Except, of course, that he reappears and does something so unusual that he can be \u00ab<\/strong>\u043f\u0440\u0438\u0447\u0438<\/span>\u0441\u043b\u0435\u043d\u00bb<\/strong> [added to] to an A-list of literary characters, including Tatyana Larina (from \u201cEugine Onegin<\/em>\u201d), Oblomov (from \u201cOblomov<\/em>\u201d), Rodion Raskol\u2019nikov (from \u201cCrime and Punishment<\/em>\u201d), Pierre Bezuhov (from \u201cWar and Peace<\/em>\u201d), and Vera Pavlovna (from \u201cWhat\u2019s to Be Done?\u201d).<\/em> In short, he has an important dream.<\/p>\n On first reading, the dream seems bizarre, slightly amusing and highly nonsensical.<\/p>\n The exact \u00ab<\/strong>\u043f\u043e\u0434\u0442\u0435<\/span>\u043a\u0441\u0442\u00bb<\/strong> [subtext] of Nikanor\u2019s dream experience is open to interpretations (as pretty much anything else in the \u201cMaster and Margarita\u201d). This is my interpretation that I\u2019m calling \u00ab<\/strong>\u041e\u0442 <\/strong>\u0431\u043e\u0440\u0449\u0430<\/span> <\/strong>\u0434\u043e <\/strong>\u0431\u0430\u043b\u0430<\/span>\u043d\u0434\u044b<\/strong>\u00bb<\/strong> [From borsch to gruel].<\/p>\n As Russians know just too well, \u00ab<\/strong>\u043e\u0442 <\/strong>\u0441\u0443\u043c\u044b<\/span> <\/strong>\u0434\u0430 <\/strong>\u043e\u0442 <\/strong>\u0442\u044e\u0440\u044c\u043c\u044b<\/span> <\/strong>\u043d\u0435 <\/strong>\u0437\u0430\u0440\u0435\u043a\u0430<\/span>\u0439\u0441\u044f\u00bb<\/strong> [there\u2019s no fence against ill fortune; lit.: can\u2019t ward off from poverty and jail]. And in prison, at least in Russia, one doesn\u2019t get borsch, but only \u00ab<\/strong>\u0431\u0430\u043b\u0430<\/span>\u043d\u0434\u0430\u00bb<\/strong> [gruel]. So here we go\u2026<\/p>\n As you recall, when two \u00ab<\/strong>\u0442\u043e\u0432\u0430<\/span>\u0440\u0438\u0449\u0438\u00bb<\/strong> [comrades] entered Nikanor\u2019s apartment back in Chapter 9, he was just about to enjoy \u00ab<\/strong>\u0433\u043e\u0440\u044f<\/span>\u0447\u0438\u0439 <\/strong>\u0431\u043e\u0440\u0449\u00bb<\/strong> [hot borsch] – delicious, flavorful and unmistakably Russian. After all, borsch has become, for better or for worse, a culinary symbol<\/span> of Russia.<\/p>\n Another national symbol<\/span> is a humble birch tree<\/span>. As a well-known although geopolitically incorrect saying of \u00ab<\/strong>\u043a\u0432\u0430\u0441\u043d\u044b<\/span>\u0435 <\/strong>\u043f\u0430\u0442\u0440\u0438\u043e<\/span>\u0442\u044b\u00bb<\/strong> [patrioteers] goes \u00ab<\/strong>\u0433\u0434\u0435 <\/strong>\u0431\u0435\u0440\u0451<\/span>\u0437\u044b – <\/strong>\u0442\u0430\u043c <\/strong>\u0420\u043e\u0441\u0441\u0438<\/span>\u044f\u00bb<\/strong> [Russia is where birch trees are].<\/p>\n Back in the USSR, a chain of exclusive stores called \u00ab<\/strong>\u0411\u0435\u0440\u0451<\/span>\u0437\u043a\u0430\u00bb<\/strong> [lit: birch tree<\/span> sapling] catered to foreigners and well-connected Russians, accepting only hard currency.<\/p>\n \u00ab<\/span><\/strong>\u0411\u0435\u0440\u0451\u0437\u043a\u0430\u00bb<\/span><\/strong> 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 \u00ab<\/span><\/strong>\u0422\u043e\u0440\u0433\u0441\u0438\u043d\u00bb<\/span><\/strong> stores. The acronym stands for \u00ab<\/strong>\u0442\u043e\u0440\u0433\u043e<\/span>\u0432\u043b\u044f <\/strong>\u0441 <\/strong>\u0438\u043d\u043e\u0441\u0442\u0440\u0430<\/span>\u043d\u0446\u0430\u043c\u0438\u00bb<\/strong> [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 \u00ab<\/strong>\u0422\u043e\u0440\u0433\u0441\u0438<\/span>\u043d\u00bb<\/strong>\u2019s existence was to raise funds \u00ab<\/strong>\u0432 <\/strong>\u0442\u043e <\/strong>\u0432\u0440\u0435<\/span>\u043c\u044f, <\/strong>\u043a\u043e\u0433\u0434\u0430<\/span> <\/strong>\u0441\u0442\u0440\u0430\u043d\u0430<\/span> <\/strong>\u043d\u0443\u0436\u0434\u0430<\/span>\u0435\u0442\u0441\u044f <\/strong>\u0432 <\/strong>\u043d\u0438\u0445\u00bb<\/strong> [at the time when the country needs them] (and that, actually, is a quote from Chapter 15).<\/p>\n Of course, \u00ab<\/span><\/strong>\u0422\u043e\u0440\u0433\u0441\u0438\u043d\u00bb<\/span><\/strong> stores were under surveillance by the secret and sinister Soviet police, the\u00a0NKVD<\/span>. Customers were sometimes followed to their homes, searched and even arrested. Those arrested were held in so-called \u00ab<\/strong>\u0437\u043e\u043b\u043e\u0442\u044b<\/span>\u0435 <\/strong>\u043a\u0430<\/span>\u043c\u0435\u0440\u044b\u00bb<\/strong> [golden cells<\/a>] that differed from the regular prison cells in that the prisoners were not given either food or water.<\/p>\n By 1937 \u00ab<\/strong>\u0422\u043e\u0440\u0433\u0441\u0438<\/span>\u043d\u00bb<\/strong> 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<\/span>\u2019s 1937 arrests was \u00ab<\/strong>\u0410\u0440\u0442\u0443<\/span>\u0440 <\/strong>\u0421\u0442\u0430\u0448\u0435<\/span>\u0432\u0441\u043a\u0438\u0439\u00bb<\/strong> [Arthur Stashevsky]. His accomplishments<\/a> included creating Soviet Union\u2019s fur industry, organizing Soviet spy operations in Germany and successfully leading \u00ab<\/strong>\u0422\u043e\u0440\u0433\u0441\u0438<\/span>\u043d\u00bb<\/strong>\u2019s operations in the early years. It was this last one that earned Arthur Stashevsky a nickname \u00ab<\/strong>\u0431\u043e\u0440\u0435<\/span>\u0446 <\/strong>\u0432\u0430\u043b\u044e<\/span>\u0442\u043d\u043e\u0433\u043e <\/strong>\u0444\u0440\u043e<\/span>\u043d\u0442\u0430\u00bb<\/strong> [soldier of the hard-currency front]. \u00a0Much like Nikanor, Arthur was arrested at the height of his career. However, Arthur\u2019s fate was much more tragic than Nikanor Bosoi\u2019s, 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.<\/p>\n Remember, in Chapter 15, Nikanor dreams that \u00ab<\/strong>\u043d\u0430 <\/strong>\u0441\u0446\u0435<\/span>\u043d\u0443 <\/strong>\u0432\u044b<\/span>\u0448\u0435\u043b <\/strong>\u0430\u0440\u0442\u0438<\/span>\u0441\u0442 <\/strong>\u0432 <\/strong>\u0441\u043c\u043e<\/span>\u043a\u0438\u043d\u0433\u0435, <\/strong>\u0433\u043b\u0430<\/span>\u0434\u043a\u043e <\/strong>\u0432\u044b<\/span>\u0431\u0440\u0438\u0442\u044b\u0439 <\/strong>\u0438 <\/strong>\u043f\u0440\u0438\u0447\u0435<\/span>\u0441\u0430\u043d\u043d\u044b\u0439 <\/strong>\u043d\u0430 <\/strong>\u043f\u0440\u043e\u0431\u043e<\/span>\u0440, <\/strong>\u043c\u043e\u043b\u043e\u0434\u043e<\/span>\u0439 <\/strong>\u0438 <\/strong>\u0441 <\/strong>\u043e<\/span><\/strong>\u0447\u0435\u043d\u044c <\/strong>\u043f\u0440\u0438\u044f<\/span>\u0442\u043d\u044b\u043c\u0438 <\/strong>\u0447\u0435\u0440\u0442\u0430<\/span>\u043c\u0438 <\/strong>\u043b\u0438\u0446\u0430<\/span>\u00bb<\/strong> [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 <\/em>Arthur Stashevsky<\/em><\/a>\u00a0(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 \u201cactor\u201d in Chapter 15 is based on, then Arthur Stashevsky is known to millions of Master and Margarita readers worldwide.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Remember Nikanor Ivanovich Bosoi (literal translation of his last name is \u201cShoeless\u201d) who briefly appears in Chapter 9? In the beginning of that chapter he strikes a not-very-clear-cut deal with \u00ab\u043a\u043e\u0432\u0430\u0440\u043d\u044b\u0439\u00bb [treacherous] Koroviev and at the end is led away by two nameless, but sinister \u00ab\u0442\u043e\u0432\u0430\u0440\u0438\u0449\u0438\u00bb [comrades]. And that was, seemingly, the end of…<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/russian\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2010\/10\/torgsin-350x253.jpg\")