, the master evidently kept his bond in his laundry basket. 2. Latunsky ... Ariman ... Lavrovich: Russian commentators see the name Latunsky as a fusion of the names of critics 0.Litovsky and A.Orlinsky, who led the attack on 'Bulgakovism' in the mid-twenties, after the first performances of Bulgakov's play Days of the Turbins. Ariman (Ahriman), name of the principle of evil in the Zoroastrian religion, has also been identified by commentators with L.L. Averbakh, general secretary of RAPP (Russian Association of Proletarian Writers), one of Bulgakov's fiercest opponents. And Lavrovich is thought to be V. V. Vishnevsky, who forced the withdrawal of two of Bulgakov's plays from the repertory of the Moscow Art Theatre. 3. an article by the critic Ariman: It was common practice in Soviet literary politics to mount a press campaign against a book after denying it publication. The same happened at the end of the fifties with Boris Pasternak's Doctor Zhivago. 4. A Militant Old Believer: The Old Believers broke with the Russian Orthodox Church in the mid-seventeenth century, in protest against the reforms of the patriarch Nikon. The term is thus used rather loosely by Latunsky. In the mid-twenties, Bulgakov was similarly attacked as 'a militant white guard'. 5. in the same coat but with the buttons torn off: This laconic reference is the only indication of where the master spent those lost three months. It was customary to remove belts, shoelaces and buttons from the apparel of those 'held for questioning'. Chapter 14: Nikanor Ivamvich's Dream 1. after first visiting another place: Noteworthy is not only the impersonality of the interrogation that follows, but the combination in the interrogating voice of menace and 'tenderness' (a word Bulgakov uses frequently in this context). The same combination will reappear in Nikanor Ivanovich's dream - an extraordinary rendering of the operation of secret police within society, which also suggests the `theatre' of Stalin's trumped-up 'show trials' of the later thirties. 2. Quinquet lamps: A specially designed oil-lamp, named for its French inventor, in which the oil reservoir is higher than the wick. Like carbon arc lamps in apartment hallways, they were a means of saving electricity. 3. All sitting?: Bulgakov plays on the meanings of the Russian verb sidet: 'to sit' and also 'to sit in prison'. 4. The Covetous Knight: One of Pushkin's 'little tragedies', written in 1830, about the demonic and destructive fascination of gold. 5. As a young scapegrace . . . some sly strumpet: The first two lines of the baron's opening monologue in scene two of The Covetous Knight. 6. And who's going to pay the rent - Pushkin? : This 'household' way of referring to Pushkin is common in Russia, showing how far the poet has entered into people's everyday life, though without necessarily bringing a knowledge of his works with him. 7. There great heaps... of gold are mine: Lines from Hermann's aria in Tchaikovsky's opera The Queen of Spades, based on the story by Pushkin (the lines, however, are by Modest Tchaikovsky). Chapter 17: An Unquiet Day 1. Glorious sea, sacred Baikal: A prerevoludonary song about Lake Baikal, sung by convicts at hard labour. It became popular after the revolution and remained so throughout the Soviet period. 2. cisco: A northern variety of whitefish caught in Lake Baikal. 3. Barguzin: A local personification of the north-east wind. 4. Shilka and Nerchinsk: Towns on the Shilka River east of Baikal, known as places of exile. 5. Lermontov studies: Mikhail Lermontov (1814-41), lyric poet and novelist of the generation following Pushkin. Chapter 18: Hapless Visitors 1. Maximilian Andreevich did not like Kiev: Bulgakov, however, loved Kiev, his birthplace, as the descriptions of the city and of Vladimir's Hill here and in The White Guard make clear. Prince Vladimir (or St Vladimir), grand prince of Kievan Rus, gave firm foundations to the first Russian state and in 988 converted his people to Christianity. 2. Passport! : The internal passport, a feature of Russian life in tsarist times, was abolished after the revolution, but reinstated by Stalin in 1932. It was the only accepted means of identification and had to be carried at all times. The precinct number that the cat gives later (412th) is absurdly high, even for a big city. 3. Everything was confusion... The second sentence of Tolstoy's Anna Kannina, proverbial in Russia. 4. a church panikhida: A special service of the Orthodox Church for commemoration of the dead. 5. Leech bureau: Leeches have been used medically since ancient times as a means of blood-letting, thought to lower blood pressure and cure various ailments. A rather primitive treatment in this context. Book Two Chapter 19: Margarita 1. Margarita: The name Bulgakov gives to his heroine recalls that of Gretchen (diminutive of Margarete), the young girl ruined by Faust in Goethe's drama. It may also recall Marguerite de Valois (1555-1615), wife of French king Henri IV, known as `la reine Margot' (several times in later chapters Margarita will be called Margot and even Queen Margot). 2. the dread Antonia Tower: A fortress in ancient Jerusalem which housed the Roman garrison in the city and where the Roman procurator normally stayed on official visits. It was named by Herod the Great in honour of the Roman general and triumvir Mark Antony (85-50 ac), who ruled the eastern third of the empire. 3. Hasmonaean Palace: Palace of the Hasmonaean or Maccabean dynasty, rulers of Judea in the second century BC, who resisted the Seleucid kings Antiochus IV and Demetrius Soter. 4. the Manege: Originally a riding academy built after the war with Napoleon, the building was later used as a quondam concert hall. Abandoned after the revolution, it served in Bulgakov's time as a garage and warehouse for the Kremlin, but has now been restored as a permanent art-exhibition space. Chapter 22: By Candlelight 1. a candelabrum ... seven golden claws: Woland's two candelabra are satanic parodies of the menorah made by the Jews at God's command during their wandering in the wilderness (Exodus 25:51-9, 57:17-24). A seven-branched candelabrum also stands on the altar of every Christian church. 2. a beetle artfully carved: The Egyptians saw the scarabaeus beetle as a symbol of immortality because it survived the annual flooding of the Nile. The ritual use of carved stone scarabs spread to Palestine, Greece and Italy in ancient times. 3. Hans: Like Jack, Jean, or Ivan in the folk-tales of their countries, the Hans of German tales is generally the third son of the family and considered a fool (though he usually winds up with the treasure and the princess for his bride). 4. Sextus Empiricus, Martianus Capella: Sextus Empiricus (second--third century AD), Greek philosopher, astronomer and physician, was a representative of the most impartial scepticism. Martianus Capella, a Latin author of the fifth century AD, wrote an encyclopedia in novel form entitled The Marriage of Mercury and Philology. 5. this pain in my knee ... Mount Bracken: Satan's lameness is more commonly ascribed to his fall from heaven. Mount Brocken, highest of the Harz Mountains in Germany, is a legendary gathering place of witches and devils, and the site of the Walpurgisnacht (as in Goethe's Faust) on the eve of the First of May. 6. Abaddon: Hebrew for 'destruction'. In the Old Testament it is another name for Sheol, the place where the dead abide (Job 26:6, 28:22; Psalms 88:11). In the New Testament, it is the name of the 'angel of the bottomless pit' (Revelation 9:11). Chapter 23: The Great Ball at Satan's 1. waltz king: Unofficial title of the Viennese composer Johann Strauss (1825-99) 2. Vieuxtemps: Henri Vieuxtemps (1820-81), Belgian virtuoso violinist, made his debut in Paris at the age of ten. He travelled the world giving concerts, taught in the conservatory of Brussels and for some time also in the conservatory of St Petersburg, where he was first violinist of the imperial court. 3. Monsieur Jacques: Identified by L. Yanovskaya as Jacques Coeur (c.1595-1456), a rich French merchant who became superintendent of finances under Charles VII. He did make a false start in life in association with a counterfeiter before embarking on his legitimate successes, and was indeed suspected of poisoning the king's mistress, Agnes Sorel, but was quickly cleared. He was neither a traitor to his country nor an alchemist. 4. Earl Robert: Identified by L. Yanovskaya as Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester (?1532-88), a favourite of Elizabeth I of England, whose wife, Amy Rosbarts, did die in suspicious circumstances, though not by poisoning but by falling downstairs. 5. Madame Tofana: La Tofana, a woman of Palermo, was arrested as a poisoner and strangled in prison in 1709. The poison named after her, aqua tofana, had in fact been known since the fifteenth century and is held responsible for the deaths of some 600 persons, including the popes Pius III and Clement XTV and the Duke of Anjou. 6. a Spanish hoot: A wooden torture device. 7. Frieda: Her story is reminiscent of that of Gretchen in Faust. B. V. Sokolov finds Bulgakov's source in The Sexual Question, by Swiss psychiatrist Auguste Forel, who tells a similar story of a certain Frieda Keller. 8. The marquise: Marie-Madeleine d'Aubray, Marquise de Brinvilliers (1650-76), a notorious poisoner, was decapitated and burned in Paris. 9. Madame Minkin: Nastasya Fyodorovna Minkin, mistress of Count Arakcheev (1769-1854), military adviser to the emperor Alexander I. A notoriously cruel and depraved woman, she was murdered by her household serfs in 1825. 10. the emperor Rudolf: Rudolf II Hapsburg (1552-1612), German emperor, son of Maximilian II, lived in Prague, took great interest in astronomy and alchemy, and was the protector of Tycho Brahe and Johannes Kepler. 11. A Moscow dressmaker: The heroine of Bulgakov's own play, Zyka's Apartment, which describes a brothel disguised as a dressmaker's shop. 12. Caligula: Gaius Caesar (AD 12-41), nicknamed Caligula ('Little Boot^, was the son of Germanicus and succeeded Tiberius as emperor. Half mad, he subjected Rome to many tyrannical outrages and was eventually assassinated. 13. Messalina: (AD 15-48), third wife of the emperor Claudius, was famous for her debauchery. 14. Maliuta Skuratw. Nickname of the Russian nobleman Grigory Lukyanovich Skuratov-Belsky, the right-hand man of Ivan the Terrible, who made him head of the oprichnina, a special force opposed to the nobility, which terrorized Russia, burning, pillaging and murdering many people. He is said to have smothered St Philip, metropolitan of Moscow, with his own hands. 15. one more... no, two!: B. V. Sokolov identifies these two unnamed new ones as former People's Commissar for Internal Affairs, Genrikh G. Yagoda (1891 -1938) and his secretary, P. P. Bulanov. Yagoda, a ruthless secret-police official who fabricated the 'show trial' of the 'right-wing Trotskyist centre', was later arrested himself and condemned to be shot, along with his secretary, Bukharin, Rykov and others, in Stalin's third great 'show trial' of 1938. 16. the Kamarinsky: A popular Russian dance-song with ribald words. 17. A salamander-conjurer: The salamander enjoyed the reputation during the Middle Ages and Renaissance of being able to go through fire without getting burned. 18. the same dirty, patched shirt: According to one of Bulgakov's sources, M. N. Orlov's History of Man's Relations with the Devil (St Petersburg, 1904), Satan always wears a dirty shirt while performing a black mass. 19. it will be given to each according to his faith: A common misapplication of Christ's words, 'According to your faith be it done to you' (Matt. 9:29). Chapter 24: The Extraction of the Master 1. wandered in the wilderness for nineteen days: A comic distortion of well-known examples: the period of wandering is usually a round figure - forty days or forty years - and the usual sustenance is manna or locusts and wild honey (see Numbers 35:58, Amos 5:25, Matt. 5:1-4). 2. manuscripts don't bum: This phrase became proverbial among Russian intellectuals after the publication of The Master and Margarita, an event which in itself seemed to bear out the truth of Woland's words. 3. Aloisy Mogaiych: An absurd combination of the Larinate Aloisius with the slangy 'Mogarych', the word for the round of drinks that concludes a deal, which happens to have the form of a Russian patronymic. 4. bruderschaft: A special pledge of brotherhood drunk with interlaced right arms, after which the friends address each other with the familiar form ty. Chapter 25: How the Procurator Tried to Save Judas of Kiriath 1. Falemo: A rich and strong red wine, named for the ager falemus in the Roman Campagnia where it was produced in ancient times (not to be confused with the white Falerno now produced around Naples). 2. Caecuba: Also a strong red wine, product of the ager caecubus in southern Larium. 3. the feast of the twelve gods: The twelve senior gods of the Roman pantheon: Jupiter, Juno, Neptune, Vulcan, Apollo, Diana, Ceres, Venus, Mars, Vesta, Mercury and Minerva. 4. lares: A word of Etruscan or Sabine origin, referring to the nameless protective deiries of the house and hearth in Roman religion. 5. messiah: From the Hebrew mashiah, meaning 'the anointed one', referring to the redeemer and deliverer of Israel to be born of the royal house of David, prophesied by Isaiah, Jeremiah, Zechariah and others, and awaited by the Jewish nation. Christians believe that this prophecy was fulfilled in Christ (christos being Greek for 'the annointed one"). 6. were they given the drink before being hung on the posts?: Thought by some commentators to be a legal mercy granted to the condemned to lessen the suffering of crucifixion, as Pilate means it here, though in the Gospels it has more the appearance of a final mockery. Jesus also refuses to drink it (see Matt. 27:54, Mark 15:25). 7. ... among human vices he considered cowardice one of the first: This saying, not found in the Gospels, is of great thematic importance for the novel. Bulgakov himself, according to one of his friends, regarded cowardice as the worst of all vices, 'because all the rest come from it' (quoted in a memoir in Vospominaniya o Mikhaile Bulgakove, Moscow, 1988, pp. 589-90). Interestingly, all references to this 'worst of vices' were removed from the original magazine publication of the novel. Chapter 26: The Burial 1. thirty tetradrachmas: The 'thirty pieces of silver' mentioned in the Gospel of Matthew (26:15) as Judas's reward from the high priest for betraying Jesus. A tetradrachma was a Greek silver coin worth four drachmas and was equivalent to one Jewish shekel. 2. Now we shall always be together: Yeshua's words are fulfilled in the Nicene Creed: '... one Lord Jesus Christ ... who was crucified for us under Pontius Pilate...' - words repeated countless times a day for nearly two thousand years in every liturgy or mass. Later in the novel, Pilate will say that nothing in the world is more hateful to him than 'his immortality and his unheard-of fame'. 3. the son of an astrologer-king ... Pila: Details found in the poem Pilate by the twelfth-century Flemish poet Petrus Pictor (noted by Marianne Gourg in her commentary to the French translation of the novel, R. Laffont, Paris, 1995). The name of Pila thus becomes the source of the procurator's second name. 4. En-Sarid: Arabic for Nazareth. 5. Valerius Gratus: According to Flavius Josephus, in Antiquities of the Jews (Book 18, Chapter 2), Valerius Gratus was procurator of Judea starting from sometime around AD 15, and was thus Pilate's immediate predecessor. 6. might he not have killed himself?: Here Pilate prompts Aphranius with what is in fact the Gospel account of Judas's death (Matt. 27:5). 7. baccuroth: Aramaic for 'fresh figs'. 8. the pure river of the water of life: 'And he shewed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb' (Revelation 22:1). Chapter 27: The End of Apartment No.50 1. the Hotel Astoria ... bathroom: A large hotel on St Isaac's Square in Petersburg, where Bulgakov and his wife used to stay when visiting the city. 2. starka: An infusion of a pale-brown colour, made from spirits, white port, cognac, sugar, and apple and pear leaves. Chapter 28: The Last Adventures of Koroviev and Behemoth 1. a currency store: A phenomenon of Soviet life, currency stores emerged in the early thirties, offering a great variety of goods (in the midst of the general impoverishment and uniformity of Soviet life) in exchange for foreign currency. They were supposed to be exclusively for foreigners, but were also patronized by privileged Russians who had access to currency or special coupons (Bulgakov himself occasionally had currency from sales of his books abroad and could avail himself of this privilege). There was in fact a currency store at the comer of the Arbat and Smolensky Square. 2. Harun al-Rashid: (?766--809), Abassid caliph of Baghdad, known in legend for walking about the city at night disguised as a beggar, familiarizing himself with the life of his subjects. He became a hero of songs and figures in some tales from The Thousand and One Nights. 3. Palosich!: A spoken contraction of the name Pavel Yosifovich. 4. Kerch Herring: Much-prized fish from the Crimean city of Kerch, on the Sea of Azov. 5. Bitter, bitter!: There is an Old Russian custom of shouting 'Bitter!' every now and then during the banquet after a wedding. The newly-weds are then expected to kiss so as to make it sweet. 6. Dead Souls: The only novel by the 'father of Russian prose', Nikolai Gogol (1809--52). Its influence on The Master and Margarita is pervasive. Bulgakov made an adaptation of Dead Souls for the Moscow Art Theatre in the thirties, while at work on his own novel. 7. Melpomene, Polyhymnia and Thalia: Three of the nine Greek muses, of tragedy, lyric poetry and comedy respectively. 8. The Inspector General: A comedy by Nikolai Gogol, one of the masterpieces of the Russian theatre. 9. Evgeny Onegin: Koroviev's comically slighting reference is to Pushkin's poem, not to Tchaikovsky's opera. 10. Sojya Pavlovna: The citizeness happens to have the same name as the heroine of Griboedov's Woe From Wit. It may have been this connection that landed her such a desirable job. 11. Panaev: Two Panaevs made a brief appearance in Russian literature: V. I. Panaev (1792-1859) was a writer of sentimental poetry; I. I. Panaev (1812-62), on the contrary, was a liberal prose-writer and for a time an editor of the influential journal `The Contemporary'. 12. Skabichwsky: A. M. Skabichevsky (1858-1912) was a liberal critic and journalist. 13. balyk: A special dorsal section of flesh running the entire length of a salmon or sturgeon, which was removed in one piece and either salted or smoked. Highly prized in Russia. Chapter 29: The Fate of the Master and Margarita is decided 1. Resting his sharp chin on his fist... Woland stared fixedly: Woland seems almost consciously to adopt the pose of Rodin's famous sculpture known as the Thinker, actually the central figure over his Gates of Hell. 2. to Timiriazev: That is, to the statue of the botanist and founder of the Russian school of plant physiology, Kliment Arkadyevich Timiriazev (1845-- 1910), on Tverskoy Boulevard near the Nikitsky Gates. Chapter 30: It's Time! It's Time! 1. Peace be unto you: Bulgakov playfully gives this common Hebrew greeting (a translation of Shalom aleichem) to his demon. It was spoken by the risen Christ to his disciples (Luke 24:56, John 20:26) and is repeated in every liturgy or mass. Chapter 31: On Sparrow Hills 1. Sparrow Hills: Hills on the south-west bank of the Moscow River, renamed 'Lenin Hills' in the Soviet period. 2. Devichy Convent: Actually the Novodevichy Convent, founded by Basil III in 1524, on the spot where, according to legend, maidens {devitsy) were gathered to be sent as tribute to the Mongols. Nikolai Gogol's remains were transferred there in the 1950s, and many members of the Moscow Art Theatre are also buried there, including Bulgakov himself. Epilogue the festal springfall moon: The first full moon after the vernal equinox, which determines the date of the feast of Passover and thus of Easter.