12. Black magic and its Exposure

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The title

In the Russian title of chapter 12 the word разоблачение (razoblatsyenye) is used for “exposure”. It is composed by the preposition раз- (raz-), which means out-, and the verb облачить (oblachit), which means something like dress up. We will see that dressing up - and getting undressed again - will play an important role in this chapter.

The Giulli family

In the30’s the Труппа Польди (Truppa Poldi) or the Poldi company - artist name for the Podrezov family - showed its bicycle tricks in the Moscow Mu-sic Hall. On posters from that time the man in the yellow bowler-hat and the blond woman on a single wheel can be recognized.

Where he had gone…

Of course, Rimsky knew very well where Varenukha had gone - he had sent Varenukha there himself to “let them sort it out” - but he doesn't even dare to think the name of the secret police to himself.

But what for?

Varenukha did not come back from the not mentioned place. That almost obviously made Rimsky suppose that he was arrested. But he hesitates to call, since the unmentioned secret police is not an authority you spon-taneously contact by yourself. Because, one day, it could be turned against you.

This certainly unpleasant, though hardly supernatural occurrence

Again Bulgakov's humor here is at the expense of the Soviet reality. Tele-phones, even to this day, are extremely unreliable in Russia.

Bengalsky

Click here to read a comprehensive description of Bengalsky

An armchair

Woland's position in the theater is in a seat while he is watching the au-dience, which is a reversal of what we could expect. And indeed, the Mus-covites in the audience end up putting on more of a show than Woland himself.

What do you think, the Moscow populace has changed significantly, hasn't it?

While this statement would not normally be considered offensive, in the Soviet Union under Stalin it was a very subversive question to ask. Accor-ding to the Communist Party line, the people of the Soviet Union had arri-ved into the utopia of Communism. They were new Soviet men and wo-men. The Homo soveticus was a quite different species from any other human being on earth. They worked harder, knew more and were happier than anyone else. For Bulgakov to claim otherwise was dangerous.

If it weren't for poker

Poker, like other card games, was looked upon with sorrow by the Soviets. This changed dramatically after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Moscow, and other cities as well, is swarmed with casino’s. At the end of 2006 so-me of them were closed because they were connected to the Georgian maffia.

Behemoth

Click here for a comprehensive description of Behemoth

Marred by a queer scar on her neck

Gretchen - the Margarita from Goethe’s Faust, had exactly the same mark as Hella in the scene on Walpurgis Night.

Guerlain, Chanel No. 5, Mitsouko, Narcisse Noir

Of course Parisian clothing and perfumes would have been completely inaccessible to the average Soviet woman. The incomprehensible but se-ductive words of the perfume brands are all phonetically written in Russian letters. In the Russian text Bulgakov writes “Герлэн, шанель номер пять, мицуко, нарсис нуар” which is not a Russian sentence, but a French sen-tence in Russian letters.  The word noir (French for black), for instance, is not written as the Russian word  черный  (cherny), meaning black, but it is left нуар (nouar). Just like the коктейль (kokteyl) in платья коктейль (plat-ya kokteyl) or cocktail dresses.

Click here to read more about foreign words in Russian

By God, they're real! Ten-rouble bills!

The English translators of The Master and Margarita - just like their Dutch and French colleagues - obviously missed some of Bulgakov's satire here. Because they translated as follows:

His neighbours hovered over him, and he, in amazement, picked at the wrapper with his fingernail, trying to find out if the bills were real or some sort of magic ones.

- “By God, they're real! Ten-rouble bills!” joyful cries came from the gallery.

In the original Russian text though, Bulgakov did not write about roubles, he described another monetary unit from the Soviet period, the chervonets. A correct translation would have been:

- “By God, they're real! Chervontsi!” joyful cries came from the gallery.

Bulgakov never uses the term ten-rouble bills in The Master and Margarita. He always writes червонец (chervonets) or better the plural червонцы (chervontsy), which gives a complete other dimension to the question if the bills “were real or some sort of magic ones”. The chernovets was indeed the new monetary unit introduced by the Soviet government in 1922 to stop the hyperinflation and restrain chaos in the money standard during the civil war.

Click here to read more about the chervontsi
Here you can read when and why Bulgakov uses the word 'chervonets"

Arkady

Click here for a comprehensive description of Arkady Sempleyarov

The mass of spectators demands an explanation

"The mass of spectators" is typical Soviet jargon. Semplejarov asks his own question but he presents it like if it were the mass asking for it. The people or the masses were ostensibly in control.

The Acoustics Commission building on Clean Ponds

There was no such Acoustics Commission in the Soviet Union. Bulgakov found his inspiration in the Управления театральных зрелищных предприятий or the Directorate of Theatrical and Show Enterprises (UTZP). The office of this organisation was at Chistye Prudy (Clean Ponds).

Click here to read more about the UTZP.

The role of Louisa

Arkady’s young relation refers to the character Louisa Miller from the play Kabale und Liebe (Intrigue and Love), written by the German dramatist and writer Friedrich Schiller (1759-1805). The play, first performed in 1784 in Frankfurt, was a fixture in the repertories of Soviet theatres.

The rollicking words to this march

These words are Bulgakov’s free adaptation of a tune from a vaudeville from 1839, written by Dmitri Timofeevich Lensky (1805-1860). The title of the piece was Лев Гурыч Синичкин, или Провинциальная дебютантка or Lev Gurych Sinichkin, or a Provincial Debutante. It's the story of an old actor who desperately wants to offer a major role in the theatre to his talented daughter. But the powerful prima donna of the theatre company, a woman with a bad character and a whole network of relations, is standing in her way. After many heroic efforts and cheerful misunderstandings the old man's dream eventually comes true, and the star actress causes scandal with her patron. This vaudeville was performed from 1924 to 1931 in Moscow at the Vakhtangov theatre on the Arbat, alongside the apartment that Bulgakov had described in his theatre play Zoyka's apartment.

Director Alexander Belinsky (1928) made a TV-movie of this vaudeville in 1974 - Лев Гурыч Синичкин (Lev Gurych Sinichkin). The leading roles were played by Nikolai Trofimov and Galina Fedotova.

The song His Excellency which Bulgakov describes in The Master and Mar-garita doesn't sound exactly as in the original vaudeville. The so-called rol-licking words of the march are as follows - at the top you can read Dmitri Lensky's original words, and below Bulgakov’s adaptation:

Original
(Russian)

 Original
(translation Kevin Moss)
Его превосходительство
Зовет ее своей
И даже покровительство
Оказывает ей.

 His Excellency
calls her his own
and even patronage
renders to her.
Bulgakov's version
(Russian)

 Bulgakov's version
(Translation Pevear/ Volokhonsky)
Его превосходительство
Любил домашних птиц
И брал под покровительство
Хорошеньких девиц!!!		 His Excellency reached the stage
Of liking barnyard fowl.
He took under his patronage
Three young girls and an owl!!!

 

Click here to hear the song in the TV-movie of Alexander Belinsky
Click here to see what Bulgakov made of it



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