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“Mikhail was a morphine addict, and sometimes at night after an injection that he gave himself, he felt bad and died. By the morning he recovered, but felt bad until the evening. But after lunch he had an appointment, and life was restored. Sometimes At night he was oppressed by nightmares. He jumped out of bed and chased ghosts.
Maybe this is why he began to mix in his works real life with fantasy,” wrote his sister’s husband Leonid Karum in his memoirs about the world-famous Kiev writer Mikhail Afanasyevich Bulgakov. These memories date back to the spring-summer of 1918, when Bulgakov returned to Kyiv and again settled in his parents’ house on Andreevsky Spusk, 13.
It is believed that the young doctor’s addiction to drugs appeared in the fall of 1916, when Mikhail Afanasyevich was recalled from the front and appointed a zemstvo doctor in the remote village of Nikolskoye, Sychevsky district, Smolensk province. Bulgakov’s wife, Tatyana Nikolaevna Lappa, followed him. Drawing a parallel with the works of Mikhail Afanasyevich “Morphine”, “Notes of a Young Doctor” and others, which have a number of autobiographical features from the life of the writer himself in 1916-1917, some researchers concluded that Bulgakov became a drug addict in the fall of 1916.
However, this issue is highly controversial.
The fact is that historically, a surge in drug addiction, as a rule, occurs during military operations and is directly related to being at the front, and even more often - in hospitals. Bulgakov, after graduating from the medical faculty of Kyiv University, was precisely assigned to the front: first to Kamenets-Podolsky, and then to the Chernivtsi hospital. So, it is very likely that the future famous writer became addicted to morphine in the spring of 1916.
During the period of drug addiction, not only Bulgakov suffered, but also his faithful wife Tatyana, who looked after her husband even at the most critical moments. The family could not hide this, and the brothers, sisters, as well as the mother of the future writer learned about morphine in the very first days after Mikhail Afanasyevich returned to Kyiv from the Smolensk province.
Having two years of drug experience, Bulgakov used morphine often, and in very large doses. Withdrawal could occur in the middle of the night, and then the future writer would force his wife to run to the nearest overnight pharmacy.
From the unpublished memoirs of the already quoted Karum, it is known that, despite the continuation of medical practice, Bulgakov always lacked money. That is why he often annoyed not only his brother-in-law, but also other family members who worked at that time with his requests for a loan.
Bulgakov's drug addiction crisis began around the end of 1918 - beginning of 1919. The question was stark: either he would finally crack, or he would be able to be pulled out of the tenacious clutches of drug addiction. Who saved the degenerate young doctor in order to give the world a great writer has not yet been definitively established. But, at least, there is a reasonable assumption that this person was an elderly and well-known doctor of medicine in Kyiv, Voskresensky, who also lived on Andreevsky Spusk.
The piquancy of the situation was that after the death of Bulgakov’s father, Doctor Voskresensky began to look after his mother, Varvara Mikhailovna. By the time Mikhail Afanasyevich returned to Kyiv, his mother had already moved to Voskresensky. Varvara Mikhailovna’s children reacted very unfavorably, one might even say condemningly, to this act, and it was Mikhail who was most successful in this...
Knowledgeable people claim that in the famous novel “The White Guard,” Bulgakov, under the guise of the consequences of the injury of one of the main characters, Alexei Turbin, very naturally described drug withdrawal and recovery from addiction to morphine. If we consider that the image of Alexei Turbin is often associated directly with the writer himself, then it is quite possible to assume that in this way Bulgakov described his own recovery.
By the way, the prototype of Doctor Voskresensky and several other famous doctors of Kyiv in “The White Guard” can also be traced, from which we can conclude that they saved Bulgakov “with the whole world.” Apparently, he was treated for at least two months (December 1918 and January 1919), but it is quite possible that the future writer devoted the entire first half of 1919 to the fight against morphine, when he lived in a dacha near Kiev , hiding from mobilization into the Red Army.
Mikhail Afanasyevich really freed himself from drugs and, according to researchers, never resorted to their help again. However, the deep imprint of more than two years of “sitting on the needle” can be traced in Bulgakov’s work not only in the “drug-addict” works and “The White Guard,” but also in such a masterpiece as “The Master and Margarita,” if you read carefully, of course.
It is possible that some of the readers familiar with the problem of drug addiction will have a doubt: is it possible, having a huge amount of experience, to give up morphine so quickly, as Bulgakov did? It is possible that the consequences of drug use affected the writer’s health for the rest of his life. As for the treatment... Firstly, narcotic substances in those days were not as perversely improved as they are now, and secondly, Mikhail Afanasyevich was treated by the best doctors in Kyiv, which very few modern doctors can compare with.. .
On the pages of the manuscript of the novel “The Master and Margarita”, scientists discovered traces of morphine. In their opinion, this proves that Mikhail Bulgakov last years returned to using hard drugs. Lenta.ru looked into what the scientists found, what the Master was sick with and why this find is important.
It was believed that Mikhail Bulgakov gave up the deadly habit of morphine in 1918. However, a chemical analysis of the manuscript of the novel “The Master and Margarita,” on which the writer worked from 1936 to 1940, showed that he was never able to give up drugs. This conclusion was reached by a group of scientists from Israel and Italy, who published an article in the Journal of Proteomics based on the results of their research.
Ten of the 127 randomly selected pages of the original manuscript were analyzed. The study used materials from the Pashkov House (RSL) and private collections. All these fragments of the manuscript were auctioned at the Nikitsky auction in 2014.
Molecules of organic substances were extracted from the manuscript sheets using microbeads, and then studied using gas-liquid chromatography and mass spectrometry. As a result, traces of morphine were discovered, as well as a product of its breakdown during metabolism in the human body - 6-monoacetylmorphine (C 19 H 21 NO 4). The morphine content per square centimeter of each sheet of the manuscript ranged from 2 to 100 nanograms. Two hypotheses have been put forward: the drug got there either from saliva and from the writer’s fingers (if he used the drug orally), or through sweat released through the skin of his hands.
The fact that traces of morphine were preserved 75 years after the writer’s death, according to scientists, can be explained by the fact that there were no bleaching agents such as chlorine in the paper. The least amount of drug and its decay products is on the first pages of the manuscript, as well as in the parts dedicated to Pontius Pilate and Yeshua Ha-Nozri. On the page with the largest number morphine (100 nanograms) - a narrative plan that the writer reworked more than once. 50 nanograms were found on the pages of the eighth chapter - “The Duel between the Professor and the Poet.”
Scientists insist that the author himself took morphine, and not the NKVD officers who confiscated the manuscript after Bulgakov’s death. The security officers would not take morphine, but pure drugs like heroin and cocaine. The researchers also examined old samples of morphine obtained from hospitals serving the top leadership of the CPSU and the KGB, as well as from ampoules found in old Moscow pharmacies. However, due to the poor quality of the surviving samples, it was not possible to conduct a qualitative analysis and compare them with traces in the manuscript.
Also found in the manuscript are three proteins that are markers of nephrotic syndrome - kidney damage, characterized by severe proteinuria (protein content in the urine), massive edema, increased blood clotting and malfunctions of protein-lipid metabolism. This is also interpreted as evidence that traces of morphine were left by Bulgakov, who died due to a kidney-related disease.
Study of the manuscript raised new questions. For example, it remains to be seen whether Bulgakov resumed drug use in 1936 or did so earlier.
In his youth, Mikhail Bulgakov did not show a penchant for drugs: only in 1913, while studying to become a doctor, did he try cocaine. Everything was decided by chance - in the summer of 1917, a baby with diphtheria was brought to a young doctor practicing in the village of Nikolskoye, Sychevsky district. Trying to save the child, Bulgakov cut his throat and sucked out diphtheria films through a tube. And then, to be on the safe side, he injected himself with the diphtheria vaccine. When it took effect, itching and terrible pain began, which Bulgakov tried to relieve with an injection of morphine.
Somehow, after studying the school curriculum of Bulgakov’s works (naturally, we are talking about “The Master and Margarita” and “The Heart of a Dog”), I wanted to discover the author from a different side. The story “Morphine” caught my eye.
In content it is similar to the collection “Notes of a Young Doctor”, but is not included in this cycle. The work was first published in 1927. In general, Bulgakov studied to be a doctor, so many of his works touch on the topic of medicine. "Morphine" is no exception. At the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century, drugs such as heroin in powder as a treatment for bronchitis, asthma, opium tincture and, in fact, morphine crystal were sold absolutely openly in pharmacies.
Morphine is a strong painkiller and sleeping pill, which is a narcotic substance. I also thought whether young people should read this at all, especially since our generation is already not the “Pepsi” generation, but the “Spice” generation. It turned out it was worth...
And already in the 20s of the 20th century, according to statistics, 40% of European doctors and 10% of their wives were morphine addicts, a ban was imposed on the widespread use of crystals. Then, in 1926, young Mikhail Bulgakov arrived on assignment in the village of Nikolskoye. Yes, yes, just like Dr. Bomgard. After all, the story is actually autobiographical.
Did Bulgakov use morphine?
Yes, that is why he was able to describe in such detail the extraordinary clarification of thoughts and explosion of efficiency.
Mikhail Bulgakov tried morphine for the first time not because he was thirsty for a buzz. He helped a boy with diphtheria; it seemed to him that he had become infected: his face was swollen, his body was covered in a rash and itching began. Mikhail, of course, could not tolerate this and asked to inject him with morphine. And so it started, as they say...
Another reason was that Bulgakov, accustomed to city entertainment, became completely bored in remote Nikolskoye, he was oppressed by rural everyday life, and fell into depression. And here, it seems, is the very salvation. The drug gave him the very euphoria and the very feelings that he lacked, the creative uplift that was so needed. Mikhail’s wife gave the injections; she said that after the dose he was quite calm and even tried to write while high. So biographers say that the beginning of the autobiographical story “Morphine” was laid in the days of this calm, so to speak. Morphine did not want to let Bulgakov go, of course, such a person... The wife became scared to look at him, she did not know what to do, because her husband regularly demanded a drug that was killing him day after day.
It took him about three years to fight drugs (he also used opium, which was then sold without a prescription), and another drug helped him recover - creativity, but this can be considered a miracle that did not happen to the hero.
What is this book about?
The story is told from the perspective of Dr. Bomgard, the second main character is Sergei Polyakov, his former classmate. It all starts with the narrator sharing his joy with the reader: he is transferred from a rural area to a small town to work, he is happy, if not for a single BUT. The hero often dreams of his old site, patients and, in the end, his thoughts begin to eat the doctor from the inside. He thinks about the fate of the remote hospital, and the plot thickens when the hero receives a letter from the old station.
At that moment I began to think, what does morphine have to do with it, it seems, the beginning of an ordinary Chekhov story with sadness and sadness... So, what’s with morphine, Mikhail Afanasyevich?
The fact is that a former classmate of our doctor sent a letter asking to help him, since he was seriously ill, and the next morning they brought the body of Sergei Polyakov. Along with it is a diary. Further, the narration is told from the perspective of the morphine addict himself, which best allows one to penetrate into his inner world. Yes, Polyakov used morphine because severe pain and stomach cramps, and then got hooked on it and used it for any reason. It is in this diary that we will learn step by step what happens to a person who is addicted to drugs. He has aggressive seizures and withdrawal symptoms. This is interesting to read, because the very topic of drug addiction is shrouded in darkness, and the story opens the curtain of mystery, because every day of the hero is described with a detailed statement of his feelings. For example, the image of bliss after a dose is so colorful that I am afraid that children under 18 should not read this story. Like all ordinary drug addicts, Polyakov thinks that he can quit at any time, but that was not the case. He is afraid of being exposed by his colleagues, because his constantly shaking hands and dilated pupils give him away. Bulgakov describes both the hallucinations and confusion of Polyakov, who nevertheless wrote at the end of the diary that he would be ashamed to continue living.
In the finale, Dr. Baumgard publishes this diary ten years after the death of Sergei Polyakov.
Problems
First of all, the problem of drug addiction is raised here. Disharmony with oneself in interaction with some morphine gives rise to a complex and interesting hero in literature, but a person doomed to death in reality. What is it like to not depend on water and food every day, but to die from a lack of chemicals in the body? What is it like to bend over and suffer from injection to injection, and in between be in some kind of paradise?
Quite deep psychological problems are raised in the story, which are still relevant today. For example, fear of pain and its consequences, clearly exaggerated by the patient. A person breaks down, cannot withstand the onslaught of a physical illness and dooms himself to a moral illness - dependence on morphine. He drives himself into a corner from lack of courage, but he cannot give up the harmful treatment. He is overwhelmed by the fear of condemnation and loss of position, so he builds barricades, isolating himself from society that could help him. So the victim kills herself, burning the bridges leading to salvation. It’s absurd, but the hero dies due to cowardice, even the drug is secondary here: it only undermined the already worthless will.
Deviant behavior of Bulgakov's hero
Like Bulgakov himself, Sergei Polyakov continued to take morphine not so much out of necessity as out of boredom and mental anguish. And the hero tries to justify himself by saying that doctors should try drugs on themselves in order to understand how patients feel. We all understand that this is nonsense, and that accepting anything unnecessarily is unforgivable stupidity. Everything goes too far when the body demands a dose again and again, more and more. Polyakov himself notices his unjustified aggression. The scene of the struggle between Sergei and the paramedic for the keys to the pharmacy where the treasured drug is kept is quite indicative. The hero is degrading before our eyes: he is rude to the girl, he is embittered, but only lacks the bestial grin. Drugs turn people into animals. But there are also a sufficient number of scenes where Polyakov is ashamed to buy crystals at the pharmacy, which means that there is a struggle going on in him, he is not hopeless. However internal conflict fades away under the influence of the collapse of the doctor’s personality: she loses her human traits.
Personality collapse occurs when our hero refuses treatment. More and more often the hero is visited by madness: pale people, an old woman, etc. It becomes unimportant to the doctor under what conditions to inject morphine, the main thing is that it must be done. Certainly, appearance Dr. Polyakov betrays today’s drug addict: he is thin, pale, and has lost quite a lot of weight. However, no one helped him in time, the hero ended up in hopeless situation. The irreversible process has done its job, he can no longer think about anything, Polyakov becomes a slave of Morphine.
Although the story is autobiographical, nevertheless, Doctor Polyakov dies, unable to cope with addiction, and Bulgakov himself managed to overcome it with his strength and desire to live and create.
How did Bulgakov quit morphine?
I tried to switch to opium cigarettes and reduce the dose, but all in vain. There are several versions of how the writer actually quit morphine as a grandfather.
According to one of them, his wife Tatyana helped him by injecting distilled water into his vein. Bulgakov supposedly took this and began to wean himself off drugs, but narcologists reject this version. According to another version, Tatyana simply reduced the percentage of morphine and added distilled water, which is more likely. And, of course, creativity played a role. When a person lives for something, when there is a goal, ideas, inspiration, then everything is possible. Even the impossible.
Should young people read this story?
Will the description of the bliss of drug use provoke a desire to try or, on the contrary, push away from it due to the death of the hero? And is this even the essence of the work? Yes, Doctor Polyakov leaves a warning to all people about how gradually a person dies when using drugs, but there is also back side medals. The hero's euphoria is described. It is important. People who are disappointed in life are ready to do anything for a moment of joy.
What is this? Propaganda of drugs or an attempt to protect people from this evil is up to you to decide, although I am more inclined towards the second.
Interesting? Save it on your wall!Speaking about Mikhail Bulgakov, such unusual works as “The Master and Margarita” and “Heart of a Dog” immediately come to mind. Perhaps someone will remember his “White Guard”, and someone even read the story “Morphine”.
This is a talented writer who, due to his second profession (doctor), became acquainted with morphine and became an eyewitness to how the drug destroys a person, his body and soul.
Why did Bulgakov start taking morphine?
Until the 30s of the last century, morphine was actively used in medicine, and according to statistics, 40% of doctors and even their wives (10%) were addicted. At the same time, a large percentage of patients also became morphine addicts (addicted). Morphine was freely sold in pharmacies as an anesthetic and sleeping pill. Heroin was also sold there - a remedy against pulmonary diseases and depression. Bulgakov saw the end of this period.
In 1916, young Mikhail was assigned to work in a hospital in the distant village of Nikolskoye. He first tried morphine by accident - he was forced by necessity.
While treating a sick child, it seemed to him that the virus was transmitted to him during one of the procedures. The doctor asked him to inject him with serum against this virus, after which he began to experience severe itching, unbearable pain, his face was swollen and his body was covered with a rash. Then he received a morphine injection, after which his condition improved and he fell asleep. And when he woke up, he asked for more morphine - just in case.
How did the addiction arise?
The habit arises quickly - 2-3 times are enough. At first, the desire to “feel like in heaven” pushes you to use it. Drug addicts (and even patients receiving therapeutic doses of the drug) see pleasant dreams and feel lightness, fantasies come to life, and perceptions become sharpened.
Gradually, the dose has to be increased, and now it is no longer the desire to be in heaven that guides the person, but the horror of severe suffering without the drug. And all because even a slight delay in taking the dose causes unbearable pain throughout the body, vomiting, bloody diarrhea, breathing problems and nightmare visions.
Addiction did not spare Mikhail either. His wife gave him injections. And she described his state as “very calm.” He could work and write.
How morphine influenced Bulgakov’s life and work
Reading the lines of the novel “Morphine,” it becomes obvious that these are not just the observer’s guesses or the writer’s imagination, he conveys the truth about this drug so subtly and accurately.
The suffering associated with drug use formed the basis of the story “Morphine.” And the writer also makes the hero of the novel “The Master and Margarita” Ivan Bezdomny a morphine addict, and describes his visions under the influence of the drug.
It took the writer about three years to stop using. His wife, stepfather helped, as well as a craving for creativity and an awareness of how addiction was ruining his life.
Series of stories “Notes of a Young Doctor”
It's seven or eight stories. Researchers disagree on whether the story "Morphine" is part of this series. These works are based on real events that happened to the author. The plot has been changed, but they basically reflect what actually happened.
In his stories, Bulgakov wrote about successful operations, colorfully and vividly described the life and customs of the inhabitants of the village where he lived and worked.
In the story “Morphine,” he describes how a young doctor became addicted to the drug, what he experienced, what he felt, and how he tried to escape from this trap. He vividly and truthfully describes the tragedy that happened to a talented person. Yes, morphine can break anyone, even the strongest of us.
About the future fate of the writer
After living in the village, Bulgakov moved to the capital and was engaged in writing and worked as a director. His last novel was The Master and Margarita. Before his death, he suffered from kidney disease and was forced to take his prescribed morphine again to relieve the pain.
In conclusion, we can say the following. On the one hand, thanks to the drug, the world received an unusual story. On the other hand, suffering and grief are not worth written lines. It's a myth that drugs promote creativity. Without them, a person is much stronger and more capable.
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What, Comrade Bulgakov died?
Yes, he died.
And at the other end of the line they hung up.
Now one of the most famous writers Every schoolchild knows the 20th century. And then, in 1940, he was considered almost persona non grata. Many works were considered almost anti-Soviet. And they read them, lying quietly under a blanket with a flashlight or a candle lit at the head of the head - the main thing is that they would not be noticed.
Bulgakov became, perhaps, the most mystical writer in Russian history since the time of Nikolai Gogol. His life is still shrouded in legends, secrets and myths. Let's look at the most popular of them.
Loved cats
Still from the film "The Master and Margarita"/kinopoisk.ru
It is believed that the writer loved cats. This opinion, of course, appeared because of the famous character of Woland’s retinue - the cat Behemoth, into whose mouth Bulgakov put some of the most striking phrases of the book.
According to the writer’s second wife Lyubov Belozerskaya, his prototype was the gray kitten Flyushka, which someone stole. However, other cats also lived in the apartment, and the writer sometimes even wrote notes to his wife on their behalf. At the same time, he never took cats in his arms, because, according to his second wife, he was disdainful. If it could happen that the cat would jump on the table, Bulgakov would certainly put a piece of paper.
He had a much warmer relationship with a puppy named Bud. He could play with him and hug him. But they let Buton onto the table without placing any paper.
Burnt one of his novels in a fit
Yes, Mikhail Afanasyevich really burned at least one of his manuscripts. It was a draft of The Master and Margarita. Only seizures - the example of Gogol and the second volume of Dead Souls - have absolutely nothing to do with it. The fact is that shortly before this, the Arts Committee banned the play “The Cabal of the Saint.” Afterwards, in the spring of 1930, Bulgakov burned the first manuscript, and then wrote a letter to the censors: “And I personally, with my own hands, threw a draft of a novel about the devil into the stove.”
After that, he reported that he burned the second version of the novel. And we are all familiar only with the third. By the way, only he bore the title “The Master and Margarita”.
The Church sharply criticizes The Master and Margarita
One of the most common myths is that the church does not accept “devilish romance.” In fact, the position of the Russian Orthodox Church on this matter is somewhat different. Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Rus' revealed it back in 2011 in an interview.
The benefit of the novel is that for the first time in the post-revolutionary period, when there was no longer any freedom in the country, it really spoke about the dominance of dark forces in the life of the then Soviet society. That is why, I think, his novel became immortal,” the patriarch noted then.
The Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church emphasized that “the terrible fall of the then Soviet man, his morality, his attitude to good and evil” could only be expressed in the form of a “metaphysical parable.”
The prototype for Professor Preobrazhensky was Bulgakov himself
Still from the film "Heart of a Dog"/kinopoisk.ru
This myth arose due to the fact that the writer graduated from the Faculty of Medicine of Kyiv University and was a doctor in the village of Nikolskoye, Sychevsky district. In addition, Bulgakov created “Notes of a Young Doctor” partly based on own experience- in them he describes his work as a doctor in a village near Smolensk.
In fact, Preobrazhensky’s prototype was his uncle, the famous gynecologist Nikolai Pokrovsky. Even the apartment of Bulgakov’s relative coincides in detail with the description found in “Heart of a Dog.”
In 1926, the OGPU conducted a search of the writer, and as a result, the manuscripts of “The Heart of a Dog” and the diary were confiscated. Later, after repeated requests for the return of the selected items, the story and diary will be returned.
All the most famous works were written under drugs
The myth about Bulgakov the drug addict is perhaps one of the most widespread. Allegedly, he wrote at least “Notes of a Young Doctor,” “Heart of a Dog,” and “The Master and Margarita” under the influence of morphine.
Bulgakov actually tried cocaine in 1913, while studying to become a doctor. This fact was not denied by his first wife Tatyana Lappa. In addition, he actually was on morphine for about a year. The addiction began after in the summer of 1917, a baby with diphtheria was brought to the young doctor Mikhail, who worked in the village of Nikolskoye, Sychevsky district. Bulgakov cut his throat and sucked out the diphtheria films through a tube. And then, to protect himself, he injected himself with an anti-diphtheria vaccine. When it took effect, itching and terrible pain began, which Bulgakov tried to relieve with an injection of morphine.
During 1917, he tried to wean himself off the drug, and in 1918 he moved to Kyiv. Lappa later recalled how she diluted his portions of the drug with water, gradually increasing the percentage of the latter. It is believed that Bulgakov was no longer a drug addict when he moved to Moscow in 1921. Shortly before his death, he again took morphine and even after the injections dictated last option"The Master and Margarita". However, the substance was prescribed to him solely for medical purposes and doses.
Suicide attempt
In the memorial apartment (museum) of Mikhail Bulgakov on Bolshaya Sadovaya Street, building 10, in Moscow. Photo: © RIA Novosti/Mikhail Fomichev
In his memoirs, literary critic Vladimir Lakshin quotes the writer’s third wife and says that he was allegedly planning to shoot himself in 1929, when he was practically outlawed.
After a telephone conversation with Stalin, when he was promised a job in an art theater, he threw the revolver into the pond. It seems to be in the pond near the Novodevichy Convent,” writes Lakshin.
However, later the Russian media circulated the version that the writer even tried to commit suicide, but this failed. We repeat once again: there is no such evidence.
Stalin attended the play "Days of the Turbins" 20 times
There is an opinion that the Soviet leader allegedly attended the “Turbin Days” many times. The fact is that in 1929 this play was removed from the repertoire for its “bourgeois mood.” However, it was resumed three years later on the personal orders of Stalin.
As for the play “Days of the Turbins” itself, it is not so bad, because it does more good than harm. The main impression left on the viewer from this play is one favorable to the Bolsheviks, the leader wrote.