Published on: 2026-08-24
Source: Moscow Government – Правительства Москвы –
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In The Mikhail Bulgakov Museum, under the jurisdiction of the capital’s Department of Culture, in “an undesirable apartment” on Bolshaya Sadovaya, an exhibition “Manuscripts Don’t Burn” dedicated to the 60th anniversary of the publication of the first part of “The Master and Margarita” has opened. Curator Maria Kotova told mos.ru about the first drafts of the novel, their fate, and much more.
“A Bad Apartment”
Mikhail Bulgakov arrived in Moscow together with his wife Tatyana Lappa at the end of September 1921. He was 30 years old, had worked as a doctor in frontline hospitals during the First World War, participated in the Civil War, and lived in the North Caucasus.
A married couple rented a room in a communal apartment at house 10, building 50 on Bolshaya Sadovaya Street — an impressive five-story Art Nouveau building constructed in 1903–1904. It became a communal apartment after the revolution; before that, it was known as the revenue house of merchant and tobacco magnate Ilya Pigit. The room where Bulgakov settled belonged to his sister and her husband; the other nine rooms housed 16 people.
Mikhail Afanasyevich did not like this house. What annoyed him the most were the quarrels of the neighbors, because of which the police had to be called more than once. But it was here that he wrote very important works: “The White Guard,” “Diaboliad,” “The Fatal Eggs,” and others. However, he admitted that his little room was much better than many — for example, one such room was where his friend Ilya Ilf lived, whom Bulgakov visited.
“When I came home, I felt for the first time that everything in the world is relative and conditional. I imagined that I was living in a palace, and at every door stood a powdered footman in a red livery — and there was dead silence,” he wrote in the story “Moscow in the 1920s.”
A Novel About Supernatural Forces
The writer began working on the novel, which would later be titled “The Master and Margarita,” in 1928 — by that time he had already separated from his first wife, married Lyubov Belozerskaya, and moved to Bolshaya Pirogovskaya Street, not in a communal apartment but in a separate one (albeit rented).
The novel about the devil who visited Moscow was born at night, when the whole world around was silent. Researchers believe that the habit of writing at night originated back in the apartment on Bolshaya Sadovaya Street, which only quieted down late in the evening. In May 1929, the writer handed over a chapter from the new book for printing — there is a receipt for this. This circumstance suggests that Bulgakov most likely saw something very topical and urgent in his work — and wanted to present it for judgment to his contemporaries.
But he met with failure — the chapter wasn’t published. The manuscript became only a first draft, and it differs significantly from the novel we know today. For example, Ivan Homeless’s route, as he chased after Woland, looked different: the poet runs along Tverskaya, then sees the pursued peeking out from the recently constructed Central Telegraph building; Ivan runs in there but does not find Woland. The entire Jerusalem section was presented as Woland’s story. The manuscript was called sometimes “The Engineer’s Hoof,” sometimes “The Great Chancellor,” sometimes “The Foreigner’s Horseshoe.” Neither the Master nor Margarita appeared in the initial drafts.
In 1930, Bulgakov burned drafts. But he thought: no one will believe that the manuscript existed if it is destroyed entirely. Therefore, the writer burned the notebooks by tearing out one page, then half a page, then a third. Researchers try to reconstruct and restore something based on what survived. Mikhail Bulgakov was in despair: theaters refused his plays, and he was persecuted in the press. Every day the writer would open newspapers and magazines, read insulting reviews and articles, then cut out the notes and glue them into a special album.
In March 1930, Bulgakov wrote a letter to Joseph Stalin requesting permission to leave the country. He wrote about his desperate situation as a writer who has no voice, about censorship, and about how he had thrown a draft of a novel and other works into the stove with his own hands.
There was no reply to the letter for a long time. But one day, when Bulgakov was resting after lunch, the phone rang in the apartment on Bolshaya Pirogovskaya. On the line, they said: “Comrade Stalin will speak with you.” Bulgakov thought it was a prank — his friends loved to joke. He hung up, but immediately the phone rang again. This time, he heard the leader’s own voice: “Is it true that we have bothered you too much? Maybe we should let you go abroad?” Bulgakov replied that he could not live in a foreign land. Soon he was reinstated in the theater, and the harassment ended for a while.
From Fesia to the Master
Bulgakov’s third wife, Elena Sergeyevna Shilovskaya, had a huge influence on the novel and became the writer’s muse. After their wedding in 1932, work on the book continued. In the summer of 1933, Bulgakov wrote to Vikenty Veresayev:
“A demon… possessed me. Already in Leningrad and now here, suffocating in my little rooms, I began to smudge page after page anew — that very novel I destroyed three years ago. Why? I don’t know. I am consoling myself! Let it fall into oblivion. However, I will probably abandon it.”
It was then that Margarita appeared, followed by the Master. The author once again began to play with titles; the manuscript did not carry the name “Prince of Darkness” for long. Bulgakov soon changed it to “The Master and Margarita.”
All the drafts share one beginning: two men appear at Patriarch’s Ponds, with whom Woland meets, and one of them is hit by a tram. Literary critic Marietta Chudakova suggested that perhaps Bulgakov conceived the idea for the book as early as the first half of the 1920s, when he often walked around Patriarch’s Ponds, but for various reasons the writer put the idea aside and returned to it only in 1928.
By the way, in early drafts there was also a character named Fesya, a specialist in the Middle Ages who studied demonology. He gave lectures and once met Leo Tolstoy at Okhotny Ryad. But then Bulgakov abandoned the character.
All these years the writer remembered the apartment on Bolshaya Sadovaya Street — and it was there that he settled Stepa Likhodeev, Mikhail Alexandrovich Berlioz, and then Woland’s retinue, changing the house number to 302-bis.
There is also another important difference between the drafts and the final version — there were many more fires: Petrovka was burning, Vagankovsky Lane was on fire, and there were rumors that arsonists had appeared in Moscow. Bulgakov eventually abandoned all of this as well, deciding to focus on the key images.
Annushka, the Ball, and the Behemoth
The book contains hints at certain real individuals. The prototype for Margarita was, of course, Elena Sergeevna. Their romance with Mikhail Afanasyevich from the very beginning resembled the story of the lovers in the novel: both were not free and met secretly.
Researchers name the scientist-folklorist Boris Yarho as the prototype for Fesya, who was ultimately cut out. There is a suggestion that this image was also influenced by the circle of Moscow intellectuals with whom Mikhail Bulgakov associated at the time. Marietta Chudakova believed that Fesya did not simply disappear but transformed into the Master.
Bulgakov’s Prechistenka. Exploring the new exhibition at the writer’s museum
The woman with whom Annushka with the butter was confused was Bulgakov’s neighbor in a communal apartment on Bolshaya Sadovaya. Her name was Anna Goryacheva — she loved to make scandals and, among other things, kept a rooster in her room. Once, in October 1923, Bulgakov made a note about her in his diary:
“Today, for the first time, it was flooded. I spent the whole evening sealing the windows. The first firing was marked by the fact that the famous Annushka left the kitchen window wide open overnight.”
The writer’s second wife, Lyubov Belozerskaya, was convinced that the prototype for the cat Behemoth was their mischievous kitten Flyushka, who lived with them in the apartment.
Even the Satan’s Ball has its prototype. Initially, Bulgakov described a small, intimate party: Margarita arrived at a “bad apartment” where an orchestra played and snacks were served. But then, in April 1935, the author attended a lavish reception hosted by the first US ambassador to the USSR, William Bullitt — and this influenced the way the ball turned out. An incredible amount of money was spent: over 500 guests attended the reception, birds flew through the hall, and kids, bear cubs, and roosters were specially brought from the Moscow Zoo.
Mikhail Bulgakov, as expected, was sent an invitation that included a dress code: “Tailcoat or black jacket.” Elena Sergeevna was worried that this might appear as a hint at his unfamiliarity with social etiquette. Later, this detail was almost verbatim transferred into the novel — Gella tells Baron Meigel over the phone: “Yes, yes, we expect you by midnight, tailcoat or black jacket.”
Heritage
Mikhail Bulgakov spent the last years of his life on Nashchokinsky Lane — the house has not survived to this day. However, a quote from the memoirs of Yevgeny Gabrilovich, a neighbor of Mikhail Afanasyevich, has been preserved — they shared a common balcony:
“But what amazed me the most was that while this man was writing his ‘Margarita,’ I was living next to him, just behind the wall, considering him a failure. I read this strange prose, struck by the fact that I lived next to him, heard lunches, dinners, the daily household routine, but did not hear the main and inaudible thing.”
Mikhail Bulgakov died in 1940, and the responsibility for preserving his legacy fell on Elena Sergeevna’s shoulders. The first publication of “The Master and Margarita” took place in two issues of the magazine “Moscow” in late 1966 — early 1967. However, the novel was censored and published with significant cuts. For example, the word “free” was removed from Margarita’s phrase “Invisible and free!”. Also omitted were Woland’s monologue about the housing issue that spoiled Muscovites, Nikanor Bosoy’s dream, and much more.
Elena Sergeevna was very upset that the novel she loved so dearly was coming out so distorted. Poet and prose writer Konstantin Simonov convinced her that the novel should be published in any form, the main thing was that it be published. However, she was not going to give up; she bought several copies, personally typed all the removed fragments on a typewriter, numbered them, pasted them into the magazine, and distributed them to friends.
The first complete edition of the novel in the USSR was published in 1973, after Yelena Sergeyevna’s death.
Since around the 1980s, the entrance of the building on Bolshaya Sadovaya and the walls on the floors have been covered with drawings and inscriptions related to the writer. In 2007, a museum dedicated to him opened in apartment 50, where Bulgakov lived. The graffiti, which became a landmark, was not removed—in fact, guests continue to leave new ones. That very “unpleasant apartment” turned into a truly iconic place where exhibitions, lectures, and tours are held.
Tickets for all branches of the Mikhail Bulgakov Museum can be purchased using the ‘Mosbilet’ service.
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