5. There were doings at Griboedov's

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Alexander Sergeevich Griboedov

Alexander Sergeevich Griboedov (1795-1829) was a poet, playwright and diplomat, and best known as the author of the comedy Горе от ума (Gorye ot uma) or Woe from Wit, the first real masterpiece of the Russian theatre

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M. V. Spurioznaya

In the original Russian text the person to whom should be applied for One-Day Creative Trips is not called M. V. Spurioznaya, but М. В. Подложная (M.V. Podlozhnaya). This name is not without a meaning: the Russian word подложный (podlozhny) means false, untrue, faked.

Perelygino

The name is clearly meant to suggest the actual Peredelkino, a writers' village near Moscow where many writers were allotted country houses. It was a privileged and highly desirable place.

The name Perelygino is not just a simple transformation of Peredelkino, because the Russian word лгун (lgun) means liar. In one of the earlier versions of the novel this writers' village was called Перевракино (Perevrakino), which comes from враки (vraki) or lies. What it boils down to is that Perelygino means as much as Liars' Village.

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Yalta, Suuk-Su... (Winter Palace)

To this list of resort towns in the Crimea, the Caucasus and Kazakhstan, Bulgakov incongruously adds the Winter Palace in Leningrad, which was the former residence of the emperors.

And what a restaurant!

Until the last days of the Soviet Union, restaurants belonging to the Writers' Union, the Journalists' Union, the Union of Cinematographers, and the Actors' Union were among the best and cheapest in Moscow, but to get in, one needed an ID from these organizations.

Amvrosy and Foka

Amvrosy comes from Greek word αμβροσία (ambrosia), meaning immortal and it was also the name of the food of the gods conferring immortality on whoever consumes it. Foka is the name of the hero of the fable Demyan's Fish Soup of the most famous Russian fabulist Ivan Andreevich Krylov (1769-1844). Foka rejects excess, notably of foods.

The Coliseum, where you can get slapped in the mug with a bunch of grapes by a young man

Some Bulgakov scholars think that the Колизей (Kolizej) or Coliseum is the restaurant of hotel Metropol in Moscow. But it is more likely that Bulgakov aimed at the Дом Союзов (Dom Soyuzov) or House of the Unions, and more in particular its Колонный зал (Kolonnyi zal) or Colonnade. Because Колизей could be a contraction of Колонный зал.

Why I think so becomes clear when you know that on August 17, 1934 the First Congress of the newly created Союз советских писателей (Soyuz Sovyetskikh Pisateley) or Writers' Union started in this hall. Bulgakov was not invited for this event, but he had heard how things went on it. The delegates were spoiled rather generously. Per person and per day the organisation spent 40 roubles on food. For comparison: an ordinary dinner was about 85 kopecks in those days, and in a fancy restaurant you could pay up to 5 roubles for it. The incident with the bunch of grapes refers to the final banquet of the Congres in the Colonnade. Many people were drunk and a young poet had struck Alexander Yakovlevich Tairov (1885-1950), the director of the Камерный театр (Kamerny teater) or Chamber theater. In 1928-1929, Tairov had played more than 60 times Bulgakov's theatre play The Crimson Island.

In it languished twelve writers

“In it languished twelve writers who had gathered for a meeting and were waiting  for Mikhail Alexandrovich.” This sentence is a typical example of the satirical device to swap situations from one world to another. The writers in Griboedov seem to be the apostles waiting for Jesus at the Last Supper.

Click here for a comprehensive presentation of the writers

Klyazma

The Klyazma is a river in the Moscow, Nizhny Novgorod and Vladimir Oblasts in Russia, a left tributary of the Oka River. The length of the river is 686 km. Bulgakov situates his Perelygino at the Klyazma river bank although the actual Peredelkino was situated at the other side of Moscow, in the southwest

Dachas

A dacha is a summer house in the Russian countryside. The Russian custom to have a summer house in the countryside originated in the first years after the construction of Saint Petersburg. Peter the Great (1672-1725) gave (the word “dacha” comes from “dach”, to give) pieces of land in the countryside to highly ranked officials to build a villa. By doing so he bound his people to himself and he could extend his new city at the same time.

Until the end of the twentieth century the dacha was a coveted, but also an uncomfortable possession. Living on the dacha was associated by the authorities with doing nothing and with the unproductive use of land. According to the communist ideology free time should be spent to the advancement of the socialist society and the personal development to become a good citizen. But, like in many other situations, faithful officials, military officers and writers could enjoy it fully.

The atmosphere in a dacha during the Stalin era is extremely well depicted in the movie Утомлённые солнцем (Utomlyonnye Solntsem), also known as Soleil Trompeur of director Nikita Sergeevich Michalkov from 1994, which plays almost entirely in and around a dacha in 1936.

Click here to read more about the Russians and their dachas

Click here to read more about Soleil Trompeur

Lavrovitsj

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Zheldybin

I don't know (yet) if there exists a real prototype for the writer Zheldybin, Berlioz' assistant in Massolit, summoned by telephone from his sick wife's side.

Hallelujah

This charleston written by Vincent Youmans (1898-1946), and which Bulgakov loved very much, appears three times in the novel. Follow the link you can read more about it, listen to it, or to watch the Griboedov jazz band playing it.

Click here to read more about Hallelujah

One Karsky shashlik

“One Karsky shashlik! Two Zubrovkas! Home-style tripe!” a voice commands through a  megaphone while the jazz band plays “Halleluja”. Normally one would not expect a comment to this order, until I noticed that different dishes are ordered in the Dutch, English and French translations – and that they don't correspond to Bulgakov’s text. Have a look:

“Karbonade eenmaal! Sjasliek tweemaal! Van de haas driemaal!” (Fondse Prins)
“Chops once! Kebab twice! Chicken a la King!” (Glenny)
“One Karsky shashlik! Two Zubrovkas! Home-style tripe!” (Pevear)
“Une brochette à la kars, une ! Deux vodka Zoubrovka, deux ! En flacons de maîtres!“ (Ligny)

In the Russian source text we can read: “Карский раз! Зубрик два! Фляки господарские”, which should be translated as:

“One Karsky shashlik! Two Zubrovkas! One Fliyaki gospodarskye!”

I admit, it's not easy. But today the internet offers all possibilities to find out what it's all about. Karsky shashlik is a Karsky meat spit - prepared like they do at the Kara Sea (which is a part of the Arctic Ocean). It's an unusual dish, because in the northern part of Siberia one expects fish dishes rather than meat.  Zubrovka is a Polish vodka with a tincture (alcoholic solution) of Hierochloe odorata, also called sweetgrass or bison grass. That's why it may not be imported into the United States, since sweetgrass contains like many other gramineous or meadow plants, coumarin. This substance has a sweet scent, readily recognised as the scent of newly-mown hay, but it's also carcinogenic.

No wonder that the translators didn't know how to deal with Fliyaki gospodarskye. Because the Russians hardly know it either. On dozens of websites is asked “что же такое «фляки господарские» и с чем их едят?“ or “what is Fliyaki gospodarskye for heaven's sake and how do you eat it?” The English “home-style tripe” translation by Pevear is closest to the truth. The authors of the website www.cooking.ru found the answer after a long search effort. It's a soup of intestines and to prepare it you need: 1kg of intestines of beef, 400 grams of vegetables, 500 grams of bones of beef, 60 grams of lard, 30 grams of flower, nutmeg, red and black pepper, ginger, oregano, salt, and 50 grams of Swiss cheese. Приятного аппетита! (Priatnevo appetita!) Bon appétit!

A handsome dark-eyed man with a dagger-like beard, in a tailcoat

The descrption that follows is of a pirate in the Carribean Sea. Bulgakov introduces Archibald Archibaldovich, the manager of the restaurant, also known as "the pirate".

Click here to read more about Archibald Archibaldovich

Oh, gods, my gods, poison, bring me poison!...

The narrator quotes once more the words of Verdi's Aïda which Pilatus already used in chapter 2 of the novel.

Let's not burden the telegraph wires any more

The novel is interlarded with references to works of other Russian writers. Here with this expression Bulgakov quotes the Russian poet Vladimir Vladimirovich Mayakovsky (1893-1930), with whom he often played billiard, but who would, in 1928, join the ones who summoned to ban The Days of the Turbins. Mayakovsky committed suicide in 1930. Here's an excerpt from the unfinished poem Bulgakov refers to:

“… there's no need
to burden you with the lightning of my cables.”

But, as for us, we're alive!

“Yes, he's dead, dead... But, as for us, we're alive!” Here Bulgakov quotes from the novella The Death of Ivan Ilyich by Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy (1828-1910). It's from Tolstoy’s late period  and it is considered as one of his best works. The characters of this story had exactly the same reaction when Ivan Ilyich died: everyone who heard of it sais: “Well, he's dead, but, as for me, I'm alive!"

What last name begins with "W"?

“We, Wi, Wa, Wu… Wagner?” A new reference to another literary work. This time to Goethe’s Faust. Wagner is the research assistant of doctor Faust.

Coachman

Though  increasingly  replaced by automobiles, horse-drawn cabs were still in use in Moscow until around 1940. Thus  the special  tribe of  Russian  coachmen  persisted  long  after  their  western   counterparts disappeared

Riukhin

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