Statue for Bulgakov - episode 302-bis

February 10, 2018

Most people immediately think of The Master and Margarita and Mikhail Afanasievich Bulgakov when the name «Patriarch’s Ponds» is mentioned. You do not even have to add «Moscow» to it, because everybody knows. And not only in Russia. For example, in the past month of December, we welcomed the 6 millionth visitor to this website. We did not cause much noise around it, because we’re getting quite used to the fact that the author and his work are known worldwide.

And yet, when you visit the Patriarch’s Ponds, you feel, you smell, you taste the atmosphere of the iconic opening scene of the masterpiece known all over the world. It's just... you can’t see it. Of course you notice, if you pay a little attention, that people in groups regularly pass the spot on one of the countless Bulgakov excursions which are organized there every day. But you don’t see a tangible sign of recognition, appreciation or respect for the masterful satirist and storyteller who burned this place in the hearts of millions of people, not from the city of Moscow, nor from the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation. The only visible reference to our beloved masterpiece is the road sign with the text Запрещено разговаривать с незнакомцами or Forbidden to talk to strangers, which was placed by some enthusiasts in the night of June 20, 2012, and which the government, we assume out of fair shame, did not dare to remove.

However, everything is ready and all decisions have been made to offer a worthy shelter to a monument showing a thinking Bulgakov on a bench made by Alexander Rukavishnikov on the Patriarch’s Ponds. In our news section you can find about ten articles on this saga. Everything is ready, yet the statue is not there.

On February 8, a gathering was scheduled for a discussion at the district council of Presnensky, to which the Patriarch’s Ponds belong, and where this subject was fiercely debated.

And perhaps you do not believe me as a smart reader, but the placement is being stopped by a strange coalition of a group of orthodox Christians and a few local communists in whose hearts Stalin still seems to live. One could understand that the Communists do not like a writer who has always disliked them with his sharp pen. Although their objection that «children can crawl on the statue and injure themselves» is quite ridiculous when you know that the statue of the fabulist Ivan Andreevich Krylov (1769-1844) in the park is much larger and is climbed by children every day without them being killed or injured. The arguments of orthodox Christians are not less foolish. They fear that, once the statue is there, it will become a gathering place for satanists who will perform devilish rituals. It is clear that they haven't understood the soul of the novel.

Everything is ready, yet the statue is not there. Notice my words, reader, there will be a statue of Bulgakov in my hometown Leuven, Belgium, long before the one at the Patriarch’s Ponds in Moscow, Russian Federation. Behemoth! Einz, zwei, drei!


Bulgakov on the Ponds

This is how the statue might look like

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