Quotes from Bulgakov
Prepared by: Dmitry Sirotkin
I present to you a selection of quotes from the writer Mikhail Bulgakov .
Everything is as it should be: with evil spirits, the housing problem, second-fresh sturgeon, unburnable manuscripts...
Quotes are summarized by topic: about yourself, life, post-revolutionary life, life ethics, human manifestations, food and nutrition, people, writing and writers, women and men, Sharikov, truth and lies, love, evil spirits, education, money, eyes, happiness, death, Russia.
About Me
Now I can hear my thoughts soaring within me, and I believe that I am immeasurably stronger as a writer than anyone I know. But in such conditions as now, I may be lost.
Theater for me is pleasure, peace, entertainment, in a word, anything except a means to acquire a new good neurasthenia.
Black and mystical colors (I am a mystical writer), which depict the countless deformities of our life, the poison with which my language is saturated, deep skepticism regarding the revolutionary process taking place in my backward country, and the contrast to it with the beloved and Great Evolution... a persistent depiction of the Russian intelligentsia as the best layer in our country...
It’s not just the Moscow Art Theater, I’m ready to sell myself to the devil for an apartment.
In the wide field of Russian literature in the USSR, I was the only literary wolf. I was advised to dye the skin. Ridiculous advice. Whether a wolf is dyed or shorn, it still does not look like a poodle. They treated me like a wolf. And for several years they persecuted me according to the rules of a literary cage in a fenced yard. I have no malice, but I am very tired...
Not being able to write is tantamount to being buried alive for me.
About life
Life is not unraveled by the mind, but only the experienced mystery of world existence, that primordial light in which both consciousness and discrimination are born.
No matter what pessimists say, the earth is still absolutely beautiful, and under the moon it is simply unique.
The present is before our eyes. It is such that you want to close your eyes.
Everything will be right - the world is built on this.
Why do you need the whole world if you don’t want to give it to anyone?
You know, a person without documents is strictly prohibited from existing.
No document, no person.
All power is violence against people.
There are only two forces in the world: dollars and literature.
All will pass. Suffering, torment, blood, famine and pestilence. The sword will disappear, but the stars will remain, when the shadow of our bodies and deeds will not remain on the earth. There is not a single person who does not know this. So why don't we want to turn our gaze to them? Why?
By the way, quotes about life
About post-revolutionary life
People are like people. They love money, but this has always been the case... In general, they resemble the old ones... the housing issue only spoiled them.
What is this devastation of yours? This is this: if, entering the restroom, I start, excuse the expression, urinating past the toilet and Zina and Daria Petrovna do the same, devastation will begin in the restroom. Consequently, the devastation is not in the closets, but in the heads. This means that when these baritones shout “beat the destruction!” - I am laughing. This means that each of them must hit themselves in the back of the head! And so, when he hatches all sorts of hallucinations from himself and starts cleaning the barns - his direct business - the devastation will disappear by itself.
You cannot serve two gods! It is impossible to sweep the tram tracks and arrange the fate of some Spanish ragamuffins at the same time!
Dirty apartment.
Revolutionary driving: you drive for an hour and stand for two.
Get in line, you sons of bitches, get in line!
Preobrazhensky: What business did you come to me for? Tell me as soon as possible, I'm going to lunch now. Shvonder: We, the management of the building, came to you after a general meeting of the residents of our building, at which the issue of densifying the apartments of the building was raised... Preobrazhensky: Who stood on whom?..
About life ethics
Never ask for anything! Never and nothing, and especially among those who are stronger than you. They will offer and give everything themselves!
Never. Never pull the lampshade off a lamp! The lampshade is sacred. Never run like a rat into the unknown from danger. Doze by the lampshade, read - let the blizzard howl - wait for them to come to you.
Never talk to strangers.
Thinking cannot be prohibited.
Those who are not in a hurry succeed everywhere.
Each will be given according to his faith.
I have neither profit nor loss from your faith.
There would be chaos, but people would still be there.
Never commit a crime, no matter who it is directed against. Live to old age with clean hands.
Sometimes the best way to destroy a person is to let him choose his own fate.
There is nothing worse, comrades, than cowardice and lack of self-confidence.
About human manifestations
Do you judge by the suit? Never do this. You can make a mistake, and a very big one at that.
Smart people are smart to understand complicated things.
You need to be able to seize good moments and take advantage of them.
The most terrible anger is the anger of powerlessness.
Do you understand how a person who knows that nothing will work out and who must do it can hate?
Insult is a common reward for good work.
The consciousness of your complete, blinding powerlessness must be kept to yourself.
An unhappy person is cruel and callous. And all just because good people mutilated him.
It is enough to chase a person under gunfire, and he turns into a wise wolf; In place of a very weak and, in really difficult cases, unnecessary mind, a wise animal instinct grows.
Destruction is pleasant, but the impunity associated with it causes frenzied delight in a person.
About food and nutrition
There is only one freshness - the first, and it is also the last. And if the sturgeon is second freshness, then this means that it is rotten!
Preobrazhensky: If you care about your digestion, my good advice is not to talk about Bolshevism and medicine at dinner. And - God forbid - don’t read Soviet newspapers before lunch. Bormenthal: Hm... But there are no others. Preobrazhensky: Don’t read any.
Food is a tricky thing. You need to be able to eat, and imagine, most people don’t know how to eat at all. You need to not only know what to eat, but also when and how.
Cold appetizers and soup are eaten only by landowners who were undercut by the Bolsheviks. A more or less self-respecting person handles hot snacks.
Sir, if you had seen what this sausage is made from, you would not have come near the store.
For mercy's sake... would I allow myself to pour vodka for the lady? This is pure alcohol!
By the way, quotes about food
About people
Man is a complex and therefore difficult being for himself.
There are no evil people in the world, there are only unhappy people.
A person without a surprise inside, in his box, is uninteresting.
Why, after all, do I have to come up with an excuse for every action I take?
For twenty whole years a person does something, for example, reads Roman law, and on the twenty-first - it suddenly turns out that Roman law has nothing to do with it, that he doesn’t even understand it and doesn’t like it, but in fact he is a subtle gardener and burns with love to the flowers. This happens, one must assume, from the imperfection of our social system, in which people often find themselves in their place only towards the end of their lives.
No force can silence the crowd until it exhales everything that has accumulated inside it and falls silent itself.
By the way, quotes about people
About writing and writers
Manuscripts don't burn.
The writer will always be in opposition to politics as long as politics itself is in opposition to culture.
“You are not Dostoevsky,” said the citizen, confused by Koroviev. “Well, who knows, who knows,” he answered. “Dostoevsky died,” said the citizen, but somehow not very confidently. “I protest,” Behemoth exclaimed hotly. - Dostoevsky is immortal!
A writer is not determined by his ID, but by what he writes!
The fight against censorship, whatever it may be and under whatever government it exists, is my duty as a writer, as well as calls for freedom of the press. I am an ardent admirer of this freedom and believe that if any writer were to try to prove that he does not need it, he would be like a fish publicly assuring that it does not need water.
About women and men
It is impossible for a squadron to go on a campaign without women.
Cinema is the only consolation in life for women.
These women are difficult people!
And the Lord came up with a toy - women's eyes.
After all the magic and miracles of this evening, she already guessed who exactly they were taking her to visit, but this did not frighten her. The hope that there she would be able to achieve the return of her happiness made her fearless.
Evil lurks in men who avoid wine, games, the company of lovely women, and table conversation. Such people are either seriously ill or secretly hate those around them.
By the way, quotes about women and quotes about men
About ball
Yesterday cats were strangled, strangled...
I humbly ask you not to offer beer to Sharikov.
Let's go eat something. Well, they're in the swamp.
“I can’t stay without food,” he muttered, “where will I eat?”
What kind of comrades we are to you! Where else? We understand, sir! We did not study at universities. We didn’t live in apartments with 15 rooms and bathrooms.
This is what happens when a researcher, instead of going parallel and groping with nature, forces the question and lifts the veil: here, get Sharikov and eat him with porridge.
About truth and lies
It is easy and pleasant to speak the truth.
Honesty always leads to trouble.
There is only one truth. There are no two truths.
Only through suffering does truth come... This is true, rest assured! But for knowledge of the truth they do not pay any money or give rations. Sad but true.
Fact is the most stubborn thing in the world.
We speak different languages, as always. But the things we are talking about do not change.
By the way, quotes about truth and quotes about lies
About love
He who loves must share the fate of the one he loves.
Follow me, reader! Who told you that there is no true, faithful, eternal love in the world? May the liar's vile tongue be cut out!
Love jumped out in front of us, like a killer jumps out of the ground in an alley, and struck us both at once! That's how lightning strikes, that's how a Finnish knife strikes!
I was tormented because it seemed to me that it was necessary to talk to her, and I was worried that I would not utter a single word, and she would leave, and I would never see her again...
By the way, quotes about love
About evil spirits
What would your good do if evil did not exist, and what would the earth look like if shadows disappeared from it?
I’m sitting, not bothering anyone, I’m fixing the primus!
I'll cut off your hand! “Azazello shouted menacingly from the saddle to the cook, who, groaning, wanted to raise her hand to make the sign of the cross.
About education
I believe that it is impossible to become an educated person in any educational institution. But in any well-run educational institution, you can become a disciplined person and acquire a skill that will be useful in the future, when a person begins to educate himself outside the walls of the educational institution.
There is absolutely no point in learning to read when you can already smell meat a mile away. Nevertheless, you will, willy-nilly, learn to read and write, without any courses. Of the forty thousand Moscow dogs, perhaps some complete idiot will not be able to form the word “sausage” from letters.
By the way, quotes about education
About money
Maybe money gets in the way of being likable. Here, for example, no one has money and everyone is nice.
I have a place, however, this is far from the most important thing. You also need to be able to receive money.
It was an incomparable smell of freshly printed money.
By the way, quotes about money
About the eyes
These eyes don't lie. After all, how many times have I told you that your main mistake is that you underestimate the value of human eyes. Understand that the tongue can hide the truth, but the eyes can never!
Eyes are a significant thing. Like a barometer. You can see who has a great dryness in their soul, who can poke the toe of a boot into their ribs for no reason, and who is afraid of everyone.
By the way, quotes about eyes
Oh happiness
Happiness is like health: when it is present, you don’t notice it.
The only thing that is innate to people is self-love. And the goal of every person’s life is happiness! What elements make up happiness? Only of two, gentlemen, only of two: a calm soul and a healthy body.
By the way, quotes about happiness
About death
Yes, man is mortal, but that would not be so bad. The bad thing is that he is sometimes suddenly mortal, that's the trick!
But it is impossible to send him to Solovki for the reason that he has been in places much more remote than Solovki for over a hundred years, and there is no way to get him out of there, I assure you!
About Russia
In Rus' only one thing is possible: Orthodox faith, autocratic power!
Good lady, there is a wild country, you do not know it, this is Muscovy, a cold and terrible country.
For a Russian person, honor is just an extra burden.
By the way, quotes about Russia
About miscellaneous
Why are you looking at me like that, dear father? There are no patterns on me and flowers don’t grow.
Stop this verbal filth.
You can't sit on a hedgehog with your naked profile!
It's nice to hear that you treat your cat so politely. For some reason, cats are usually called “you,” although not a single cat has ever drunk brotherhood with anyone.
Remember: a person living in Paris should know that the Russian language is only suitable for swearing in unprintable words or, even worse, proclaiming some destructive slogans. Neither one nor the other is accepted in Paris.
My grandmother was a total bore, God bless her, old lady.
Because of you, I was rude to the wrong people!
Why is it necessary to artificially fabricate Spinoza when any woman can give birth to him at any time?
The best and strongest won. And these best ones were terrible.
Give the priests a blue one, so they can serve the devil mass.
This winter is truly endless. You look out the window and want to spit. And there lies, lies gray snow on the roofs. I'm tired of winter!
As we see, Soviet reality, which Bulgakov did not accept, left a bright imprint on his work. But by historical irony, in response, Bulgakov’s very work left a bright imprint on Soviet reality, as we perceive it through his works and quotes. And in my opinion, in this he surpassed, for example, the singer of the Revolution Mayakovsky.
Quotes about Bulgakov
- E. Bulgakova: He had extraordinary bright blue eyes, like the sky, and they always glowed. I have never seen his eyes dull. These were always eyes that burned brightly with interest and greed for life. He loved life madly.
- K. Paustovsky: The whole life of this restless and brilliant writer was, in essence, a merciless battle for the sake of pure human thoughts, for the sake of the fact that a person should be and does not dare not be reasonable and noble. In this struggle, Bulgakov had a devastating weapon in his hands - sarcasm, anger, irony, caustic and precise words. He did not spare his weapons. (by the way, quotes from Konstantin Paustovsky)
- V. Khodasevich: Not only is there not the slightest sympathy for the white cause (which would be complete naivety to expect from a Soviet author), but there is also no sympathy for the people who devoted themselves to this cause or are associated with it. He leaves the lust and rudeness to other authors, but he himself prefers a condescending, almost loving attitude towards his characters.
- A. Solzhenitsyn: Brilliant as the sun, Bulgakov is one of the brightest in all Russian literature.
Next, you can move on to other collections of quotes:
- Pushkin quotes
- Chekhov quotes
- Gorky quotes
- Mayakovsky quotes
- Platonov quotes
- Ranevskaya quotes
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Aphorisms, quotes, sayings, phrases - Bulgakov Mikhail Afanasyevich.
- Manuscripts don't burn.
- Despondency must not be allowed.
- No document, no person.
- Those who are not in a hurry succeed everywhere.
- I'm broken, I'm bored, and I want to go to the basement.
- It's not a shame that I want to live so much, even if I'm blind.
- In Moscow they count only hundreds of thousands and millions.
- I like to sit low - it’s not so dangerous to fall from low.
- People are like people. They love money, but that's always been the case.
- It’s not just the Moscow Art Theater, I’m ready to sell myself to the devil for an apartment.
- What would your good do if evil did not exist?
- Happiness is like health: when it is present, you don’t notice it.
- He who loves must share the fate of the one he loves.
- A brick will never fall on anyone’s head for no reason at all.
- The tenor begins to sing something that immediately makes you painfully want to go to the buffet.
- Not being able to write is tantamount to being buried alive for me.
- Smart people are smart to understand complicated things.
- The consciousness of your complete, blinding powerlessness must be kept to yourself.
- I have a place, however, this is far from the most important thing. You also need to be able to receive money.
- The writer will always be in opposition to politics as long as politics itself is in opposition to culture.
- Yes, man is mortal, but that would be half the trouble. The bad thing is that he is sometimes suddenly mortal, that's the trick.
- There is only one freshness - the first, and it is also the last. And if the sturgeon is second freshness, then this means that it is rotten.
- Theater for me is pleasure, peace, entertainment, in a word, anything except a means to acquire a new good neurasthenia.
- No force can silence the crowd until it exhales everything that has accumulated inside it and falls silent itself.
- Now I can hear my thoughts soaring within me, and I believe that I am immeasurably stronger as a writer than anyone I know. But in such conditions as now, I may be lost.
- This is what happens when a researcher, instead of going parallel and groping with nature, forces the question and lifts the veil: here, get Sharikov and eat him with porridge.
- Eyes are a significant thing. Like a barometer. You can see who has a great dryness in their soul, who can poke the toe of a boot into their ribs for no reason, and who is afraid of everyone.
- Something evil lurks in men who avoid wine, games, the company of lovely women, and table conversation. Such people are either seriously ill or secretly hate those around them. True, exceptions are possible.
- I believe that it is impossible to become an educated person in any educational institution. But in any well-run educational institution, you can become a disciplined person and acquire a skill that will be useful in the future, when a person begins to educate himself outside the walls of the educational institution.
- The fight against censorship, whatever it may be and under whatever government it exists, is my duty as a writer, as well as calls for freedom of the press. I am an ardent admirer of this freedom and believe that if any writer were to try to prove that he does not need it, he would be like a fish publicly assuring that it does not need water.
- In the wide field of Russian literature in the USSR, I was the only literary wolf. I was advised to dye the skin. Ridiculous advice. Whether a wolf is dyed or shorn, it still does not look like a poodle. They treated me like a wolf. And for several years they persecuted me according to the rules of a literary cage in a fenced yard. I have no malice, but I am very tired.
Quotation book for lessons on creativity by M.A. Bulgakov
Quotes for lessons on the works of Mikhail Afanasyevich Bulgakov
Bulgakov did not change his views due to fashion or profit. But he thought intensely about everything that he saw in front of him... At all the ups and downs of fate, Bulgakov remained faithful to the laws of dignity...
V.Ya. Lakshin
One got the impression that only he alone knew the highest truths not only of art, but of human life in general. V. Kataev
I won’t take my heart and brain to the market even if I die... M.A. Bulgakov
The novel absorbed the artist’s rich experience in his mature years and brought together into organ polyphony motifs that sounded separately in his various works. V.Ya. Lakshin
Bulgakov... experienced throughout his life an acute and destructive hatred of everything that bore even the slightest traits of philistinism, savagery and falsehood. K. Paustovsky
Although people do not know what good is, they have it in themselves. Confucius
Retribution is not revenge, retribution is always fair. M. Shatrov
To create is nothing other than to believe. R. Rolland
One minute of peace
I will give you peace after death. A. A. Akhmatova
In satire, reality as a kind of imperfection is opposed to the ideal as the highest reality. Fr. Schiller
He who will rule over others must first rule over himself. Democritus
The newest and most original book is the one that makes you love old truths. L. Vauvenargues
Manuscripts don't burn. M.A. Bulgakov.
Satire, indeed, as every literate person knows, can be honest, but there is hardly a person in the world who would present to the authorities an example of permitted satire. M.A. Bulgakov
This is a poignant pamphlet on modern times and should not be printed under any circumstances. L.B. Kamenev about the story “Heart of a Dog”
And the dead were judged according to what was written in the books, according to their deeds. From the Bible
Why, why, where does evil come from?
If there is a God, then how can there be evil?
If there is evil, then how can there be God? M.Yu. Lermontov
I am part of that force that always wants evil and always does good... I.V. Goethe
He belonged to that fairly common type of people who never doubt anything, who live according to unshakable rules established once and for all. His moral code seemed to unconditionally include all the commandments of the Old and New Testaments. V. Kataev
...his humorous works are pearls that promise him to be an artist of the first rank. But censorship cuts it mercilessly. Recently he killed the wonderful piece “Heart of a Dog”, and he is completely losing heart. V. Veresaev
He is a genius. A.A. Akhmatova
In the wide field of Russian literature in the USSR, I was the only literary wolf. I was advised to dye the skin. Ridiculous advice. Whether the wolf is dyed or shorn, it still does not look like a poodle. M.A. Bulgakov
People choose different paths. One, stumbling, climbs along the road of vanity, another crawls along the path of humiliating flattery, others make their way along the road of hypocrisy and deception. Am I going down one of these roads? No! I walk the steep road of chivalry and despise earthly goods, but not honor! M.A. Bulgakov
This is what I give you in return for grave roses, In return for incense incense; You lived so harshly and conveyed magnificent contempt to the end... A.A. Akhmatova
The whole life of this restless and brilliant writer was, in essence, a merciless battle with stupidity and meanness, a battle for the sake of pure human thoughts, for the sake of what a person should be and does not dare not be reasonable and noble. K. Paustovsky
There is something paradoxical in the very nature of Bulgakov's novel. There is irony in it - not as a feature of style or technique, but as part of the author's general worldview. Bulgakov stuns the reader with the novelty and unusualness of his plot, and his very approach to events and people... V.Ya. Lakshin
Free, artistic, light, but not frivolous, the author’s talent, shimmering with an excess of strength, creates a narrative flow that is amazing in pace and variety. V.Ya. Lakshin
Never ask for anything! Never and nothing, and especially among those who are stronger than you. They will offer and give everything themselves! M.A. Bulgakov
He who loves must share the fate of the one he loves. M.A. Bulgakov
Happiness is like health: when it is present, you don’t notice it. M.A. Bulgakov
The second freshness is nonsense! There is only one freshness - the first, and it is also the last. And if the sturgeon is second freshness, then this means that it is rotten! M.A. Bulgakov
Those who are not in a hurry succeed everywhere. M.A. Bulgakov
Only through suffering does truth come... This is true, rest assured! But for knowledge of the truth they do not pay any money or give rations. Sad but true. M.A. Bulgakov
There are only two forces in the world: dollars and literature. M.A. Bulgakov
There are no evil people in the world, there are only unhappy people. M.A. Bulgakov
The writer will always be in opposition to politics as long as politics itself is in opposition to culture. M.A. Bulgakov
Yes, man is mortal, but that would not be so bad. The bad thing is that he is sometimes suddenly mortal, that's the trick! M.A. Bulgakov
Do you judge by the suit? Never do this. You can make a mistake, and a very big one at that. M.A. Bulgakov
We speak different languages, as always. But the things we are talking about do not change. M.A. Bulgakov
Who said that there is no true, eternal love in the world? May the liar's vile tongue be cut out! M.A. Bulgakov
- Dostoevsky died.
- I protest, Dostoevsky is immortal! M.A. Bulgakov
You know, a person without documents is strictly prohibited from existing. M.A. Bulgakov
The stars will remain when the shadow of our bodies and deeds will not remain on earth. M.A. Bulgakov
Never commit a crime, no matter who it is directed against. Live to old age with clean hands. M.A. Bulgakov
Fact is the most stubborn thing in the world. M.A. Bulgakov
Revolutionary driving: you drive for an hour and stand for two. M.A. Bulgakov
In Rus' only one thing is possible: Orthodox faith, autocratic power! M.A. Bulgakov
Understand that the tongue can hide the truth, but the eyes can never! M.A. Bulgakov
It is enough to chase a person under gunfire, and he turns into a wise wolf; In place of a very weak and, in really difficult cases, unnecessary mind, a wise animal instinct grows. M.A. Bulgakov
Maybe money gets in the way of being likable. Here, for example, no one has money and everyone is nice. M.A. Bulgakov
Evil lurks in men who avoid wine, games, the company of lovely women, and table conversation. Such people are either seriously ill or secretly hate those around them. M.A. Bulgakov
An unhappy person is cruel and callous. And all just because good people mutilated him. M.A. Bulgakov
Bulgakov was filled with jokes, inventions, and hoaxes. All this went freely, easily, and did not arise for any reason. There was amazing generosity in this, the power of imagination, the talent of an improviser... There was a world, and in this world there existed as one of its links - his creative youthful imagination. K Paustovsky
What is striking is how inextricably linked M.A.’s personality was. Bulgakov with his literary work, with that perseverance, selflessness, deep inner honesty and severity towards himself that were characteristic of him as a writer. Memories of him are, first of all, memories of a very integral person, for whom, under all circumstances, the main thing remained the work that he did alone or together with other people - in those cases when it came to working with the theater or in the theater ... K. M. Simonov
...the tenacity of memory, which distinguishes the memories of a variety of people who recreate the appearance of the same person after a quarter of a century, testifies both to the fact that this person himself was large and unique, and to the fact that people who met Bulgakov several decades ago, and Then they realized the scale of this personality, and its attractive power, and all the spiritual significance for themselves of meetings and conversations with this extraordinary person. K.M. Simonov
Veresaev, of course, is a very big man, but he is a legitimate phenomenon. And Bulgakov is illegal! B. Pasternak
What kind of person was Bulgakov? This can be answered immediately. Fearless - always and in everything. Vulnerable, but strong. Trusting, but not forgiving of any deception, any betrayal. Embodied conscience. Incorruptible honor. Everything else in him, even very significant ones, is secondary, depending on this main thing, which attracts to itself like a magnet. V.Ya. Vilenkin
Unusually elegant, smart, with eyes that see everything, notice everything, with a nervous, very often changing face. Cold, even a little prim with strangers and so open, mockingly cheerful and closely attentive to friends or just acquaintances... S.S. Pilyavskaya
... It immediately became clear to me that in front of me was a man of amazing talent, internally honest and principled and very smart - it was interesting to talk with him, even with a seriously ill person, as rarely happens with anyone. Both people of politics and people of literature know that he is a man who has not burdened himself either in his work or in life with political lies, that his path was sincere, organic, and if at the beginning of his path (and sometimes later) he is not all saw it as it really was, then there is nothing surprising in this. It would be worse if he was false. A. Fadeev
Brilliant as the sun, Bulgakov, one of the brightest in all Russian literature... A. Solzhenitsyn
Bulgakov's books encrypt the entire history of Soviet literature of the pre-war period. You just need to be able to make out this secret writing. B. Sokolov
Let us be imbued with a feeling of boundless gratitude to the outstanding artist-master, who glorified the creative spirit and established the highest ideals of moral justice. P.A. Nikolaev
In this image, perhaps, Bulgakov’s creative courage and daring challenge to stable aesthetic laws are most clearly visible. P.A. Nikolaev about Margarita
The fight against censorship, whatever it may be and under whatever government it exists, is my duty as a writer, as well as calls for freedom of the press. I am an ardent admirer of this freedom and believe that if any writer were to try to prove that he does not need it, he would be like a fish publicly assuring that it does not need water. M.A. Bulgakov
From the heights from which the entire “panorama” of human life opens up to him (Bulgakov), he looks at us with a dry and rather sad smile. Undoubtedly, these heights are so significant that at them red and white merge for the eye - in any case, these differences lose their meaning. G. Adamovich
In the first scene, where tired, confused officers, together with Elena Turbina, are having a drinking binge, in this scene, where the characters are not only ridiculed, but somehow exposed from the inside, where human insignificance obscures all other human properties, devalues virtues or qualities , - Tolstoy immediately feels. G. Adamovich
Bulgakov succeeded above all in “the very elements of life and its anxious pulse.” M. Hoffman
The history of Russian literature has developed in such a way that Mikhail Bulgakov’s novel about the Civil War remains his pinnacle creation on this topic. The perception of “The White Guard” by emigrants now seems all the more multifaceted and weighty, as they fully rewarded its author, doomed to muteness in Russia. R. Yangirov
A true Master - that's right, with a capital M - can immortalize himself with one single miracle created by him; to immortalize oneself, to puzzle posterity and to enrich the language with many magical, enchanting phrases that are part of its flesh and blood, existing as if separately from the novel. V. Ugryumov. "Purple Knight and Others"
Manuscripts do not burn... Souls burn, and from these ashes, watered with the blood of the heart, grows that wonderful, unique, divine thing that the tongue no longer dares to call with a dry and concrete word - a work. V. Ugryumov. "Purple Knight and Others"
Almost all of Mikhail Bulgakov's work is autobiographical to some extent. In any case, all of his novels, a significant part of his plays, some novellas and short stories can be classified as such. And at the same time, Bulgakov does not have strictly autobiographical works from which a complete biography of the writer could be compiled, for artistic fiction and the ineradicable imagination of the artist are invariably present in his works. V. Losev. "The artistic autobiography of Mikhail Bulgakov"
Eighty years ago, Mikhail Bulgakov began writing a novel about the Turbin family, a book of path and choice, important both for our literature and for the history of Russian social thought. Nothing is outdated in The White Guard. Therefore, our political scientists should not read each other, but this old novel... V. Sakharov. “Take care of your honor from a young age”
“The White Guard” was less fortunate, it was overshadowed by “The Master and Margarita”, it was also not completed, but we know it, read it and love it. And gradually the meaning of the book becomes clear... V. Sakharov. “Take care of your honor from a young age”
In “The White Guard” there is no position “above the fray,” no apology for the white movement, no joyful acceptance of the Bolsheviks and their “new” way of life, no selfless admiration of the idealized past, no hopes for the restoration of the old, tsarist Russia. V. Sakharov. “Take care of your honor from a young age”
Words fly away, but what is written remains. Latin proverb.
The writer will always be in opposition to politics as long as politics itself is in opposition to culture. M.A. Bulgakov
