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Towards the beginning of lockdown, I had to choose my senior quote, and this was a perplexing time in my life as all the important events for my senior year were suddenly taken away from me. Despite this, I retained a positive attitude with one quote: “everything will turn out alright, the world is built on that.” This came from a book that gave my life more meaning called the Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov, as the novel is a masterpiece and a Russian classic. However, it is not as well known as some other Russian classics by Dostevsky, Nabakov, or Tolstoy. Split into three parts, with one part being where Woland (aka the Devil) comes to the Soviet Union and messes with humanity with his group of demons, and the second part addressing a beautiful love story between the Master and a woman named Margarita. Finally, the third part is set back during Jesus’s crucifixion and the struggle Pontius Pilate has with it. This is an absolute shame in my opinion, as this book provides an insight into the Soviet psyche as well as the importance of love and embracing the good in humanity. I believe this novel the read most worthwhile because of the way it addresses the corruption in the Soviet Union, the necessary battle we must fight for the ones we love, and the importance of forgiveness.
The novel begins with the devil, Woland, and his arrival to Russia at the start of the Soviet Union with his entourage of Azazello, Cat Behemoth, and Koroviev. There they mess frequently with the Soviet population to get to them to contradict their opinions on religion due to the Soviet Union being an atheist country, specifically by bribing people to see if the people were just as corrupt as before because the whole idea of the Soviet Union was “everyone is equal’. One scene depicts Woland and his group having a performance at the theater where they conjure up all these luxury goods that the audience takes from other people. Yet as soon they leave all their luxuries, the goods turn into terrible quality and start to fall apart. This depicts how people in the Soviet Union wanted luxuries more than anything so their greed and gullibility was insatiable; they could not have anything; therefore everything was a commodity. This type of greed leads to corruption because they are willing to steal and bribe from others to get what they want. Another interesting scene is when Woland and his entourage end up securing an apartment from a man named Stopya who accuses people of saying things against the Soviet Union. Those people proceed to “disappear” (which meant sending them to the camps in Sibera) and then Stopya would acquire their apartments, even though all property was owned by the government. This was a common occurrence in the Soviet Union with many people ratting out others to the government to obtain better apartments. This shows how people were still incredibly corrupt in the Soviet Union and would do that by bribing or spreading lies about others to fulfill their greed.
Next, the novel shows a beautiful representation of love between its two main characters: the Master and Margarita. The love story is one that transcends time and all social norms, where the Master is a poor man attempting to write a novel about Pontius Pilate and Yeshua Ha Nozri, and Margarita a woman who is married to a rich man and therefore has an easier life in the Soviet Union. However, Margarita falls in love with the Master and his genius, as she ends up risking everything for love. She ends up accepting Woland’s deal to become the queen of his masquerade party with everyone so that she can make sure that the Master is okay. They end up finding one another again and Margarita swears to never let him go. Though he is poor and ends up losing his book, the selfless love that these two have for another inspires Woland. He has never seen such pure love, and in turn he decides to grant them peace with one another forever. This type of love is important as it is a representation of how love itself should forthright be; it should be selfless, devoted, and honest. And this love story was an inspiration for my parents and their love since they were 15 and 18 years old in Russia. An excellent quote from the novel that describes their love “Love leaped out in front of us like a murderer in an alley leaping out of nowhere, and struck us both at once. As lightning strikes, as a Finnish knife strikes! She, by the way, insisted afterwards that it wasn’t so, that we had, of course, loved each other for a long, long time, without knowing each other, never having seen each other… ” is good for people to read in a time where we are so digitalized by the technology around us. The way that these main characters inspire others around them to do the right thing because of the love they have for each other is something that everyone needs to keep in mind for life.
Finally, this novel shows how humanity is inherently good despite the awful things that people can do. It is set in the Soviet Union during one of the most grim and sad times for people. Nonetheless, we have people like the Master and Margarita that choose to help the other people around them first before themselves. During the ball, Margarita is allowed one wish to be granted by Woland in gratitude for her service. However, Margarita meets a woman from Hell who was raped and then became pregnant. Consequently, the woman kills the child accidentally by smothering her with a blanket to stop her crying, but in Hell her punishment was to see her child’s crib and the blanket she had for her child every day. Instead of using her wish for a peaceful life for her and the Master; Margarita asks Woland to forgive this poor woman and end her suffering in Hell. This is an act that shows Woland that there are truly good humans in what can be a bleak world. And it is a lesson into what good we can do if we forgive others and put them first before our own desires.
Another part of the book is where Jesus is being tried by Pontius Pilate for his supposed crimes and he is shocked by how true of a person Jesus is. He does not understand how he believes in everyone, asking Jesus “and now tell me, why is it that you use me words ‘good people’ all the time? Do you call everyone that, or what?” “Everyone,” Yeshua replied. “ There are no evil people in the world”. This inspires Pontius Pilate to do good by Jesus and in the end because of the guilt he felt for putting Jesus to death, he ends up repenting and being forgiven finally at the end of the novel. Forgiveness is an important lesson as well that everyone can continue to learn from, and it is perfectly represented in a moving way for anyone to understand.
To conclude my points, the Master and Margarita is a novel that should be more well- known in our modern-day society because of the way it shows the importance of forgiveness, never giving up on the people that you love, and the perfect insight it gives towards the Soviet psyche. I understand this novel may be difficult to understand for people who are not Russian because of the history, multiple storylines, and cultural norms that are upon first impression abnormal. However, these are little quirks to go through to read a masterpiece of classic literature. The lesson that you learn from this book stick with you forever and everyone. I know whoever has read it finds themselves going back to it as a source of comfort and inspiration in their lives. Therefore, this novel was important to my development as a person and will continue to be for the rest of my life
Yelena Bagdasaryan is a McConnell Scholar in the class of 2024. She is studying biology and political science at the University of Louisville.