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.