Who were the prototypes of the heroes of the novel 'The Master and Margarita', and where to watch TV series based on Bulgakov's books

Did you know that over more than ten years of working on the novel “The Master and Margarita» Michael Bulgakov not only changed the plot repeatedly, but also added and removed characters? Our friends at the interactive TV company eTVnet invite you to find out which historical figures inspired the writer to create the heroes of his novel.

Photo: iStock/Sergei Ramiltsev

If you are not yet familiar with the service eTVnet, we hasten to inform you that on this site you can find all the classics of cinema and TV, as well as film and television treasures:

• 200 channels live and recorded in 2 weeks;
• the latest cinema and TV releases, popular TV series, box office blockbusters and iconic film premieres;
• the entire video library of the START online cinema;
• comedies, action films, melodramas, documentaries, concerts, humor, sports broadcasts.

С eTVnet - you have an unlimited choice of films and programs in any genre, as well as films and programs from the archive at any time WITHOUT ADVERTISING!

Call to ask any questions about the service: +1 855 251 65 45. And right now turn on the wonderful series "The Master and Margarita».

We are returning to Bulgakov and the prototypes of his heroes.

Master

Masters Michael Bulgakov I wrote, of course, from myself. “A man about thirty-eight years old,” it is written in the novel. This was Mikhail Afanasyevich’s age at the time he began work on “The Master and Margarita” in 1929. However, the author did not endow his hero with the features of his own appearance: “shaven, dark-haired, with a sharp nose, anxious eyes and a tuft of hair hanging over his forehead.”

There is also a hint of Nikolai Gogol in the novel - this, of course, is the chapter in which the Master burns his work.

In the revealing articles about the Master's novel, one can discern the accusatory campaign that was launched against the Master himself. Bulgakova.

In the writer’s archives you can find the article “Let’s hit Bulgakovism,” and in the novel the Master says: “A day later, in another newspaper, signed by Mstislav Lavrovich, another article was discovered, where the author proposed to hit her, and hit her hard, in the pilatchina...”

Michael Bulgakov. Photo: Wikipedia (public domain)

Margaret

The Master's beloved is, of course, Elena Shilovskaya-Bulgakova. Both of them were not free when they met at a holiday with mutual friends. Bulgakov was married to Lyubov Belozerskaya, and Elena was married to Evgeniy Shilovsky.

“Love jumped out in front of us, like a killer jumps out of the ground in an alley... That’s how lightning strikes, that’s how a Finnish knife strikes!” — Mikhail Bulgakov, novel "The Master and Margarita».

Like Margarita, Elena still could not decide to confess to her husband. She even promised not to see Mikhail again - and indeed, she succeeded in this for two years. But, having accidentally encountered Bulgakov on the street, she understood everything and decided - on the same day she asked her husband for a divorce.

“I would stay with you now, but I don’t want to do it this way. I don’t want him to forever remember that I ran away from him at night. He never did me any harm... I will explain to him tomorrow morning, say that I love someone else, and will return to you forever,” Mikhail Bulgakov, novel "The Master and Margarita».

The image of Margarita also had a literary prototype - Margarita from Johann Wolfgang Goethe's drama "Faust". Gretchen's sincere and selfless love helped Faust escape hell. Thanks to the same love of Margarita, the Master “earned peace.”

In addition, the writer gave his heroine the features of the French queen Margaret of Navarre, known for her erudition.

“Let me give you a hint: one of the French queens who lived in the sixteenth century... would have been very amazed if someone had told her that I... would lead her lovely great-great-great-great-granddaughter arm in arm in Moscow through the ballrooms,” - Mikhail Bulgakov, novel "The Master and Margarita».

Photo: iStock.com/Sachkv

Mikhail Berlioz

The prototype of Mikhail Berlioz was the poet Demyan Bedny, known for his anti-religious works. Berlioz also resembles Demyan Bedny in appearance: “The first of them, approximately forty years old... was well-fed and bald, carried his decent hat like a pie in his hand, and on his well-shaven face were glasses of supernatural size in black horn-rimmed frames.”

Ivan Bezdomny

Bulgakov’s critic, poet Alexander Bezymensky, published the play “The Shot” in 1929, a parody of “The Days of the Turbins.” He wrote poems on the topic of the day, always responding to the party line and filled with joyful optimism. Bulgakov gave his character the surname Bezdomny so that it would evoke associations with Bezymensky.

Aloisy Mogarych

“And a man came through the gate, he went into the house on some business with my developer, then he went into the kindergarten and somehow very quickly made acquaintance with me. He introduced himself to me as a journalist. I liked him so much, imagine that I still sometimes remember him and miss him. Further - more, he began to come to me. I found out that he was single, that he lived next to me in about the same apartment, that he was cramped there, and so on. Somehow I didn’t invite you. My wife didn’t like him extremely,” he wrote Mikhail Bulgakov in the novel "The Master and Margarita».

The character of Aloysius Mogarych is based on the playwright Sergei Ermolinsky, who often visited Bulgakov in the late 1920s. At that time, Bulgakov and his second wife Lyubov Belozerskaya rented a room in Mansurovsky Lane. This room, of course, is the Master's famous basement.

Playwright Ermolinsky became friends with Bulgakov, but in the late 1930s, Mikhail Afanasyevich began to suspect that a friend was writing denunciations against him to the NKVD.

These suspicions were in vain. Ermolinsky himself was arrested, and no denunciations were found on him. Unfortunately, Mikhail Afanasyevich no longer recognized this - he died in March 1940.

Read also on ForumDaily:

Hundreds of new films and programs daily: where to watch Russian cinema in the USA

10 Soviet films that received recognition from the American Film Academy

Ukrainian film about Mariupol nominated for an Oscar

Do you want more important and interesting news about life in the USA and immigration to America? — support us donate! Also subscribe to our page Facebook. Select the “Priority in display” option and read us first. Also, don't forget to subscribe to our РєР ° РЅР ° Р »РІ Telegram  and Instagram- there is a lot of interesting things there. And join thousands of readers ForumDaily New York — there you will find a lot of interesting and positive information about life in the metropolis.