Mikhail Bulgakov in the Western World
A Bibliography (1990 - 1997) -
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Bohdan Yasinsky
(1891-1940)
Mikhail Afanas'evich Bulgakov, a prominent Russian author and playwright, was born in Kiev on May 3 (15), 1891, into the family of an assistant professor at the Kiev Theological Academy, A.I. Bulgakov. Mikhail was one of seven children, the oldest of three brothers. After the death of his father in 1907, Mikhail's mother - a well-educated and extraordinary diligent person, assumed responsibility for his education.
From 1901 to 1904, Mikhail attended the First Kiev Gymnasium. The teachers of the Gymnasium exerted a great influence on the formation of Mikhail's literary taste, and his favorite authors became Gogol, Pushkin, Dostoevsky, Saltykov-Shchedrin, and Dickens. After graduation, Bulgakov entered the Medical Faculty of St. Vladimir University, which he finished with special commendation. He became a physician at the Kiev Military Hospital. After serving as a surgeon at Chernovtsy hospital, he was appointed provincial physician to Smolensk province. His life in those days were is reflected in his Notes of a Young Physician.
In 1918, Mikhail Bulgakov returned to Kiev where he opened a private practice at his home at no. 13 Andreyevsky Descent. Here he experienced the dreadful years of the Russian Civil War and witnessed ten coups. Several times successive governments drafted the young doctor into their service. In 1919, he was drafted by the White Army, again as an army physician and then transferred to the Northern Caucasus. There he became seriously ill and barely survived. After this illness he abandoned his career as a doctor for that of a writer. In his autobiography, Bulgakov recalls how he started writing : "Once in 1919 when I was traveling at night by train I wrote a short story. In the town where the train stopped, I took the story to