BOOK REVIEW: The Master and Margarita, by Mikhail Bulgakov. London: Wordsworth Classics, 1987
Review by: Stephen Wilson, StreetSense Reporter in Moscow
The housing problem haunts people!
It's the kind of novel you can never forget. It relentlessly haunts you. For the long banned novel by Mikhail Bulgakov, The Master and Margarita, has never stopped captivating readers. It remains a cult novel not just because it is well written but retains its alluring appeal as a mystical novel with deep religious overtones. This is a complex novel which can be understood on many levels. Some construe it as a supernatural novel about magic; others view it as witty political satire--and many attained their view of Christianity via this novel. It might be viewed as a forerunner of Gabriel Marquez's genre of “Magic Realism.”
Yet it could be argued that the acute problem of homelessness is at the heart of this novel. For a central theme of this novel is about how the housing question, and the threat of homelessness has corrupted so many people making them easy prey for the Devil who comes to Moscow. It is no accident that the surname of one of the main characters, a poet, is “Homeless.” And he loses not only his home but his mind as well.
The novel captures the tense and forbidding atmosphere of a city marred by deep distrust of not only foreigners but everyone else who happens to be a neighbor. There is no real stability in this city. Anything can happen to you in Moscow. This is best indicated by two quotations from the novel.
The first begins when Woland, the Devil, posing as a German professor of Black Magic has an argument with a Russian official about whether God exists. When Berlioz declares, “God does not exist," Woland retorts, “But here's what bothers me: If there is no God, then may I ask who governs man's existence and all world order ?” “Man himself governs it,” Berlioz replies quickly and sternly to his admittedly rather ambiguous question. “I beg pardon,” the stranger says softly. “In order to govern one needs to have a definite plan for some reasonable length of time, allow me to ask how man can govern anything considering that not only is he unable to plan for even a laughable short period , say a thousand years, but that he cannot vouch for tomorrow?” (page 12).
And later when Woland's servant Koroviev meets a housing official he states, “What's an official person or an unofficial person? Everything depends on your point of view, Nikanor Ivanovich, it's all so subjective and hazy. Today I am an unofficial person, tomorrow look it official. Or it can happen the other way round” (pages 95-96).
So here people can also gain apartments or lose them and be on the streets! It is this chaotic and arbitrary atmosphere that forms the background of the main plot of the novel. Anything might happen Even the Devil might turn up in Moscow. This is exactly what happens. The Devil, or Woland suddenly arrives in Moscow with a band of motley servants such as the amusing Koroviev and a wild cat. They love to play pranks. When they come to Moscow they create a lot of disorder and chaos. They take over an apartment and arrange a special show of magic for the local people.
A further parallel plot is a persecuted writer called the Master whose novel about Pontius Pilate and the crucifixion of Christ has been banned. His lover, Margarita attempts to save him by asking Woland to reunite him with her as well as his work. The price paid for this love is to be a host of Woland's ball. When the Master tells Woland that he has burnt his work in despair, Woland brings his book out of nowhere reassuring him that "Manuscripts don't burn.” In other words, the brilliant works of literature can survive any amount of censorship or loss.
Why does Woland come to Moscow? And why the Patriarchy Ponds? He has returned to Moscow to find out whether the people have really changed or not. Are they morally better or worse?
Woland reveals his motives by declaring 'But of course, I am not so interested in all those buses, telephones and other...
“Gadgets,” suggested the checkered man.
“Quite right, thank you,” the magician spoke slowly in a heavy bass.
“What interests me is a far more important consideration. Have these citizens changed inside?'
And what does Woland conclude?”
“People are people. They like money, but then they always did. Mankind loves money, whether made of leather, paper, bronze, or gold. So they are thoughtless.....Well, what of it and mercy knocks at their heart's doors sometimes. Ordinary people reminiscent of the older one, generally only the housing problem has corrupted them” (page 126).
And how has the housing problem corrupted them? In 1929, it was very difficult to obtain an apartment in Moscow. So many homeless people began to descend on Moscow in search of work fleeing famine following a botched collectivization. Those who did have a roof over their heads often lived in oppressive overcrowded conditions where there was no real privacy. Some were so desperate to find a new home that they would resort to any methods to gain an apartment: bribery, false marriages, falsely denouncing a neighbor to the secret police in order to get their place via a deal with a housing committee and even murder. When the main character Berlioz dies, the housing committee which oversees his property is bombarded with endless claims to his apartment.
Although this novel takes place in the late 1920's, the housing problem still challenges and haunts people! It profoundly distorts human relationships. The quest for space replaces romance. One of my students once told me, "I overheard a girl telling her boyfriend in McDonalds that "You only want to marry me because you need a place to stay." A Muscovite might marry a partner but if the marriage does not work out her partner can refuse to leave if he has the stamp of propeeska in his passport. This very stamp of registration allows him the right of residence as well as the right to work, medical care and free education.
My own wife was in such a situation. She divorced her husband, but five years later he suddenly turned up in Moscow insisting on staying there. When my wife said she would lock the door he answered, "I’ll get the police to come and break the door down." So he stayed until we could buy him off. But it led to silly situations. They were both artists. When her ex-husband proudly put up his favorite picture, she would scold him with “How can you put up this rubbish? You have bad taste,” and she took it down ! He then put it up again, and she would then take it down again. And this would go on and on! Today, before writing this I read in a local newspaper that a 66 year old man had murdered his young daughter in law over a property dispute concerning who owns the apartment.
Why is the novel set in the Patriarchy Ponds? That is no accident. This district has long had a bad reputation. At the present time local people complain that they suffer from high blood pressure, breathing and heart problems. Perhaps this is due to the fact that the locality existed on marshes which still emit gases.
Before it was renamed the Patriarchy Ponds it was known as “Goat Marshes.” During the 17th century there was a legend of a black goat that used to haunt the district. When this black goat came up to a herd of cattle all the milk disappeared. If this black goat went up to a local house, it spelled the imminent death of the person. The local people would sacrifice children and animals in the ponds to appease evil spirits. So many bad things were happening that the local people appealed to the Orthodox church to take over it and defend them. The area was consecrated and renamed the Patriarchy Ponds.
Unfortunately, strange things did not cease to happen. There is a story of how a mysterious black bus comes to some homes to take away soldiers who disappear, of strange phantoms and eerie events.
One story tells of how a young soldier called Vasily Statsentko and his girlfriend decided to swim across the pond in June 1941. While swimming to the other side he passed out. When he later was revived, he looked but could not find his girlfriend. For three days he looked for her without success. Her body was never found. Then one day when he was visiting the pond he encountered her ghost. The ghost of Maria asked him to continue their relationship after he had returned from the front. He was too scared to meet her again at an agreed spot. But her ghost came to him while he was driving his tram to warn him of future events.
Another more recent story tells how a New Russian decided to organize a lavish and splendid birthday party for his friends. He put three tanks of fish into the pond where the guests could fish them out. On the eve of the celebration, he put the tanks in the pond. But the next day all the fish went missing. What could have happened to them? He blamed local homeless people for poaching and eating them. So he employed two security men to keep guard during the evening. But again the fish mysteriously vanished! What had happened? Had the hungry homeless secretly dived under the water to catch them? That was just impossible!
A further belief is that any staged performance of this novel in the form of a play or film encounters bad luck. For Bulgakov appears to have been against this. The belief is similar to the alleged curse actors experience when performing the Scottish play Macbeth. Anything which goes wrong in the performance is blamed on a curse. Some Russian actors refuse to act in any films or plays based on “The Master and Margarita.”
With those kinds of strange stories and legends of the Devil coming to visit this district it is easy to see why Bulgakov was so inspired to write a supernatural story which begins in the district. Bulgakov actually dwelt in this district for some time. In this district the homeless have not gone away! And the housing problem still haunts people!