Bulgakov's Feuilleton

And now for something completely different... Bulgakov’s Feuilleton presents 101 feuilletons (short stories) written by ultra famous Russian writer Mikhail Bulgakov between November 1919 and March 1926. These stories were published in newspapers and magazines, under his own name and pennames such as Ol ‘Wright, F.S-ov, M. Bull, Emma B., and G.P. Ukhov (“of the ear”). Only two of these feuilletons have been published previously in English translation.

The period 1919–1926 is of historic interest, and Bulgakov's stories offers a unique perspective on it. Russia was recovering from the combined effects of WWI, the Russian Revolution, and the Russian Civil War; and it was engaged in a massive experiment in social engineering under Communism. During this period, writers experienced increasing censorship and repression, which culminated in the purges of the 1930s.

With the exception of his very first published work, the story “Future Prospects,” Bulgakov paints in the small in his Feuilleton. He depicts ordinary people in ordinary settings who are struggling with problems of existence—hyperinflation, bureaucracy, corruption, travel delays, incomprehensible regulations, cronyism, nepotism, red-tapism, drunkenness, wife beating, the housing problem, education, pointless day-long meetings, and encounters with “the healthcare system.” He draws hundreds upon hundreds of characters, with a psychological perspicacity that we in the West have come to expect of a Russian master.

Bulgakov's short works stand in the same relationship to his major works as do the sketches of any great artist to his masterpieces. And in these stories the reader will find precursors of characters, settings, and plot elements found in the later The Heart of a Dog (1925) and The Master and Margarita (1940).

Bulgakov is a brilliant writer. His Gogolian imagination and playwright’s ear for dialogue are on abundant display in these stories. The action moves quickly. There are twists and turns. But always, a poetic ending.