to write the seven stories that will be part of "notes of a young doctor".
He moved in 1917 to Viazma, back in Kiev together with his wife the following year: here opens a medical practice at andreyevsky descent, 13 's, and began to develop the idea of letting the medicine because, being a public official, believed to be too dependent on political power. In this period was a direct witness of the Russian civil war, and at least 10 attempts at coup. In 1919 is shipped in the North Caucasus to work as a military doctor and began writing as a journalist: he fell ill of typhoid, manages to survive almost miraculously. The following year decides to abandon definitively the medical career to pursue his love of literature: Mikhail Bulgakov 's first book is a collection of feuilleton titled "future prospects".
Shortly after he moved to Vladikavkaz, where he wrote his first two plays, "Self-defence" and "the brothers Turbin", which are all performed in local theater with great success. After traveling through the Caucasus, heads to Moscow intends to remain there: in the capital, however, has difficulties in finding a job. He manages, however, to find a job as a Secretary for the literary section of the Glavpolitprosvet (the Central Committee for political education). In September 1921 together with his wife went to live near the Mayakovskaya Metro station and began working as a correspondent and author of the feuilleton for newspapers "Nakanune", "Krasnaia Panorama" and "Gudok". Meanwhile, writes "Diaboliad", "fatal eggs" and "dog's heart", works that blend elements of science fiction and a biting satire. Between 1922 and 1926 Mikhail Bulgakov complete numerous dramas, including "Zoyka's apartment", none of which is produced: even Joseph Stalin himself to censor "race", in which he speaks of the horrors of a fratricidal war. In 1925 Mikhail divorced his first wife and married Lyubov Belozerskaya.
Censorship, meanwhile, continues to affect its work: the case of "Ivan Vasilievich", "the last days. Pushkin "and" Don Quixote ". The first of the representation "Moliere", set in 17th century Paris, instead receives criticism from Pravda. In 1926 the Ukrainian author publishes "Morphine", book in which he tells of his frequent recourse to the substance during World War I; two years later, "Zoyka's apartment" and "Purple island" are represented in Moscow: both works are accepted by the public with great enthusiasm, but opposed by critics. In 1929, Bulgakov 's career suffered a blow when the Government censorship prevents the publication of all his works and the staging of all his plays. Always been prevented from leaving the Soviet Union (would like to visit his brothers, who live in Paris), on March 28, 1930 decided to write to the Government of the USSR to ask permission to go abroad: two weeks later, Stalin himself contact, denying him the chance to emigrate but wanting him to work at the Moscow art academic theatre. Mikhail agrees, and was employed as Assistant Stage Manager and engaging in the stage adaptation of "dead souls" of Gogol. Left in 1932 Silovskaja Lyubov Elena Sergeyevna wedding also, that will be the inspiration for the character of Marguerite of his most famous work, "the master and Margarita", begun in 1928. In later years, therefore, Mikhail continues to work in "the master and Margarita", dedicated to new plays, stories, criticism, booklets and theatrical adaptations of short stories: most of these works, however, is never published, and many others are torn to shreds by critics.
In recent years Thirty collaborates with the Bolshoi Theatre as librettist and consultant, but soon leaves the post after becoming aware that none of his work would never be produced. Saved from persecution and from arrest only thanks to the personal support of Joseph Stalin, Bulgakov is still caged, why can not see published his writings: Tales and plays were banned one after another. When "Batum," his latest work that offers a positive portrait of the early days of the revolution, Stalin is censored even before the tests, he-now disillusioned and exhausted-calls again for permission to leave the country: the opportunity, however, he was denied again.
While his health worsen progressively, Bulgakov is dedicating the last years of his life to writing: his mood, however, is very bumpy, and leads to sudden optimism (which cause him to believe that the publication of "the master and Margarita" is still possible) alternating with falls in the darkest depression (which they do sink into dark days where it feels to have no more hopes). In 1939, in precarious conditions now, arrange a private reading of "the master and Margarita", proposed to his small circle of friends. On 19 March of 1940, barely fifty years of age, Mikhail Bulgakov dies in Moscow because of a nephrosclerosis (which had also been the cause of his father's death): his body was buried in Novodevichy monastery.
Article contributed by the team of collaborators.