1. Never talk with Strangers

English > The novel > Annotations per chapter > Chapter 1

Epigraph

"... who are you, then?"
"I am part of that power
which eternally wills evil
and eternally works good."

The epigraph comes from the scene entitled Faust's Study in the first part of the drama Faust, written by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1842). The question is asked by Faust; the answer comes from the demon Mephistopheles.

Never Talk with Strangers

The title is an ironical reference to the psychology of many Muscovites in a time period in which there existed an obsession for espionage.

Click here to read more about Russians and foreigners.

Patriarch's Ponds

The Patriarch's Ponds are situated in a park very close to Bulgakov's former residence in Bolshaya Sadovaya uliitsa or the Big Garden Street. The Russian name of this place is Патриарши пруды (Patriarshy Prudy) or Patriarch's Ponds, in plural, though there is actually only one pond.

Click here for a more detailed description of this location.
Click here to see a 360° photo of the Patriarch's Ponds

Many streets, squares and buildings got a new name in the Soviet era. In Bulgakov's time Patriarch's Ponds were called Pioneer's Ponds. In his novel The Master and Margarita however, Bulgakov consequently used the prerevolutionary names, which often were of christian orthodox origin.

A grey summer suit and a respectable fedora

The first of the two citizens at Patriarch's Ponds - we will know soon that his name is Berlioz - looks like a functionary. With the description of "black horn-rimmed glasses of a supernatural size" Bulgakov gives an indication of his appreciation of such characters.

Bulgakov didn't really specify a fedora. He described a приличную шляпу (prilichnuyu shlyapu) or a decent hat. After the revolution hats were no longer used in the Soviet Union unless by old-fashioned intellectuals. They were winning acceptance again in the 30's, namely among the new elite. In the Russian text is written that the citizen of approximately forty years old, carried his hat пирожком (pirozhkom), "like a pastry". This could be a satirical description of the revolutionary intelligentsia becoming bourgeois and showing airs and graces.

Bulgakov himself was always dressed very decently when he was in company. He not only carried a hat, but also a pince-nez.

A checkered cap, a cowboy shirt and black sneakers

The second character - Ivan Bezdomny - complies with the stereotype image of the proletarian poet looking far less bourgeois. He was в ковбойке (v kovboyke), in a checkered shirt. A ковбойкa (kovboyka) or checkered shirt is clearly derived from ковбой (kovboy) or cowboy.

Mikhail Aleksandrovich Berlioz

Click here for a more detailed description of Mikhail Aleksandrovich Berlioz.

Massolit

Massolit is an invented but plausible contraction parodying the many contractions introduced in post-revolutionary Russia. There will be others further on in the novel - like the Dramlit House (House for Dramatists and Literary Workers), findirector (financial director), and so on.

Ivan Nikolayevich Ponyryov (Bezdomny)

Click here for a more detailed description of Ivan Nikolayich Ponyryov (Bezdomny)

Seltzer and beer

"Give us seltzer," Berlioz asked.
"There is no seltzer," the woman in the stand said, and for some reason became offended.
"Is there beer?" Homeless inquired in a rasping voice.
"Beer'll be delivered towards evening," the woman replied.
"Then what is there?" asked Berlioz.
"Apricot soda, only warm," said the woman.
"Well, let's have it, let's have it! ..."

Bulgakov didn't really need to exaggerate to make this conversation look like a parody - this dialogue could be heard daily in the former Soviet Union. Both the situation of supply shortage as the description of the protagonists' attitudes were common practice. Only in beryozkas or foreign-currency-only stores there was no supply shortage.

Click here to read more about the beryozka's

Kislovodsk

Literally Kislovodsk means acid waters. It was a popular resort in the northern Caucasus, famous for its mineral springs. The Narzan mineral water is bottled here. For Russians with connections "the South" with the Caucasus, the Crimea and the Black Sea was the most prestigious resort.

After the creation of the Союз советских писателей or the Writers' Union in 1932, writers in the Soviet Union could be rewarded with a путёвка (putyovka) for Kislovodsk. A putyovka is a (doctor's) referral letter which Soviet citizens needed for going to a sanatorium. A sojourn in a sanatorium was - and still is in many cases - a combination of a recreational stay at the sea coast with a programme of courses of treatment and physical exercices, prescribed and followed by doctors.

A long anti-religious poem

Antireligious demonstrations of every sort and kind were extremely spread in that epoch, such as the iconoclastic poetries of Demyan Bedny (1883-1945), pseudonym of Efim Aleksandrovich Pridvorov. Bulgakov recalled with indignationce that he considers it to be a cursing. It is possible that the original drawing of the novel was born as a reaction against this rude propaganda.

Berlioz ordered a poem on the occasion of the holiday of Easter with the concrete purpose of propaganda. This was not unusual. In the Soviet Union it was common practice to publish atheistic literary works on the eve of christian and other holidays.

Click here to read more about atheism in the Soviet Union

The most ordinary mythology

The statement that Jesus as a person is a myth comes from the theory of Bruno Bauer (1809-1882), a German theologian, philosopher and historian and a follower of Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770-1831) who once awarded the young Bauer an academic prize for a philosophical essay criticizing Immanuel Kant (1724-1804). Kant had made quite some efforts to prove that God exists. But Bauer was also engaged in furious polemics with others who, as he did himself, tried to prove that the historical Jesus never existed, like David Strauss (1808-1874).

Philo of Alexandria

Philo of Alexandria (20 BC-54) was a Greek philosopher of Jewish origin, a biblical exegete and a theologian. He influenced both the Neo-Platonists and early Christian thinkers.

Flavius Josephus

Flavius Josephus (57-100) was a Jewish general and historian, born in Jerusalem, he's the author of The Jewish War and Antiquities of the Jews. Incidentally, Berlioz is mistaken when he says that "the brilliantly educated" Flavius "never said a word about the existence of Jesus", because Christ is indeed mentioned in the latter work.

Tacitus's [famous] Annals

Annals is a work of the Roman historian Cornelius Tacitus (55-120), covering the years 14 to 66. He also wrote History which covered the years 69-70, The Annals are not completely saved except for the years 14-37 [Tiberius] and 47-66 [Claudius en Nero]. Modern scholarship rejects the opinion that the passage Berlioz refers to here is "a later spurious interpolation".

Osiris

In Ancient Egypt Osiris was the protector of the dead, brother and husband of Isis, and father of the falcon-headed god Horus

Tammoz

Tammoz is a Syro-Phoenician demi-god, his Greek equivalent Adonis is probably known better .

Marduk

Marduk is a Babylonian sun-god, the leader of a revolt against the old deities and institutor of a new order.

Vitzliputzli

Vitzliputzli, in other literary works also named Huitzilopochtli, is the Aztec god of war, to whom human sacrifices were offered.

A black knob shaped like a poodle's head

In Goethe's Faust, Mephistopheles first gets to Faust by taking the form of a black poodle.

A foreigner

Foreigners aroused both curiosity and suspicion in Soviet Russia, representing both the glamour of 'abroad' and the possibility of espionage. Talking to strangers could get one into trouble with the secret police. Few foreigners visited, and those who did were required to register with the authorities, stay in special hotels, and they were watched very closely.

In Russian language a foreigner is indicated by the word иностранец (inostranyets), but in times past the word немец (nemets) was used. This word had a double meaning, however. It stood, besides for foreigner, also for German. So when Ivan, in the first chapter of The Master and Margarita asks Woland "Вы немец?", it can mean "are you German?" as well as "are you a foreigner?". Немец (nemets) would come from the verb неметь (nemet), which means to become dumb. A nemets is then a dumb, in the sense of someone who doesn't speak Russian.

Click here to read more about Russians and foreigners

Next page of Annotations chapter 1



Share this page |