Bulgakova, Elena Sergeevna

Youth

Elena Sergeevna was born on October 21 [ November 2 ], 1893 ^[3] in Riga , the house (1 Fellinskaya St., 1) was preserved in which she lived in her childhood ^{[4] [5]} . Her father, a baptized Jew, Sergei Markovich Nuremberg ( 1864 - 1933 ) ^{[4] [6]} (she wrote this name more often as Nuremberg), was a teacher, then a tax inspector, journalist, and was published in Riga newspapers. Mother, Alexandra Alexandrovna, nee Gorskaya (1864-1956), was the daughter of an Orthodox priest. Elena Sergeyevna had a sister Olga (1891-1948) and two brothers - Alexander (1890-1964) and Konstantin (1895-1944) ^[7] .

In 1902-1911, Elena Sergeevna studied at the Riga Lomonosov girls gymnasium ^[8] .

In 1912, an army officer, lieutenant Bokshansky, got involved in the 19-year-old Elena. She persuaded him to marry her older sister Olga .

In 1915, Elena and Olga tried to get a job at the Moscow Art Theater . As a result, Olga remained in the theater, and Elena, judging by her autobiography, served as secretary to her father. In 1917, her parents returned to Riga ^[9] .

In December 1918, Elena Sergeyevna married Yuri (George) Mamontovich Neyolov , the son of the famous tragic actor (and subsequently no less famous anarchist) Mamont Dalsky (1865-1918) ^[10] . Yuri Neyolov - military officer, in 1919 he joined the 16th army, which was part of the Western Front of the Red Army , where he carried the duties of secretary (adjutant) of the commander of N.V. Sollogub .

Then the adjutant Neyolov and his wife Elena Sergeevna met Yevgeny Aleksandrovich Shilovsky, who served as chief of staff of the same 16th Army. About a year later, by order of the headquarters of the 16th Army of September 27, 1920, Yuri Neyolov was seconded to the chief of staff of the Western Front, and in December of that year was transferred to the Southern Front. His marriage with Elena Sergeevna was dissolved, and in the fall of 1921 she became the wife of Shilovsky. Soon their son Eugene (1921-1957) was born, and in 1926, Sergei (1926-1977) ^[7] .

Despite the brilliant position of the wife of a major Soviet military leader, Elena Sergeyevna was not satisfied with her life. In November 1923, in a letter to her sister Olga, she admitted:

Sometimes I find myself in such a mood that I don’t know what’s happening to me, I feel that such a quiet family life is completely not for me. I’m not interested in anything at home, I want life, I don’t know where to run to, but I really want to <...>. My former “I” wakes up in me with love for life, for noise, for people, for meetings. <...> I am left alone with my thoughts, inventions, fantasies, unspent forces. And I either (in a bad mood) sit on the sofa and think, think endlessly, or - when the sun shines on the street and in my soul - I wander alone in the streets.

- ^[7]

Introducing Bulgakov

Gods, my gods! What did this woman need ?! What was needed for this woman, in whose eyes there was always some incomprehensible light, what was needed for this witch, who was slightly squinting in one eye, who adorned herself with spring mimosas? I do not know. I don’t know. Obviously, she was telling the truth, she needed him, the master, and not a Gothic mansion, and not a separate garden, and not money.

- ^[11] .

On February 28, 1929, at Shrovetide, presumably in the Moscow house of artists Moiseenko, Elena Sergeyevna met then-famous writer, journalist and playwright Mikhail Afanasevich Bulgakov . Here is how she described this acquaintance: “It was in the 29th year in February, on oil. Some friends made pancakes. Neither did I want to go there, nor Bulgakov, who for some reason decided that he would not go to this house. But it so happened that these people managed to interest the composition of the invitees both him and me. Well, me, of course, his last name ... In general, we met and were there. It was fast, unusually fast, in any case, on my part, love for life. ”

In February 1961, in a letter to her brother, Elena Sergeevna adds such an interesting detail:

The other day will be another 32-year anniversary - the day I met Misha. It was buttered, by some common acquaintances. <...> We sat next to me, <...> I had some kind of ties untied on my sleeve, <...> I told him to tie me. And then he always assured that there was witchcraft, and it was then that I tied him for life. <...> Here we agreed to go skiing the next day. And off it goes. After the skis - the general “Blockade”, after that - the acting club, where he played with Mayakovsky on billiards ... In a word, we met every day and, finally, I prayed and said that I would not go anywhere, I want to sleep, so that Misha would not call me today. And she went to bed early, almost at 9 o’clock. At night (it was about three, as it turned out later), Olenka , who did not approve of all this, of course, woke me up: go, your Bulgakov calls you to the phone. <...> I walked over. “Dress and go out onto the porch,” Misha said mysteriously and, without explaining anything, only repeated these words. He lived at that time on Bol. Pirogovskaya , and we are on Bol. Sadovoy , corner Mal. Bronnoy’s , in the mansion that saw Napoleon , with fireplaces, with a kitchen below, with round windows covered with radiance, in a word, it’s not about the radiance, but that it is far from each other. And he repeats - go out onto the porch. Under Olenkino grunt I dressed <...> and went out onto the porch. The moon shines terribly bright, Misha white in her light stands at the porch. He took arm and all my questions and laughter - he puts his finger to his mouth and is silent ... He leads across the street, leads to the Patriarch's Ponds , brings to one tree and says, pointing to the bench: "Here they saw him for the first time." And again - a finger at the mouth, again silence ... Then spring came, summer followed, I went to Essentuki for a month. I received letters from Misha, in one there was a dried rose and instead of a photograph - only his eyes cut out from the card ... Since the fall of 29, when I returned, we began to go to the Lenin Library with him, he was writing a book <...>

In October 1968, Elena Sergeevna told one of Bulgakov’s biographers: In the summer of 1929, I left for treatment in Essentuki. Mikhail Afanasevich wrote beautiful letters to me there, sent red rose petals; but then I had to destroy all these letters, I could not keep them. One of the letters said: “I have prepared for you a gift worthy of you ...” When I returned to Moscow, he handed me this notebook ... ^{[to 1]}

Their relationship developed rapidly. Elena Sergeevna often visited the Bulgakovs' house, made friends with the second wife of Mikhail Afanasevich Lyubov Evgenievna Belozerskaya . In March 1930, Elena Sergeevna helped Bulgakov print and distribute the famous letter to the Government of the USSR.

At the end of 1930 or the beginning of 1931, Elena Sergeyevna's husband, Evgeny Aleksandrovich Shilovsky, found out about her love affair with Bulgakov. February 5, 1931 on the last sheet of the novel "The White Guard " Mikhail Afanasevich writes: "Information. Serfdom was destroyed in ... year. " It is believed that it was on this day that he had a difficult conversation with Shilovsky, when Bulgakov promised not to see Elena Sergeevna again. A year and a half later, he attributed to that line: "Misfortune happened on the 25.II.1931" - the day of their last, as they thought then, meeting with Elena Sergeevna.

They have not seen each other for 15 months. In June 1932, Bulgakov and Elena Sergeevna met at the Metropol restaurant with the mediation of F. N. Mikhalsky . Both realized that they continue to love each other. Elena Sergeyevna left with the children in Lebedyan and here she wrote a letter to her husband asking her to “let go”. Evgeni Aleksandrovich, after a long silence, wrote in response that he was letting go: “I treated you like a child, I was wrong ...” The text of Bulgakov’s letter to Shilovsky (it is not known whether this letter was sent) has been preserved: “Dear Evgeni Aleksandrovich, I met Elena Sergeevna on her call and we talked to her. We love each other as we loved before. And we want to ... ". In a letter from Elena Sergeyevna to her husband in Sochi, Bulgakov wrote: “Dear Evgeny Alexandrovich, pass by our happiness ...” Shilovsky replied: “Mikhail Afanasevich, what I do, I do not for you, but for Elena Sergeyevna”

The breakup of Elena Sergeevna with her husband took place. The “division” of children was painful and difficult - the eldest, 10-year-old Eugene, remained with his father, the youngest, 5-year-old Seryozha, went with his mother to Bulgakov's house on Bolshaya Pirogovskaya, 35A.

On September 3, 1932, Shilovsky wrote to Elena Sergeyevna's parents in Riga: Dear Alexandra Alexandrovna and Sergey Markovich! When you receive this letter, Elena Sergeevna and I will no longer be husband and wife. I want you to correctly understand what happened. I do not blame Elena Sergeyevna for anything and I think that she acted correctly and honestly. Our marriage, so happy in the past, has come to its natural end. We exhausted each other, each giving the other what he was capable of, and in the future (even if this whole story had not been played out) there would be a monotonous life together more out of habit than on a true mutual attraction to its continuation. Since Lucy had a serious and deep feeling for another person, she did the right thing not to sacrifice him. We lived well for a number of years and were very happy. I am infinitely grateful to Lucy for the great happiness and joy of life that she gave me in her time. I keep the best and brightest feelings for her and for our common past. We are breaking up friends. But I want to say goodbye to you, that I sincerely and passionately loved you, as the parents of Lucy, who ceased to be my wife, but remained close and dear to me. Loving you, Zhenya the Great.

Life with Bulgakov and after his death

On October 3, 1932, Bulgakov divorced his second wife, L.E. Belozerskaya, and on October 4, his marriage was concluded with Elena Sergeevna. The first wife of Mikhail Afanasevich Tatyana Nikolaevna Lappa-Kiselgof said that Bulgakov repeatedly told her: “I have to get married three times!” As if it were advised to him by A.N. Tolstoy , who considered triple marriage the key to literary success. Elena Sergeevna recalled something else: supposedly back in Kiev, she was fortunate enough by a fortuneteller to marry three times. Be that as it may, both considered their union a foregone conclusion.

On March 14, 1933, Bulgakov gave Elena a power of attorney to conclude agreements with publishers and theaters about his works, as well as to receive royalties. Elena Sergeyevna dictated all the works of the writer of the 1930s.

A year after the marriage, Elena Sergeevna, at the request of her husband, began a diary that she kept for 7 years until the last days of Mikhail Afanasevich’s life. When reading the diary, one fact is striking: in the life of Elena Sergeyevna and Bulgakov there was not a single quarrel. This is surprising when you consider how difficult circumstances sometimes developed. They really were created for each other: in Elena Sergeyevna, the writer found not only a true friend and lover, but also his muse, literary secretary and biographer, a devoted and tireless employee.

Elena Sergeyevna devoted all herself to her husband and his work. She wrote under his dictation, reprinted manuscripts on a typewriter, edited them, drew up agreements with theaters, negotiated with the right people, and dealt with correspondence. Her great merit is the preservation of the Bulgakov archive: she managed to reprint many manuscripts stored in a single copy. Thanks to her incredible energy, after Bulgakov’s death many of his previously unpublished works were able to see the light, the main of which, of course, was the novel “The Master and Margarita ”.

In 1952 ^{[to 2]} , Elena Sergeyevna installed a “Golgotha” stone on her husband’s grave lying on the grave of N. V. Gogol after transferring from the Danilov Monastery cemetery. By the centenary of his death, a new monument was erected on the grave of N.V. Gogol in the form of a pedestal with a bust of Gogol by the sculptor N. Tomsky , and the "calvary" was transferred to the storage rooms of the Novodevichy cemetery . Moreover, the grave of Bulgakov M. A. was near the grave of the beloved teacher of Bulgakov - N.V. Gogol (through the grave of K. S. Stanislavsky).

Memoirs of V. Ya. Lakshin from the book of Elena Sergeevna “Memoirs of Mikhail Bulgakov”:

Until the beginning of the 50s, there was no cross or stone on the grave of Bulgakov - only a rectangle of grass with forget-me-nots and young trees planted on the four corners of a tombstone. In search of a slab or stone, E. S. went to the cutters to the barn and made friends with them (she generally easily met ordinary people - painters, plasterers). Once he sees: in a deep pit among the fragments of marble, old monuments, a huge black nostril stone flickers. “And what is this?” - “Yes Golgotha.” “How is Golgotha?” They explained that Golgotha ​​stood with a cross on the grave of Gogol in the Danilovsky Monastery. Then, when a new monument was made for the Gogol anniversary of 1952, they threw Calvary into a pit as unnecessary.

“I buy,” said E. S. without hesitation. “It is possible,” they answer her, “how can I raise it?” “Do anything, I will pay for everything ... There will be bridges, make bridges from the shed to the grave itself ... Ten workers are needed - let there be ten workers ... "

The stone was transported, and he went deep into the ground above Bulgakov’s urn. A chiseled top without a cross, with a downed line from the Gospel, - he looked ugly. Then the whole block was turned upside down.

In a letter to the writer’s brother Nikolai Afanasevich Bulgakov (1898-1966) dated September 7, 1962, Elena Sergeevna wrote: I do everything in my power to ensure that not a single line written by him is left in order not to remain unknown to him extraordinary personality. <...> This is the goal, the meaning of my life. I promised him a lot before dying, and I believe that I will do everything .

In addition to working with Bulgakova’s creative heritage, Elena Sergeevna was also involved in translations (mainly in order to earn a living). She owns translations from the French novels by Gustav Emard , Jules Verne and the book by Andre Morois “Lelia, or the Life of George Sand”.

Despite everything, despite the fact that there were black moments, absolutely terrible, not longing, but horror at the failed literary life, if you tell me that we had a tragic life, I will answer you: no! Not a second. It was the brightest life that you can choose for yourself, the happiest. There was no happier woman than I was then ... - wrote Elena Sergeyevna in the 1950s.

In 1961, philologist A.Z. Vulis wrote a work on Soviet satirists and remembered the forgotten author of Zoykin’s Apartment and Crimson Island. Vulis found out that the widow of the writer was alive, and made contact with her. After an initial period of mistrust, Elena Sergeyevna gave the manuscript of the Master to be read. Shocked Vulis shared his impressions with many, after which rumors about a great romance began to circulate in literary Moscow. This led to the first publication in the journal Moscow in 1966 - 1967 (circulation of 150 thousand copies) ^[14] . It should be noted, however, that despite the picturesqueness of the story about the role of A. Vulis, the key figures in the publication of the novel were still K. M. Simonov and E. S. Bulgakova, familiar from the Tashkent winter of 1942 ^[15] . E.S. Bulgakova has done a tremendous amount of textual work in preparing the unfinished novel for publication.

Elena Sergeevna died July 18, 1970 at the 77th year of life, having survived three husbands and the eldest son Eugene. Похоронена она на Новодевичьем кладбище рядом с мужем под гоголевской «голгофой».

Составленный Е. С. Булгаковой в 1967 году вместе с С. А. Ляндресом сборник «Воспоминания о Михаиле Булгакове» увидел свет только в перестройку, уже после смерти обоих авторов, в 1988 году в издательстве «Советский писатель».

• Яновская Л. М. Творческий путь Михаила Булгакова . — М.: Советский писатель, 1983.
• Булгаков М. А. Письма. Жизнеописание в документах. — М.: Современник, 1989.
• Чудакова М. О. Жизнеописание Михаила Булгакова. - 2nd ed., Ext. — М.: Книга, 1988.
• Соколов Б. В. Булгаковская энциклопедия. — М. : Локид; Миф, 1998. — 592 с. — (Ad Marginem). — ISBN 5-320-00143-6 .

• Судьба Маргариты — Е. С. Булгакова после смерти мужа. Интервью с С.Шиловским
• Московский государственный музей М. А. Булгакова
• дом-музей Булгакова в Киеве
• Елена Сергеевна Булгакова — Судьба Маргариты