"I want to die in your arms ": Mikhail Bulgakov and Elena Nurenberg

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

Mikhail Afanasyevich Bulgakov has said more than once that he should marry three times. As if such advice was given to him by Alexei Tolstoy, who argued that the key to literary success lies in a threefold marriage. And a fortune teller in Kiev, as he recalled, guessed that he would marry three times. So they are different, Mikhail Bulgakov and Elena Nuremberg, who became not only his third wife, but also the main prototype of Margarita in the novel "The Master and Margarita", considered their union predetermined from above.

Elena Sergeevna Nuremberg: life before the Master

Elena Sergeevna Nuremberg was born in 1893 in Riga. After graduating from high school, she left for Moscow with her parents. In 1918 she became engaged to Yuri Neyolov. After 2 years they parted. In 1920 Elena remarried to the military expert Yevgeny Shilovsky. A year later, they had a son, who was named Eugene in honor of his father, and five years later a second child, Sergei, was born in the family. But a quiet family life oppressed Elena, she wanted something more. Or perhaps the conduct itself led the woman to her Master.

The life of the Master before meeting his Margarita

Bulgakov Mikhail Afanasevich was born on May 3, 1891 in Kiev. His father was a professor at the Kiev Theological Academy, and his mother was a teacher at the women's gymnasium. In 1913, Mikhail Bulgakov became engaged to Tatyana Lappa, a woman who would help him overcome his soon-to-be morphine addiction. Memories of Tatiana about the wedding:.

When the First World War began, Bulgakov worked as a doctor and was sent to Vyazma. In early 1921, Mikhail arrived in Moscow, took up writing, and two years later became a member of the All-Russian Union of Writers. In 1924 he met Lyubov Belozerskaya. According to the memoirs of contemporaries "" The years of marriage with Lyubov Evgenievna are the years of the creation of "Days of the Turbins", "Crimson Island", "Zoyka's apartment." She translated books about Moliere from French for Bulgakov and wrote hundreds of pages of his books under his dictation. in 1929 another woman appeared in his life.

Here it is, love

The meeting between Mikhail and Elena took place in the apartment of the artists Moiseenko. Forty years later, Elena Nuremberg wrote in her memoirs:.

But by that time she had a husband and two children. The situation seemed like a stalemate. In the summer of 1929, Elena left for Essentuki for treatment. Bulgakov wrote beautiful letters to her, sent petals of red roses, and she, fearing compromising evidence, destroyed every letter.

At the beginning of 1931, the husband of Elena Sergeevna, Evgeny Alexandrovich Shilovsky, found out about their relationship. He had a difficult conversation with the writer, after which Bulgakov made a promise not to see Elena Sergeevna again. “The misfortune happened on February 25, 1931,” he wrote on a sheet of White Guard, believing that he would never meet his Elena again.

They have not seen each other for a year and three months. The meeting took place at the Metropol restaurant, and both realized that they still loved each other.

Elena Sergeevna left for Lebelian with her children and wrote a letter to her husband asking him to give her a divorce. The answer did not come soon: "I treated you like a child, I was wrong …". It is known that he wrote to Shilovsky and Bulgakov: "Dear Evgeny Alexandrovich, pass by our happiness …". To which the legal spouse replied to the writer: "Mikhail Afanasevich, what I do, I do not for you, but for Elena Sergeevna."The divorce was difficult and painful and ended with the separation of children: the eldest, 10-year-old Evgeny, stayed with his father, the youngest, 5-year-old Seryozha, went with his mother to Bulgakov's house.

I want to die in your arms …

On October 3, 1932, Bulgakov divorced Belozerskaya, and the next day he married Elena Sergeevna. Six months later, he gave his wife a power of attorney to conclude contracts with publishing houses and theaters regarding his works, as well as to receive royalties. A year later, at his request, Elena Sergeevna began to keep a diary, and kept it for 7 years until the last day of Mikhail Afanasyevich's life.

She devoted all of herself to her husband and his work: she wrote under his dictation, typed manuscripts on a typewriter, edited them, drew up contracts with theaters, negotiated with the right people, dealt with correspondence. She became for him a muse, a secretary, a biographer and a tireless employee. It is thanks to Elena Sergeevna that Bulgakov's archive has been preserved.

They said that in their entire life together, they never quarreled, no matter how hard the circumstances were. At the end of 1939, Mikhail Afanasyevich's health deteriorated.

- wrote Elena Sergeevna in the 1950s.

On March 10, 1940, Mikhail Afanasevich died.

Only thanks to the incredible energy of Elena Nurenberg, after Bulgakov's death, many of his previously unpublished works were able to see the light, the main of which is, of course, the novel "The Master and Margarita". After his death, she never married. She outlived her Master by 30 years.

Fans of this wonderful writer will be interested in remembering and 15 philosophical phrases of Mikhail Bulgakov from the mystical novel "The Master and Margarita".