کتاب صوتی مرشد و مارگاریتا📖بولگاکف

نوشتهٔ میخائیل بولگاکف

The Master and Margarita

با صدای ایمان افشاریان

مُرشد و مارگاریتا (نام روسی:Мастер и Маргарита) رمانی روسی نوشتهٔ میخائیل بولگاکف، و شناخته‌شده‌ترین کار او است.[۱][۲] به باور بسیاری این اثر در شمار بزرگ‌ترین آثار ادبیات روسیه (شوروی) در سده بیستم است. بیش از صد کتاب و مقاله دربارهٔ این کتاب نگاشته شده‌است.[۳]

بولگاکف نوشتن این رمان را در سال ۱۹۲۸ آغاز کرد و اولین نسخه خطی آن را دو سال بعد به دست خود آتش زد. دلیل این کار احتمالاً ناامیدی به دلیل شرایط خفقان‌آور آن زمان اتحاد جماهیر شوروی بوده‌است. در سال ۱۹۳۱ بولگاکف دوباره کار بر روی این رمان را آغاز کرد و پیش‌نویس دوم در سال ۱۹۳۵ به پایان رسید. کار بر روی سومین پیش‌نویس نیز در سال ۱۹۳۷ به پایان رسید و بولگاکف با کمک گرفتن از همسرش، به دلیل بیماری، کار بر روی نسخه چهارم پیش‌نویس را تا چهار هفته پیش از مرگش در سال ۱۹۴۰ ادامه داد.

مرشد و مارگاریتا در نهایت در سال ۱۹۴۱ توسط همسر بولگاکف به پایان رسید، اما در زمان استالین اجازه چاپ به این اثر داده نشد و سرانجام ۲۷ سال پس از مرگ بولگاکف بود که نسخهٔ سانسورشده‌ای از کتاب منتشر شد.[۴] کتاب در سال ۱۹۶۵ با حذف ۲۵ صفحه و تغییر برخی نام‌ها و مکان‌های ذکر شده در تیراژ محدودی به چاپ رسید که با استقبال شدید مردم مواجه شد. نسخه‌های آن یک‌شبه به فروش رفت و کتاب با قیمتی نزدیک به صد برابر قیمت روی جلد به کالایی در بازار سیاه تبدیل شد.[۳]

رمان از سه داستان موازی تشکیل شده‌است که در نهایت یکپارچه می‌شوند: سفر شیطان به مسکو، داستان پونتیوس پیلاطس و به صلیب کشیده شدن مسیح و عشق مرشد و مارگریتا.[۳]

خلاصه داستان[ویرایش]

داستان با هم‌صحبتی و قدم زدن دو روشنفکر لاییک و رسمی (دو شخصیت مهم داستان) در یکی از پارک‌های مسکو آغاز می‌شود: یکی میخاییل الکساندر، یا همان برلیوز نویسنده‌ای مشهور و سردبیر یکی از مجله‌های وزین ادبی پایتخت و رئیس کمیته مدیریت یکی از محافل ادبی مسکو و دیگری جوان شاعری به نام ایوان نیکولاییچ پونیریف که با نام مستعار بزدومنی شناخته می‌شود. برلیوز به نوعی نماینده روشنفکران رسمی و صاحب باند و باندبازی‌های ادبی است که محافل مافیایی ادبی راه می‌اندازند و اندیشه‌ای سطحی و تک‌بعدی دارند و دگراندیشان را مجال رشد و نمو و شکوفایی نمی‌دهند و تنها به آنان که مرید و سرسپرده‌شان باشند اجازه فعالیت می‌دهند و دیگران را زیر پا له می‌کنند، شعر و آثار سفارشی می‌پذیرند و شبکه‌ای تار عنکبوتی در تمام نشریات مهم و سرشناس تنیده‌اند. سایه این روشنفکران و نویسندگان رسمی بر تمام عرصه ادبی و محافل نویسندگی سنگینی می‌کند و نگاه تحمیلی‌شان در همه جا گسترده‌است. یکی از قربانیان این باندهای مافیایی، قهرمان این رمان یعنی مرشد است که در فصل‌های بعدی رمان ظاهر می‌شود و می‌بینیم که این حضرات ریش و سبیل‌دار چه بلایی به سر او با آن همه خلاقیت و عشق و شور آورده‌اند.

برلیوز و بزدومنی به شکلی اتفاقی در پاتریارک پاندز یکی از پارک‌های مسکو با ولند (Woland) روبرو می‌شوند. بزدومنی که به تازگی شعری ضد مذهبی از سوی برلیوز سفارش گرفته‌است آن را به او می‌سپارد تا در نشریه‌اش چاپ کند و با هم در مورد ماجرای مصلوب شدن مسیح حرف می‌زنند و برلیوز وجود خارجی عیسی ناصری را از اساس انکار می‌کند و آن را ساخته ذهن تاریخ‌نویسان و کاهنان قوم می‌داند. درست در همین زمان سر و کله ولند در چهره یک پروفسور خارجی پیدا می‌شود و در مورد ماجرای مسیح آن‌ها را به چالش می‌گیرد. او داستان را که در واقع فصلی از کتاب چاپ‌نشده مرشد است و در فصل‌های بعد با او آشنا می‌شویم به گونه‌ای بسیار قوی و اثرگذار روایت می‌کند. قدرت بیان او با مرگ ناگهانی و تکان‌دهندهٔ برلیوز که اندکی بعد اتفاق می‌افتد و از سوی ولند از قبل پیش‌بینی شده بود، چنان اثر شگفتی بر شاعر جوان می‌گذارد که روان او را از هم می‌گسلد و وی را راهی بیمارستان روانی می‌کند و او که در اثر این حادثه ضربه هولناکی خورده و تمام باورهایش به هم ریخته و به‌تدریج در اثر آن تحولی ژرف در اندیشه‌اش پدید می‌آید به تمامی شفا نمی‌یابد تا این‌که با مرشد در همان بیمارستان ملاقات می‌کند و این ملاقات راه هدایت و رستگاری را بر او می‌گشاید.

در پایان این داستان شگفت و در یک فضای سیال و فرار سورئالیستی دو دلداده یعنی مرشد و مارگریتا که اکنون به کمک ابلیس به وصال هم رسیده‌اند، هر دو سوار بر اسب، سرخوش و شادان به دنبال ولند از آستان این جهان می‌گذرند و برای آخرین بار مسکو را از فراز تپه‌ای می‌نگرند. شهری که یادآور اورشلیم عهد عیسای ناصری است و اکنون در پی توفان سختی که آن را فرا گرفته در تاریکی و ظلمت محض فرومی‌رود. آنان سبکبار و سبک‌بال دست در دست یکدیگر از کرانه‌های این جهان می‌گذرند و پا به جهان ابدی می‌گذارند.[۵]

تأثیرگذاری و اقتباس[ویرایش]

• کتاب مرشد و مارگریتا تأثیر زیادی از کتاب فاوست گوته گرفته‌است.[۳]
• آهنگ همدردی با شیطان اثر رولینگ استونز هم بر اساس این رمان نوشته شده و ارجاعاتی به این اثر دارد.

به فارسی[ویرایش]

نخستین ترجمه فارسی از این کتاب را عباس میلانی انجام داده‌است. کار ترجمه از سال ۱۳۶۰ شروع شد و یک سال طول کشید. انتشارات فرهنگ نو آن را در سال ۱۳۶۲ در تیراژ پنج هزار نسخه منتشر کرد. روزنامه ایران در گزارشی که به مناسبت چاپ بیستم این ترجمه در سال ۱۳۹۷ منتشر کرد، نوشت که یکصد هزار نسخه از این ترجمه به فروش فروش رفته‌است.[۶]

حمید رضا آتش بر آب هم آن را از متن روسی ترجمه کرده‌است.

The Master and Margarita (Russian: Мастер и Маргарита) is a novel by Soviet writer Mikhail Bulgakov, written in the Soviet Union between 1928 and 1940 during Stalin's regime. A censored version, with several chapters cut by editors, was published in Moscow magazine in 1966–1967, after the writer's death, by his widow. The manuscript was not published as a book until 1967, in Paris. 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.

The story concerns a visit by the devil and his entourage to the officially atheistic Soviet Union. The devil, manifested as one Professor Woland, challenges the Soviet citizen's beliefs towards 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.[1][2]

History[edit]

Mikhail Bulgakov was a playwright and author. He started writing the novel in 1928, but burned the first manuscript in 1930 (just as his character The Master did) as he could not see a future as a writer in the Soviet Union at a time of widespread political repression.[3] 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.[4] 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 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).[5] 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.[6] The text, as published in the magazine Moskva in 1968, was swiftly translated into Estonian, remaining for decades the only printed edition of the novel in book form in the Soviet Union.[7] 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 (Frankfurt) printed a version produced with the aid of these inserts.

In the Soviet Union, the novel was first published in book form in Estonian in 1968 with some passages edited out. 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. The last version, based on all available manuscripts, was prepared by Lidiya Yanovskaya.

Plot[edit]

The novel has two settings. The first is Moscow during the 1930s, where Satan appears at Patriarch's Ponds as Professor Woland. He is accompanied by Koroviev, a grotesquely dressed valet; Behemoth, a black cat; Azazello, a hitman; and Hella, a female vampire. They target the literary elite and Massolit, their trade union,[note 1] whose headquarters is Griboyedov House. Massolit consists of corrupt social climbers: bureaucrats, profiteers, and cynics. The second setting is the Jerusalem of Pontius Pilate: Pilate's trial of Yeshua Ha-Notsri (Jesus of Nazareth), 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.

The novel's first part includes satirical depictions of Massolit and Griboyedov House; Satan's magic show at a variety theatre, satirizing the vanity, greed, and gullibility of the new elite; and Woland and his retinue appropriating Berlioz's apartment after his death. (Apartments – scarce in Moscow – were controlled by the state, and Bulgakov based the novel's apartment on his own.)

Part one opens with a confrontation between Berlioz (the head of Massolit) and Woland, who prophesies that Berlioz will die later that evening. This interaction between Woland and Berlioz is mirrored by the trial of Yeshua by Pontius Pilate. Woland entrances Ivan and Berlioz in the story that leads up to Yeshua's execution. In the story, Yeshua is presented as having inhuman characteristics. Woland tells this story to convince his audience of God's existence, but the two Soviet authors refuse to believe him. Although Berlioz dismisses his death prophecy as insane raving, he dies as the professor predicted. The fulfillment of his death prophecy is witnessed by Ivan Nikolaevich Ponyrev, a young, enthusiastic, modern poet who uses the pen name Bezdomny ("homeless"). His nom de plume alludes to Maxim Gorky (Maxim the Bitter), Demyan Bedny (Demyan the Poor), and Michail Golodny (Michail the Hungry). His futile attempts to capture the "gang" (Woland and his entourage) and his warnings about their evil nature land Ivan in a lunatic psychiatric clinic, where he is treated by Stravinsky, a local doctor. The care he receives in the clinic is very good, especially by the standards of the time. It thus serves as an important place in the novel for many characters who Woland confronts, and derives special importance from its bringing together of Ivan and the Master, an embittered author whose name connects to the title of the text. Master explains to Ivan that the rejection of his novel about Pontius Pilate and Christ led the Master to burn his manuscript in despair and turn his back on Margarita, his devoted lover.

In Moscow, Woland and his retinue put on a show at the Variety theater. During the show master of ceremonies Bengalsky's head is ripped off then reattached at the urging of the audience. The audience is amazed when Koroviev makes money rain down and when Woland's retinue gives out luxury fashion items to the women of the audience. Later the money and clothes disappear, causing chaos and embarrassment. Here, Bulgakov portrays women's and men's sins very differently. The women of Moscow are condemned for accepting free clothing, while the men are condemned for adultery, excessive greed, etc., and the two are portrayed as equivalent transgressions. During this performance, Woland notes the lack of moral progress made in Soviet society, remarking that despite their technological advancements such as "buses, telephones, and other [apparatuses]," Muscovites remain "people like any other people... they love money, but that has always been so." This scene is a key moment in Bulgakov's societal criticism.

Ivan dreams of the execution of Yeshua as witnessed by Matthew Levi. In an attempt to save Yeshua from a torturous death, Levi steals a knife to kill him quickly, but he is too late to reach Yeshua. Yeshua hangs on the cross and suffers in the excruciating heat for hours until an executioner offers him some water and kills him. Levi cuts down Yeshua's body and carries it away.

Back in Moscow, after Woland's performance, the city is thrown into confusion. At the Variety Theatre, the highest-ranking employee left is Vassily Stepanovich, the bookkeeper. His attempt to make sense of the show's aftermath reveals a trail of chaos left by Woland and his retinue. Rubles are transforming into insects, beaurcrats have been replaced by animate suits, and entire offices have been cursed to break into song against their will. Similarly, Berlioz's uncle's attempt to reclaim his late nephew's apartment is thwarted by Behemoth and Azezello, who send him violently off. Immediately thereafter, Andrei Sokov, barman at the Variety Theatre, visits the apartment. Woland welcomes him in, offering fine food and drink, though Sokov declines these niceties. After some conversation, Woland reveals to Sokov that he will soon die of liver cancer and suggests that he spends his savings to enjoy a short life of hedonism.

Part two introduces Margarita, the Master's mistress, who refuses to despair of her lover and his work. Azazello gives her a magical skin ointment and invites her to the Devil's midnight Good Friday ball, where Woland gives her the chance to become a witch.

Margarita enters the realm of night and learns to fly and control her unleashed passions. Natasha, her maid, accompanies her as they fly over the Soviet Union's deep forests and rivers. Margarita bathes and returns to Moscow with Azazello as the hostess of Satan's spring ball. At Koroviev's side, she welcomes dark historical figures as they arrive from Hell.

Margarita survives the ordeal, and Satan offers to grant her deepest wish and she asks for another person, she asks to free a woman she met at the ball from eternal punishment. The woman, who had been raped, murdered her child; her punishment was to wake each morning next to the handkerchief she used to smother it. Satan tells Margarita that she liberated the woman, and still has a wish to claim from him. She asks for the Master to be delivered to her and he appears, dazed and thinking he is still in the lunatic asylum. They are returned to the basement apartment which had been their love nest.

Matthew Levi delivers the verdict to Woland: the reunited couple will be sent to the afterlife. Azazello brings them a gift from Woland: a bottle of Pontius Pilate's (poisoned) wine. The Master and Margarita die; Azazello brings their souls to Satan and his retinue (awaiting them on horseback on a Moscow rooftop), and they fly away into the unknown, as cupolas and windows burn in the setting sun, leaving Earth behind and traveling into dark cosmic space. The Master and Margarita will spend eternity together in a shady, pleasant region resembling Dante Alighieri's Limbo, in a house under flowering cherry trees.

Woland and his retinue, including the Master and Margarita, become pure spirits. Moscow's authorities attribute its strange events to hysteria and mass hypnosis. In the final chapter, Woland tells the Master to finish his novel about Pontius Pilate – condemned by cowardice to limbo for eternity. The Master shouts "You are free! He is waiting for you!"; Pontius Pilate is freed, walking and talking with the Yeshua whose spirit and philosophy he had secretly admired. Moscow is now peaceful, although some experience great disquiet every May full moon. Ivan Ponyrev becomes a professor of philosophy, but he does not write poetry anymore.

Interpretations[edit]

There are several interpretations of the novel:

• Response to aggressive atheistic propaganda

Some critics suggest that Bulgakov was responding to poets and writers whom 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 the aggressively "godless people." There is justification in both the Moscow and 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.[citation needed]

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 existence of Jesus, only prevailed in the Soviet propaganda at the turn of the 1920s and 1930s.[8]

• Reflection of Bulgakov's experiences as a Soviet writer

Commentators often note autobiographical elements in the novel.[9] Beyond parallels between fictional characters and Bulgakov's acquaintances, the work has been examined as a reflection of Bulgakov's own psychological troubles[10] 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",[10] which she defined as a "paradoxical figure of evil that appears malevolent, yet works towards an individual's psychological renewal".[10] 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,[11] rather than Bulgakov's own view of evil. Weeks interprets this as "Bulgakov's return to elements of his own childhood."[10]

• 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' treachery, despite Pilate's hints, because he saw only good in people. He couldn't protect himself, because he didn't 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.[citation needed]

The Spring Festival Ball at Spaso House[edit]

Spaso House

On 24 April 1935, Bulgakov was among the invited guests who attended the Spring Festival at Spaso House, the residence of the U.S. Ambassador to the Soviet Union, hosted by Ambassador William Bullitt. Critics believe Bulgakov drew from this extravagant event for his novel. In the middle of the Great Depression and Stalinist repression, Bullitt had instructed his staff to create an event that would surpass every other Embassy party in Moscow's history. The decorations included a forest of ten young birch trees in the chandelier room; a dining room table covered with Finnish tulips; a lawn made of chicory grown on wet felt; a fishnet aviary filled with pheasants, parakeets, and one hundred zebra finches, on loan from the Moscow Zoo; and a menagerie including several mountain goats, a dozen white roosters, and a baby bear.[12]

Although Joseph Stalin didn't attend, the 400 elite guests at the festival included Foreign Minister Maxim Litvinov, Defense Minister Kliment Voroshilov, Communist Party heavyweights Nikolai Bukharin, Lazar Kaganovich, and Karl Radek, Soviet Marshals Aleksandr Yegorov, Mikhail Tukhachevsky, and Semyon Budyonny, and other high-ranking guests.[citation needed]

The festival lasted until the early hours of the morning. The bear became drunk on champagne given to him by Karl Radek. In the early morning hours, the zebra finches escaped from the aviary and perched below the ceilings around the house.

In his novel, Bulgakov featured the Spring Ball of the Full Moon, considered to be one of the most memorable episodes.[13] On 29 October 2010, seventy-five years after the original ball, John Beyrle, U.S. Ambassador to the Russian Federation, hosted an Enchanted Ball at Spaso House, recreating the spirit of the original ball as a tribute to Ambassador Bullitt and Bulgakov.[14]

Major characters[edit]

Contemporary Russians[edit]

The Master

An author who wrote a novel about the meeting of Pontius Pilate and Yeshua Ha-Notsri (Jesus of Nazareth), which was rejected by the Soviet literary bureaucracy, ruining his career. He is "detained for questioning" for three months by the secret police because of a false report by an unscrupulous neighbor. Later, he is committed to a psychiatric clinic, where Bezdomny meets him. Little else is given about this character's past other than his belief that his life began to have meaning when he met Margarita. The Master is an author surrogate for Bulgakov himself, as he represents Bulgakov's own struggles with censorship, criticism and stifled creativity in the Soviet Union. Further underscoring The Master's role as Bulgakov's shadow, The Master's title allegedly stems from a nickname that the United States Ambassador to the Soviet Union William Bullitt coined for Bulgakov.

Margarita

The Master's lover. Trapped in a passionless marriage, she devoted herself to the Master, whom she thinks may Azazello and serves as the hostess of Satan's Grand Ball on Walpurgis Night. Her character is believed to have been inspired by Bulgakov's last wife, Elena Bulgakova, whom he called "my Margarita".[citation needed] He may also have been influenced by Faust's Gretchen, whose full name is Margarita, as well as by Queen Marguerite de Valois. The latter is featured as the main character of the opera Les Huguenots by Giacomo Meyerbeer, which Bulgakov particularly enjoyed, and Alexandre Dumas' novel, La Reine Margot. In these accounts, the queen is portrayed as daring and passionate.

Mikhail Alexandrovich Berlioz

Head of the literary bureaucracy MASSOLIT. He bears the last name (Берлиоз) of French composer Hector Berlioz, who wrote the opera The Damnation of Faust. Berlioz insists to Ivan Nikolayevich Ponyryov that the Gospel Jesus was a mythical figure with no historical basis. Woland predicts that he will be decapitated by a young Soviet woman, which comes to pass when he gets run over (and beheaded) by a tram.

Ivan Nikolayevich Ponyryov (Bezdomny)

A young, aspiring poet. His pen name, Bezdomny (Иван Бездомный), means "homeless". Initially a willing tool of the MASSOLIT apparatus, he is transformed by the events of the novel. He witnesses Berlioz's death and nearly goes mad when other characters insist he is mistaken about Woland's existence and prediction of Berlioz's death (causing him to question his sanity). However, he later meets the Master in an psychiatric clinic, where he decides to stop writing poetry and comes to terms with the tragedy. Before settling on Bezdomny, Bulgakov tried many other names in earlier versions of the novel, including Bezrodny ("the lonely"), Besprizorn ("the unprotected"), Bezbrezhni ("the boundless") and many others.[15] Proletarian writers often used similar pseudonyms; a notable example is Maxim Gorky ("the bitter").[15]

Stephan Bogdanovich Likhodeyev

Director of the Variety Theatre and Berlioz's roommate, often called by the diminutive name Styopa (Stepa). His surname is derived from the Russian word for "malfeasant". For his wicked deeds (denouncing at least five innocent people as spies so that he and Berlioz could grab their multi-bedroom apartment), he is magically teleported to Yalta, thereby freeing up the stolen apartment for Woland and his retinue.

Grigory Danilovich Rimsky

Treasurer of the Variety Theatre. Rimsky is the only character to escape from an attack by Woland's entourage. Despite trying to find logical explanations for odd phenomena, he realizes that Varenukha is lying to him when he outlines a seemingly reasonable explanation for where Styopa went, and correctly identifies that Varenukha has no shadow, which is impossible under normal circumstances. On the night of Woland's performance, Rimsky is ambushed by Varenukha (who has been turned into a vampire by Woland's gang) and Hella. He barely escapes the encounter and flees to the train station to get out of the city.

Ivan Savelyevich Varenukha

House-manager of the Variety Theatre, whose surname refers to a traditional Ukrainian spiced vodka resembling mulled wine. He is turned into a creature of darkness but is forgiven by the end of Walpurgis Night, restoring his humanity.

Alexander Riukhin

Poet who brings Ivan to Dr. Stravinsky's psychiatric clinic. He is tormented by Ivan's insults of the integrity of his poetry and acknowledges his poetry is bad because he doesn't believe in anything he writes. As the night ends, he mourns the loss of the night of fun and feasting he could've had at Griboedov's.

Natasha (Natalia Prokofyevna)

Margarita's young maid, later turned into a witch after using the Azazello's magic cream on herself.

Nikolai Ivanovich

Margarita's downstairs neighbor, who rubs Azazello's magic cream on himself and turns into a hog. Natasha rides Nikolai (as a hog) to Woland's Ball. He receives a certificate from Woland that confirms his activity of attending the ball and turning into a hog during the night of the ball.

Nikanor Ivanovich Bosoy

Chairman of the House Committee at 302A Sadovaya Street (the former residence of Berlioz). Unlike regular Moscow citizens, who often live in communal apartments, thanks to his status Bosoy is able to live in a single apartment with his wife. When talking to Koroviev, Bosoy accepts a bribe. For his greed and trickery, he is deceived by Korovyev and later arrested for having foreign currency.

Maximilian Andreevich Poplavsky

Uncle of Mikhail Alexandrovich Berlioz. He is a highly educated man who comes to Moscow from Kyiv in an attempt to claim Berlioz's Moscow apartment. When he arrives, he is mocked by Koroviev for trying to take advantage of Berlioz's death while not feeling any genuine grief for the deceased. Ultimately, he is sent home by Woland's retinue.

Andrei Fokich Sokov

Sokov, the barman at the Variety Theater, is a short, bald, and outwardly-humble character. In an apartment commandeered by Woland and his retinue, Sokov is interrogated and ultimately it is revealed that, behind his humble and well-behaved veil, the barman has amassed an enormous fortune. He is then told by Woland that he will die of liver cancer in nine months time, and finds himself in Professor Kuzmin's office desperately begging to be cured.

Doctor Stravinsky

The head of the clinic in which The Master, “Homeless,” and other characters reside, Stravinsky plays an important role in the novel. When Ivan arrives in the clinic after witnessing Berlioz’s decapitation, Stravinsky diagnoses him with Schizophrenia and Alcoholism, and insists he remains in the clinic because he believes Ivan's story is a sign of mental illness. Ivan insists upon leaving the clinic, but Stravinsky manipulates Ivan in discussion and convinces Ivan that he must remain there.

George Bengalsky

The master of ceremonies at the Variety Theater. Bengalsky, after commenting on black magic at Woland's performance, is beheaded by Woland's retinue. His head is returned after the audience forgives him. Later, it is implied that he is in Stravinsky's clinic.

Vassily Stepanovich Lastochkin

The bookkeeper at the Variety Theater. Described by Bulgakov as "precise and efficient," Lastochkin is not present for Woland's séance and is left to make sense of the event's aftermath for the police as the theater's most senior remaining member. After being questioned by the police, Lastochkin heads to the Commission on Spectacles and Entertainment of the Lighter Type to explain the prior day's events but is greeted by pandemonium as the chairman has been turned into a talking suit. Unable to file his report there, Lastochkin continues on his way to the commission's affiliate, where he encounters further havoc as the staff has been forced to sing uncontrollably. His final stop of the day takes him to the bank to deposit the Variety's earnings from Woland's performance. There, upon discovering that the fares have turned into thousands in various foreign currencies, Lastochkin is promptly and unceremoniously arrested.

Woland and his entourage[edit]

Woland

Woland (Воланд, also spelled as Voland) is Satan in the disguise of a "foreign professor" who is "in Moscow to present a performance of 'black magic' and then expose its machinations". Woland instead exposes the greed and bourgeois behaviour of the spectators themselves. Woland is also mentioned in Faust when Mephistopheles announces to the witches to beware because 'Squire Voland is here'. Along with that, it is highly implied throughout the novel that he is present as the devil in the form of a sparrow (such as in the Pilate narrative). In the previous versions of The Master and Margarita, Woland's name changed multiple times. In the second version from 1929, his name was Dr Theodor Voland. The name was written down and given to Ivan Bezdomniy in Greek letters as opposed to the Cyrillic letters. In a subsequent version of the novel, Woland's name changed to господин [gospodin] or seigneur Azazello Woland. The demon we now know as Azazello was called Fiello. Only in 1934, the definitive names of Woland and Azazello got their final meaning.[16]

Behemoth

An enormous demonic black cat (said to be as big as a hog) who speaks, walks on two legs, and can transform into human shape for brief periods of time. He has a penchant for chess, vodka, pistols, and obnoxious sarcasm. He is evidently the least-respected member of Woland's team – Margarita boldly takes to slapping Behemoth on the head after one of his many ill-timed jokes, without fear of retaliation. In the last chapters, it appears that Behemoth is a demon pageboy, the best clown in the world. His name (Бегемот) refers to both the Biblical monster and the Russian word for hippopotamus. Behemoth is a well-known character from The Master and Margarita, and he is frequently depicted. However, in the original version of the novel from 1928 to 1929, which was titled The Black Magician, there was a sentence mentioning the presence of a second cat on the curtain rod when the theatre's buffet master visits Woland. Bulgakov later abandoned the idea of having two cats in the story.[16]

Korovyev

Also known as Fagotto (Фагот, meaning "bassoon" in Russian and other languages), he's described as an "ex-choirmaster", perhaps implying that he was once a member of an angelic choir. Korovyev's name is also based off the Russian word for "cow" (Корова), a reference to Charles Gounod's Faust, where Mephistopheles praises a "Calf of Gold". Being the only member of Woland and his entourage with a Russian name, he is Woland's assistant and translator, and is capable of creating any illusion. Unlike Behemoth and Azazello, he doesn't use violence at any point. Like Behemoth, his true form is revealed at the end: a never-smiling dark knight. In penance for a poorly made joke he was forced to assume the role of a jester; he paid off his debt by serving Satan on his Moscow journey. Vasily Ivanovich Shverubovich (1875-1948), an actor at the Moscow