Experimental Blog #82

Comments on "Notes of a Deceased - A Threatrical Novel" by Mikhail Bulgakov

Besides working as a doctor in World War I, Mikhail Bulgakov apparently was "conscripted", at different times, to serve as a doctor during the Russian Civil War by both sides; both the "Red Bolsheviks" and the "White anti-Bolsheviks". It might be that he never actually "fought" for either side.

Mikhail Bulgakov's greatest endeavor was to write plays and have them put on stage, and by the middle of the 1920s he was a well known and usually increasingly popular dramatist in the new USSR. However, by 1930 he had been completely excluded from any such work by the Bolshevik regime. In that same year Bulgakov received a completely unexpected phone call from Joseph Stalin; that was, in part, a response to a letter, one of several, that Bulgakov had written to the Soviet government and to Joseph Stalin, plus a few other specific people.

Mikhail Bulgakov's wife, Elena, possibly made a hand written transcript of their seemingly cordial conversation, and, among other things, Joseph Stalin said that he and Bulgakov must definitely find some time to get together and talk things over. Although Mikhail Bulgakov seemed in earnest agreement, their meeting in person apparently never took place.

During the 1930s and to the end of his life in 1940 Mikhail Bulgakov was allowed to work in the theater. He wrote plays based on the classics "Dead Souls" and "War and Peace", and he helped put them on stage, but, with only one other brief exception, it seems he was never allowed to stage or publish his own works from his imagination. Joseph Stalin had announced that because of the critical times no satirical works of any kind could be permitted.

This short novel, or novella, of about 142 pages, which was published in the Soviet Union along with other of Bulgakov's works in 1966, is all about Bulgakov's life and great interest in Russian drama and theater. Without the many additional pages of commentary in this volume, "Notes of a Deceased" seems, at least half largely tedious, pointless, and incomplete to the "outsider" today.

However, the commentary reveals that 40 of the characters in this book, but not the main character, Maksudov, or his confidant, Bombardov, come from "prototypes"; that is, living people in Russian drama and theater that Bulgakov probably knew, and a few contemporary literary people. Most of the many episodes also come from real events and issues probably experienced by Bulgakov. However, virtually all of these people and issues are completely unknown to outsiders today.

Unlike the well known "Master and Margarita", Mikhail Bulgakov's "fantastical" writing is all but completely absent in "Notes of a Deceased". It might be there, along with Bulgakov's other "literary talents", but they are quite obscured. There are a couple of episodes that involve cats, and there is a "devil image", and a few other "odd images" as well.