The Master and Margarita - News

Two biographies

October 28, 2016

For the lovers of Mikhail Bulgakov, 2016 is a special year. In May, we celebrated the 125th anniversary of the birth of the writer, and in November it is not only 50 years since The Master and Margarita was first published in the literary magazine Moskva, but we also celebrate the 10th anniversary of this website.

In addition to many other activities of which you can find more information elsewhere on this website, a special exhibition has been launched today in Moscow entitled Булгаков. Две биографии. [Bulgakov. Dve biografii] or Bulgakov. Two biographies.

In the New Manege, some 700 manuscripts, letters, paintings, models of stage sets, photos and even documents of the secret service OGPU from 30 different museums and archives in Moscow and St. Petersburg are shown on an area of 1500 m2.

The initiative looks more like a pop-up museum than an exhibition. Peter Mansilla-Cruz, the curator of the exhibition, told to The Moscow Times: «On the one hand, the visitors can see Bulgakov through the eyes of his contemporaries, who knew him as a playwright, director and actor, with objects and documents from his life. The second part of the exhibition shows how the author and his work become renowned worldwide, with reproductions and interpretations of his work on which the author himself had no control

One of the most touching pieces is a heavily censored version of The Master and Margarita, where fans cut-and-pasted fragments from the original manuscript to their rightful places.

During the exhibition, all kinds of lectures, debates and guided tours are organized with the collaboration of numerous experts.

Click here for an overview of the activities [ru]