Bulgakov, Mikhail Afanasyevich

Bulgakov, Mikhail Afanasyevich mēkhəyēl´ əfənä´syəvĭch bo͝olgä´kəf [key], 1891–1940, Russian novelist and playwright. He wrote satirical stories (The Deviliad,1925, tr. 1972) and comedies (Zoe's Apartment,1926) and the long novelThe White Guard(1925, tr. 1971), in which a Kievan family hostile to the revolution is sympathetically and realistically portrayed. He condensed and dramatized this asThe Days of the Turbines(1926, tr. 1934). The satirical and philosophical novelThe Master and Margarita(tr. 1967, 1995) is considered his most important book; it was not published until a censored edition appeared in 1967 (other versions were published in 1973 and 1989). He worked intermittently on this fantasy, which concerns Satan's visit to Moscow, from 1928 until his death. His other novels includeThe Heart of a Dog(1925, tr. 1968). Bulgakov was officially criticized for several of his works.

SeeThe Early Plays of Mikhail Bulgakov: 1926–1936(tr. 1972); study by A. C. Wright (1978).

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