Born into the family of a teacher at the Kyiv Theological Academy, Afanasy Ivanovich Bulgakov, and his wife Varvara Mikhailovna. He was the eldest child in the family and had six more brothers and sisters.
In 1901-1909 he studied at the First Kyiv Gymnasium, after graduating from which he entered the medical faculty of Kyiv University. He studied there for seven years and applied to serve as a doctor in the naval department, but was refused due to health reasons.
In 1914, with the outbreak of the First World War, he worked as a doctor in front-line hospitals in Kamenets-Podolsk and Chernivtsi, in the Kiev military hospital. In 1915 he married Tatyana Nikolaevna Lappa. On October 31, 1916, he received a diploma “as a doctor with honors.”
In 1917, he first used morphine to relieve the symptoms of diphtheria vaccination and became addicted to it. In the same year he visited Moscow and in 1918 returned to Kyiv, where he began private practice as a venereologist, having stopped using morphine.
In 1919, during the Civil War, Mikhail Bulgakov was mobilized as a military doctor, first into the army of the Ukrainian People's Republic, then into the Red Army, then into the Armed Forces of Southern Russia, then transferred to the Red Cross. At this time he began working as a correspondent. On November 26, 1919, the feuilleton “Future Prospects” was first published in the newspaper “Grozny” with the signature of M.B. He fell ill with typhus in 1920 and remained in Vladikavkaz, without retreating to Georgia with the Volunteer Army.
In 1921, Mikhail Bulgakov moved to Moscow and entered the service of the Glavpolitprosvet under the People's Commissariat for Education, headed by N.K. Krupskaya, wife of V.I. Lenin. In 1921, after the disbandment of the department, he collaborated with the newspapers “Gudok”, “Worker” and the magazines “Red Journal for Everyone”, “Medical Worker”, “Russia” under the pseudonym Mikhail Bull and M.B., wrote and published in 1922 -1923 years “Notes on Cuffs”, participates in the literary circles “Green Lamp”, “Nikitin Subbotniks”.
In 1924 he divorced his wife and in 1925 married Lyubov Evgenievna Belozerskaya. This year, the story “Heart of a Dog”, the plays “Zoyka’s Apartment” and “Days of the Turbins” were written, the satirical stories “Diaboliad”, and the story “Fatal Eggs” were published.
In 1926, the play “Days of the Turbins” was staged with great success at the Moscow Art Theater, permitted on the personal orders of I. Stalin, who visited it 14 times. At the theater. E. Vakhtangov premiered the play “Zoyka’s Apartment” with great success, which ran from 1926 to 1929. M. Bulgakov moved to Leningrad, there he met with Anna Akhmatova and Yevgeny Zamyatin and was summoned several times for interrogation by the OGPU about his literary work. The Soviet press intensively criticizes the work of Mikhail Bulgakov - over 10 years, 298 abusive reviews and positive ones appeared.
In 1927, the play “Running” was written.
In 1929, Mikhail Bulgakov met Elena Sergeevna Shilovskaya, who became his third wife in 1932.
In 1929, the works of M. Bulgakov ceased to be published, the plays were banned from production. Then on March 28, 1930, he wrote a letter to the Soviet government asking either for the right to emigrate or for the opportunity to work at the Moscow Art Theater in Moscow. On April 18, 1930, I. Stalin called Bulgakov and recommended that he apply to the Moscow Art Theater with a request for enrollment.
1930-1936 Mikhail Bulgakov worked at the Moscow Art Theater as an assistant director. The events of those years were described in “Notes of a Dead Man” - “Theatrical Novel”. In 1932, I. Stalin personally allowed the production of “The Days of the Turbins” only at the Moscow Art Theater.
In 1934, Mikhail Bulgakov was admitted to the Soviet Union of Writers and completed the first version of the novel “The Master and Margarita.”
In 1936, Pravda published a devastating article about the “false, reactionary and worthless” play “The Cabal of the Saints,” which had been rehearsed for five years at the Moscow Art Theater. Mikhail Bulgakov went to work at the Bolshoi Theater as a translator and libbretist.
In 1939 he wrote the play “Batum” about I. Stalin. During its production, a telegram arrived about the cancellation of the performance. And a sharp deterioration in Mikhail Bulgakov’s health began. Hypertensive nephrosclerosis was diagnosed, his vision began to deteriorate, and the writer began using morphine again. At this time, he was dictating to his wife the latest versions of the novel “The Master and Margarita.” The wife issues a power of attorney to manage all her husband’s affairs. The novel “The Master and Margarita” was published only in 1966 and brought world fame to the writer.
On March 10, 1940, Mikhail Afanasyevich Bulgakov died, on March 11, the sculptor S.D. Merkulov removed the death mask from his face. M.A. Bulgakov was buried at the Novodevichy cemetery, where, at the request of his wife, a stone from the grave of N.V. was installed on his grave. Gogol, nicknamed "Golgotha".
Mikhail Afanasyevich Bulgakov became one of the most read, discussed and remembered authors of the 20th century. His work, personal life and even death are complemented by secrets and legends, and the novel “The Master and Margarita” inscribed the name of its creator in golden letters in the annals of Russian and world literature. But secrets always shrouded his person, and the question: “Why did Bulgakov make himself a death mask?” was never fully revealed.
Hard way
Now Bulgakov’s name is well known, but there was a time when his works were not published, and he himself was under careful surveillance by the authorities and rabid party supporters. This both irritated and frustrated the writer, because he had to constantly be on alert so as not to give rise to idle conversations and complaints. Bulgakov's life was never simple - neither while working as a doctor, nor as an author of theatrical plays, nor as a novelist. But the last imprint - Bulgakov's death mask - suggests that high society, and first of all the authorities, appreciated his talent.
Personal life
Mikhail Afanasyevich was born on May 3, 1891 in Kyiv in the family of a teacher at the Kyiv Theological Academy. He was the oldest child. In addition to him, his parents had two brothers and four sisters. When the boy turned seven, his father fell ill with nephrosclerosis and soon died.
Mikhail received his secondary education at the best Kyiv gymnasium, but was not particularly diligent. This did not prevent the young man from entering the medical faculty of the Imperial University. Just at this moment the war of 1914-1918 began, and education took place in military field conditions. At the same time, he meets his future wife Tatyana Lappa, a fifteen-year-old girl with great promise. They did not put everything on hold, and when Bulgakov was in his second year, they got married.
World War I
This historical event did not cause a split in the measured life of the young couple. They did everything together. Tatyana followed her husband to front-line hospitals, organized triage and assistance centers for victims, and actively participated in work as a nurse and assistant. Bulgakov received his medical diploma while at the front. In March 1916, the future writer was recalled to the rear and put in charge of a medical center. There he began his formal medical practice. You can read about her in the stories “Notes of a Young Doctor” and “Morphine.”
Addiction
In the summer of 1917, while performing a tracheotomy on a child suffering from diphtheria, Mikhail Afanasyevich decided that he might have become infected, and as a preventive measure he prescribed morphine to relieve itching and pain. Knowing that the medicine was highly addictive, he continued to take it and over time became his permanent “patient”. His wife Tatyana Lappa did not accept this state of affairs and, together with I.P. Voskresensky, was able to rid the writer of this habit. But his medical career was over, since morphinism was considered an incurable disease. Later, having overcome the habit, he was able to start a private practice. This was useful, since there were battles in Kyiv and its suburbs, the government was constantly changing, and qualified medical care was required. This time is reflected in the novel “The White Guard”. Not only but also members of his family appear there: sisters, brother, brother-in-law.
North Caucasus
In the winter of 1919, Bulgakov was again mobilized as a person liable for military service and sent to Vladikavkaz. There he settles down, calls his wife by telegram and continues to treat. Participates in military operations, helps the local population, writes stories. Basically he describes his “adventures”, life in an unusual environment. In 1920, medicine was finished forever. And a new milestone in life began - journalism and the so-called small genres (stories, novellas), which were published in local North Caucasian newspapers. Bulgakov wanted fame, but his wife did not share his aspirations. Then they began a mutual breakup. But when a writer falls ill with typhus, his wife nurses him, day and night, sitting next to his bed. After recovery, I had to get used to the new order, since Soviet power came to Vladikavkaz.
Difficult period
The twenties of the last century were difficult for the Bulgakov family. It was necessary to earn a living through hard daily work. This greatly exhausted the writer and did not allow him to breathe easy. During this period, he began to write “commercial” literature, mainly plays, which he himself did not like and considered unworthy to be called art. Later he ordered to burn them all.
The power of the Soviets increasingly tightened the regime; not only works were criticized, but also random scattered phrases collected by ill-wishers. Naturally, it became difficult to live in such conditions, and the couple left first for Batum, and then for Moscow.
Moscow life
Many associated the image of Bulgakov with the heroes of his own works, which was later proven by life itself. Having changed several apartments, the couple stopped in a house at the address: st. Bolshaya Sadovaya 10, apartment No. 50, immortalized in the author’s most famous novel “The Master and Margarita”. Problems with work began again, in stores food was issued using cards, and it was extremely difficult to get these treasured pieces of paper.
On February 1, 1922, Bulgakov's mother dies. This event becomes a terrible blow for him; it is especially offensive for the writer that he does not even have the opportunity to go to the funeral. Two years later there is a final break with Lappa. By the time of their divorce, Mikhail Afanasyevich was already having a stormy affair with Lyubov Belozerskaya, who became his second wife. She was a ballerina, a woman from high society. This is exactly how Bulgakov dreamed of the writer’s wife, but their marriage was short-lived.
Perechistenskoe time
The time of blossoming of Bulgakov's career as a writer and playwright is coming. His plays are staged, the audience greets them favorably, life gets better. But at the same time, the NKVD begins to take an interest in the writer and tries to accuse him of disrespect for the current government or something worse. How bans rained down: on performances, on publishing in the press, on public speaking. Then the lack of money came again. In 1926, the writer was even summoned for interrogation. On April 18 of the same year, the famous telephone conversation with Stalin took place, which again changed Bulgakov’s life for the better. He was hired as a director at the Moscow Art Theater.
Nuremberg-Shilovskaya-Bulgakova
It was there, at the Moscow Art Theater, that the writer met his third wife, Elena Sergeevna Shilovskaya. At first they were just friends, but then they realized that they couldn’t live without each other, and decided not to torture anyone. Shilovskaya’s breakup with her first husband was very long and unpleasant. She had two children, whom the couple divided among themselves, and immediately after Belozerskaya gave Bulgakov a divorce, the lovers got married. This woman became a real support and support for him in the most difficult years of his life. While working on his most famous novel and during his illness.
"The Master and Margarita" and recent years
Work on the central novel completely captured the writer, he devoted a lot of attention and effort to it. In 1928, only the idea for the book appeared; in 1930, a draft version was published, which went through significant transformations necessary for the text that everyone probably remembers by heart to be published. Some pages were rewritten dozens of times, and the last years of Bulgakov’s life were occupied with editing ready-made fragments and dictating the “final” version to Elena Sergeevna.
But dramatic activity did not stand idle in the last years of Bulgakov’s life. He stages plays based on the works of his favorite authors - Gogol and Pushkin, and writes “on the table” himself. Alexander Sergeevich was the only poet whom the writer loved. And one of those figures from whom Bulgakov was removed was planning a theatrical work about Stalin, but the Secretary General stopped these attempts.
On death's door
On September 10, 1939, the writer suddenly lost his sight. Bulgakov (the cause of his father's death was nephrosclerosis) recalls all the symptoms of this illness and comes to the conclusion that he has the same disease. Thanks to the efforts of his wife and sanatorium-resort treatment, the manifestations of sclerosis are receding. This even allows you to return to the job you left, but not for long.
The date of Bulgakov's death is March 10, 1940, twenty-five in the afternoon. He passed away into another world, stoically enduring all the suffering and pain. Leaving behind a rich creative heritage. The mystery of Mikhail Bulgakov’s death was not a secret at all: complications of nephrosclerosis destroyed him just like his father. He knew how it would end. Of course, no one could say exactly when this sad event would happen, when Bulgakov would die. The cause of death was obvious, but how much longer he could hold on to life was not.
The memorial service and funeral were very solemn. According to tradition, the death mask was removed from the writer’s face. It was decided to cremate Bulgakov, according to his will. Mikhail Afanasyevich's comrades in writing, colleagues from the Moscow Art Theater, and members of the Writers' Union came to the memorial service. Even Stalin’s secretary called, and after that a large epitaph was published in Literaturnaya Gazeta. He was buried at the Novodevichy cemetery, not far from Chekhov’s grave.
If you are concerned about the question: “Where is Bulgakov’s death mask kept?”, then the answer is simple: it went to the same posthumous casts, to the museum. At that time, such sculptures were made only in exceptional cases, which speaks of respect and veneration for Bulgakov as a talented writer, despite all the difficulties of his life’s journey. There is no, and could not have been, a clause in the writer’s will that included a death mask. Bulgakov was never interested in idle foppery, especially this kind. His colleagues decided to capture this very moment.
Mikhail Bulgakov was born on May 15, 1891 in a large family of professor of the Kyiv Theological Academy Afanasy and Varvara Mikhailovna Bulgakov. Mikhail was the eldest of seven children - he had four more sisters and two brothers.
Start
As Mikhail himself admitted, his youth was spent “carefree” in a beautiful city on the Dnieper steeps, about the comfort of a noisy and warm native nest on Andreevsky Spusk, and the shining prospects for a future free and wonderful life.
Mom raised her children with a “steady hand,” never doubting what was good and what was evil. The father passed on his hard work and love of learning to his children. In the Bulgakov family, “the authority of knowledge and contempt for ignorance” reigned.
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When Mikhail was 16 years old, his father died of kidney disease. Soon after this, Mikhail entered the medical faculty of Kyiv University. The arguments that influenced in favor of medicine were the independence of future activities and interest in the “human structure,” as well as the opportunity to help him.
While in his second year, Mikhail got married, against the wishes of his mother, he married young Tatyana Lappa, who had just graduated from high school.
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Field doctor
Mikhail was unable to complete his studies due to the outbreak of the First World War. In the spring of 1916, he voluntarily went to work in one of the Kyiv hospitals. As a military doctor, he had a rich combat background and considerable front-line experience. And in the fall of the same year, Bulgakov, already as a doctor, received his first appointment - to a small zemstvo hospital in the Smolensk province.
Morphist
Refusal to practice medicine
At the end of February 1919, Bulgakov was mobilized into the Ukrainian Army, and in August 1919 he already served as a military doctor in the Red Army. In October of the same year, Mikhail transferred to the Army of Southern Russia, where he served as a doctor in a Cossack regiment and fought in the North Caucasus.
By the way, the fact that Bulgakov remained in Russia was only a consequence of a confluence of circumstances: he lay in typhoid fever when the White army and its sympathizers left the country.
Upon recovery, Mikhail Bulgakov left medicine and began collaborating with newspapers. One of his first journalistic articles is called “Future Prospects,” in which the author, who does not hide his commitment to the white idea, prophesies a long lag behind Russia from the West.
Later such works of his as “The Extraordinary Adventures of the Doctor”, “Notes on Cuffs”, “Diaboliad”, “Fatal Eggs”, “Heart of a Dog” and others were published.
At this time, he divorced his first wife Tatyana and married Lyubov Belozerskaya (the couple met in 1924 at an evening organized by the editors of "Nakanune" in honor of the writer Alexei Nikolaevich Tolstoy, they got married on April 30, 1925).
"Master and Margarita"
The writer's most famous novel, which brought him posthumous world fame, was dedicated to the writer's beloved Elena Sergeevna Shilovskaya.
The novel was originally conceived as an apocryphal "gospel of the devil", and the future title characters were absent from the first editions of the text. Over the years, the original plan became more complex and transformed, incorporating the fate of the writer himself.
Later, the woman who became his third wife, Elena Shilovskaya, entered the novel. They met in 1929, and got married three years later - in 1932.
Mikhail Bulgakov builds "The Master and Margarita" as a "novel within a novel." Its action takes place in two times: in Moscow in the 1930s, where Satan appears to arrange the traditional spring full moon ball, and in the ancient city of Yershalaim, in which the trial of the “wandering philosopher” Yeshua takes place by the Roman procurator Pilate. The modern and historical author of the novel about Pontius Pilate, the Master, connects both plots.
Last years
During the years 1929-1930, not a single play by Bulgakov was staged, not a single line of his appeared in print. The writer addressed a letter to Stalin with a request to allow him to leave the country or give him the opportunity to earn a living. After that he worked at the Moscow Art Theater and the Bolshoi Theater.
In 1939, Bulgakov worked on the libretto "Rachel", as well as on a play about Stalin ("Batum"). The play was approved by Stalin, but, contrary to the writer's expectations, it was banned from publication and production.
At this time, Bulgakov's health condition deteriorated sharply. Doctors diagnose him with hypertensive nephrosclerosis. The writer continues to use morphine, prescribed to him in 1924, to relieve pain symptoms.
Since February 1940, friends and relatives have been constantly on duty at Bulgakov’s bedside, and on March 10, 1940, he died.
Rumors spread throughout Moscow that the writer's illness was caused by his occult activities - having been carried away by all sorts of devilry, Bulgakov paid for it with his health, and his early death was a consequence of Bulgakov's relations with representatives of evil spirits.
Another version said that in the last years of his life Bulgakov again became addicted to drugs, and they drove him to the grave. The official cause of the writer’s death was named hypertensive nephrosclerosis.
A civil memorial service for the writer took place on March 11 in the building of the Union of Soviet Writers. At his grave, at the request of his wife Bulgakova, a stone was installed, nicknamed “Golgotha,” which previously lay on the grave of Nikolai Gogol.
Topics of Mikhail Bulgakov - remember the scientific work with the determination of traces of morphine and markers of nephrosclerosis? Now, in two posts, we present to you a clinical picture of the illness and death of the great writer. And we will rely on the wonderful article by L.I. Dvoretsky “The Illness and Death of the Master (about the illness of Mikhail Bulgakov)”, published in the April 2010 issue of the journal “Clinical Nephrology”.
In 1932, writer Mikhail Bulgakov warned his new chosen one, Elena Sergeevna: “ Keep in mind that I will die very hard - give me an oath that you will not send me to the hospital, and I will die in your arms».
Bulgakov with his wife Elena
There were eight years left before the writer’s death, during which he would complete and almost finish the great work “The Master and Margarita,” in which there would also be hints of sudden death (remember the barman Sokov: “... He will die in nine months, in February next year, from liver cancer in the clinic of the First Moscow State University, in the fourth ward.")…
Within six months from the onset of the first symptoms, the disease developed to a painful, cruel death: in the last three weeks, Bulgakov went blind, was tormented by terrible pain and stopped editing the novel. What kind of illness treated the writer so cruelly? Moreover, he regularly underwent examinations that did not reveal any somatic pathologies. However, he had already experienced neurotic disorders.
So, in the archive of M.A. Bulgakov, a doctor’s form with a medical report was found:
“05/22/1934. On this date I established that M.A. Bulgakov has a sharp depletion of the nervous system with symptoms of psychosthenia, as a result of which he is prescribed rest, bed rest and drug treatment.
Comrade Bulgakov will be able to start work in 4-5 days. Alexey Lyutsianovich Iverov. Doctor of the Moscow Art Theater.”
Elena Sergeevna Bulgakova herself mentions such neurotic conditions and attempts to treat them in her diaries in 1934:
“On the 13th we went to Leningrad and were treated there by Dr. Polonsky with electrification.”
“October 13. At M.A. bad with nerves. Fear of space, loneliness. Thinking about turning to hypnosis?”
"The 20th of October. M.A. I phoned Andrei Andreevich (A.A. Arend. - L.D.) about a meeting with Dr. Berg. M.A. I decided to be treated with hypnosis for my fears.”
“November 19. After hypnosis with M.A. The attacks of fear begin to disappear, the mood is even, cheerful and good performance. Now - if only he could still walk down the street alone.”
"November 22. At ten o'clock in the evening M.A. got up, got dressed and went alone to the Leontyevs. He didn’t walk alone for six months.”
In letters to Vikenty Veresaev, also a doctor by profession (remember his “Notes of a Doctor”), Bulgakov admitted: “I have become sick, Vikenty Vikentyevich. I won’t list the symptoms, I’ll just say that I stopped responding to business letters. And there is often a poisonous thought - had I really completed my circle? The disease announced itself with extremely unpleasant sensations of “the darkest anxiety,” “complete hopelessness, neurasthenic fears.”
Vikenty Veresaev
"Somatics" manifested itself in September 1939.
It was from that time that Bulgakov himself began counting his illness, which he told his wife, who wrote down his words in his diary on February 11, 1940 (a month before his death): “... for the first time in all five months of illness I am happy... I’m lying... in peace, you are with me... This is happiness...”.
In September 1939, after a serious stressful situation for him (a review from a writer who went on a business trip to work on a play about Stalin), Bulgakov decides to go on vacation to Leningrad. He writes a corresponding statement to the management of the Bolshoi Theater, where he worked as a consultant to the repertoire department. And on the very first day of his stay in Leningrad, walking with his wife along Nevsky Prospekt, Bulgakov suddenly felt that he could not distinguish the inscriptions on the signs.
A similar situation once already took place in Moscow - before his trip to Leningrad, which the writer told his sister, Elena Afanasyevna: “About the first noticeable loss of vision - for a moment (I was sitting, talking with one lady, and suddenly she seemed to be covered in a cloud - I stopped seeing her). I decided that it was an accident, my nerves were acting up, nervous fatigue.”.
Alarmed by a repeated episode of vision loss, the writer returns to the Astoria Hotel. The search for an ophthalmologist urgently begins, and on September 12, Bulgakov is examined by Leningrad professor N.I. Andogsky:
“Visual acuity: right eye – 0.5; left – 0.8. Phenomena of presbyopia. Phenomena of inflammation of the optic nerves in both eyes with the participation of the surrounding retina: in the left - slightly, in the right - more significantly. The vessels are significantly dilated and tortuous.
Glasses for classes: pr. + 2.75 D; a lion. +1.75 D.
Sol.calcii chlorati cristillisiti 5% -200.0. 1 tbsp. l. 3 times per
day.
09/12/1939. Prof. N.I. Andogsky, Volodarsky Ave.,
10, apt. 8".
The professor tells him: “Your case is bad.” Bulgakov, a doctor himself, understands that everything is even worse: at about 40 years old, this is how the disease began that took the life of his father in 1907. He returns from vacation ahead of schedule, on September 15, 1939.
First - examinations by an ophthalmologist.
09/28/1939. Ophthalmologist: “Bilateral neuritis optici on the left eye is smaller without hemorrhages and white spots, on the right the phenomena are more pronounced: there are isolated hemorrhages and white spots V.OD approximately and without glasses about 0.2. V.OS is greater than 0.2. The field of view during manual examination is not expanded.
09/30/1939. “The study will be repeated with a study of visual acuity using tables. Leeches can be repeated. In the eyes twice a day Pilocarpine and Dionine.” Prof. Strakh.
09/30/1939. Repeated examination by the ophthalmologist: “Neuritis optici with hemorrhages.”
As you can see, the fundus revealed changes characteristic of severe arterial hypertension, the presence of which in Bulgakov was not mentioned anywhere in the available materials before the events unfolded. For the first time, we learn about the writer’s true blood pressure numbers only after the appearance of eye symptoms.
“09/20/1939. Polyclinic of the People's Commissariat of Health of the USSR (Gagarinsky Ave., 37). Bulgakov M.A. Blood pressure according to Korotkov Max. -205/Min. 120 mm” The next day, September 21, 1939, there was a home visit from Dr. Zakharov, who from now on would be supervised by M.A. Bulgakov until his last days. A receipt order for the visit (12 rubles 50 kopecks) and a prescription for the purchase of 6 leeches (5 rubles 40 kopecks) were issued.
A little later, the blood test(s) gives very alarming results:
“Study No. 47445.46 of patient M.A. Bulgakov from 09/25/1939
The amount of residual nitrogen in the blood according to the Assel method is 81.6 mg% (normal is 20–40 mg%). The reaction to indican using the Gas method gave traces.
02.10.1939. The amount of residual nitrogen according to the Assel method is 64.8 mg% (the norm is 20–40 mg%). The indican reaction is negative.
09.10.1939. Residual nitrogen 43.2 mg% (normal – 20–40 mg%) indican – negative.”
The diagnosis becomes clear: chronic renal failure. Bulgakov puts it on himself too. In a letter dated 10.1939 to a Kyiv friend of his youth, Gshesinsky, Bulgakov himself voiced the nature of his illness: “Now it’s my turn, I have kidney disease, complicated by visual impairment. I lie there, deprived of the opportunity to read, write and see the light...” “Well, what can I tell you about? The left eye showed significant signs of improvement. Now, however, the flu has appeared on my way, but maybe it will go away without spoiling anything...”
Professor Miron Semenovich Vovsi, an authoritative clinician, one of the Kremlin’s consultants, who had experience in the field of kidney pathology, and the author of the subsequently published monograph “Diseases of the Urinary Organs,” who examined him in the same October, confirmed the diagnosis, and, saying goodbye, told the writer’s wife that gives him only three days to live. Bulgakov lived for another six months.
Mikhail Vovsi
Bulgakov's condition steadily deteriorated. Based on the available selection of prescriptions, one can assume the presence of leading clinical symptoms and their dynamics. As before, analgesic drugs continued to be prescribed for headaches - most often in the form of a combination of pyramidon, phenacetin, caffeine, sometimes together with luminal. Injections of magnesium sulfate, leeching and bloodletting were the main means of treating arterial hypertension. So, in one of the entries in the diary of E.S. Bulgakova we find: “09.10.1939. Yesterday there was a lot of bloodletting - 780 g, severe headache. This afternoon is a little easier, but I have to take powders.”
The USSR Writers' Union takes, as far as possible, participation in the fate of its colleague. Bulgakov is visited at home by the chairman of the Writers' Union, Alexander Fadeev, about which we find an entry in the diaries of E.S.: “October 18. Two interesting calls today. The first is from Fadeev that he will come to visit Misha tomorrow...” By decision of the Writers' Union, he is provided with financial assistance in the amount of 5,000
rub. In November 1939, at a meeting of the Union of Writers of the USSR, the issue of sending Bulgakov and his wife to the government sanatorium “Barvikha” was considered.
Alexander Fadeev
The very fact of sending a patient with severe, almost terminal renal failure to sanatorium treatment is somewhat surprising. It is possible that this was just a “merciful” action on the part of the authorities, voiced by the USSR SP in relation to the sick writer, as if as a sign of loyalty and care for him. After all, for a patient with chronic renal failure, a sanatorium is not the best
a suitable place to stay for treatment. In December 1939, three months before his death, Bulgakov did not belong to the category of “sanatorium patients.” That is why, at his request, supported by the Writers' Union, his wife went with him to the sanatorium.
The main method of treatment for Bulgakov there was carefully designed dietary measures, about which the writer writes from the sanatorium to his sister Elena Afanasyevna:
“Barvikha. 3.12.1939
Dear Lelya!
Here's some news about me. The left eye showed significant improvement. The right eye lags behind it, but is also trying to do something good... According to the doctors, it turns out that since there is improvement in the eyes, it means that there is an improvement in the kidney process. And if so, then I have hope that this time I will get away from the old woman with the scythe... Now the flu kept me a little in bed, but I had already begun to go out and was in the forest for walks. And much stronger... They treat me carefully and mainly with a specially selected and combined diet. Mainly vegetables of all types and fruits...”
In these lines, the writer still retains faith in the improvement of his condition and the opportunity to return to literary activity.
Unfortunately, the hopes pinned (if any at all) on the “sanatorium service” for the writer Bulgakov were not justified. Having returned from the Barvikha sanatorium in a depressed state, having felt virtually no improvement and realizing his tragic situation, Bulgakov wrote in December 1939 to his longtime medical friend Alexander Gdeshinsky in Kyiv:
“...well, I returned from the sanatorium. What’s wrong with me?.. If I tell you frankly and in confidence, I’m sick of the thought that I came back to die. This doesn’t suit me for one reason: it’s painful, boring and vulgar. As you know, there is one decent type of death - from a firearm, but, unfortunately, I don’t have one. Speaking more precisely about the disease: a clearly felt struggle between the signs of life and death takes place in me. In particular, on the side of life is improved vision. But enough about the disease! I can only add one thing: towards the end of my life I had to endure another disappointment - in general practitioners. I won’t call them murderers, that would be too cruel, but I will gladly call them performers, hacks and mediocrities. There are exceptions, of course, but how rare they are! And what can these exceptions help if, say, for ailments like mine, allopaths not only have no remedies, but sometimes they cannot recognize the ailment itself.
Time will pass, and our therapists will be laughed at like Moliere’s doctors. What has been said does not apply to surgeons, ophthalmologists, and dentists. To the best of doctors, Elena Sergeevna, too. But she can’t cope alone, so she accepted a new faith and switched to a homeopath. And most of all, may God help us all who are sick!<...>”.
The condition continued to worsen:
From the diary of E.S. Bulgakova: “January 24. Bad day. Misha has a constant headache. I took four enhanced powders - it didn’t help. Attacks of nausea. I called Uncle Misha - Pokrovsky (M.A. Bulgakov’s maternal uncle, doctor - L.D.) for tomorrow morning. And now – eleven o’clock in the evening – I called Zakharov. Having learned about Misha’s condition, he came out to us and will come in 20 minutes.”
02/03/1940. Bulgakov is advised by Professor Vladimir Nikitich Vinogradov, personal physician I.V. Stalin, who later almost died in the “Doctors’ Case.” Here are the recommendations of Prof. V.N. Vinogradova:
"1. Routine – going to bed at 12 o’clock at night.
2. Diet – dairy-vegetable.
3. Drink no more than 5 glasses per day.
4 Papaverine powders, etc. 3 times a day.
5. (to sister) Injections Myol/+Spasmol gj 1.0 each.
6. Daily foot baths with mustard 1 tbsp. l.,
10 pm.
7 At night, mixture with chloral hydrate, 11 hours
evenings.
8. Eye drops morning and evening.”
Vladimir Vinogradov
This is how patients with chronic renal failure were treated just three quarters of a century ago! The given recommendations reflect the ideas of doctors of that time about the management of patients with chronic renal failure, but today they have no more than historical interest.
Sergey Ermolinsky
Bulgakov’s friend, director and screenwriter Sergei Ermolinsky recalled the last days of the dying writer:
“These were days of silent moral suffering. The words slowly died in him... The usual doses of sleeping pills stopped working.
And long recipes appeared, dotted with cabalistic Latinisms. According to these prescriptions, which exceeded all required standards, they stopped dispensing medicine to our envoys: poison. I had to go to the pharmacy myself to explain what was happening.<...>I went up into the hall and asked for the manager. He remembered Bulgakov, his thorough client, and, handing me the medicine, sadly shook his head.<...>Nothing could help anymore.
His entire body was poisoned... ...he became blind. When I leaned towards him, he felt my face with his hands and recognized me. He recognized Lena (Elena Sergeevna - L.D.) by her steps, as soon as she appeared
in the room. Bulgakov was lying on the bed naked, wearing only a loincloth (even the sheets hurt him), and suddenly asked me: “Do I look like Christ?..” His body was dry. He has lost a lot of weight...” (recorded 1964–1965).
His diaries, kept for 7 years, E.S. Bulgakov ends with the last breath of Mikhail Afanasyevich: “03/10/1940. 16 hours. Misha died."
To be continued.
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