15. Nikanor Ivanovich's dream

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The title

When the novel was published for the first time in 1966, the title of this chapter was simply Nikanor Ivanovich, since most of the chapter's text - and its title - was censored.

After first visiting another place

The reader already knows where Nikanor Ivanovich passed some time as a preliminary precaution before he got to Stravinsky's. The other place was, of course, the Главное управление государственной безопасности (ГУГБ) or the Main Directorate for State Security (GUGB), the secret police organised by the Народный комиссариат внутренних дел (НКВД) or the People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (NKVD), situated at Lubyanka square.

The interrogation scene is written almost entirely in the indefinite personal form, which consists of the third person plural verb with no subject. We know somebody is doing the interrogating, but we never know who they are: [they] asked [they] raised their voice [they] hinted.

Noteworthy is not only the impersonality of the interrogation that follows, but the combination in the interrogating voice of menace and tenderness. The same combination will reappear in Nikanor Ivanovich's dream - an extraordinary rendering of the operation of secret police within society, which also suggests the  "theatre" of Stalin's trumped-up show trials of the later thirties.

Quinquet lamps

In 1780, the French chemist Joseph Louis Proust (1754-1826) invented an oil lamp in which the oil reservoir was higher than the wick: the oil, stored at a higher level than the nozzle, was pushed to it by its own weight. Later the Swiss physicist and chemist François Pierre Ami Argand (1750-1803) invented improvements on this lamp in such way that the light was much brighter than a candle, it burned cleanly, and it was cheaper than using candles. In France this Argand is hardly known though, because the French pharmacist Antoine Quinquet (1745-1803) used the improvements of both Proust and Argand to introduce the Quinquet lamp in 1784. Until today the British, Swiss and French antiquarians discuss the legitimacy of the name Quinquets because, except for the French, they all accuse Quinquet of industrial spying.

In 1783 both Antoine Quinquet and Ami Argand had already co-operated in the construction of the hot air balloon which Jacques Étienne Montgolfier (1745–1799) had offered to the French king.

Bedsornev or Prolezhnov

The “perplexed and dispirited secretary of the house management” is called Bedsornev in the Pevear and Volokhonsky translation. In the Russian text he is called Пролежнев (Prolezhnev). Michael Glenny translitterated his name to Prolezhnov. Пролежать (prolezjat) means laze away or lie down. This shows again how Bulgakov estimated such officials.

Turn over your currency

In 1929 the OGPU (NKVD) started a campaign to extract foreign currency, gold, and jewels from the people. Suspicious валютчики (valyutshiki) or foreign currency speculators were held in prison cells for weeks at a time until they "voluntarily" gave up their currency and valuables. Various methods were used to "encourage" the prisoners to give up their valuables, including feeding them salty food and no water. More sinister methods are described in I Speak for the Silent (1935), written by professor Vladimir Vyacheslavovich Chernavin, a contemporary of Bulgakov.

I Speak for the Silent  was reprinted in 1964 in Readings in Russian Civilization, an historical text in three volumes published by professor Thomas Riha, a lecturer of Russian history in Denver at the University of Colorado, but from Czech origin. In March 1970 Thomas Riha disappeared without a trace.

In a theatre house

Maybe the theater reflects the OGPU/NKVD methods, with fabricated charges and scripted trials. The prison where Nikanor Ivanovich is taken is doubly displaced - into a theater and a dream - perhaps to avoid the censor; yet it was still cut even in 1966.

The audience was all of the same sex - male - and all for some reason bearded

Another reference to the fact that the theatre stands for a prison. In theatres men and women are not segregated by sex, in prisons they are. The beards could be because the prisoners couldn't shave, or they could be a hint that the foreign currency speculators are Old Believers, like many merchants were, or Jews.

All sitting? Sitting, sitting!

Again the verb to sit is used to indicate a prison. The Soviet citizens didn't need to see the word prison, since the construction was so familiar. "You are sitting" means "you are in prison."

Sergei Gerardovich Dunchil

This is a very non-Russian sounding name, perhaps a combination of [Isadora] Duncan and [Winston] Churchill.

Kharkov

Kharkov, where Dunhil’s mistress Ida Herkulanovna Vors comes from, is an industrial town in the Ukraine.

Ida Herkulanovna Vors

Dunchil's mistress Ida Herkulanovna Vors has a very bizarre name. Herkulan is an extremely rare name, and ворс (vors) refers to the fuzziness of cloths like wool or velvet. 

Sawa Potapovich Kurolesov

The surname of this artist comes from the verb куролесить (kurolesit), which means playing tricks or act crazy. He was already introduced in chapter 13

The Covetous Knight

The Covetous Knight, also called The Miserly Knight, is Pushkins little tragedy Скупой Рыцарь (Skuloy Ritsar) from 1830, from which the quoted lines are taken. It's about the demonic and destructive fascination of gold. A not so nice father -  the baron - refuses to help his son - Albert – although he can afford it. Pushkin had similar problems with his father. The baron and Albert are about to fight a duel, which could be averted at the last moment. But the baron dies soon after that - from a natural cause.

This little tragedy was used by Sergei Rachmaninoff in 1905 as a libretto for his opera of the same name.

As a young awaits a tryst with some sly strumpet

These words are the first two lines of the second scene of The Miserly Knight. They are the start of the baron's long opening monologue. In Russian they present like this:

Как молодой повеса ждет свиданья
С какой-нибудь развратницей лукавой

Click here to listen to The Miserly Knight in Russian
Click here to read The Miserly Knight in Russian

And who's going to pay the rent - Pushkin?

This "household" way of referring to Pushkin is common in Russia, showing how far the poet has entered into people's everyday life, though without necessarily bringing a knowledge of his works with him, like Bulgakov already showed: "And who's going  to pay the rent - Pushkin? Then who did unscrew the bulb on the  stairway - Pushkin? So who's going to buy the fuel - Pushkin?" The name Pushkin means something like "nothing" or "nobody".

Click here to read the Pushkin page

Nikolai Kanavkin

Bulgakov's description here may be inspired by the stories of his friend, the philologist Nikolai Nikolaevich Liamin (1892-1941), who was held in custody for two weeks in 1931. Liamin's wife, the artist  Natalia Abramovna Liamina-Ushakova (1899-1990) was from a famous merchant family, and her aunt had already been arrested. They were looking for a necklace. Liamin didn't mention the aunt until they brought her before him. This may explain Bulgakov's description to “fetch the aunt and ask her kindly to come for the programme at the women's theatre”.

When they searched Liamin's apartment, they found only some costume jewelery, and he was released.

Nikolai Liamin was a man with a wide and interesting knowledge who spoke several languages and who had collected a fine library. Bulgakov often addressed to him for advice.

There great heaps... of gold are mine

These lines come from an aria of Hermann, main character in Queen of Spades, an opera van Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. The libretto, written by the composer's brother Modest Ilyich Tchaikovsky, is based on the story by Alexander Pushkin.

Click here to listen to Queen of Spades in Russian



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