Introduction
Mikhail Bulgakov's novel The Master and Margarita is, among other things, a satire. The author criticizes real people in the Soviet Union of the 30s and creates absurd situations by mixing reality and fiction. It's hidden everywhere throughout the story in small details which, at first sight, seem to be trivial, but which are significant for those who know why they are mentioned. It is, for instance, not a coincidence that the woman tramdriver who beheads Mikhail Berlioz at the Patriarch's Ponds in Chapter 3 was wearing «a crimson armband», or that the master told Ivan Bezdomny in Chapter 13 that he was «in the same coat but with the buttons torn off».
In this section of our app you can find, ordered by chapter, all possible explanations of names, situations, quotations or other elements which can be helpful to better understand the novel. The terms are mentioned in the order of their first appearance in the novel.
The annotations in this app are rather summary. They are meant to be a first aid - while reading the novel, you can consult your smartphone to get a brief explanation enabling you to understand names and references, so that you don't need to interrupt your joy of reading. More detailed annotations and descriptions of the political, economic, social and cultural context of the novel can be found on the Master & Margarita website.
With the slide-in menu on the left top of this app, you can browse through the chapters. With the arrows at the bottom of each page, you can go to the next chapter, or return to the previous one.
