No peace for the wicked.

Mikhail Bulgakov's great satirical novel The Master and Margarita never saw print during his lifetime; using Christ and the Devil to mock the corrupt culture of Moscow was perhaps not the wisest gambit for publication under Stalin. Bulgakov did not catch many breaks at all as a writer -- his plays were frequently closed in rehearsal and his best writing was relegated to samizdat. His request to emigrate was met by a personal call from Country Joe himself. (Stalin said no.) He died at 49 of an inherited kidney disease.

Still, it is comforting to think that by now at least, sixty years after his premature passing, his reputation is secure:


"A museum dedicated to a Russian writer condemned by the Orthodox church for his authorship of a "Satanic gospel" has been largely destroyed, an official told AFP...

"The Orthodox church said that the book, not published until 26 years after Bulgakov's death in 1940, was 'the fifth gospel, that of Satan.'

"According to Svetlana Kostina, deputy director of the museum, Alexander Morozov, a bitter critic of Bulgakov's work, which he condemned as Satanic, last Thursday locked himself in the museum, situated on the ground floor of a building and demanded that it be evicted.

"He 'threw many objects out of the window, including valuable illustrations of Bulgakov's works, signed by great Russian artists, not to mention several computers,' she said.

"About half the contents were damaged.

"Morozov had been campaigning for years against the presence of the museum, which looks on to a park where the writer lived and where he placed the action of 'The Master and Margarita.'"


It seems there's no pleasing anybody. Christianity and Stalinism are two seemingly opposing doctrines; it's certainly good to know that everyone can find a common ground.

The source of the trouble, it would seem, are the passages that recreate the Master's novel-within-the-novel about the life of Pontius Pilate. The character of Christ, here called Ha-Nostri, comes across as warm, human, appealing, and strangely real in these sections, which must be the trouble. That and the surreal mayhem the Devil and his associates (watch out for that gun-toting cat) unleash upon the Moscow of the 1920s make for an enormously enjoyable read, even for atheists.

But it would seem that neither the book nor Bulgakov mix well with doctrines. The ironies of this new defilement of his memory are layered too rich for further comment. We like to think it would have made a fine, mordantly funny play -- for the right author:


Pilate said in Greek, "So you intended to destroy the temple building and have incited the people to do so?"

Terror flashed across the prisoner's face... "Never in my life, hegemon, have I intended to destroy the temple. Nor have I ever tried to persuade anyone to do such a senseless thing."

"People of all kinds are streaming into the city for the feast day. Among them there are magicians, seers, astrologers, and murderers," said the Procurator in a monotone. "There are also liars. You, for instance, are a liar. It is clearly written down: 'He incited people to destroy the temple.' Witnesses said so."

"These good people," the prisoner began, and hastily adding, "hegemon," he went on, "are unlearned and have confused everything I have said. I am beginning to fear that this confusion will last a very long time.

--The Master and Margarita
Mikhail Bulgakov, 1891-1950.