22. By Candlelight

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Some completely deserted cemetery in the Dorogomilovo area

The Baedeker map of Moscow, published in 1914, shows a cemetery at the Moscow river bank in Dorogomilovskaya Sloboda. It doesn’t exist anymore, probably it was destroyed when the Kutuzovsky Prospekt was constructed after World War II.

The fifth dimension

In the elementary geometry three dimensions are defined: length, width and height. These (cartesian) parameters are perpendicular to each other.

A point is zero-dimensional – it has no length, nor width, nor height.
A line has one dimension – she only has length.
A plane is two-dimensional – it has length and width.
A body is three-dimensional – it has length, width and height.

The fourth dimension is an extra independent permutation direction in space. The fourth dimension is often identified with time.

The fifth dimension is a higher dimension of consciousness. When Bulgakov was working on The Master and Margarita, in 1926, the Swedish physicist Oskar Klein (1894-1977) had made an attempt to explain why we can’t perceive this additional dimension. Oskar Klein was also known for his theory about travelling in time.

A three-room apartment on Zemlyanoy Val

Земляной вал (Zyemlyanoy Val) or the Earthen Embankment - is, like Bolshaya Sadovaya, part of the Moscow Garden Ring, but it’s opposite to the city center, in the East. The Taganka Theatre, where until today The Master and Margarita is performed on stage almost daily, is on Zyemlyana Vala ulitsa.

The machinations of this Muscovite described by Bulgakov were typical for that period. Clever and sometimes complex exchange schemes were often put up. Various people in various combinations were played off, and bribes were almost considered as a semi-legal practice.

The spring ball of the full moon, or the ball of the hundred kings

The Northern Symphony (1904) of Andrei Bely ends with a feast at which the kings of the North drink blood from golden cups. Like Margarita, the queen kneels on one knee to welcome the guests, who kiss her hand and her knee.

One of the French queens who lived in the sixteenth century

In the previous chapter you can read more about Marguerite de Valois (1553-1615) and her marriage to the French king Henri IV.

Seven golden claws

The menorah or seven branched candelabrum is an old symbol of the Hebrew people and one of the oldest symbols of Judaism in general. Moses was given strict instructions by God to make a seven branched candelabrum and to put it in the Tabernacle of the Ark of the Covenant where were also stored the stone tablets containing the Ten Commandments. Woland’s candelabrum with the seven golden claws is a parody of these menorah's.

A beetle artfully carved from dark stone

Bulgakov writes жук (zhuk), which is indeed beetle or bug. But yet most translators, including Michael Glenny, use the word scarab or scarabaeus, which is some kind of dung beetle in Egyptian mythology.

The Egyptians saw the scarabaeus beetle as a symbol of immortality because it survived the annual flooding of the Nile. The ritual use of carved stone scarabs spread to Palestine, Greece and Italy in ancient times.

The chess journals would pay good money for the chance to publish it

Different scholars have already been occupied by trying to find out which real chess game could have been the prototype for the one between Woland and Behemoth and described by Bulgakov. There exist more than one suggestion of famous games from the 30's, but I'm not adequately documented to find out which one is most likely.

You confounded Hans!

In the Russian text is written "Вылезай, окаянный ганс!" or  "Go away, damned hans (gans)". The word ганс - hans - is pronounced gans and is one of the many loan words used in the Russian language. It sounds Dutch or German. There are many folk tales in German in which Hans - who is often the third son of a family - is presented as an idiot, or at least a little lunatic. Although, at the end, he usually winds up with the treasure or the beautiful princess. In Russian the equivalent of the Hans character is often called Ivan or Ivanushka.

Click here to read more about Dutch words in Russian

Sextus Empiricus

Sextus Empiricus was a Roman philosopher, astronomer and physician from the 2nd or 3th century. His philosophical work is the most complete surviving account of ancient Greek and Roman skepticism. In his medical work, tradition maintains that he belonged to the empiric school, as reflected by his name. However, at least twice in his writings, Sextus seems to place himself closer to the methodic school, as his philosophical views imply.

Sextus Empiricus advises that we should suspend judgment about virtually all beliefs. That is, we should neither affirm any belief as true nor deny any belief as false. This view is known as Pyrrhonian skepticism, as distinguished from Academic skepticism, which, according to Sextus, denies knowledge altogether.

Martianus Capella

We don't know much about this Latin writing author of the 5th century, apart from some details we can find in his work, De nuptiis Philologiae et Mercurii  (On the wedding of Philology and Mercury). In addition to some biographical hypotheses which we can deduct from some excerpts in this huge allegorical encyclopaedia of nine volumes, we have no historical traces of the author.

Aristotle

Aristotle (384 BC-322 BC) was a Greek philosopher and is considered, together with Socrates (470 BC-399 BC) and Plato (427 BC- 347 BC), as one of the most influential of the ancient Greek philosophers.

Aristotle can be seen as the first homo universalis because he introduced logics and methodology as the means to practise philosophy and other sciences. He mastered the total span of all sciences known in his time (philosophy, psychology, political and social sciences, mathematics and physics, linguistics and literature, theatre...), which he systematically and methodically elaborated to an integrated system. Aristotle can be considered as a system philosopher.

My leg hurts

Satan's lameness is more commonly ascribed to his fall from heaven.

In the year 1571, on Mount Brocken, on the Devil's Podium

The Brocken is, with its 1141,1 meter, the highest mountain in Northern Germany. The Brocken, also called Blocksberg, has always played a role in legends and has been connected with witches and devils. On Walpurgis Night demonic creatures would gather on the top of the mountain. According to a popular belief, banned witches were allowed to return on earth for one night at the sabbath on the Brocken.

Goethe described the Brocken in his Faust (written in 1808) as the center of revelry for witches on Walpurgis Night.

Now to the Brocken the witches ride;
The stubble is gold and the corn is green;
There is the carnival crew to be seen,
And Squire Urianus will come to preside.
So over the valleys our company floats,
With witches a-farting on stinking old goats.

Goethe may have gained inspiration from two rock formations on the mountain's summit, the Teufelskanzel, the Devil's Pulpit or Podium and the Hexenaltar, the Witches' Altar, where Goethe sold his soul to the devil Mephistoteles.

Still today the biggest Walpurgis feast of Germany is held on the Brocken in the night from April 30 to May 1. People disguised as witches run over the streets and hit unsuspecting passers-by with a broom. In the period of Ascension and Whitsuntide, some 60.000 people visit the Brocken.

My granny

The devil's grandma is sometimes used, like the devil himself, in Russian expressions, like, for example, in "go to the devil” or “go to the devil's grand-mother!”

A war has started there

The war in a chunk of land, washed on one side by the ocean is the Spanish Civil War which was going on in that time (1936-1939). Bulgakov felt very sorry for this war. He wrote many letters about it. In the twelve years that Bulgakov worked on The Master and Margarita, the passage with the globe only appeared in 1937, when this war was on the radio every day. Woland’s moaning about the radio coverage is, as a matter of fact, a reference to this daily news. Bulgakov's opinion was that  wars could not be ended by words of indignation, but only by armed force against the agressor.

Abaddon

Click here for a comprehensive description of Abaddon



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