Diaries and Selected Letters by Mikhail Bulgakov

Author:Mikhail Bulgakov [Bulgakov, Mikhail]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Alma Classics
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

1935

2nd March 1935

To Alexander Gdeshinsky*

Dear Sasha!

Thank you for remembering me, and for your kind invitation.

If you imagine that you’re living in Kiev, then you’re cruelly mistaken! At least, the Kiev Address Office doesn’t recognize you as living there.

I was there last August and a woman’s hand passed out a piece of paper through the hatch which clearly stated that the name A.P. Gdeshinsky did not exist. There was no one of that name living in Kiev.

I now see, as I had thought, that those puppets of the Devil in the Address Office were lying. You do “exist”, and I am very pleased to get your letter. I had gone to Kiev for one reason only – to walk around my native city and to show my wife places which I have at one time written about. She wanted to see them. Sadly we were able to be there for only five days. I couldn’t get a room at the Continental. It was good that someone from the city put us up. […]

6th March

Continuation of the letter to Alexander Gdeshinsky

I couldn’t complete the letter in one go, as I was interrupted by theatre business. Anyway, I was up on the hill at Kupechesky looking down at the lights on the river and remembering my life in Kiev.

Walking around the parks in the afternoon I was struck by a strange feeling. This was my land! A sweet sadness, mixed with anxiety!

I would so much like to be there again. This is not possible before the summer, or at best the spring (it’s the theatre season). But I think I’ll be able to come in the summer.

Write and tell me about yourself. Are you married? Where do you work? And, if you can manage it, something about life in Kiev. The travel question is not that simple. If I do come, it will definitely be with my wife, and then all those anxieties with the Continental and so on will arise. So, please write and tell me about yourself!

Yours,

Mikhail

PS: My wife’s name is Yelena Sergeyevna. There are three of us living here: my wife, me and eight-year-old Sergei, my stepson, a highly interesting little boy. A bandit with a tin revolver, learning to play the piano.

I would love to get a letter from you.

22nd April

To K.S. Stanislavsky

Most esteemed Konstantin Sergeyevich!

I received today an extract from the record of the Molière rehearsal of 17/04/35 sent to me by the Theatre.

Having read this, I feel compelled to reject categorically the proposed revisions to my play Molière, since the suggested changes to the Cabal scene, as well as previously proposed textual changes to other scenes, represent, I am convinced, an absolute breach of my original artistic conception and lead to the composition of a new play, of which I cannot be the author, as I radically disagree with it.

If Molière is unacceptable to the Arts Theatre in its present form – even though the Theatre originally accepted it and has been rehearsing it for many years

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