Here, in a small, non-longer standing, detached house, M. Bulgakov and L. Belozerskaya occupied two rooms from the end of June 1926 until August 1927. At that time, Bulgakov worked on the plays The Crimson Island and The Run.
Bulgakov’s second wife L. Belozerskaya remembered that they lived in two rooms — one blue and one yellow. The kitchen was shared and the house was completely full of tenants. Friends lived nearby — the Lyamin couple, S. Topleninov, V. Dolgoruky (Vladimirov) and S. Fedorchenko, as a guest of whom Bulgakov listened to Pasternak read verses from his poem Lieutenant Schmidt in 1926, and to many other friends and acquaintances. An endless stream of guests visited the Bulgakovs, where they played pranks and spent their evenings playing charades. Belozerskaya had two cats on behalf of whom Bulgakov left humourous notes to his wife (‘Our lovely papa has moved things around in our comfy flat. We are verrry pleased (and I Anshlag helped, papa almost crushed me when I was riding on the carrrrpet with my legs up in the airrr). Papa is so strong, all alone he dragged me, and is kind, he didn’t shout when he was getting red in the face, and now, mama, I’m sleeping on the sofa.’), and N. Ushakova and V. Dolgoruky even made a book by hand with drawings and poems called Muki-Maki (The Toils of Maka) about the Bulgakovs’ daily life on Maly Levshinsky (Maka was Bulgakov’s nickname at home).
Point on the map
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Routes
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Around Prichestenka
- Stop 8
- 5 km
- 1 h
In November 1924, Bulgakov moved away from Bolshaya Sadovaya, and, moving a number of times, lived on Obukhovy (Chisty) Lane, and Maly Levshinsky, until he finally moved to Bolshoy Pirogovskaya Street in 1927. He lived here until 1934 and then moved with his third wife to the first flat he occupied without neighbors, which was also his last, on Nashchokinsky Lane. The writer spent the late 1920s on Prichestenka and the little roads leading onto it – his Muscovite friends N. Lyamin, S. Zayaitsky, S. Shervinsky and others lived here. It was a circle of highly educated, old Muscovite intellectuals, who did not accept the provincial Bulgakov immediately. N. Lyamin, the writer’s close friend, lived on Pozharsky Street. Nearby was the State Academy of Arts, where many of the writer’s friends worked, and Mansurovsky Lane, where S. Topleninov lived, whose house served as inspiration for the Master’s basement.\t \tThe events of the short novel Heart of a Dog (1925) take place around Prechistenka. Bulgakov’s uncle, N.M. Pokrovsky’s, house was on the corner of Prechistenka and Obukhov (Chisty) Lane – it was he who inspired the almost omnipotent Professor Preobrazhensky with his seven-roomed apartment. With this route guide in your hands, you can go into the smallest details and bring this ‘monstrous story’ to life: find the backstreet where Sharik was picked up, discover the shop in which Preobrazhensky bought the Krakow sausage, and much more. The route finishes at Novodevichy Cemetery, where M. Bulgakov is buried.
