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only seven days. During rehearsals he wrote a
brilliant biography of Molière,
The Life of Monsieur
de Molière,
published in 1966. Bulgakov's reputa-
tion as a major author, however, rests on the
novel
Master and Margarita,
written between 1928
and 1940, but published in Moscow only in
1966. The novel exists in eight versions, and the
final drafts were dictated to his wife on the eve of
his death, as Bulgakov was now blind. Using
irony and fantasy, Bulgakov reenacts the passion
of Christ in an author's manuscript at a time
when the Devil intrudes into modern Moscow. A
daring novel that can be read on many levels, it
caused a sensation when finally published. In the
1980s it also gave rise to a particularly devoted
following by fans who, in the face of the author-
ities' refusal to erect a monument to Bulgakov,
made their own loving tribute by adorning the
stairwell of the apartment where he lived from
1921 to 1934 with graffiti from the novel.
at Simferopol University until he was dismissed
in 1921 for his religious convictions. Bulgakov
was part of the prominent group of intellectuals
who were expelled from the Soviet Union in
1922-23. After a short stay in Prague, where he
taught at the Russian faculty of law, he moved to
Paris. From 1925 to 1944, Bulgakov served as
dean of the St. Sergius Theological Institute in
Paris, shaping it into one of the leading centers of
Orthodox thought. Influenced by Vladimir
SOLOVIEV
, he devoted much of his work to the
controversial idea of “sophiology,” where Sophia
is the feminine ideal essence of the world that
exists in the mind of God. Bulgakov also worked
actively to develop a worldwide ecumenical gov-
ernment, acting as an intermediary between tra-
ditionally hostile Protestant and Catholic groups
in western Europe.
Bulganin, Nikolai Aleksandrovich
(1895-1975)
Soviet official
A
COMMUNIST PARTY
official who benefited from
an early alliance with
KHRUSHCHEV
after
STALIN
's
death in 1953, Bulganin was prime minister of
the Soviet Union from 1955 to 1958. Bulganin
was born into a white-collar family in the Volga
River port of
NIZHNII
-
NOVGOROD
, where he
attended school. After joining the Bolshevik
Party in 1917, he worked for the Cheka (secret
police) during the civil war. During the 1920s he
built a career in the Soviet economic sector,
before becoming chairman of the Moscow
Soviet in 1931, a position he held until 1937.
During these years he developed a good work-
ing relationship with Nikita Khrushchev, then
secretary of the Moscow Communist Party, and
helped oversee the building of grand projects
such as the Moscow Metro and the overall trans-
formation of the city into a showcase of socialist
architecture. Already a member of the Central
Committee of the Communist Party in 1934,
Bulganin was appointed chairman of the Coun-
cil of People's Commissars (Sovnarkom) of the
Russian Republic (RSFSR) of the Soviet Union in
Bulgakov, Sergei Nikolaevich
(1871-1944)
theologian and philosopher
Bulgakov was, with Nikolai
BERDIAEV
and Sem-
yon Frank, one of the leading representatives of
the group of intellectuals gathered around the
Vekhi
movement who traveled from Marxism to
a religious orientation in the aftermath of the
1905 Revolution, denouncing radicalism and
political activism. Bulgakov was born in Orel
province to the south of Moscow, and his father
was an Orthodox priest. Bulgakov graduated
from Moscow State University in 1894 and
embraced the Marxist ideas popular among the
youth of his day, becoming a prominent spokes-
man for the Legal Marxists. In 1901, he was
appointed professor of political economy at the
Kiev Polytechnic University and later at the
Moscow Institute of Commerce. Following a
Christian socialist orientation, he was elected in
1906 to the short-lived Second
DUMA
for the
Constitutional Democratic (Kadet) Party. In 1918
he was ordained an Orthodox priest. During the
Russian civil war he lived in the Crimea, teaching
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