Mikhail Bulgakov

Mikhail Bulgakov was born on May 15, 1891, in Kiev. He graduated from the Medical School at Kiev University in 1916 and began practicing at a country hospital in the Smolensk province. He wrote about his experiences in “Notes on Cuffs” and “Notes of a Young Country Doctor.” He returned to Kiev in 1918 and enlisted as a doctor in the White Army, but after a serious illness he abandoned his career and began writing. After moving to Moscow in 1921, he produced such plays as DAYS OF THE TURBANS, based on his novel “The White Guard,” ZOYA’S APARTMENT, FLIGHT, MOLIER (THE CABLE OF THE HYPOCRITES), IVAN VASILIEVICH, PUSHKIN (THE LAST DAYS), and BATUM. He also published the novels “The Heart of a Dog,” “Fatal Eggs,” “Diaboliad,” “The Adventures of Chichikov,” “Black Snow: A Theatrical Novel,” and “Life of Monsieur de Molière.” Throughout the 1920s and 1930s, many of his plays and novels were banned. He began writing his masterpiece, “Master and Margarita,” in 1929 and continued working on it until his death. A censored version was published in 1966, and in 1973, the uncensored version was published in Moscow. Bulgakov died on March 10, 1940, in Moscow.