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Revision as of 05:57, 24 January 2003 by Atorpen (talk | contribs) (some biography)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)Mikhail Bulgakov (May 15, 1891 - March 10, 1940), was a Ukrainian-born Soviet novelist and playwright of the first half of the 20th century.
Mikhail Bulgakov was born in Kiev, Ukraine. Even during his life, Bulgakov was famous for his books Notes of a Country Doctor and White Guard.
However it is the fantasy/morality novel The Master and Margarita, published almost thirty years after his death, in 1967, that has granted him immortality. However, the book was available, samizdat, for many years in the Soviet Union. In the opinion of many, The Master and Margarita is the best Russian novel of the century and the best of the Soviet novels ever.
The Bulgakov sons enlisted in the White Army, and in post-Civil War Russia, ended up in Paris, save for Mikhail. Mikhail Bulgakove, who enlisted as a field doctor, ended up in the Caucasus, where he geventually began working as a journalist. Bulgakove was never granted a visa to visit his brothers in the West.
In 1913 Bulgakov married Tatyana Lappa. In 1916, Bulgakov graduated from the Medical School of Kiev University. In 1921, he moved with Tatyana to Moscow. Three years later, divorced from his first wife, he married Liubov' Belozerskaia. In 1932, Bulgakov married for the third time, to Elena Shilovskaia. During this last decade of his life, along with The Master and Margarita, Bulgakov occupied himself extensively with adapting various novels for the stage.
Various authors and musicians have credited The Master and Margarita as inspiration for certain works. Salman Rushdie's novel, The Satanic Verses, for example, clearly was influenced by Bulgakov's masterwork. The Rolling Stones have said the novel was key in their song, "Sympathy for the Devil". The grunge band Pearl Jam were influenced by the confrontation between Yeshua Ha-Notsri and Pontius Pilate for their 1998 song, "Pilate".
Works
- Notes on Cuffs
- Notes of a Country Doctor
- Days of the Turbans {play}
- The Cabal of Hypocrites (play)
- Pushkin (The Last Days) (play)
- Batum (play)
- White Guard
- Heart of a Dog
- Master and Margarita