Mikhail Bulgakov

Mikhail Afanasyevich Bulgakov was a Russian writer, playwright, theater director, and actor. He was the author of novellas, short stories, feuilletons, plays, dramatizations, screenplays, and opera librettos.

Mikhail Bulgakov was born into the family of Afanasy Ivanovich Bulgakov, an associate professor at the Kiev Theological Academy, and his wife Varvara Mikhailovna. There were seven children in the family. In 1909, Mikhail Bulgakov graduated from the First Kiev Gymnasium and entered the medical faculty of Kiev University. On October 31, 1916, he received a diploma confirming him “to the degree of physician with distinction with all the rights and privileges assigned by the laws of the Russian Empire to this degree.”

In 1913, M. Bulgakov entered his first marriage, to Tatyana Lappa. Their financial difficulties began on the very day of the wedding. According to Tatyana’s recollections, this is clearly evident: “Of course I had no veil, and no wedding dress either — I had somehow spent all the money my father had sent. Mother came for the church wedding and was horrified. I had a linen pleated skirt, and mother bought a blouse. Father Alexander officiated at the wedding. ...For some reason, everyone laughed terribly under the crowns. We went home after the church in a carriage. There were few guests at the wedding dinner. I remember there were many flowers, especially daffodils...”

Tatyana’s father sent 50 rubles a month, a respectable sum in those days. But the money quickly melted away in their wallet, since Bulgakov did not like to economize and was a man of impulse. If he wanted to take a taxi with his last money, he would do so without hesitation. “Mother scolded him for frivolity. When we came to her for dinner, she saw that I had neither rings nor my chain. ‘Well, then everything is at the pawnshop!’”

After the outbreak of World War I, M. Bulgakov worked for several months as a doctor in the front-line zone. He was then sent to work in the village of Nikolskoye in Smolensk Governor