Photo: Suzanne and John’s Mom.
The original version of this classic was not published in Russia until long after the author’s death.
I’m rereading Michael Bulgakov’s The Master and Margarita because I liked it the first time and because a new movie based on the book is getting into trouble in Russia just like the book did.
Talk about book bans! The old Soviet Union was big on banning books, as a Ukrainian friend of John’s told me some years ago. He explained how people had to read unauthorized copies of The Master and Margarita under the table with a flashlight. Why?
On my current reading, I’m paying close attention to the why and how the fanciful elements — the Devil and his shape-shifting minions — must have looked to the government. I guess that satirizing the communist state’s slogans, its hostility to religion, and the way it drove free-thinking creatives into insane asylums was frowned upon.
Christopher Vourlias writes at the magazine Variety about a new film version that’s running up against Russia’s propaganda machine today.
“Just days after the Russian blockbuster The Master and Margarita surged to the top of the domestic box office, Kremlin cronies, pro-war propagandists and an army of online trolls have waged a campaign to discredit the film and its director, Michael Lockshin, a U.S. citizen who was raised in the Soviet Union and has been outspoken in his opposition to the war in Ukraine. …
“Produced by Amedia, Kinoprime and Mars Media Entertainment, The Master and Margarita cost an estimated $17 million, making it one of the most expensive Russian movies ever made. Notably, it also received financing from the state-backed Russian Cinema Fund, a fact that has also stoked the ire of many of the propagandists who are driving the current controversy.
“The Master and Margarita, which was written by the Kyiv-born Soviet novelist Mikhail Bulgakov between 1928 and 1940 and published posthumously in Moscow magazine in the 1960s, is widely considered one of the great works of 20th century literature. It is a towering achievement of Soviet satire, heralded for its stinging social commentary and pointed critique of authoritarian rule during Stalin’s reign.
“Lockshin’s big-budget adaptation of this celebrated novel, a blistering critique of Soviet power and authoritarianism … quickly shot to the top of the box office, grossing more than 600 million rubles ($6.7 million) as of Feb. 1.
“Within days, pro-government bloggers, media and TV personalities began waging a campaign against Lockshin, the U.S.-born son of a Russian-American scientist who spent a large portion of his childhood in the Soviet Union and currently lives in Los Angeles. …
“Several screen adaptations of the novel have previously been made, including a popular TV mini-series released in 2005. However, Bulgakov’s iconic cult novel has never been fully realized on the big screen, only adding to the anticipation surrounding Lockshin’s blockbuster, according to influential film critic and radio host Anton Dolin, who says it’s hard to overstate the importance of Bulgakov’s novel on Russian society and culture. ‘A proper film based on it was a dream for everyone,’ he says. …
“German star August Diehl (A Hidden Life, Inglourious Basterds) was ultimately cast in the role of Woland, the Devil-like figure whose arrival in Moscow sets the plot into motion. Russian stars Yevgeny Tsyganov [as the Master] and Yuliya Snigir [Margarita] were cast in the other lead roles.
“The film was shot over the course of four months in 2021, at which point Lockshin returned to L.A. to edit the footage. Universal Pictures International was originally slated to release the movie domestically in 2023. Those plans were upended, however, with Russia’s February 2022 invasion of Ukraine, which prompted Universal and other Hollywood studios to pull out of the Russian market. …
“As the war in Ukraine unfolded, Lockshin freely shared his opposition on social media, though his politics went largely unnoticed at the time in Moscow, where he was still a little-known director. That quickly changed, however, when The Master and Margarita became a box-office smash and a cultural phenomenon.
“For those who have watched the space for public dissent in Putin’s Russia gradually vanish since the Ukraine invasion, the vitriol directed at the filmmaker has stuck to a familiar playbook. ‘The mechanism of persecuting inconvenient people is well established and works like a clock,’ says Anna Mongayt, a presenter and creative producer of the Russian opposition network TV Rain, which was forced from Russia after being shut down by the authorities in 2022.
“ ‘In two years, everyone who disagreed with the war and was ready to talk about it out loud was erased from culture,’ Mongayt says. ‘No amount of fame can save you here.’ “
More at Variety, here. No paywall.
Fortunately, I don’t need to read this once-banned book under the table in the US of 2024. At least not yet. Let’s don’t ban books, America. For one thing, we can always navigate around books we don’t like. For another, banned books never stay banned.
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