The Master and Margarita (Russian: Мастер и Маргарита) is a novel by Mikhail Bulgakov, written in the Soviet Union between 1928 and 1940. A censored version, with several chapters cut by editors, was published in Moscow magazine in 1966–1967, after the writer’s death on March 10, 1940, by his widow Elena Bulgakova (Russian: Елена Булгакова).

The manuscript was not published as a book until 1967, in Paris. A samizdat version circulated that included parts cut out by official censors, and these were incorporated in a 1969 version published in Frankfurt. The novel has since been published in several languages and editions.

The story concerns a visit by the devil and his entourage to the officially atheistic Soviet Union. The devil, manifested as one Professor Woland, challenges the Soviet citizens’ beliefs towards religion and condemns their behavior throughout the book.

The Master and Margarita combines supernatural elements with satirical dark comedy and Christian philosophy, defying categorization within a single genre. Many critics consider it to be one of the best novels of the 20th century, as well as the foremost of Soviet satires.

History

Mikhail Bulgakov was born in Kiev on May 15th, 1891. He moved to Moscow in 1921. It was in Moscow that he would begin work on The Master and Margarita. Bulgakov was first trained as a doctor, which influenced his subsequent works. This is especially evident in The Master and Margarita when the body is described or when characters receive certain injuries.

Only later did Bulgakov became a playwright and author. He started writing The Master and Margarita in 1928, but burned the first manuscript in 1930 (just as his character the Master did) as he could not see a future as a writer in the Soviet Union at a time of widespread political repression.

He restarted the novel in 1931. In the early 1920s, Bulgakov had visited an editorial meeting of an atheist journal. He is believed to have drawn from this to create the Walpurgis Night ball of the novel.

He completed his second draft in 1936, by which point he had devised the major plot lines of the final version. He wrote another four versions. When Bulgakov stopped writing four weeks before his death in 1940, the novel had some unfinished sentences and loose ends.

His novel was also written amidst heavy criticism for his other works and plays. During this time, he wrote to Stalin asking to be allowed to leave Russia because he felt that the literature critics at the time were proving that Bulgakov’s writing did not belong in Russia. This was not approved, which greatly affected the writing of the piece including the descriptions of the Master and his works.

A censored version, with about 12 percent of the text removed and more changed, was first published in Moskva magazine (no. 11, 1966 and no. 1, 1967).

A manuscript was smuggled out of the Soviet Union to Paris, where the YMCA Press, celebrated for publishing the banned work of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, published the first book edition in 1967.

The text, as published in the magazine Moskva, was swiftly translated into Estonian and printed in 1967 by the company Eesti Raamat. This version included many scenes and themes that had previously been censored—for example, Bulgakov’s commentary on Soviet moral and governmental corruption.

The Italian publisher Einaudi published the book in Russian in 1967 as well. For decades this remained the only printed edition of the novel in book form available in the Soviet Union.

The original text of all the omitted and changed parts, with indications of the places of modification, was printed and distributed by hand in the Soviet Union (in the dissident practice known as samizdat). In 1969, the publisher Posev printed a version produced with the aid of these inserts.

The first complete version, prepared by Anna Sahakyants, was published in Russian by Khudozhestvennaya Literatura in 1973. This was based on Bulgakov’s last 1940 version, as proofread by the publisher. This version remained the canonical edition until 1989.

It is unknown how much of this version was influenced by Elena Shilovskaya, Bulgakov’s third and final wife, as she had been in possession of the remaining manuscript notes.

Due to the high quantity of manuscripts and drafts, it is near impossible to state which, if any, version of the novel is truly canonical. The last version, based on all available manuscripts, was prepared by Lidiya Yanovskaya.

Plot

The novel has two settings. The first is Moscow during the 1930s, where Satan appears at Patriarch’s Ponds as Professor Woland. He is accompanied by Koroviev, a grotesquely dressed valet; Behemoth, a black cat; Azazello, a hitman; and Hella, a female vampire. They target the literary elite and their trade union: Massolit, whose headquarters is Griboyedov House.

Massolit consists of corrupt social climbers: bureaucrats, profiteers, and cynics. The second setting is the Jerusalem of Pontius Pilate: Pilate’s trial of Yeshua Ha-Notsri (Jesus of Nazareth), his recognition of an affinity with (and spiritual need for) Yeshua, and his reluctant acquiescence to Yeshua’s execution. The Jerusalem plot of the novel is later revealed to be the novel written by the Master.

Part one opens with a confrontation between Berlioz (the head of Massolit) and Woland, who prophesies that Berlioz will die later that evening. This interaction between Woland and Berlioz is mirrored by the trial of Yeshua by Pontius Pilate. Woland entrances Berlioz in the story that leads up to Yeshua’s execution. In the story, Yeshua is presented as having inhuman characteristics.

Woland tells this story to convince his audience of God’s existence, but the two Soviet authors refuse to believe him. The Professor also predicts the way Berlioz will die, saying that his head will be cut off by a Russian woman, and that it must happen, because ‘Annushka has already brought the sunflower oil.’ Although Berlioz dismisses his death prophecy as insane raving, he slips on the spilled oil and has his head decapitated by a tram car driven by a Russian woman, dying in the same way that the professor predicted.

In fact, shortly before Berlioz’s accident, Woland informs the two writers that “there exists a seventh proof” of the devil’s existence, so in this way the predetermined nature of Berlioz’s death is framed as proof of both God’s and the devil’s existence. The fulfillment of his death prophecy is witnessed by Ivan Nikolaevich Ponyrev, a young, enthusiastic, modern poet who uses the pen name Bezdomny (“homeless”).

His nom de plume alludes to Maxim Gorky (Maxim the Bitter), Demyan Bedny (Demyan the Poor), and Michail Golodny (Michail the Hungry). His futile attempts to capture the “gang” (Woland and his entourage) and his warnings about their evil nature land Ivan in a lunatic psychiatric clinic, where he is treated by Stravinsky, a local doctor.

The care he receives in the clinic is very good, especially by the standards of the time. It thus serves as an important place in the novel for many characters whom Woland confronts, and derives special importance from its bringing together of Ivan and the Master, an embittered author whose name connects to the title of the text.

The Master explains to Ivan that the rejection of his novel about Pontius Pilate and Christ led the Master to burn his manuscript in despair and turn his back on Margarita, his devoted lover.

In Moscow, Woland and his retinue put on a show at the Variety theater. During the show master of ceremonies Bengalsky’s head is ripped off then reattached at the urging of the audience.

The audience is amazed when Koroviev makes money rain down and when Woland’s retinue gives out luxury fashion items to the women of the audience. Later the money and clothes disappear, causing chaos and embarrassment.

Here, Bulgakov portrays women’s and men’s sins very differently. The women of Moscow are condemned for accepting free clothing, while the men are condemned for adultery, excessive greed, etc., and the two are portrayed as equivalent transgressions.

During this performance, Woland notes the lack of moral progress made in Soviet society, remarking that despite their technological advancements such as “buses, telephones, and other apparatuses,” Muscovites remain “people like any other people… they love money, but that has always been so.”

The key difference between the Muscovites Woland observes now and the Muscovites of the past is believed, by Woland, to be due to the housing crisis in Moscow. Woland cites the “housing problem” as what has corrupted these Muscovites to an even further level than what Woland has noted in the past. This scene is a key moment in Bulgakov’s societal criticism.

The story returns to Jerusalem, where Ivan dreams of the execution of Yeshua as witnessed by Matthew Levi. The dream opens with Yeshua and two other prisoners, who are making their way to Bald Mountain, where they will be executed by being hung on wooden posts. In an attempt to save Yeshua from a torturous death, Levi steals a knife to kill him quickly, but he is too late to reach Yeshua.

Yeshua hangs on the cross and suffers in the excruciating heat for hours until an executioner offers him some water and kills him, by stabbing him in the heart with a spear.

As he dies, a great storm appears, filling the sky with thunder and lightning and raining heavily down on the people below. Levi cuts down the three bodies of the dead prisoners, before putting the body of Yeshua on his shoulder, and carrying it away.

Back in Moscow, after Woland’s performance, the city is thrown into confusion. At the Variety Theatre, the highest-ranking employee left is Vassily Stepanovich, the bookkeeper. His attempt to make sense of the show’s aftermath reveals a trail of chaos left by Woland and his retinue. Rubles are transforming into insects, bureaucrats have