20th February 2021
Mikhail Bulgakov's novel The Master and Margarita is genre-defying. While it is set in real-world 1930s Soviet Russia, supernatural elements brought about by Woland and his gang introduce fantasy into the premise. Indeed, scholars have deemed the novel to be "literary fantasy" (Amusin 1) due to the abundance of magical occurrences. In this essay, I will argue that Bulgakov included fantastical elements in his novel to parody and critique the Soviet bureaucracy. Bulgakov's fantastical elements defamiliarise the reader, allowing them to "contemplate upon the known world from a distanced perspective" (Cornea 3). The world of The Master and Margarita can hence be understood as an abstract parallel of reality. Bulgakov satirises aspects of Soviet life like people disappearing and criticises the corrupt and inefficient Soviet bureaucracy using symbolism and metaphor.
Bulgakov uses fantastical symbolism to parody aspects of Soviet life. Bulgakov humourously describes citizens "vanish[ing] without a trace" (Bulgakov 39) from their apartments. A lady named Belomut disappears "from the face of the Earth". Later on in the novel, Stoypa is teleported thousands of meters away from his apartment block to a pier in Yalta (Bulgakov 43). Here Bulgakov alludes to the Soviet practice of kidnapping suspected dissenters, making them disappear from their family and community overnight. Bulgakov defamiliarises this aspect of Soviet life by portraying these disappearances in a comedic and fantastical manner. The narrator describes this phenomenon of people disappearing from Stoypa's apartment as an "odd thing" (Bulgakov 39), sarcastically pointing out how these disappearances were part of everyday Soviet life. Bulgakov exaggerates the disappearances even further with fantastical elements: Stoypa falls out of Woland's favour and is instantly spirited thousands of miles away to Yalta. Like earlier, Bulgakov satirises the process of kidnapping by the KGB. He defamiliarises this phenomenon using fantastical elements, allowing readers to reconsider such kidnappings from a "distanced perspective" (Cornea 3). Bulgakov's parodic interpretation critiques the absurdity of living in a society where people could disappear without a trace overnight. Stoypa's magical disappearance hence forms a parallel with real world kidnappings by the KGB in Soviet society. Bulgakov hence encourages readers to examine happenings in Soviet society with a fresh view using defamiliarisation.
Bulgakov also uses symbolism to portray the inefficiency of the Soviet bureaucracy. Woland uses magic to transform Prokhor Petrovich, a state authority, into a suit:
Behind the huge desk with its massive inkwell sat an empty suit. A dry pen was hurrying, unheld, across a sheet of paper. The suit had a shirt and tie, a fountain pen was clipped in its breast-pocket, but above the collar there was no neck and no head and there were no wrists protruding from the cuffs. The suit was hard at work and oblivious of the uproar round about. (Bulgakov 97)
Bulgakov uses symbolism and parody to portray the Russian bureaucracy through Petrovich. He is left with "no neck and no head" and only remains as an "empty suit". By removing Petrovich's human body parts, Bulgakov creates the metaphor of state officials being hollow and "empty" vessels. He implies that Soviet bureaucrats are hollow and inhumane, where official duties are more important than humanity and empathy. Petrovich shows this inhumanity when he refuses to accept visitors asking for help as he is busy completing his official duties 97). Hence we observe that Bulgakov uses symbolism through parody to depict state officials as cruel and inhumane.
The issue of bureaucratic incompetence is further shown in the case of Nikanor Ivanovich. When Nikanor finds Koroviev in Berlioz's apartment, he asks if he is an "official person" (49). Nikanor, as chairman of the tenants association, symbolises the hollowness and rigidity of Soviet bureaucracy by asking Koroviev if he is an official citizen. Bulgakov proves the absurdity of this line of inquiry with Koroviev's comeback:
What are official and unofficial persons? It all depends on your point of view on the subject. It's all fluctuating and relative, Nikanor Ivanovich. Today I'm an unofficial person, and tomorrow, lo and behold, I'm an official one! And it also happens the other way round – oh, how it does! (49)
Bulgakov humourously shows the absurdity of asking if Koroviev is official when that status is "fluctuating and relative". Koroviev may be an "official", existing human one day, yet become "unofficial" if he is disappeared by the state authority which can happen at any time. This "fluctuating" officiality highlights the absurdity of Soviet life, where people must be official citizens, yet can "disappear" at any moment for being suspected as dissenters.
In "Fairy-Tale Elements in Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita", Sona Hoisington likens The Master and Margarita to a fairy tale, which "allows for no moral ambiguity" (Hoisington 2) and the characters are "either good or bad". The fantastical elements of Bulgakov's novel expose Soviet characters for the sinful, "bad" behaviour. According to Hoisington, these elements "are all forms of well-deserved punishment". People in positions of power like Stoypa and Petrovich are punished: Stoypa is whisked away to Yalta because he "drinks, carries on with women, and doesn't do any work" and Petrovich is transformed into a talking suit for "rudely refus[ing] to see petitioners" (5).
The issue of bureaucratic incompetence is further shown in the case of Nikanor Ivanovich. When Nikanor finds Koroviev in Berlioz's apartment, he asks if he is an "official person" (49). Nikanor, as chairman of the tenants association, symbolises the hollowness and rigidity of Soviet bureaucracy by asking Koroviev if he is an official citizen. Bulgakov proves the absurdity of this line of inquiry with Koroviev's comeback:
What are official and unofficial persons? It all depends on your point of view on the subject. It's all fluctuating and relative, Nikanor Ivanovich. Today I'm an unofficial person, and tomorrow, lo and behold, I'm an official one! And it also happens the other way round – oh, how it does! (49)
Bulgakov humourously shows the absurdity of asking if Koroviev is official when that status is "fluctuating and relative". Koroviev may be an "official", existing human one day, yet become "unofficial" if he is disappeared by the state authority which can happen at any time. This "fluctuating" officiality highlights the absurdity of Soviet life, where people must be official citizens, yet can "disappear" at any moment for being suspected as dissenters.
In "Fairy-Tale Elements in Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita", Sona Hoisington likens The Master and Margarita to a fairy tale, which "allows for no moral ambiguity" (Hoisington 2) and the characters are "either good or bad". The fantastical elements of Bulgakov's novel expose Soviet characters for the sinful, "bad" behaviour. According to Hoisington, these elements "are all forms of well-deserved punishment". People in positions of power like Stoypa and Petrovich are punished: Stoypa is whisked away to Yalta because he "drinks, carries on with women, and doesn't do any work" and Petrovich is transformed into a talking suit for "rudely refus[ing] to see petitioners" (5).
Indeed, Woland's fantastical magic satirises the Soviet bureaucracy and expose greedy and evil characters for what they are. The "bad" characters receive comeuppance in a comic manner which highlights the criticisms Bulgakov has with Soviet society.
In conclusion, Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita can be read as a parody of Soviet society. The fantastical elements of the story exaggerate and satirise elements of Soviet life to allow readers to consider it from a "distanced perspective" (Cornea 3). Bulgakov hence uses parody to criticise the inefficiency and absurdity of the Soviet bureaucracy.
Works Cited
Bulgakov, Mikhail, 1891-1940. The Master And Margarita. New York: Vintage Books, 1996.
Cornea, Christine. " INTRODUCTION: THE FORMATION OF THE GENRE." In Science Fiction Cinema: Between Fantasy and Reality, 1-28. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2007. Accessed November 7, 2020. http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.3366/j.ctt1r28mq.6.
Hoisington, Sona. "Fairy-Tale Elements in Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita." The Slavic and East European Journal, vol. 25, no. 2, 1981, pp. 44–55. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/307955. Accessed 21 Feb. 2021.
Merrill, Jessica E. "The Stalinist Subject and Mikhail Bulgakov's The Master And Margarita." The Russian Review: An American Quarterly Devoted to Russia Past and Present, vol. 74, no. 2, Apr. 2015, pp. 293–310. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1111/russ.10770.