Bulgakov
Two biographies
Personal & Biography
Story
The project was created for the 125th anniversary of M.A. Bulgakov. The exhibition combines the real biography of the writer and the "mythical" history of the author's life, formed on the basis of his works.

The first part of the exposition is dedicated to the theater: the plays "The Days of the Turbins", "The Crimson Island", "Zoykin's Apartment" and "Moliere" were staged on the best scenes of the country. Visitors had an opportunity to look behind the scenes of the Moscow Art Theater and Bolshoi Theater, to trace the history of productions and the struggle against Soviet censorship, to get acquainted with the playwright and actor Mikhail Bulgakov - in 1935 he played the role of the President of the Court in the play "Pickwick Club" based on the novel of the same name by Charles Dickens
The second part of the exposition tells about the "independent life" of Bulgakov's works. For many years the writer was not published and his prose was called "anti-Soviet": at one time he counted 298 scolding and only 3 praise reviews.
The publication of The Master and Margarita in the 60s brought his name to world fame - Bulgakov's works became part of the school program, were translated into dozens of languages, the best artists, theater and film directors, screenwriters took up the interpretation of his works, and quotations became part of the cultural code
Project
Personal & Biography
Type
Exhibition Hall "New Manege"
Place
Georgievsky Lane, 3, Moscow
Address
MEA Manege, Museum of M. A. Bulgakov
Initiator
Peter Mancilia-Cruz, Alex Godovanets, Maria Kotova
Curator
Peter Mancilia-Cruz, Alex Godovanets
1 500 sq.m
Area
>700 pieces
Number of exhibits
Peter Tolpin, Anna Kaydanovskaya, Alina Saulova
Team
Ilya Ivanov
Photo
Temporary exhibition plan
«For almost three months we are opening the unreal museum of Bulgakov. Museum - because the originals make up, like a puzzle, one story. A newspaper with Bulgakov's first publication - the only copy in the world, the proofs of "The White Guard", a tag from the Moscow Art Theater dressing room, forgotten in his pocket, testimony at an interrogation, a prescription for a monocle, a monocle, a photograph in a monocle. A TV interview with his wife - before us he was seen through his lens by a cameraman 40 years ago. An unreal museum - because it takes about once every 125 years to assemble the pieces of this mosaic from 30 museums, archives, libraries and private collections»
Museum CEO, Peter Mansilia-Cruz
Another space is Bulgakov's reconstructed apartment, which was lost together with the house 3/5 in Nashchokinsky Lane, demolished in the late 1970s. The layout and interiors of the apartment were designed based on surviving photographs, drawings and memories of the writer's friends.
Bulgakov lived in his only own apartment for six years: here until his last days he worked on the novel "The Master and Margarita", created the novel "Notes of a Dead Man" (also known as "The Theater Novel"), and the play "Batum", which tells about the young years of Stalin. The superstructure attached to the house in the 1930s was called the "writer's room" - Dmitry Furmanov, Ilya Ilf, Viktor Ardov and Osip Mandelstam lived at this address
«Bulgakov's biography is very mythologized, we were interested in collecting authentic documents: newspapers, magazines, notes, photographs, letters, which could show not the Bulgakov we know now - the author of "Heart of a dog", "Master and Margarita". But the one who was known to his contemporaries. A good journalist, feuilletonist. To show the living Bulgakov of the 20-30s. The second part of the exhibition, devoted to the posthumous life of Mikhail Afanasyevich, his life in world culture, is an addition. So that visitors can compare the two Bulgakovs. The one they are busy with from books and movies. And the real, living one, who lived in an interesting epoch and, we hope, that the spectators have formed a stereoscopic image of the writer»
Scientific curator, Maria Kotova
Special activities
The project became the central event of the celebration of the writer’s anniversary year. As part of the project, a large-scale educational program was organized: lectures, thematic discussions, proprietary “virtual” excursions and film screenings. As part of the exhibition, more than 20 unique events were organized with the participation of leading literary critics, theater historians and philosophers
Related projects
year
type
name
Personal & Biography
P&B
2021
History & Documentary
H&D
2017
Personal & Biography
P&B
2016