Let's Talk About The Master and Margarita!

When I was younger, I pretty much ran away from the Russians, finding refuge in the Irish. Yes, I did start Tolstoy's War and Peace, only to be saved by the federal government. It was not much a save - I wound up finally reading Tolstoy, and learning how wonderful as War and Peace. The same happened with Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment - OI was to have read it my Senior year of high school and could not get past the third chapter. But the Russian novel that truly showed me the Russians were not to be run from was Mikhail Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita. I can admire Tolstoy and Dostoevsky, but Bulgakov I like. He made me laugh.

What else I have written about Bulgakov can be found here.

The Master, Margarita, and I: Paul Goldberg on the Third Rail of the Russian Classic by  Paul Goldberg presents a perhaps more balanced view of the novel's qualities:

He starts with a short summary of its history and themes:

The Master and Margarita quickly became one of the most-read works of Russian literature, and its popularity seems to expand even as readers acknowledge not being able to understand much if any of it. I sympathize. Though this novel drew me in at a young age, and though I re-read it often, our relationship has required much maintenance and has not been harmonious.

The Master and Margarita weaves together three stories: (1) the appearance of Satan in Moscow in the early 1930s, (2) a love story between the Master—a writer hounded by critics—and Margarita, an unhappily married woman, and (3) the Master’s novel about Pontius Pilate, the Gospel according to Bulgakov.

Yes, Satan is loose in Stalin's Moscow. Goldberg finds his own sort of strangeness when goes to Russia asking questions about Bulgakov's novel.

I can confirm that mysterious events can occur when one asks well-formulated questions about Bulgakov.

On the first afternoon in St. Petersburg, at an outdoor stall on Nevsky Prospect, I found a slim book titled The Master and Margarita: With Christ or Against, by Protodeacon Andrey Kuraev. Literally the first book I saw after landing contained direct answers to questions I spent years formulating. Did I find that book, or was it the other way around? Was that what you call a Bulgakov moment? Was Mikhail Afanasyevich, wherever he is, engaging in dialogue, or am I crazy?

Paging through With Christ or Against, I noted that the bookseller’s stall was located across Nevsky from the Kazan Cathedral, which once housed the Museum of the History of Religion and Atheism. The purpose of that defunct museum (which, alas, I visited years earlier) echoes the events that take place in Chapter 1 of The Master and Margarita, where Satan, upon appearing at Moscow’s Patriarch’s Ponds, engages in discussion with two Soviet litterateurs, who proceed to tell him unequivocally that neither God nor Satan can possibly exist.

On the other hand, Mr. Goldberg attributes a Soviet in faith to this novel. I just find it a grand experience.

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The page is now working for me, so I will finish off with a quote:

Apropos Faust, in his wonderful little book, Kuraev reminds us why Satan is in the business of acquiring human souls. Being a fallen angel, he lacks creativity, which man possesses. He finds us entertaining.

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By way of an epilogue, as Kuraev’s fan, I learned that in April 2023 he was defrocked by Patriarch Kirill of Moscow. The robed apparatchik whom Pope Francis has described as “Putin’s altar boy” cited Kuraev’s “destructive antichurch activities.” These seem to have included speaking out against pedophile priests, objecting to prosecution of members of the feminist rock and performance art group Pussy Riot, and criticizing the role of the Russian Orthodox Church for its unequivocal support of Putin’s government and the invasion of Ukraine.

The priest, it seems, is a proponent of harmful ideas espoused by a certain Jesus of Nazareth.

Creative, yes. The Master and Margarita is as good example of creativity without unnecessary mannerisms that I can think of off the top of my head, and then there is its sense of humor.

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