The Master and Margarita. Interesting Facts

74 years ago, Mikhail Bulgakov made the last change to his great romance"The Master and Margarita", over the interpretation of which researchers are still struggling. In honor of this event, we offer seven keys to understanding this immortal work.

1. Literary hoax
Why is Bulgakov's famous novel called The Master and Margarita, and what is this book really about? It is known that the idea of ​​creation was born by the author after a passion for German mysticism of the 19th century: legends about the devil, Jewish and Christian demonology, treatises on God - all this is present in the work. The most important sources consulted by the author were Mikhail Orlov's History of Man's Relations with the Devil and Amfiteatrov's book The Devil in Life, Legend and Literature of the Middle Ages. As you know, The Master and Margarita had several editions. They say that the first one, on which the author worked in 1928-29, had nothing to do with either the Master or Margarita, and was called "The Black Magician", "The Juggler with a Hoof". That is, the Devil, such a Russian version of Faust, was the central figure and essence of the novel. Bulgakov personally burned the first manuscript after the ban on his play Kabbalah the Holy One. The writer informed the government about this: “And personally, with my own hands, I threw a draft of a novel about the devil into the stove ...”! The second edition was also dedicated to the fallen angel, and was called "Satan" or "The Great Chancellor". Margarita and the master have already appeared here, and Woland has acquired his retinue. But, only the third manuscript received its current name, which, in fact, the author never finished.

2. Many-sided Woland
The prince of darkness is perhaps the most popular character"Masters and Margaritas". On a superficial reading, the reader gets the impression that Woland is “justice itself”, a judge who fights against human vices and patronizes love and creativity. Someone even thinks that Bulgakov portrayed Stalin in this image! Woland is many-sided and complex, as befits the Tempter. He is regarded as the classic Satan, which is what the author intended in the early versions of the book, as a new Messiah, a rethought Christ, whose coming is described in the novel.
In fact, Woland is not just a devil - he has many prototypes. This is the supreme pagan god- Wotan among the ancient Germans, or Odin among the Scandinavians, whom the Christian tradition turned into a devil; this is the great "magician" and freemason Count Cagliostro, who remembered the events of the thousand-year past, predicted the future, and had a portrait resemblance to Woland. And also this is the "dark horse" Woland from Goethe's "Faust", which is mentioned in the work only once, in an episode that was missed in the Russian translation. By the way, in Germany the devil was called “Faland”. Do you remember the episode from the novel when the servants cannot remember the magician's name: "...Maybe Faland?".

3. Retinue of Satan
Just as a person cannot exist without a shadow, so Woland is not Woland without his retinue. Azazello, Behemoth and Koroviev-Fagot are the tools of diabolical justice, the most striking heroes of the novel, behind whose backs there is by no means an unambiguous past.
Take, for example, Azazello - "the demon of the waterless desert, the killer demon." Bulgakov borrowed this image from the Old Testament books, where this is the name of the fallen angel who taught people to make weapons and jewelry. Thanks to him, women have mastered the "lascivious art" of face painting. Therefore, it is Azazello who gives the cream to Margarita, pushes her onto the “dark path”. In the novel, he right hand Woland performing "dirty work". He kills Baron Meigel, poisons lovers. Its essence is incorporeal, absolute evil in its purest form.
Koroviev-Fagot is the only person in Woland's retinue. It is not completely clear who became its prototype, but researchers trace its roots to the Aztec god Vitsliputsli, whose name is mentioned in Berlioz's conversation with Bezdomny. This is the god of war, to whom sacrifices were made, and according to the legends of Dr. Faust, the spirit of hell and the first helper of Satan. His name, carelessly pronounced by the chairman of MASSOLIT, is a signal for the appearance of Woland.
Behemoth - a werecat and Woland's favorite jester, in fact, comes from the legends about the devil of gluttony and the mythological beast of the Old Testament. In the study by I. Ya. Porfiryev “Apocryphal Tales of Old Testament Persons and Events”, which was clearly familiar to Bulgakov, the sea monster Behemoth was mentioned, along with Leviathan, living in the invisible desert “to the east of the garden where the elect and the righteous lived.” The author also learned information about Behemoth from a story about a certain Anna Desange, who lived in the 17th century. and possessed by seven devils, among which Behemoth, a demon from the rank of Thrones, is mentioned. This demon was depicted as a monster with an elephant's head, trunk and fangs. His hands were human, and his huge belly, short tail and thick hind legs - like a hippopotamus, which reminded him of his name.

4. Black Queen Margo
Margarita is often considered a model of femininity, a kind of Pushkin Tatyana of the 20th century. But the prototype of "Queen Margo" was clearly not a modest girl from the Russian hinterland. In addition to the obvious resemblance of the heroine to the writer's last wife, the novel emphasizes Marguerite's connection with two French queens. One of them is the same “Queen Margo”, the wife of Henry IV, whose wedding turned into a bloody Bartholomew night. This event is mentioned on the way to the Great Ball with Satan. The fat man, who recognized Margarita, calls her "bright Queen Margot" and mumbles, "some kind of nonsense about the bloody wedding of his friend in Paris, Gessar." Gessar is the Parisian publisher of the correspondence of Marguerite Valois, whom Bulgakov made a participant in the Bartholomew night. In the image of Marguerite, researchers also find similarities with another queen - Margaret of Navarre, one of the first French women writers. Both historical Margaritas patronized writers and poets, Bulgakov's Margarita loves her brilliant writer - the Master.

5. Moscow - Yershalaim
One of the most interesting riddles The Master and Margarita is the time when events take place. There is no absolute date in the novel from which to count. The action is attributed to Passion Week from May 1 to May 7, 1929. This dating draws a parallel with the world of the Pilate Chapters, which took place in Yershalaim on the 29th or 30th year during the week that later became Holy. “... over Moscow in 1929 and Yershalaim on the 29th is the same apocalyptic weather, the same darkness is approaching the city of sin with a thunderous wall, the same moon of the Easter full moon floods the lanes of the Old Testament Yershalaim and the New Testament Moscow.” In the first part of the novel, both of these stories develop in parallel, in the second, more and more intertwined, in the end, they merge together, gaining integrity, and moving from our world to the other world. Yershalaim "transitions" to the streets of Moscow.

6. Kabbalistic roots
There is an opinion that when writing the novel, Bulgakov was not so much influenced by the Kabbalistic teachings. The concepts of Jewish mysticism are put into the mouth of Woland:
1. “Never ask for anything. Never and nothing, especially for those who are stronger than you. They themselves will offer and give everything themselves. As you know, Kabbalah interprets the Torah as a prohibition to accept anything not from the creator, which contradicts Christianity, in which, on the contrary, “begging someone else’s mercy” is not forbidden. The Hasidim (representatives of the mystical branch of Judaism based on Kabbalah) interpret the statement that God created man in his own image, therefore a person must become like the Creator in creation. That is, it should work.
2. The concept of "about light". Light accompanies Woland throughout the novel. When Satan disappears with his retinue, the lunar road also disappears. At first glance, the "doctrine of light" goes back to the Sermon on the Mount: "You are the light of the world." On the other hand, this context strikingly coincides with the core idea of ​​the Kabbalah about "Or Chaim" - "the light of life", which states that the Torah itself is a "light". Achieving it depends on the desire of the person himself, which, you see, corresponds to the idea of ​​the novel, where the independent choice of a person comes to the fore.

7. Last manuscript
The last edition of the novel, which subsequently reached the reader, was begun in 1937. The author continued to work with her until his death. Why couldn't he finish the book he had been writing for 12 years? Did he think that he was not sufficiently knowledgeable in the subject he took on, and his understanding of Jewish demonology and early Christian texts was too amateurish? Be that as it may, the novel practically “sucked out” the life of the author. The last correction, which he made on February 13, 1940, was Margarita's phrase: “So this, then, is the writers following the coffin?” He died a month later. Last words Bulgakov, addressed to the novel were: "To know, to know ...".

Illustration: Alexander's Slovik

The work "The Master and Margarita" in the form in which we know it now has changed from its very beginning. Mikhail Bulgakov began work on the novel in 1928. The book was written in several versions. Mysticism was saturated with each of the options.

No. 1. Bulgakov's mysticism

Many people know the fact that the writer was passionate about occult sciences. In particular, he was interested in German mysticism of the 19th century. It was during this period that the writer takes on the creation of his famous work.

In the first manuscript there was not even a trace of either our beloved Master or the beautiful Margarita. The Devil himself was at the head of the story, and the work was very reminiscent of Faust, only in a Russian way. Moreover, the description of the main character, that is, the Devil himself, was given 15 handwritten pages. It felt like the author was personally familiar with the character.

What was written on these 15 pages we will no longer know, since the first version of the novel was burned.

In the second version of the novel, which was called "Satan, or the Great Chancellor", the main character is an angel, whom God sent from himself to the sinful earth. In this version, there is already a place for the Master, and the beautiful Margarita, and Woland with his mysterious retinue. But the reader will not see this novel either.

And finally, the work "The Master and Margarita" in the form in which the whole world knows it is only the third option. The writer never finished it.

No. 2. Woland in his diversity

Reading the novel, one can assume that Woland is not at all negative character, although it is the prototype of the Devil himself. He is the patron of creativity and love in the novel. But not everything is so simple.

The writer embodied in his character the Tempter Satan, the Scandinavian Odin, the ancient German god Wotan in one person. Woland combines a many-sided image, which, according to external data, is very similar to the powerful magician Count Cagliostro.

Another interesting point: in Germany, the devil is called nothing more than Faland. Is it true that it is close in sound to Woland?

Number 3. Woland's minions

In the work, Woland appears with his retinue. The most memorable for all readers were such bright characters as Azazello, Koroviev-Fagot and the cat Behemoth.

The image of Azazello was taken by the writer from the Bible, or rather from the Old Testament. That was the name of the angel who created such evil on the planet as weapons and jewelry. Azazello also taught the beautiful half of humanity the art of beautifying the face, which is a lecherous sin according to the Bible. It was Azazello who became the tempter for Margarita. It was he who gave the magic cream and directed her down the dark path.

Woland's favorite jester is Behemoth the cat. The writer introduced the image of this character after reading the story of Anna Desange, the abbess of the Loudun monastery, who lived in the 17th century and was possessed by seven demons. One of them became the prototype of the Behemoth cat character. By the way, the writer also had his own Behemoth in his life. That was the name of the writer's dog.

The only one human image in the retinue given to Koroviev-Fagot. According to assumptions, this character is the prototype of the Aztec god of war, Vitzliputzli.

No. 4. Gorgeous Margarita

The image of Margarita is very reminiscent of Bulgakov's third wife, Elena Sergeevna Shilovskaya. The novel also mentions a certain connection between Margarita and the French Queen Margot. If you remember the history, Queen Margo favored writers and poets. And in the novel itself, Margarita's love for the Master can be traced.

No. 5. mysterious time

The novel is curious about the fact that there is not a single mention of the time in which the events take place. One gets the feeling that we are flying from one century to another. Also, events move from one city to another - from the mysterious Yershalaim to Moscow.

No. 6. Bulgakov's suicide "list"

The third wife of Mikhail Afanasyevich, Elena Sergeevna Shilovskaya, left a note in personal diary a few days before the death of the writer. In the lines of that note, it was said that the husband asked for a list, a list of the things that he did. Bulgakov asked for this so that people would know. Elena Sergeevna considered that this was a kind of nonsense of a sick person, and it seemed to her that it was impossible to understand the writer. However, she made a promise to her husband that she would make corrections to the novel and send the book to print.

Shilovskaya notices that her husband listened to her every word, and then uttered a rather meaningful phrase "To know."

Bulgakov's biographers claim that it was a list of the writer's enemies, both literary and ideological. Nevertheless, Mikhail Afanasyevich passionately desired to publish his novel. It is believed that the last phrase in a conversation with his wife meant that readers would receive a certain warning from the writer through his work.

This May marks 76 years since Mikhail Bulgakov completed work on his masterpiece and, perhaps, one of the main novels of his era. Say what you like, “Master and Margarita” is loved by everyone - and high school girls who like the Silver Age and large soft toys at the same time; both students and adults. And no wonder. The novel, being both a symbol and a scourge of the new country, is literally entwined with mystical coincidences and amazing stories.

Let's start, perhaps, with the fact that Mikhail Afanasyevich personally made sure that the manuscripts are not grief. He began work on the novel in 1928, during which time the drafts had different titles - "Engineer's Hoof", "Tour", "Black Magician". In parallel, Bulgakov continued to work on other works. And when in 1930 the writer received a notice about the ban on the Cabal of Saints, he personally sent the outline of the novel into the fire.

But a year later, Bulgakov realized: manuscripts do not burn. And the work began to boil new force: Margarita was born and, as a result, the nameless Master, Woland "overgrown" with a retinue ... By the way, Bulgakov initially called Woland Astarot. This is a direct reference to Western demonology - this is the name of one of the most powerful demons in the hierarchy of Hell, according to the Lemegeton. But when it became clear that the "devilry" in the novel would have to be masked, Astaroth was removed, replacing the relatively neutral Woland.

Some interesting facts from a chronological point of view. Meteorologists conducted a small study and found that on May 1, 1929, the capital sharply warmed up to +30 Celsius, and a storm began a few days later. The weather is the same in the novel itself: on May 1, it is unusually warm in the evening, and a few days later, when the last flight begins, a thunderstorm breaks out over the city. Bulgakov also made a surprise gift for his birthday to himself: the novel says that the Master is 38 years old. This is a reference to the biography of the author himself: the hero was “born” on May 15, that is, on the birthday of Mikhail Afanasyevich.

Bulgakov studied German mysticism of the 19th century, treatises on God, literature on the Christian and Jewish faith, and legends about the devil. The writer changed his novel several times, as well as its title: “The Juggler with a Hoof”, “The Black Magician”.

There was no master with Margarita in the first novel, the main character was the Devil.

Bulgakov decided to burn the first version.

The second novel was called "Satan, or the Great Chancellor." The main character becomes a fallen angel, the Master and Margarita, Woland and his retinue appeared. But the second novel was also not published.

The third novel was called "The Master and Margarita", unfortunately, Bulgakov failed to finish the work. On February 13, 1940, the writer made the last change to the novel - Margarita's phrase about writers following the coffin. A month later, Bulgakov died. His last words were the phrase: "To know, to know ...".

Woland has a portrait resemblance to the great magician Count Cagliostro, who knew how to predict the future and remembered the events of a thousand years ago.

When the servants try to remember the magician's name, they speculate that his name is Faland. In Germany, "Faland" is called a trait.

The prototype of Woland was V.I. Lenin. In the Bulgakov archive, they found a clipping from the newspaper Pravda dated November 6-7, 1921, which tells how Lenin and Zinoviev were hiding from the provisional government in Finland. For their capture, the well-known police bloodhound "Tref" was involved. In the novel, Woland is looking for the famous police bloodhound Tuztuben. This is a parody of the nickname Clubs (clubs - official suit). "Ace of diamonds" - such a sign was sewn onto the clothes of convicted criminals.

Hundreds of bourgeois inhabitants helped to search for Lenin. This is strikingly reminiscent of the atmosphere of the search for Woland and his retinue after a session of black magic at the Variety Theater, when the NKVD and the distraught inhabitants seize suspicious people and cats (a hint at the repressions of the 1920s and 1930s).

Ya. M. Sverdlov at the VI Congress of the Party in the summer of 1917 said that "although Lenin is deprived of the opportunity to personally attend the congress, he is invisibly present and leads it." In the same way, Woland informs Berlioz and Ivan Bezdomny that he was invisibly present at the trial of Pontius Pilate over Yeshua Ha-Notsri.

Retinue of Woland-Satan: Behemoth, Azazello and Karoviev-Fagot.

Azazello is taken by Bulgakov from the book of Enoch (Old Testament). There is a fallen angel named Azazel. He taught people to make weapons - swords, knives, shields, armor, mirrors, as well as bracelets and various ornaments; taught women how to smear their faces, adorn themselves precious stone and other ornaments, from which the earth was corrupted.

Azazello gave Margarita a cream, from which she became a witch, he poisons lovers and kills Baron Meigel.

Behemoth the cat is Woland's favorite jester. When compiling the image of the Behemoth cat, the writer used the story of Anna Desange, who lived in the 17th century and was possessed by seven demons. One of them was a demon named Behemoth - a monster with an elephant's head, terrible fangs, short tail, huge belly, thick hind legs, and human hands.

The Behemoth cat also bears a resemblance to Lenin's comrade-in-arms - Zinoviev. Of all the Bolshevik leaders, Grigory Evseevich Zinoviev was closest to Lenin, as was Behemoth to Woland. Full, fond of food, with a mustache and beard, Zinoviev had cat features.

Koroviev-Fagot is the only person in Woland's retinue. Fagot's image is partially based on the god Vitsliputsli. In a conversation between Homeless and Berlioz, the name of this Aztec god of war is mentioned. In the legend of Faust, Witzliputzli is Satan's first helper. Bulgakov endowed Fagot with a thin neck, alluding to Molotov. He had a thin neck that stuck out of his collar, topped with a small head like a cat's. Under Stalin, Molotov played the same role as Woland's closest assistant, Fagot-Koroviev.

Margarita, Queen Margot, is very similar to Elena, Bulgakov's last wife. In part, the image of Margarita is based on the French Queen Margot, who was the wife of Henry IV and patronized poets and writers.

Moscow - Yershalaim. The actions of the novel are attributed to May 1-7, 1929, which fell on Holy Week. In parallel, in the "Pilate Chapters" events develop during the week of 29 years in Yershalaim, where Holy Week is also described. In the first part of the novel, the actions develop in parallel, in the second part, they begin to intertwine with each other and then merge into a single story. Yershalaim moves to Moscow.

During the filming and after the release of the series "The Master and Margarita", mystical incidents happened to the actors.
Almost all the actors, initially approved for the main roles, in last moment refused to shoot.
Oleg Yankovsky was supposed to play Woland, but suddenly suffered two heart attacks in a row, and said no.
Vladimir Mashkov auditioned for the role of the Master, but a sudden car accident forced him to turn down the role.
Pankratov-Cherny was afraid to play the vampire Varenukha and agreed only to Stepa Likhodeev, who was just a drunkard and a womanizer.

Brilliant cast series - Oleg Basilashvili, Alexander Abdulov, Valentin Gaft, Alexander Galibin, Sergey Bezrukov, Alexander Filippenko and others - this is a fallback. And mystical incidents happened to them.
Oleg Basilashvili was uttering Woland's monologue, when suddenly the actor's throat convulsed, he began to wheeze, and then completely lost his voice. Doctors diagnosed - a hemorrhage in the right vocal cord, prescribed complete rest and absolute silence for several months.
Anna Kovalchuk (Margarita) divorced after the release of the series.
Alexander Galibin (Master) during the filming fell ill with severe bronchitis, coughed so that the walls trembled! And immediately after filming, he got into a terrible car accident.
Alexander Adabashyan (Berlioz) suffered a heart attack.
Vlad Galkin and Alexander Abdulov died tragically after filming.
Alexander Filippenko (Azazello) met the director Bortko at the Patriarch's Ponds, just at the place where the poet Bezdomny met Woland in the novel. Filippenko then walked with friends and read to them ... the first chapter of the novel "The Master and Margarita"! Bortko approached Filippenko and said: “You don't know me. Do I know you. You have already played Koroviev in the 1994 film Master and Margarita by Yuri Kara. Azazello will you play for me?
Valery Zolotukhin played Nikanor Barefoot. Soon the son of Zolotukhin committed suicide.
Vladimir Bortko scolded the actors for superstition, but after Basilashvili's illness, he nevertheless invited a priest to the set, who consecrated the filming equipment.

The chairman of the fantastic Sampler Acoustic Commission looks exactly like politician Avel Yenukidze, who in 1922-1935 was the chairman of the Government Commission for the leadership of the Bolshoi and Art theaters. For the theatrical art, this commission was as useless as the Acoustic Commission in the novel. Both had the task of preventing the appearance of "ideologically harmful" performances. Sempliyarov in the novel, like Yenukidze in life, is not indifferent to the fair sex, especially to the actresses of subordinate theaters. For Yenukidze, this ended worse than for Bulgakov's hero. For political and domestic decay, Yenukidze was removed from the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, accused of “treason, terrorist activities and systematic espionage in favor of a foreign state” and shot. Sempleyarov's "exposing" at a session of black magic became a kind of Bulgakov's revenge on A. S. Enukidze, because in response to the writer's request for a two-month trip abroad, Enukidze refused Bulgakov in a humiliating manner.
In Sempleyarov's monologue there is also a clear parody of V. E. Meyerhold's speech at the discussion in March 1936: "The mass of the audience requires an explanation." Sempliarov said to Woland: “Still, it would be nice for us, citizen artist ... if you would expose us to the technique of mass hypnosis ... this is highly desirable. Spectator mass ... ". The description of Sempleyarov’s environment at the Variety Theater also hints at the loving Meyerhold: “Arkady Apollonovich was placed in a box with two ladies: an elderly one, expensively and fashionably dressed, and the other, young and pretty, dressed more simply. The first of them, as it soon became clear when drawing up the protocol, was the wife of Arkady Apollonovich, and the second was a distant relative of him, an aspiring and promising actress who came from Saratov and lives in the apartment of Arkady Apollonovich and his wife. Here is a hint at Meyerhold's second wife, actress Zinaida Nikolaevna Reich, who was twenty years old. younger than husband, like an imaginary relative from Saratov, was much younger than Arkady Apollonovich Sempleyarov.
Great ball with Satan. The luxury of the ball reflected the reception american ambassador in the USSR, Bullitt. Once a year, Bullitt gave a big party about national holiday. Writers were also invited. Once the Bulgakovs also received an invitation. The reception was luxurious. In a huge hall with columns there was a pool and a lot of exotic flowers. Multi-colored spotlights shone from the choirs. Birds fluttered behind the net. An orchestra ordered from Stockholm played. Dinner was served in a dining room specially attached for this ball to the embassy mansion, on separate tables. In the corners of the dining room there are pastures, in them goats, lambs, cubs, roosters. AT top floor barbecue. Everywhere champagne, cigarettes.

In the novel, in order to accommodate all the guests of the ball in a "bad apartment", it was necessary to push it apart to supernatural dimensions. Bulgakov increased the number of dimensions from the traditional four to five. As Koroviev-Fagot explains, "for those who are well acquainted with the fifth dimension, it costs nothing to push the room to the desired limits." But the participants in the ball were invisible to the OGPU agents on duty at the door of the Bad Apartment.

The story of the last two attendees of the ball, the unsuccessful poisoners, was based on the materials of the March 1938 process of the “right-wing Trotskyist bloc”, during which the ideologist of the party Bukharin, Presovnarkom Rykov, Deputy People’s Commissar for Foreign Affairs Krestinsky, and NKVD Minister Yagoda were accused of organizing the assassination of the head of the Leningrad the Bolsheviks of Kirov in December 1934, and the assassination attempt on Yezhov, by poisoning his office with mercury. Bulgakov understood the anecdotal nature of these accusations, made in the spirit of medieval legends, so he introduced the mention of poisoners into the novel. Bulgakov does not name the last guests of the ball, as well as the one whom they were going to poison, hinting that after the condemnation of high-ranking "poisoners", their names were forbidden to be mentioned in the press.

In the scene of the Great Ball with Satan, another episode was reflected, completely farcical. We are talking about the so-called "Commune of Bokia". Gleb Ivanovich Bokiy was a Chekist-executioner, whose hands were up to the elbows in blood. He was shot in 1937, and his collaborators during the investigation gave the most curious testimonies about him. On weekends, all members of the commune went to the dacha and were obliged to follow all the rules set by Father Bokiy: after drinking, go to the bathhouse, where they openly engage in group sexual debauchery. Drunk people were smeared with paint and mustard on their genitals; those who slept while drunk were often “buried” alive. At the same time, members of the commune with their wives came to the dacha. Women were drunk drunk, undressed and used in turn, giving the advantage to Bokii. All members of the commune took part in this, including the two daughters of Bokia. It was obligatory for men and women to stay naked and half-naked on the territory of the dacha. The atmosphere of this KGB commune is very reminiscent of the atmosphere of the Great Ball at Satan's. By the mid-1920s, rumors about the outrages that had taken place at Bokiya's dacha began to circulate around Moscow. In the novel, the laws of the satanic ball that Koroviev-Fagot speaks of coincide with the laws of the Bokia commune. Woland treats Margarita with alcohol, as does Boky to the members of the commune. Woland's guests are drunk, and the women are naked, just like at Bokiy's dacha.

Baron Meigel. He has a prototype of a very real person, closely associated with the OGPU and the NKVD - the former Baron Boris Steiger, who in the 30s worked as an authorized representative of the Collegium for foreign relations. At the same time Steiger was a staff member of the OGPU-NKVD. Other people were not appointed to such positions in the Soviet ministries. In Stalin's Russia, unauthorized contact with foreigners was a crime, and only trusted people could meet foreign professors. Steiger monitored Soviet citizens who came into contact with foreigners and sought to obtain from foreign diplomats information that was of interest to him. Soviet organs security. The position brought certain benefits, but at the same time, the baron became the bearer of secret information, so he had practically no chance of surviving during the great purge. He was arrested and shot. The scene of Meigel's murder at the Great Ball with Satan entered the text after the execution of B.S. Shteiger.

MASSOLIT. In "The Master and Margarita" there is a sharp satire on Bulgakov's brothers in literary craft. organization Soviet writers Bulgakov named MASSOLIT in the novel. One of the proposed transcripts is “Masters of Soviet (or Socialist) Literature”, or simply “Mass Literature”, because Berlioz and his comrades sprinkled literary consumer goods to fool the masses.

Griboyedov House Restaurant. This restaurant combines the features of the restaurant of the Herzen House, as well as the restaurant of the Club of Theater Workers. Director of both institutions different time was Yakov Danilovich Rosenthal, who served as a prototype for Archibald Archibaldovich. Abundant vegetation, bordering the eastern face of Rosenthal, fully justified his nickname - "Beard". He had an impressive height, a representative appearance, a thick black Assyrian cone, a large, chest-length beard. The portrait of Archibald Archibaldovich clearly coincides with the portrait of the prototype: “A black-eyed handsome man with a dagger beard, in a tailcoat and with a regal gaze, went out onto the veranda and looked around his possessions. They said, the mystics said, that there was a time when the handsome man did not wear a tailcoat, but was girded with a wide leather belt, from which pistol grips protruded, and his raven-wing hair was tied with scarlet silk, and sailed in the Caribbean Sea under his command of a brig under a black coffin flag with an Adam's head. Here is a hint of military service Ya. D. Rosenthal, replete, according to the recollections of acquaintances, with extraordinary adventures. In the Herzen House, writers sometimes showed themselves not with better side. So, the scene of the scandal that Ivan Bezdomny makes in the restaurant, shocked by the meeting with Woland and the death of Berlioz, has a very real episode under it.

"The writers are following the coffin." On the 125th anniversary of Pushkin on June 6, 1924, all the writers were invited to the Herzen House on Tverskoy Boulevard by 6 pm. From there, lined up in rows, with a banner at the head, they moved to the monument to Pushkin, where a wreath was to be laid. In the history of Russian literature, this was the first procession of writers and quite crowded. This is very reminiscent of the description of the procession of writers following the coffin of Berlioz in The Master and Margarita. It was at the words of Margarita: “So it’s the writers who are following the coffin?”, the dying Bulgakov stopped editing the novel.

Critic Mstislav Lavrovich. This is a parody of the writer and playwright Vsevolod Vitalievich Vishnevsky, one of Bulgakov's zealous persecutors.

Critic Latunsky. The chairman of the Glavrepertkom in 1932–1937, playwright and theater critic Osaf Semyonovich Litovsky was one of Bulgakov's most implacable opponents and actively promoted the banning of all Bulgakov's plays. The surname of Lithuanian is parodied in the surname of the critic Latunsky, who killed the Master.

Twelve members of the leadership of MASSOLIT, waiting in vain in the House of Griboyedov for their chairman, are parodically likened to the twelve apostles of the Christian, and then the new communist faith.

"Navigator Georges". Nastasya Lukinichna Nepremenova, the author of naval battle stories, writes under such a pseudonym, present at the meeting of MASSOLIT, the “Moscow merchant orphan”. This is a parody of the famous French writer George Sand (Aurora Dupin), and the playwright Sofya Alexandrovna Apraksina-Lavrinaitis, who wrote under the pseudonym "Sergei Rebellious".

The scene when Koroviev-Fagot and Behemoth are not allowed into the writers' restaurant due to the lack of writers' certificates is a Moscow sketch of real events, when one could get into the restaurant only by presenting a membership card certifying belonging to a literary organization. Behemoth and Koroviev were able to get into the restaurant, calling themselves names famous in the 19th century, but forgotten in the 20th century. writer and journalist Ivan Ivanovich Panaev and critic and literary historian Alexander Mikhailovich Skabichevsky.

“Literary Memoirs” by A. M. Skabichevsky, republished in 1928, on the eve of the start of Bulgakov’s work on the novel “The Master and Margarita”, served as a source for the writer to describe the fire in the Griboedov House: “On the historic day of the Apraksinsky fire, the audience gathered in summer garden, thanks to the good weather, it was especially crowded. And at the very height of the festivities, at five o'clock, at once shouts were heard from all ends of the garden: "Save yourself, we are burning, Apraksin is all on fire!" The public rushed in horror to the exits of the garden, and at each gate there was a deadly stampede, from which many women were carried out dead. Taking advantage of this turmoil, the Mazuriks plucked jewelry from the girls, with shreds of dress and blood from torn ears. This gave reason to assume that the arson was carried out by the Mazuriks with the special purpose of profiting from the dressed-up merchants walking in the Summer Garden .... suffocating smoke, unbearable heat, showered with paper ashes flying from the windows ... huge sheaves of flame ... The arsonist Koroviev- Fagot helps firefighters put out the Griboyedov House, and as a result, the building burns to the ground. For arson, Begemot and Koroviev use an incendiary mixture of primus - gasoline. During the hunt for Woland and his retinue in the epilogue of the novel, a distraught crowd grabs hundreds of cats, as well as all people with surnames that even remotely resemble Koroviev and Woland. Among the detainees was a man with a Polish surname - Candidate of Chemical Sciences Vetchinkevich. Here is an echo of the rumors of that time that the Poles set the fire.

Death of Berlioz. Woland's prediction about the death of Berlioz was made in full accordance with the canons of astrology. Satan noted the presence of Mercury in the second house of the ecliptic, which meant that the chairman of MASSOLIT was happy in trade. Mikhail Alexandrovich really introduced traders to the holy temple of literature, was successful in commerce - receiving material goods in exchange for beliefs and renouncing the freedom of creativity (his last moments are illuminated by a dream of going on vacation to Kislovodsk). This is followed by punishment. Misfortune in the sixth house, which Satan speaks of, means failure in marriage, and indeed, the wife of Mikhail Alexandrovich fled to Kharkov with a choreographer. The seventh house is the house of death. The chairman of MASSOLIT dies under the wheels of a tram immediately after talking with the devil.
Woland warns Berlioz about the “mysterious threads” over which a person has no power: “... Anyone who until recently believed that he controls something suddenly turns out to be lying motionless in a wooden box, and everyone around, realizing that there is no sense in lying no more, they burn it in the furnace. And it happens even worse: just that a person is about to go to Kislovodsk ... a seemingly trifling matter, but he cannot do this either, because it is not known why he suddenly takes it - he slips and falls under a tram! Can you really say that it was he who managed himself like that? Isn't it more correct to think that someone completely different handled him?

The episode with the severed head of the chairman of MASSOLIT has many literary parallels starting from the beheading of John the Baptist. It's a gothic novel English writer Charles Maturin's "Melmoth the Wanderer", associated with the placement of the poet Ivan Bezdomny in an insane asylum. One of the heroes of Maturin, who found himself in a psychiatric hospital, "turned out to be two unpleasant neighbors," one of whom constantly sang opera couplets, and the other, nicknamed the Wild Head, kept repeating in delirium: "Ruth, my sister, do not tempt me with a calf's head (meaning the head of the English king Charles I executed in 1649), blood flows from it; I beg you, throw it on the floor, it is not proper for a woman to hold it in her hands, even if the brothers drink this blood. During a ball with Satan, Berlioz's head turns into a skull cup, from which Margarita drinks blood that has turned into wine, and Koroviev-Fagot convinces Margarita: “Don't be afraid, queen, the blood has long gone into the ground. And where it spilled, bunches of grapes are already growing.

The severed head of Berlioz also echoes The Head of Professor Dowell (1925) by the famous Russian science fiction writer Alexander Romanovich Belyaev: “attached to a square glass board, the head looked attentively and mournfully at Laurent, blinking for centuries.” At Bulgakov’s Great Ball with Satan, “the eyelids of the murdered man lifted, and on the dead face Margarita, shuddering, saw living eyes full of thought and suffering.” Dowell, like Berlioz, first died, and then his head, like the head of the chairman of MASSOLIT, was resurrected to help in diabolical experiments. Belyaev and Bulgakov have the same whole line details. Professor Dowell, waking up, sees that his head is lying on the kitchen table, and nearby, on a higher dissecting table, lies his decapitated body with an open chest, from which a heart has been removed. In the same way, in The Master and Margarita, in the dissecting room, we see Berlioz's severed head on one table, and his body with a crushed chest on the other. Kern, who needs to get a couple of corpses for his experiments, argues almost in the same way as Woland in a conversation with Mikhail Alexandrovich: “Every day, with the immutability of the law of nature, several people die in the city from traffic, not counting accidents in factories, factories, buildings . Well, these doomed, cheerful, full of strength and health people will fall asleep peacefully today, not knowing what awaits them tomorrow. Tomorrow morning they will get up and, singing merrily, will get dressed in order to go, as they think, to work, but in fact - towards their inevitable death. At the same time, at the other end of the city, singing just as carelessly, their involuntary executioner will dress up: a driver or a carriage driver ... they will stubbornly approach each other, not knowing each other, to the most fatal point of intersection of their paths.

Mikhail Alexandrovich’s head was resurrected in the novel only to listen to the end of Woland’s proof, begun by the writer’s death under a tram on Patriarch’s Ponds: “Everything came true, didn’t it?” Woland continued, looking into the eyes of the head, “the head was cut off by a woman, the meeting did not take place and I live in your apartment. It is a fact. A fact is the most stubborn thing in the world. But now we are interested in the future, and not in this already accomplished fact. You have always been an ardent preacher of the theory that after cutting off the head, life in a person stops, he turns into ashes and goes into oblivion. I am pleased to inform you, in the presence of my guests, although they serve as proof of a completely different theory, that your theory is solid and witty. However, after all, all theories stand one another. There is also one among them, according to which each will be given according to his faith. May it come true! You are going into non-existence, and I will be happy to drink from the cup into which you turn into being.

Quotes from The Master and Margarita.

1. Who told you that there is no real, true, eternal love? Let the liar cut out his vile tongue!
2. It was the incomparable smell of freshly printed money.
3.Sometimes The best way to destroy a person is to let him choose his own fate.
4. A person without a surprise inside is uninteresting.
5. The tongue can hide the truth, but never the eyes!
6. It's nice to hear that you treat the cat so politely. For some reason, cats usually say "you", although not a single cat has ever drunk brotherhood with anyone.
7. 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!
8. Do you judge by the costume? Never do this. You can make a mistake, and, moreover, very large.
9. The one who loves must share the fate of the one he loves.
10. There are no evil people in the world, there are only unhappy people.
11. Would I allow myself to pour vodka for a lady? It's pure alcohol!
12. A brick, for no reason at all, will never fall on anyone's head.
13. People are like people. They love money, but it has always been ... Well, they are frivolous ... in general, they resemble the former ones ... the housing problem only spoiled them ...
14. Never ask for anything, especially from those who are stronger than you. They will offer and give everything themselves!
15. Maestro! Cut the march!
16. I congratulate you, citizen, lie!
17. Nonsense! It will pass in three hundred years.
18. Which country's wine do you prefer at this time of the day?
19. He did not deserve light, he deserved peace.
20. Cowardice is one of the most terrible human vices.
21. Never be afraid of anything. This is unreasonable.
22. The most terrible anger is the anger of impotence.
23. I like to sit low - it's not so dangerous to fall from a low one.
24. What would your good do if evil did not exist?
25. Happiness is like health: when it is there, you do not notice it.
26. The one who is in no hurry anywhere succeeds everywhere.
27. Truth comes only through suffering...
28. Sad, but true.
29. Fact is the most stubborn thing in the world.
30. There are no evil people in the world, there are only unhappy people.
31. Manuscripts do not burn.
32. You know, a person without documents is strictly forbidden to exist.
33. No document, no person.
34. Revolutionary riding: you ride for an hour - you stand for two.
35. Enough to drive a man under the shots, and he turns into a wise wolf; in place of a very weak, in really difficult cases, an unnecessary mind, a wise bestial instinct grows.
36. There are only two forces in the world: dollars and literature.
37. I'm not naughty, I'm not touching anyone, I'm fixing the primus
38. A brick will never fall on anyone's head for no reason.
39. Love jumped out in front of us, like a killer jumping out of the ground in an alley, and hit us both at once! This is how lightning strikes, this is how a Finnish knife strikes!
40. Why chase after the traces of what is already over.
41. Each will be given according to his faith.
42. And what are these steps on the stairs? And they're going to arrest us!
43. Telling the truth is easy and pleasant.
44. Any power is violence against people.
45. Probably only the one who hung it can cut the hair.
46. ​​No force can be used to silence the crowd until it exhales everything that has accumulated inside it and falls silent itself.
47. Smart people are smart for that, to understand complicated things.
48. It doesn’t happen that something lasts forever, everything ends.
49. Follow the wise old rule of treating like with like.
50. What is an official or unofficial person? All this is conditional and unsteady. Today I am an unofficial person, and tomorrow, you see, an official one! And it happens vice versa. And how it happens!
51. Well, well, a witch is a witch. Very nice and luxurious!
52. I won’t wish you success, because I don’t believe in this success one iota.
53. Insulting is a common reward for good work.
54. In general, it does not happen that everything becomes as it was.
55. Why do you all adore foreign tourists! And among them, by the way, different come across!
56. It must be admitted that among the intelligentsia there are also extremely smart ones. This cannot be denied!
57. There is no worse misfortune than deprivation of reason in the world.
58. The second freshness is nonsense! There is only one freshness - the first, it is also the last. And if the sturgeon is of the second freshness, then this means that it is rotten!
59. I will be a silent hallucination.
60. They broke me, I'm bored, and I want to go to the basement.
61. What is it with you, whatever you miss, there is nothing!
62. I am a historian. There will be an interesting story at the Patriarchs tonight!
63. I had the pleasure of meeting this young man at Patriarch's Ponds. He almost drove me crazy, proving to me that I'm gone!
64. However! I feel that after vodka you drank port wine! Excuse me, is it possible to do this!
65. What is the point of dying to the groans and wheezing of hopeless patients. Wouldn't it be better to arrange a feast for these twenty-seven thousand and, having taken poison, move to another world to the sound of strings, surrounded by drunken beauties and dashing friends?
66. Something unkind 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.
67. Housekeepers know everything - it's a mistake to think that they are blind.
68. Annushka has already bought sunflower oil, and not only bought it, but even spilled it. So the meeting will not take place.

The Master and Margarita is a cult novel of the 21st century. Great amount people read the pages of this book to holes. With the same rapture, people watched the film adaptations of this work, including the television series by Vladimir Bortko, which was released in 2005.
However, it is believed that the novel "The Master and Margarita" mystically resists the transfer of its characters to the screens. They even say that this work is cursed. After all, for example, since the filming of the series, 18 actors who played various roles in this film adaptation have already died.

Let's remember how the shooting of the sensational film Bortko took place, remember the departed, and also find out what happened to those who have safely survived to this day.

Vladimir Bortko received an offer to film "The Master and Margarita" back in 1987, just at the time when he had just finished work on another Bulgakov work - the film " dog's heart". But then the director decided to abandon filming, ceding this right to his friend Elem Klimov, whose plans included a joint project with Italians and Americans, with Claudia Cardinale as Margherita and paired with Fellini, who would direct the "ancient" scenes. But this idea was never realized.

13 years later, Bortko again took up the film adaptation of The Master and Margarita and even managed to approve the cast: Galina Tyunina, Dmitry Pevtsov, Sergey Makovetsky and Viktor Sukhorukov. But his plans in 2000 again did not come true: Bulgakov's heir, who owned the film rights, resold them to American producers. I had to curtail the series project and start negotiations to buy the rights to the novel, which dragged on for several years.

Filming resumed when the state television channel Rossiya bought the rights. Vladimir Bortko on the set was constantly haunted by problems with the actors and technical difficulties, even though a priest was invited to consecrate the studio. But the picture, the budget of which amounted to more than $ 5 million, was still shot in record time. Bortko, according to him, set himself the task of conveying the content of Bulgakov's cult novel as fully and adequately as possible.

It's hard to believe, but the brilliant cast of the series - Oleg Basilashvili, Alexander Abdulov, Valentin Gaft, Alexander Galibin, Sergey Bezrukov, Alexander Filippenko and others - is a fallback. As the production designer Vladimir Svetozarov said, almost all the actors approved for the main roles refused to shoot at the last moment. Oleg Yankovsky was supposed to play Woland, and Alexander Kalyagin - Berlioz. The latter suddenly suffered two heart attacks in a row, said a firm no. Vladimir Mashkov auditioned for the role of the Master, but a sudden car accident forced him to refuse.

Here is how Oleg Yankovsky, who was initially approved for the role of Woland, justified his refusal:

“I don't know how to play Woland. What suit should he be in? Although his attire is described in detail in the book, this is literature. And when on the screen: why is he like this and not another? And, oddly enough, this is a weak role. Everything happens not with Woland, but around him, but I don’t want to simply puff my eyes so that it turns out convincingly. BUT main reason: I believe that the devil, like the Lord God, cannot be played. Jesus Christ - you can, he was real person. And you can't touch it. Not to Bulgakov's whole novel - to Woland.

After Yankovsky's refusal, in search of an actor for the role of Woland, Bortko turned his eyes abroad. Yes, negotiations were also held with Western stars. Woland could have been played by Gary Oldman or Jean Reno. But it didn't work out. And then Bortko turned to Basilashvili.

Bortko himself did not believe in mysticism, but after a while ... he called the priest directly to the site. The priest consecrated the film crew along with the equipment. After that, the process started. And a little later, another one became known strange story: before the start of filming at the Patriarch's Ponds, an unknown passer-by approached Bortko and said: “You won’t succeed!” And went on.

The series was filmed all over the world. The model of ancient Jerusalem was filmed in Israel, and Bulgakov's Yershalaim - in Bulgaria, at the Boyana film studio, where the luxurious scenery of the ancient city, built by the Americans for the film "Spartacus", remained. Golgotha ​​was found in Sudak.

As for Moscow in the 1930s, the Patriarch's Ponds were filmed at the Patriarch's, the Alexander Garden - at Aleksandrovsky, but Moscow as a whole, according to Vladimir Bortko and cameraman Valery Myulgaut, has changed so much since the 30s that it was filmed in St. Petersburg. There are practically no streets with houses of that time left in Moscow.

According to director Vladimir Bortko, there was still mysticism during the filming. But mostly with a plus sign. On the film set there was always the weather that at that moment was necessary for filming. All the actors, no matter what they were sick, recovered just before the start of filming. In this regard, the work went exactly on schedule.

But Oleg Basilashvili lost his voice right on the set during Woland's monologue. Suddenly, the actor's throat convulsed, he began to wheeze, and then he could not speak at all. The doctors diagnosed him with a hemorrhage in the right vocal cord. For a long time, doctors poured medicine directly into his larynx and gave him injections.

In the novel, Margarita appears at Satan's ball naked and in shoes "made of pale rose petals", and the director Bortko dressed and shod Anna Kovalchuk not at all according to Bulgakov.

Anna Kovalchuk had a hard time working on the image of Margarita. When she was dressed in a corset weighing 16 kg for filming the ball scene, the actress could only lie or stand in this medieval attire. The iron crown left wounds on the forehead, and the metal shoes rubbed heavily on the feet.

The most terrible moment of filming was, as Kovalchuk says, her arrival at the Sabbath. The scene of the Queen's arrival was filmed again in St. Petersburg, in the park of the Forest Engineering Academy, and Margarita was supposed to splash down on the surface of the local pond. But the filming location was infested with rats, and a more determined understudy had to jump into the pond.

During filming with the actress happened one funny case: the actors rehearsed for a long time with the director in the room of the hotel "Ukraine", and when Kovalchuk went out into the street, because of the frank outfit she was mistaken for lung girl behavior and taken to the police station. The actress had to prove for a long time who she was, but they did not believe her. Then I had to call for help from fellow actors.

Four people worked at once on the image of one of the most charismatic characters, Behemoth the Cat. Most time it was Vano Miranyan, actor and president of the Disabled People Foundation vertically challenged. He was filmed in a cat suit with a head stuffed with a variety of techniques that were responsible for the movements of his whiskers, ears, eyes and mouth. The actor Semyon Furman spoke for him. The cat in human form was played by actor Alexander Bashirov. And finally, the role of just a cat was just a cat from Yuri Kuklachev's circus.

Alexander Adabashyan, who played the role of Berlioz, said that some actors jokingly used the curse hanging over the novel as a kind of mitigating factor: “I don’t drink at all, and here in the morning there is a bottle of vodka in front of the bed. How to stay here? or “I set the alarm for 7, and it rang at 10. Damn it!”

Although the actor himself fell ill with a heart attack after filming, he is still not inclined to somehow connect these events.

Actor Alexander Filippenko says that nothing particularly mystical happened to him. Except for the fact that he met Bortko at the Patriarchs. He approached him and said: “You don't know me, but I know you. You have already played Koroviev (in Kara’s film “The Master and Margarita” in 1994), but do you want to play Azazello with me?”

Alexander Filippenko played in the cinema both Koroviev and Azazello (pictured)

The most complex special effect of the series is the Behemoth cat. The Americans estimated the work on the cat at $1.5 million. And the entire budget of the picture was 5 million. Domestic computer scientists made not only the Behemoth, but also many other special effects.

Anna Kovalchuk and Ksenia Nazarova, who played the housekeeper Natasha, hovered under the ceiling of the Lenfilm pavilion. Then, on the computer, all suspension belts were removed from the bodies, the cables were erased, the girls' bodies were made translucent, and they added a night shot of Moscow.

Flights of Margarita: the actress was hung up with a corset made using special technologies

With the help of the same graphics, Koroviev materialized from the air. Alexander Abdulov rode on a platform carousel, which was then erased on a computer, and the actor, as it were, flew into the frame from nowhere.

In the final series, the Master and Margarita are carried away from the mortal world by the black horses of hell. All of them were played by the seven-year-old horse Caliph, reproduced on a computer.

The Master and Margarita die bodily at the end of the TV series in order to find peace in another world. But in reality, today there were 18 actors who participated in the series in 2005. Usually, when a public person dies, they always look for a secret in this, but when there are many dead? AT last years rumors about the curse of Bulgakov's novel are intensifying.

The first victim of the "curse" on October 2, 2005 was the actor Alexander Chaban, who played the investigator who led the search for Woland. Disappeared shortly before the premiere. Found dead in his apartment. The circumstances of death are unknown. He was 47 years old. On September 28, 2006, the actor Pavel Komarov, who played the thief on the pier, died. It was he who stole the clothes of the bathing poet Ivan Homeless. Komarov was the leading actor of the Tsaritsyno Youth Theater, founded musical group risk group. On December 27, 2006, 67-year-old Stanislav Landgraf, who played the critic Latunsky, died.

The series has become one of recent works for People's Artist USSR Kirill Lavrov, who played Pontius Pilate (pictured). On April 27, 2007, he died of leukemia.

On April 27, 2007, Yevgeny Merkuriev (accountant) fell through the ice while fishing and died. In the series, the bookkeeper and Pilate did not intersect. But Merkuriev and Lavrov left the life on the same day.

Another famous actor, whose death is associated with Bulgakov's curse, is Alexander Abdulov, who played in the series Fagot (Koroviev) - one of Woland's demonic servants. On January 3, 2008, at the age of 54, the actor died of lung cancer.

On April 7, 2008, Andrei Tolubeev, who voiced Aloisy Mogarych, died. Like Kirill Lavrov, his senior comrade in the St. Petersburg theater BDT, Tolubeev was brought to the grave by oncology. Diagnosis: pancreatic cancer.

On February 25, 2010, under strange circumstances, Vladislav Galkin died in his apartment. In the series, he played the poet Ivan Ponyrev. At the time of his death he was only 38 years old.

2 years after Galkin, Ilya Oleinikov died. The actor who played financial director"Variety" Rimsky, died due to lung cancer. He was only 65.

The following year, Valery Zolotukhin died of an inoperable brain tumor. He played in the television series Nicanor Barefoot.

In recent years, some other actors of the TV series The Master and Margarita, who were not as famous as those listed above, have also died. These are Yuri Oskin (porter), Galina Barkova (saleswoman), Valentina Egorenkova ( nurse in a mental hospital), Stanislav Sokolov (Pilate's secretary), Dmitry Poddubny (NKVD spy) and others. Although the number of deaths is indeed large, it is worth considering that most of the other actors in this and previous film adaptations are still alive and well.

Anna Kovalchuk and Alexander Galibin remained alive and well. But after filming, he got into an accident, and she divorced, writes Bigpicture.ru.

As for the survivors, they do not believe in mysticism, although they admit that something strange happened to them. For example, Anna Kovalchuk, who played Margarita, says that the novel did not want to let her go for a long time. In addition to her role in the series, she also starred in the 3D musical The Master and Margarita. In general, the actress notes that she loves the number 13 and black cats.

People have different attitudes to the curses associated with the novel "The Master and Margarita". So, the number of dead actors who participated in the filming of the series "Streets of Broken Lanterns" is much larger, but no one talks about the curse. In general, everyone has the right to decide whether to believe in the curse of the novel The Master and Margarita.