May 15 last year marks the 120th anniversary of the birth of Mikhail Afanasyevich Bulgakov. The fate and work of one of the most controversial and mysterious domestic writers of the 20th century, even during his lifetime, were shrouded in an aura of mystery and mysticism. However, about three secret meetings of Bulgakov with his brilliant compatriot, mystic and great writer N. V. Gogol became known only after the death of Mikhail Afanasyevich: a tragic one, predicted by himself long before his fateful 1940.
On the edge of the abyss
In the terrible and hungry year 1917, while working as a doctor in one of the rural hospitals, young Mikhail Bulgakov fell seriously ill - he contracted diphtheria from a sick child. Having diagnosed himself, the doctor injected himself with an anti-diphtheria serum, which immediately gave a terrible allergic effect: the doctor's entire body became covered with a rash, his face was swollen, and an intolerable itching began. After suffering the whole night, Bulgakov asked his wife to inject himself with morphine. Repetition of injections over the next two days saved Bulgakov from an acute allergic reaction, but gave a predictable effect: the young doctor became addicted to the drug.
The newly acquired pernicious disease began to develop rapidly, inexorably destroying Bulgakov's physical and mental health. Panicky fearing that his addiction would become known to colleagues and others, he fell into a severe depression, during which it seemed to Bulgakov that he was going crazy. Arriving in Kiev in the spring of 1918 after several unsuccessful attempts to recover, the novice writer was already drinking opium straight from the bottle. The attempts of the first wife of Bulgakov, Tatyana Nikolaevna, to prevent her husband's addictions caused his irrepressible rage. Tatyana Nikolaevna recalled that in a fit of anger, Mikhail Afanasyevich threw a burning primus at her, more than once aimed from a revolver. In the end, Tatyana Nikolaevna, wanting to deceive the patient, instead of morphine began to inject distilled water into Bulgakov. This led to periods of severe breakdowns. And during one of these attacks, in the late autumn of 1918, in a rented Kiev apartment, Bulgakov, who was writhing in pain, appeared … Gogol! As Mikhail Afanasyevich wrote later in one of his diaries, that night "a short, sharp-nosed man with small mad eyes" entered his room with a swift step, bent over his bed and angrily shook his finger at him.
The next morning, Bulgakov could not understand whether it was a dream inspired by severe bodily suffering, or whether the spirit of the great writer actually came to him in order to save him from the impending disaster. Be that as it may, but after that dramatic and memorable night for Bulgakov, he miraculously got rid of drug addiction forever, which he later very convincingly described in his story "Morphine".
Herald of love
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The second meeting of Mikhail Afanasyevich was associated with mysterious circumstances that preceded his acquaintance with his third - last - wife, the last true love, the last and brightest muse of the writer's late period.
Once at Maslenitsa, Elena Sergeevna Shklovskaya, the wife of a prominent Soviet military leader, Doctor of Science, Professor Yevgeny Aleksandrovich Shklovsky, came to the Moscow apartment of her acquaintances, who promised to have "the famous Bulgakov". Bulgakov and Shklovskaya met. Mikhail Afanasyevich began jokingly courting a 35-year-old beautiful lady, flattered by the attention of the famous writer. And suddenly … no longer jokingly, she reciprocated Bulgakov. From that evening, their stormy romance began, which lasted more than two years, in which there was everything: passionate love, and jealousy, and scenes, and parting. Once, having received permission from Elena Sergeevna to accompany her home (at that time E. A. Shklovsky was on a business trip), Mikhail Afanasyevich stopped dead at the entrance of his beloved. Despite Elena Sergeevna's persistent inquiries aboutwhat led Bulgakov to such a great confusion, that evening Mikhail Afanasyevich did not reveal its reason. And only much later, heavily dying in the arms of his wife, he told Elena Sergeevna about a strange meeting that had happened to him several years before they met.
On a cold autumn evening in 1927, Bulgakov walked along the dull Moscow streets. His heart was bad: the close attention to the OGPU writer, lack of money, difficulties in publishing works and problems in family life made him an already difficult life simply unbearable. Suddenly at one of the uncrowded intersections Bulgakov accidentally ran into a passer-by. Looking up, he again, as once at night in a Kiev apartment, saw "a short, sharp-nosed man with small crazy eyes" - in a hat and an old-fashioned shabby coat. The little man looked intently at Bulgakov with a squint, then nodded at a large stone house with elaborate stucco molding, unfamiliar to Mikhail Afanasyevich, towered to the right of the writer, and, without saying a word, promptly disappeared into the dark echoing gateway. There was no doubt - Bulgakov again met with Gogol himself. But what he wanted to tell the writer, Bulgakov did not understand then. And on that memorable evening for Mikhail Afanasyevich, when he saw off his beloved, Bulgakov, to his amazement, he learned that Elena Sergeevna lived in this mysterious house, to which Gogol had once drawn his attention.
Granite Overcoat
Mikhail Bulgakov told about his last meeting with Gogol in a letter to his longtime friend Pavel Popov in the spring of 1932. The writer then worked at the Maly Theater on a stage adaptation of Gogol's famous Dead Souls. According to Bulgakov himself, the production went very badly. Mikhail Afanasyevich was not satisfied with either the direction, the scenery, or the play of famous actors, who, in his opinion, were far from the author's true intention. Describing his creative torment in a letter to Popov, Bulgakov mentions that he dreamed of Gogol himself. The great writer burst into his apartment and exclaimed menacingly: "What does this mean ?!" As follows from the letter, Mikhail Afanasyevich began to make excuses to the great master, explaining the failures in work on the production by a weak cast, the lack of a good decorator and other difficulties. And suddenly, at the very end of their nightly meeting, unwillingly, Bulgakov suddenly utters a strange, in his opinion, phrase: "Cover me with your granite overcoat!" After these words of Mikhail Afanasyevich, Gogol takes his leave and disappears.
Then, suspicious and seeing all the secret signs, Bulgakov could not give an explanation for this phrase he had dreamed of. Its true meaning was unexpectedly revealed to Elena Sergeevna 12 years after the writer's death. For a long time there was no monument on Bulgakov's grave at the Novodevichy cemetery. Once Elena Sergeevna, having come to her husband's grave, looked into the cemetery workshop and suddenly saw there a worn-out granite tombstone. When the woman asked about the stone, the master replied that it was an old Golgotha removed from Gogol's grave (a type of gravestone in the form of a block crowned with a cross), instead of which a new solid monument was erected to mark the 100th anniversary of the writer's death. At the request of Bulgakov's widow, this heavy granite "overcoat" was pulled out of the workshop and placed on the grave of Mikhail Afanasyevich, where it stands to this day. Later, Elena Sergeevna recalls,she dreamed of the late Mikhail Afanasyevich. Bulgakov bowed low to her and left the white room, closing the door behind him.
Modern researchers of the work of Mikhail Bulgakov and Nikolai Gogol more and more often note that both of these people were in many ways similar. The mystical make-up of character, suspiciousness reaching to frenzy, unshakable faith in the power of providence left an indelible imprint on both the work and the personal life of the writers. It is quite possible that Bulgakov, who knew Gogol's work well, felt this and understood that they were connected by some invisible but strong thread, which did not break even after the death of the author of The Master and Margarita.
Source: Magazine "Secrets of the XX century"