Russian Language Blog

People in this 1930s photo line up in a bread line in front of a beat up store with a name that stands for “trade with foreigners”. Unlike the crystal and gold island of chic consumerism visited by Begemot the Cat in the “Master and Margarita”, most “trade with foreigners” stores were decidedly unglamorous and sold very basic food stuff and sundries.

Remember Nikanor Ivanovich Bosoi (literal translation of his last name is “Shoeless”) who briefly appears in Chapter 9? In the beginning of that chapter he strikes a not-very-clear-cut deal with «коварный» [treacherous] Koroviev and at the end is led away by two nameless, but sinister «товарищи» [comrades]. And that was, seemingly, the end of Nikanor, another minor character in the story.

Except, of course, that he reappears and does something so unusual that he can be «причислен» [added to] to an A-list of literary characters, including Tatyana Larina (from “Eugine Onegin”), Oblomov (from “Oblomov”), Rodion Raskol’nikov (from “Crime and Punishment”), Pierre Bezuhov (from “War and Peace”), and Vera Pavlovna (from “What’s to Be Done?”). In short, he has an important dream.

On first reading, the dream seems bizarre, slightly amusing and highly nonsensical.

The exact «подтекст» [subtext] of Nikanor’s dream experience is open to interpretations (as pretty much anything else in the “Master and Margarita”). This is my interpretation that I’m calling «От борща до баланды» [From borsch to gruel].

As Russians know just too well, «от сумы да от тюрьмы не зарекайся» [there’s no fence against ill fortune; lit.: can’t ward off from poverty and jail]. And in prison, at least in Russia, one doesn’t get borsch, but only «баланда» [gruel]. So here we go…

As you recall, when two «товарищи» [comrades] entered Nikanor’s apartment back in Chapter 9, he was just about to enjoy «горячий борщ» [hot borsch] – delicious, flavorful and unmistakably Russian. After all, borsch has become, for better or for worse, a culinary symbol of Russia.

Another national symbol is a humble birch tree. As a well-known although geopolitically incorrect saying of «квасные патриоты» [patrioteers] goes «где берёзы – там Россия» [Russia is where birch trees are].

Back in the USSR, a chain of exclusive stores called «Берёзка» [lit: birch tree sapling] catered to foreigners and well-connected Russians, accepting only hard currency.

«Берёзка» stores started operating in 1964, but the concept of closed stores for foreigners that sell goods in exchange for something of real value was not new. In fact, the first such attempt was made in 1931 with the creation of «Торгсин» stores. The acronym stands for «торговля с иностранцами» [trade with foreigners]. However, the stores were open to Russians as well, as long as they could pay in gold. As a matter of fact, the entire reason for «Торгсин»’s existence was to raise funds «в то время, когда страна нуждается в них» [at the time when the country needs them] (and that, actually, is a quote from Chapter 15).

Of course, «Торгсин» stores were under surveillance by the secret and sinister Soviet police, the NKVD. Customers were sometimes followed to their homes, searched and even arrested. Those arrested were held in so-called «золотые камеры» [golden cells] that differed from the regular prison cells in that the prisoners were not given either food or water.

By 1937 «Торгсин» was shut down, but NKVD was busier than ever arresting people left and right in the wave of mass terror. One of the victims of NKVD’s 1937 arrests was «Артур Сташевский» [Arthur Stashevsky]. His accomplishments included creating Soviet Union’s fur industry, organizing Soviet spy operations in Germany and successfully leading «Торгсин»’s operations in the early years. It was this last one that earned Arthur Stashevsky a nickname «борец валютного фронта» [soldier of the hard-currency front].  Much like Nikanor, Arthur was arrested at the height of his career. However, Arthur’s fate was much more tragic than Nikanor Bosoi’s, who got off with a scare and a stay at a psychiatric ward. Arthur was tried, found guilty of treason and executed in August 1937.

Remember, in Chapter 15, Nikanor dreams that «на сцену вышел артист в смокинге, гладко выбритый и причесанный на пробор, молодой и с очень приятными чертами лица» [An actor wearing a dinner jacket came on stage. He was young, clean-shaven, very good-looking, and wore his hair parted]? Could it be Arthur Stashevsky (on the above photo)? Weirdly, Arthur Stashevsky is mostly forgotten, a minor player in the footnotes of the early Soviet history. And yet, if it is him who the “actor” in Chapter 15 is based on, then Arthur Stashevsky is known to millions of Master and Margarita readers worldwide.

The only animal that appears, indirectly, in Chapter 14 is a rooster. So why is this painting of a hunt relevant? Read on…

It looks like we haven’t talked about Master and Margarita for a while. «Приступим к четырнадцатой главе» [Let’s get to Chapter 14] .

It is intense and sinister, don’t you think? Yet there are also quite a few «юмористические моменты» [comical episodes] that can make even the most serious reader smile. Here also we encounter not one, but two wonderful examples of onomatopoeia – «гоготать» and «улюлюкать» as in «явственно слышный гогот и улюлюканье» [clearly heard cackles of laughter and hoots].

This also is where translation falls far short of the original since neither “laughter” nor “hoots” adequately describe the goings-on. And now it’s up to us, the students of Russian, to recreate the street scene from the opening of the Chapter 14 in all its linguistic glory.

Have you ever tried feeding a flock of Canada geese with some bread? It seems that the more bread you give them, the more and louder they will cackle. Now, in your mind’s eye, replace these «гуси» [geese] with «весёлые молодые люди» [cheery young men] and «куски хлеба» [pieces of bread] with «полуголые дамочки» [half-naked women, lit. “little dames”] and you get a good idea of what «гогот» sounded like to the financial director «Римский» [Rimsky].

«Гоготать – это грубо и невежливо. Культурные люди не гогочут» [To cackle is rude and impolite. Cultured people do not cackle.] Neither do they «ржать» [hoot and howl, lit. neigh]. But how do polite and cultured Russians express their mirth? They can «улыбаться» [to smile], «усмехаться» [to smile with a short and quite laugh], «смеяться» [to laugh], or «хохотать» [roar with laughter].

Depending on the type of joke and the situation, they might try to «усмехаться в усы или в рукав» [to smile into one’s beard or into one’s sleeve], «прятать улыбку» [hide a smile], «проглотить смешок» [to suppress a chuckle], «сдавленно засмеяться» [to chuckle], «громко смеяться» [laugh out loud] or «хохотать во всё горло», «хохотать до упаду», or «хохотать до коликов», all meaning to laugh uproariously, literally – “loudly”, “until one falls down”, or “until one gets a side-stitch”.

«Улюлюкать» is even more interesting, especially in the larger context of the book and Bulgakov’s life. Originally «улюлю» was a command hunters gave to their dogs when directing them to chaise, surround and attack their prey, a process known as «травля». The verb «улюлюкать» is linked with another, originally related to hunting, verb «науськивать» [to sic].

However, both words are used widely outside of hunting. Thus «науськивать» now means “to encourage someone to attack someone else” and «улюлюкать» acquired a second meaning of “to mock and bully someone publicly”. «Травля» also shifted its meaning from “hunt” or “chaise” to “singling out, targeting” and “harassment”.

«Пакостный» is another unpleasant word from this chapter that is used to describe the same street scene: «на улице совершилось ещё что-то скандальное и пакостное» [something else scandalous and nasty has happened outside]. The noun «пакость» means dirt, nastiness, filthiness. Definitely not a nice word! Yet you won’t hear it all that often nowadays. Unfortunately, it’s not for the lack of nastiness itself, but rather because it was replaced by other synonyms – «гадость», «дрянь», «мерзость». Another synonym, also used in this dark chapter is «паскудство» [nastiness].  

«Вот такая мрачная картина вырисовывается. Что за петрушка?» [Such a gloomy picture is being revealed. What’s up with that?]

By the way, speaking of «петрушка» [parsley], recall that the same financial director Rimsky asks just a few pages later this question – «что означает вся эта петрушка» [what’s the meaning of all this mess].

The idiom «что это за петрушка» means “what does it mean” and is generally used to express one’s «недоумение» [bewilderment] combined with «недовольство» [discontent] regarding a given situation. However, it is not an expression that a well-educated and cultured person, such as Rimsky, would use since it’s just too «обиходное» [colloquial]. Note that just a bit earlier Rimsky phrased the same question differently: «что всё это значит?!» [what’s the meaning of all this?!]. Maybe Rimsky chose this less formal phrase to set a warmer tone with his strangely-acting administrator, Varenuha?

It never occurred to me before, but isn’t it interesting how Bulgakov reserves such dark, menacing, heavy language for a chapter that deals with secondary characters doing something that has no bearing on plot development. Is Bulgakov «задаёт тон» [setting the stage] for a darker narrative that follows?

What other “dark” words and phrases have you spotted in this chapter?

This is mimosa, one of the first flowers that appear at Russian markets in late winter and early spring. There’s much discussion whether the flowers Margarita carried the day she met Master were indeed «мимозы» [mimosa flowers]. After all, Bulgakov never named them, not in Chapter 13 anyway. He only described them as «отвратительные, тревожные жёлтые цветы» [disgusting, troubling yellow flowers]. If you still think that it might be some other kind of flower and not mimosa stick around – the answer will be revealed to you in a few chapters. In the mean time here is an interesting and highly relevant fact about mimosa. It was, by some accounts, Stalin’s favorite flower.

Remember how Master came to live in his cozy little basement apartment? «Он выиграл лотерею» [He won a lottery]. This is another mystery. Does Master strike you as someone who buys «лотерейные билеты» [lottery tickets] and who’s interested in «быстрое обогащение» [quick riches]? Besides, it seems that all the fund-raising lotteries conducted by Soviet government between 1925 and 1939 were «вещевые», meaning that various household items, not money, were given away as prizes. Seems like Bulgakov gave his Master an “easy way out” of the daily grind, emphasized his not fitting in with the societal realities.

Speaking of lottery, have you ever heard a phrase «выиграть в лотерею по трамвайному билету» [lit: to win a lottery with a tram ticket]? It means to be so lucky that you don’t even have to try hard if at all. Such person is also called «счастливчик» [the fortunate one] or «везун» [the lucky one] from the word «везти».

The word «везти» itself has a couple of meanings. One is to carry or drive as in «Сергей меня подвезёт до вокзала» [Sergey will drive me to the train station]. The second meaning is to luck out, as in «с мужем мне очень повезло» [I am lucky to have such a husband] or «Свете повезло и она смогла провезти все украшения через таможню» [Sveta lucked out and was able to carry all the jewelry through the customs].

I personally don’t know anyone who is «везунчик» [lucky one], a kind of person that whatever he undertakes, «ему фартит» [the luck is on his side]. Most of my friends have «полосы везения, чередующиеся с полосами невезения» [lucky streaks followed by the unlucky ones].

When «невезуха» [informal - bad luck] or even «непруха» [even more informal - bad luck] happens many Russians ask rhetorically «что такое «не везёт» и как с этим бороться» [what’s lack of luck and how to overcome it]. They might complain that «везёт как утопленнику» [just my luck; lit. having the luck of a drowned man]. But most know that «если не везёт в картах – повезёт в любви» [if one is unlucky in cards, he’s lucky in love] or «кому не везёт в любви, тому карта прёт» [those unlucky in love are dealt the best hand in cards]. Besides, everyone knows that «дуракам всегда везёт» [fools are always lucky]. So «если вам не везёт» [if you aren’t having much luck] whether «в любви» [in love], «в картах» [in card games], «по работе» [with or at work], or even «по жизни» [in life], that’s just another proof that you’re a smart cookie.

Like many people in many other countries, Russians believe «число тринадцать» [number thirteen] to be a particularly unhappy one (we even had a discussion about «пятница, тринадцатое число» [Friday, the 13^th] on our Facebook fanpage some time ago. Isn’t it strange then that Master makes his entrance in Chapter 13?

To begin with, it is not often that one has to read almost half through the novel to meet its hero. Can you think of any other «литературное произведение» [literary work] that does the same? I can’t.

And then, when the hero finally appears, he does so in Chapter 13 that increases the feeling of «мистика» [mysticism] and reinforces the reader’s impression that some «чертовщина» [devilry] is afoot.

Can it also be a veiled reference to Matthew 3:13 “Then cometh Jesus…”? After all, the title of the chapter, «Явление героя» [The Appearance of the Hero], evokes one of the most well-recognized Russian paintings «Явление Христа народу» [The Appearance of Christ before the People].

Whatever the allusion, the appearance of Master brings a third dimension to the novel. So far it had two plot lines running in parallel. One was set in the ancient Jerusalem and centered on Pontius Pilate and Yeshua; the other, mischievous one, set in Bulgakov’s Moscow, involved Woland and his victims. The only link between the two was the poor «сумасшедший» [insane, lit. the one who left his mind] Ivan Bezdomniy. And now, we have another «душевнобольной» [insane, lit. the one with an ailing soul] who strengthens the link.

If you know the saying «когда бог хочет наказать человека, он лишает его разума» [when god wants to punish a man, he deprives him of the faculty of reason], you might find it very curious indeed that the only two people in the entire Moscow who have an inkling as of Woland’s true nature are the two mental patients. Things are getting more and more mysterious!