Mikhail Bulgakov worked on the novel "The Master and Margarita" for 12 years: from 1928 to 1940, until his death. Again and again he finished writing and rewriting it, supplementing it with new chapters, characters and plot lines: life itself made its own adjustments. A reception held in April 1935 at Spaso House, the personal residence of the American ambassador, forced Bulgakov to completely rewrite chapter 23 of The Master and Margarita: Satan's Great Ball. What so shocked the writer at that ball?
Temporary permanent
In 1933, Soviet Russia resumed diplomatic relations with the United States, interrupted by the 1917 revolution and the Civil War. An epoch-making event in every sense. This was understood in the White House, and on November 16, Secretary of State Cordell Hull, with the approval of President Franklin Roosevelt, established diplomatic relations with the Soviets. And by the end of 1933, William Bullitt, appointed US ambassador to the USSR, found a temporary, as it seemed to him, refuge for a diplomatic mission. He hoped that in the future the Americans would build another residence in Moscow - in the colonial style, to match the estate of Thomas Jefferson in Monticello (Piedmont, Virginia). Yes, only the Soviet government did not approve the plan for this construction. Therefore, house number 10 in Spasopeskovsky Lane, where Bullitt stayed, remained the traditional haven of the US Ambassador …
I must say that the first American ambassador to the USSR had to work hard to find a decent room in Moscow at that time. The choice of "Bullitt's expedition" - as the group of diplomats with the ambassador himself was nicknamed - fell on the luxurious mansion of Nikolai Vtorov, once one of the richest industrialists in Russia. Outwardly, it was very similar to the White House, and in addition was equipped with an American heating system.
Almost immediately, Vtorov's mansion was christened Spaso House - at the address and the nearby Church of the Savior on the Sands (looking ahead, let's say: this nickname stuck so much that today the ambassador's residence is even in official documents listed as Spaso House).
After settling down, the American diplomats began to prepare for an official reception in the renovated Moscow residence, as required by the protocol. In early December 1934, William Bullitt summoned Embassy Counselor John Wiley and Third Secretary Charles Thayer and gave the order: “Don't spare your money. You can only be limited by the sky … . True, the ambassador himself could not be at that reception: he left for Washington on business.
Russian exotic
By the mid-1930s, diplomats, newspapermen, students, and tourists arriving from the United States had already appreciated the hospitality of Red Moscow. Drama theaters, stunning ballet and opera, museums, nightclubs specially organized for foreigners, excellent dinners in the Metropol and Russian exoticism in the Medved restaurant - all this delighted the Americans. However, compatriots had nowhere to meet privately, in their own way. William Bullitt decided to combine business with pleasure. In addition to American citizens, Soviet political and public figures, representatives of culture and art were also invited to the first, Rozhdestvensky, ball. Mikhail Bulgakov and his wife were among the invitees.
The organizers of the first ball did a great job. Charles Thayer was puzzled by the protocol of the reception, the bar and the kitchen. John Wiley was the major domo. His wife, Irena Wylie, a renowned artist, has taken care of the preparation of an ambitious cultural program. She organized an engagement for musicians and artists of various genres, ordered jazz bands from the Czech Republic, fresh flowers from Finland, rented birds and animals from the zoo …
Vladimir Durov, a circus clown and trainer, was also invited to entertain the guests (contrary to popular belief, he did not have nothing to do with the Durov Animal Theater and the most famous dynasty). On Christmas Day he was asked to perform only with seals. Durov himself later recalled: "I never had to perform with them in the ballroom." The guests were delighted!
The preparation of the Christmas ball took almost 2 weeks. Efforts were not in vain: the holiday was a success! The sweep of the American was in no way inferior to the Russian. At the same time, the reception, despite the huge amount of drunk and eaten, was, in general, more of a protocol. It became a kind of dress rehearsal for the second ball - the Spring Festival at Spaso House.
Promotional video:
Spring festival
Inspired by their success, the Americans decided to go out to their fullest. If at the first event there were about 150 guests, then the scale of the second one shocked the imagination: only 400 guests were invited!
Spring Festival William Bullitt appointed Wednesday, April 24, 1935: this date appears in the documents of the embassy, and in the American quarterly "International Relations" for April 1935.
The 23rd, sometimes appearing in various documents and memoirs (and they wrote a lot and willingly about Spaso-House Party), "arose" because of the difference in time zones. Other dates are completely wrong.
This time Irena Wiley was the "director-director" of the reception. She wrote about this in detail and in colors in the book Around the Globe in 20 Years (1962).
This time, the festival involved all the premises, the park and the lawn in front of the residence. Long before the start, all the streets adjacent to Spaso-House were blocked by police and special detachments of the NKVD. It was unthinkable to “settle” such a mass of cars and horse-drawn carriages in the usual way! Cars and carriages drove up incessantly.
Guests from dressing rooms went to the stairs and went upstairs to the mezzanine. They were greeted by William Bullitt and the embassy secretariat.
The entire space around was illuminated by intricate illumination, flowerpots with flowers were everywhere, birches and palm trees grew in tubs. In specially equipped recreations among the lush tropical greenery, songbirds and parrots fluttered, monkeys frolicked, and in open-air cages - mountain goats …
In the Main Hall, the audience was greeted by the symphony orchestra and ballerinas of the Bolshoi Theater, who were later replaced by Russian song groups and gypsies! On the top floor of the mansion, a special zone in the Caucasian style was arranged: music, dancing, barbecue. The perfect bomb was the performance of Durov's trained animals: dancing bears, roosters, bookkeepers, tame white doves and goat musicians.
Tables and serving carts were laden with drinks, snacks and snacks. In smoking rooms, guests were offered long-forgotten cigars and overseas cigarettes. Waiters and waiters scurried about everywhere. There were no strict regulations for the guests. The dance lovers danced.
Hunters to eat and drink - sat at the tables. Some retired to billiard rooms, others drowned in tobacco smoke. We walked until 10 o'clock in the morning! An amazing dance hall was arranged in the park. A large fountain bowl was illuminated, exotic fish were launched into the water and this makeshift aquarium was covered with thick glass. The dancers frolicked on it. And nearby, on a small stage, a jazz orchestra was raging …
Satan reigns there
The composition of the guests was no less amazing. In the Soviet Union, a bureaucratic vertical had already been formed, and it was almost impossible to see the country's top leaders easily. A democratic atmosphere reigned at the Spring Festival. Among the guests one could see Nikolai Bukharin, and Semyon Budyonny, and Klim Voroshilov, and Mikhail Tukhachevsky, and Sergey Kamenev, and Lazar Kaganovich, and Nikolai Yezhov …
The last one was remembered by the guests of the reception because he constantly smiled. Then, in 1935, Yezhov headed a number of departments and commissions of the Central Committee of the party, but very soon he "retrained" as a "bloody" People's Commissar of the NKVD and gladly destroyed those people with whom he had just recently had a friendly drink at Spaso House.
The fate of all, with a few exceptions, Soviet citizens who participated in the receptions of the American ambassador in 1934 and 1935 at Spaso House is sad. Almost all of them perished in hell. Saving their own lives, many of them betrayed and denigrated each other. But then they themselves were disgraced, slandered and trampled … Truly, only Satan could have invented this!
Hence the pathos of Mikhail Bulgakov is understandable: at the Spring Festival at Spaso House, the writer saw a phantasmagoric gathering of executioners and murderers, informers and defrauded. He finished writing the 23rd chapter of the novel on Friday, May 3, 1939, when most of William Bullitt's Soviet guests were no longer alive …
Mr. Bullitt in the land of the Bolsheviks
William Bullitt's special mission in Russia began in 1919. It was he who advised President Woodrow Wilson to establish diplomatic relations with the Bolshevik regime and even secretly met with Lenin. It was he who was married to the widow of John Reed, author of the acclaimed book Ten Days That Shook the World. It was he who lobbied for the interests of American business in the USSR. No, Bullitt was neither a communist nor a sympathizer. He perfectly understood the balance of power. The point is not what kind of power is in Russia. It's about herself. She was, is and, according to common sense, will be!
In the early 1930s, Bullitt insisted on immediate negotiations with the USSR, urging Washington to see an ally in our country. At one time, Bullitt provided invaluable assistance to Roosevelt in the struggle for power, and the president was forced to endure a restless politician. In the White House, Roosevelt was whispered: "If Bullitt cares so much about the Soviets, we must send him to the very hell - to Moscow." And Mr. Bullitt departed for the Bolshevik country.
As soon as he arrived in Moscow, he "bargained" for the non-interference of the Bolsheviks in the internal affairs of the United States (through the Comintern and the Communist Party) - for recognizing the state sovereignty of the USSR and providing economic assistance. On December 20, 1933, at an official dinner in the Kremlin, Bullitt was personally introduced to Joseph Stalin, who expressed his favor to the American - he hugged and kissed him three times. After that, the newly-minted ambassador made a big tour of the country's cities, in which it was supposed to deploy joint economic projects. Do not forget that the ambassador was part-time employee of the OSS - the forerunner of the CIA. This part of his mission is still classified, but it is clear from the diplomat's reports that he was extremely interested in the military potential of Soviet Russia and unprecedented economic growth. He traveled around the country, closely followed the press, met with the "necessary" people,many of whom were later declared "American spies" and shot … Alas, all Bullitt's efforts to bring the United States and the USSR closer together were in vain. In April 1936, before leaving for Paris, he wrote with bitterness: “To maintain stability in the world and peace for the United States, it is necessary to reckon with the Bolsheviks and maintain relations with Stalin. In this decade, the Soviet Union will either become the target of an attack from Europe and the Far East, or it will develop unprecedented power and unleash a world war on its own …”. In this decade, the Soviet Union will either become the target of an attack from Europe and the Far East, or it will develop unprecedented power and unleash a world war on its own …”. In this decade, the Soviet Union will either become the target of an attack from Europe and the Far East, or it will develop unprecedented power and unleash a world war on its own …”.
Magazine: All the mysteries of the world №25. Author: Vitaly Golubev