6. Schizophrenia, as was said

Greetings, saboteur!

Here and a little further on Ivan uses standard terms from Soviet mass campaigns against so-called enemies of the people. Anyone thought to be working against the aims of the ruling party could be denounced and arrested as a saboteur.

Actually, Ivan says ”Здорово, вредитель”, which means “Hi, vermin!”. But the translation is correct in its meaning, because the Soviets had countless synonims to define “saboteurs”, and вредитель (vreditel) or vermin is one of them. It was mainly used to indicate someone who worked against the regime from inside by sabotaging the machines or by messing up the production planning.

That giftless goof Sashka

This reproach from Ivan Bezdomny to Riukhin is based on the animosity between their prototypes, the poets Alexander Illich Bezymensky (1898-1973) and Vladimir Vladimirovich Mayakovsky (1893-1930), who didn’t get along. Mayakovsky called Bezymensky "a nothing. . . ersatz (carrot) coffee."

A typical little kulak

Кулак (kulak) is actually Russian for fist, but it's also the name given to rich or successful peasants in the Soviet Union. Stalin ordered their liquidation in 1930.

After the abolishment of the serfdom in 1861 a minority of farmers in the Russian Empire succeeded to develop to a prosperous and independent peasant class. The power and influence of these kulaks in the villages was dashed by the communists. The medium-sized farmers, the serednyaki, were forced to join kolkhozy or collective state farms.

Read more about the kulaks on the Stalin regime page

Those resounding verses he wrote for the First of May

In the Russian text Bulgakov didn’t say the verses where on the First of May. There is written: “Сличите с теми звучными стихами, который он сочинил к первому числу!” or “Compare it to those resounding verses he wrote for the first!” So Bulgakov didn't specify which “first”, which made the English translators Burgin and O'Connor think that Riukhkin’s verses were about New Year.

But it were indeed verses for the First of May, as we can conclude from the excerpt "Soaring up and soaring down!" Though this is a very "free" translation, because the original Russian text of the poems sounds like “Взвейтесь! да развейтесь!"... which means “Stand up! Yes, disperse!” This text is an excerpt from the poem Jubilee, written by Mayakovski on the occasion of May 1, 1924. It was the day the Russians celebrated the 125th anniversary of Pushkin's birthday.

Click here to listen to the poem in Russian

May 1 is the International Labour Day. The date of May 1 wasn’t chosen by coincidence. In the United States May 1 was called Moving Day. On that day all existing labour contracts and all existing housing contracts were to be renewed. On the May 1 celebration in 1886 there were heavy fights in Chicago.  In Europe the socialist movement decided on July 21, 1889, at the first congress of the Second International in Paris, to celebrate May 1 as Labour Day. The aim was to support the growing demands for an 8 hours working day. On May 1, 1890 the first celebrations were organized in many countries.

A metal man

The “metal man, his head inclined slightly, gazing at the boulevard with indifference” is a description of the big statue of Aleksandr Sergeevich Pushkin (1799-1837). The ”big statue”, because there are several statues of Pushkin in Moscow. This metal man  stands on Pushkin square, very near to Tverskaya ulitsa, the busiest shopping street in Moscow.

Click here to read more about the most famous of all Russian poets

The snowstorm covers

This is the first line of  Winter Evening (1825), which is one of Pushkin's most anthologized poems.

Click here to hear the poem in Russian

A glass of Abrau wine in his hand

Abrau-Durso is a city in the Novorossyisk region in Russia where, since 1870, champagne and wines are produced. The vintages are situated at the Black sea coast.

It was prince Lev Sergeevich Golitsyne (1845-1916) who brought to Russia the recepy of champagne discovered 200 years earlier by the monk Dom Pierre Pérignon (1638–1715). He started the production of it in Abrau Durso.