It is here, behind the gates with lions, that the ‘monstrous story’ begins (the subtitle of the short novel Heart of a Dog).
‘Ow-ow-ow-ow-ow-ow!.. Oh look at me, I’m dying!.. I’m done for! Done for! The scoundrel in the tall, dirty cap, the chef in the canteen with the nice food at the Central Soviet of the National Economy dashed boiling water over me and scalded my left side. What a brute, and a proletarian at that!.. How was I bothering him? How? I’m hardly going to eat the Soviet of the National Economy out of house and home if I rummage through the rubbish, am I? ’. The sick and hungry Sharik suffered like this, lying in the backstreet, until Professor F.F. Preobrazhensky found him here, fed him some sausage and picked him up.
Point on the map
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Routes
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Around Prichestenka
- Stop 1
- 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.
