Why does Woland punish the Roman? The novel “The Master and Margarita”: what Bulgakov encrypted

The writer, the author of the novel about Pontius Pilate, is a man not adapted to the era in which he lives, and driven to despair by persecution from colleagues who cruelly criticized his work. Nowhere in the novel is his name and surname mentioned; when asked directly about this, he always refused to introduce himself, saying, “Let’s not talk about that.” Known only by the nickname "Master", given by Margarita. He considers himself unworthy of such a nickname, considering it the whim of his beloved. A master is a person who has achieved the highest success in any activity, which may be why he is rejected by the crowd, who are unable to appreciate his talent and abilities. The Master, the main character of the novel, writes a novel about Yeshua (Jesus) and Pilate. The master writes a novel in his own way, interpreting the events of the Gospel, without miracles and the power of grace - like Tolstoy. The master communicated with Woland - Satan, a witness, according to him, to the events described in the novel.

“From the balcony, a shaved, dark-haired man, about 38 years old, with a sharp nose, anxious eyes and a tuft of hair hanging over his forehead, cautiously looked into the room.”

Satan, who visited Moscow under the guise of a foreign professor of black magic, a “historian.” At its first appearance (in the novel The Master and Margarita), the first chapter from the Roman is narrated (about Yeshua and Pilate).

Bassoon (Koroviev)

One of the characters in Satan's entourage, always wearing ridiculous checkered clothes and pince-nez with one cracked and one missing glass. In his true form, he turns out to be a knight, forced to pay with a permanent stay in Satan’s retinue for one bad pun he once made about light and darkness.

The hero's surname was found in F. M. Dostoevsky's story “The Village of Stepanchikovo and Its Inhabitants,” where there is a character named Korovkin, very similar to our Koroviev. His second name comes from the name of the musical instrument bassoon, invented by an Italian monk. The Koroviev-Fagot has some similarities with the bassoon - a long thin tube folded in three. Bulgakov's character is thin, tall and in imaginary servility, it seems, ready to fold himself three times over in front of his interlocutor (in order to then calmly harm him).

In the image of Koroviev (and his constant companion Behemoth), the traditions of folk laughter culture are strong; these same characters retain a close genetic connection with the picaro heroes (rogues) of world literature.

A member of Satan's retinue, a demon killer with a repulsive appearance. The prototype of this character was the fallen angel Azazel (in Jewish beliefs - who later became the demon of the desert), mentioned in the apocryphal book of Enoch - one of the angels whose actions on earth provoked the wrath of God and the Flood.

A character in Satan's retinue, a playful and restless spirit, appearing either in the form of a giant cat walking on its hind legs, or in the form of a plump citizen whose physiognomy resembles a cat. The prototype of this character is the demon of the same name Behemoth, a demon of gluttony and debauchery who could take the forms of many large animals. In his true form, Behemoth turns out to be a thin young man, a demon page. But in fact, the prototype of the Behemoth cat was Bulgakov’s big black dog, whose name was Behemoth. And this dog was very smart. For example: when Bulgakov celebrated the New Year with his wife, after the chimes, his dog barked 12 times, although no one taught it this.

A witch and vampire from Satan's retinue, who confused all his human visitors with her habit of wearing practically nothing. The beauty of her body is spoiled only by the scar on her neck. In the retinue, Wolanda plays the role of a maid.

Chairman of MASSOLIT, writer, well-read, educated and skeptical person about everything. He lived in a “bad apartment” on Sadovaya, 302 bis, where Woland later settled during his stay in Moscow. He died, not believing Woland’s prediction about his sudden death, made shortly before.

Poet, member of MASSOLIT. He wrote an anti-religious poem, one of the first heroes (along with Berlioz) to meet Woland. He ended up in a clinic for the mentally ill, and was also the first to meet the Master.

Stepan Bogdanovich Likhodeev

Director of the Variety Theater, Berlioz's neighbor, also living in a “bad apartment” on Sadovaya. A slacker, a womanizer and a drunkard. For “official inconsistency” he was teleported to Yalta by Woland’s henchmen.

Nikanor Ivanovich Bosoy

Chairman of the housing association on Sadovaya Street, where Woland settled during his stay in Moscow. Jaden, the day before, committed the theft of funds from the cash register of the housing association.

Koroviev entered into a temporary rental agreement with him and gave him a bribe, which, as the chairman later claimed, “itself crept into his briefcase.” Then Koroviev, on Woland’s orders, turned the transferred rubles into dollars and, on behalf of one of the neighbors, reported the hidden currency to the NKVD. Trying to somehow justify himself, Bosoy admitted to bribery and reported similar crimes on the part of his assistants, which led to the arrest of all members of the housing association. Due to his further behavior during interrogation, he was sent to an insane asylum, where he was haunted by nightmares associated with demands to hand over his existing currency.

Ivan Savelyevich Varenukha

Administrator of the Variety Theater. He fell into the clutches of Woland’s gang when he was carrying to the NKVD a printout of correspondence with Likhodeev, who had ended up in Yalta. As punishment for “lies and rudeness on the phone,” he was turned by Gella into a vampire guide. After the ball he was turned back into a human and released. At the end of all the events described in the novel, Varenukha became a more good-natured, polite and honest person.

Interesting fact: Varenukha’s punishment was a “private initiative” of Azazello and Behemoth

Grigory Danilovich Rimsky

Financial director of the Variety Theater. He was so shocked by Gella’s attack on him along with his friend Varenukha that he chose to flee Moscow. During interrogation by the NKVD, he asked for an “armored cell” for himself.

Georges Bengalsky

Entertainer of the Variety Theater. He was severely punished by Woland's retinue - his head was torn off - for the unfortunate comments he made during the performance. After returning his head to its place, he could not come to his senses and was taken to the clinic of Professor Stravinsky. The figure of Bengalsky is one of many satirical figures whose purpose is to criticize Soviet society.

Vasily Stepanovich Lastochkin

Accountant at Variety. While I was handing over the cash register, I discovered traces of the presence of Woland’s retinue in the institutions where he had visited. While handing over the cash register, I suddenly discovered that the money had turned into various foreign currencies.

Prokhor Petrovich

Chairman of the entertainment commission of the Variety Theater. The Behemoth cat temporarily kidnapped him, leaving him sitting at his workplace with an empty suit.

Maximilian Andreevich Poplavsky

The Kiev uncle of Mikhail Alexandrovich Berlioz, who dreamed of living in Moscow, could at least buy apartment Kyiv He was invited to Moscow for the funeral by Woland himself, however, upon arrival he was concerned not so much with the death of his nephew as with the living space left over from the deceased. He was kicked out by Woland's retinue with instructions to return back to Kyiv.

Andrey Fokich Sokov

A barman at the Variety Theater, criticized by Woland for the poor quality of food served in the buffet. He accumulated over 249 thousand rubles from purchasing “second-fresh” products and other abuses of official position. He also received a message from Woland about his sudden death, which, unlike Berlioz, he believed and took all measures to prevent it - which, of course, did not help him.

Nikolay Ivanovich

Margarita's neighbor from the bottom floor. He was turned by Margarita's housekeeper Natasha into a hog and in this form was “brought in as a vehicle” to Satan’s ball.

Margarita's housekeeper, who at her own request turned into a witch during Woland's visit to Moscow.

Aloisy Mogarych

An acquaintance of the Master, who wrote a false denunciation against him in order to appropriate his living space. He was kicked out of his new apartment by Woland's gang. After the trial, Wolanda left Moscow unconscious, but, waking up somewhere near Vyatka, returned. Replaced Rimsky as financial director of the Variety Theater. Mogarych's activities in this position caused great torment for Varenukha.

Professional speculator. She broke a bottle of sunflower oil on the tram tracks, which was the cause of Berlioz's death. By a strange coincidence, he lives next door to a “bad apartment.”

A sinner invited to Woland's ball. She once strangled an unwanted child with a handkerchief and buried her, for which she experiences a certain kind of punishment - every morning they invariably bring this same handkerchief to her bedside (no matter how she tried to get rid of it the day before). At Satan's ball, Margarita pays attention to Frida and addresses her personally (also invites her to get drunk and forget everything), which gives Frida hope for forgiveness. After the ball, when the time comes to voice her only main request to Woland, for whom Margarita pledged her soul and became the queen of the Satanic ball, Margarita, regarding her attention to Frida as a carelessly given veiled promise to save her from eternal punishment, and also under the influence of feelings, sacrifices in favor of Frida with her right to a single request.

Baron Meigel

An NKVD employee assigned to spy on Woland, introducing himself as an employee of the Entertainment Commission in the position of introducing foreigners to the sights of the capital. He was killed at Satan's ball as a sacrifice, whose blood filled Woland's liturgical cup.

The director of the Griboyedov House restaurant, a formidable boss and a man with phenomenal intuition. He is economical and, as usual, a thief in public catering. The author compares him to the captain of the brig.

Arkady Apollonovich Sempleyarov

Chairman of the “Acoustic Commission of Moscow Theaters”. At the Variety Theater, at a session of black magic, Koroviev exposes his love affairs.

Jerusalem, 1st century n. e.

Pontius Pilate

The fifth procurator of Judea in Jerusalem, a cruel and powerful man, who nevertheless managed to develop sympathy for Yeshua Ha-Nozri during his interrogation. He tried to stop the well-functioning mechanism of execution for lese majeste, but failed to do this, which he subsequently repented of throughout his life. He suffered from a severe headache, from which Yeshua Ha-Nozri relieved him during the interrogation.

Yeshua Ha-Nozri

The image of Jesus Christ in the novel, the wandering philosopher from Nazareth, described by the Master in his novel, as well as by Woland on the Patriarch's Ponds. Quite strongly at odds with the image of the biblical Jesus Christ. In addition, he tells Pontius Pilate that Levi-Matthew (Matthew) wrote down his words incorrectly and that “this confusion will continue for a very long time.” Pilate: “But what did you say about the temple to the crowd at the market?” Yeshua: “I, the hegemon, said that the temple of the old faith would collapse and a new temple of truth would be created. I said it so that it would be clearer.” A humanist who denies resistance to evil through violence.

Levi Matvey

The only follower of Yeshua Ha-Nozri in the novel. He accompanied his teacher until his death, and subsequently took him down from the cross to bury him. He also attempted to stab Yeshua, who was being led to execution, in order to save him from the torment of the cross, but failed. At the end of the novel, Yeshua, sent by his teacher, comes to Woland asking for “peace” for the Master and Margarita.

Joseph Kaifa

Jewish high priest, president of the Sanhedrin, who condemned Yeshua Ha-Nozri to death.

One of the young Jerusalem residents who handed Yeshua Ha-Nozri into the hands of the Sanhedrin. Pilate, worried about his involvement in the execution of Yeshua, organized the secret murder of Judas to take revenge.

Mark Ratboy

Pilate's bodyguard, once crippled in battle, acting as a guard, and directly carrying out the execution of Yeshua and two other criminals. When a strong thunderstorm began on the mountain, Yeshua and other criminals were stabbed to death in order to be able to leave the place of execution.

Head of the secret service, comrade-in-arms of Pilate. He supervised the execution of the murder of Judas and planted the money received for betrayal at the residence of the high priest Caiaphas.

A resident of Jerusalem, an agent of Afranius, who pretended to be Judas's lover in order to lure him into a trap, on the orders of Afranius.

The novel “The Master and Margarita” is divided into three different but intertwined stories: events taking place in Moscow, including the adventures of the creatures of Satan; events relating to the crucifixion of Yeshua Ha-Norzi or Jesus Christ in the 1st century in Yershalaim, and the love story of the Master and Margarita. All three stories are told from Wednesday until the night from Saturday to Sunday of Holy Week.

Part one

Wednesday

Mikhail Aleksandrovich Berlioz, an important literary figure, chairman of the board of one of the largest Moscow literary associations, called Massolit for short, and Ivan Nikolaevich Ponyrev, a poet writing under the pseudonym Bezdomny, meet at the Patriarch's Ponds to discuss the poem that Ivan was supposed to write for Berlioz . Berlioz wanted Ivan to rewrite the poem, because... he thought that Jesus was presented too realistically in the poem. Berlioz explained why he believes Jesus never existed, giving Ivan a lesson in religious history. Some time later, Berlioz was interrupted by a mystical man, Professor Woland, who assured him that Jesus really existed. When Berlioz began to protest, Woland began to tell the story of Pontius Pilate, not forgetting to tell Berlioz that his head would be cut off by a Komsomol member in the evening of the same day.

The story moves to Yershalaim (Jerusalem), where Pilate is considering the case of Yeshua Ha-Norzi (Jesus of Nazareth). Yeshua is accused of inciting people to burn the Jerusalem Temple and resist Emperor Tiberius. Pilate must judge him, and Yeshua is sentenced to death.

The action returns to Moscow again. Berlioz is beheaded at the moment when he was leaving the Patriarch's Ponds. He slipped on spilled sunflower oil and was thrown onto the tram tracks. Ivan remembered the strange professor’s prediction and tried to follow Woland and his fatal companions - Regent Koroviev and the huge black cat Behemoth - through the streets of Moscow, but to no avail. During this hunt through Spiridonovka, Nikitsky Gate, Kropotkinskaya Street and Ostozhenka, he created hell in the apartment and ended the hunt “on the granite steps of the Moscow River amphitheater.” But the three disappeared. He undressed to continue searching in the water. When he stopped trying, he discovered that his clothes had been stolen. All that was left were striped long johns and a torn sweatshirt.

For some inexplicable reason, Ivan thought that the professor should be in the Griboedov House, which belonged to Massolit. Heading there, and considering that he was running in long johns, he tried to delve deeper into the mysterious network of alleys. Ivan tried to give a logical explanation to the writers for his strange clothes, telling the story of the day, but he was tied up and taken to Dr. Stravinsky's psychiatric hospital.

Thursday

Styopa Likhodeev, who lived in the same apartment as Berlioz - apartment No. 50 on Sadovaya Street - and was the director of the Variety Theater, came to the conclusion that it was already morning and he saw Woland waiting for him. Apartment No. 50 was called “the devil’s apartment” because the previous owners mysteriously disappeared.

Woland reminded Likhodeev that he had promised to organize 7 performances of black magic in his theater. Likhodeev did not remember such an agreement. But Woland showed him the contract with his signature. It seems that Woland is manipulating the situation, but Likhodeev is bound by the agreement. When Likhodeev realized that he had to allow Woland's death in his theater, Woland introduced him to his retinue - Behemoth, Koroviev, and the little fiery red-haired Azazello - and said that they would need apartment No. 50. Woland and his companions did not like such people as Styopa Likhodeev. People like him who occupy high positions are scoundrels for them. “He’s driving a government-issued car in vain!” the cat was gossiping, chewing mushrooms. “And this retinue requires space,” Woland continued, “so some of us are superfluous here in the apartment. And it seems to me that this extra one is you!”

A second later, Styopa found himself far from this place, in Yalta. Variety's financial director Grigory Danilovich Rimsky and administrator Ivan Savelyevich Varenukha discovered that their director had disappeared, while Satan's team created complete chaos in the building on Sadovaya Street. The greedy chairman of the building's housing association, Nikanor Ivanovich Bosoy, turned out to be a lover of foreign currency and was arrested by the police for this. Ivan Savelyevich Varenukha, after lengthy telegraph correspondence from Yalta, determined the location of Styopa Likhodeev. At the same time, he tried, with the help of others, to determine the identity of the mysterious Professor Woland. In order to get around Varenukha’s difficult questions, Woland sent a new demonic creature - Gella, “a completely naked red-haired girl with glowing phosphorescent eyes.” “Let me kiss you,” the girl said tenderly. Then Varenukha fainted and did not feel the kiss.”

At the Variety Theater, Woland and his assistants staged a performance of black magic, at which the entertainer Georgy Bengalsky was beheaded. Later, the ladies in the theater were able to fully satisfy their desires coming from the depths of their hearts in receiving luxurious clothes and jewelry for free, which led to a chaotic and noisy spectacle in which the chervonets - “By God, real ones! Chervontsy! - fell like a whirlwind on the audience, and in which the guest of honor Arkady Apollonovich Sempleyarov, chairman of the Acoustic Commission of Moscow Theaters, in the presence of his wife, was exposed in public as an unfaithful spouse. In short: “in Variety after all this, something like a Babylonian pandemonium began.”

Meanwhile, returning to the hospital, Ivan meets a patient who is lying in the next room. We are introduced to the hero of the novel - the Master. Ivan tells him what happened in the last days, and the Master thinks that this is about the adventures of the devil. Then the Master tells his story to Ivan. The master was a historian (the same profession that Ivan will choose at the end of the story), but after winning one hundred thousand rubles on a state domestic loan bond, he quit his job to write a book. One day he met Margarita and fell recklessly in love with her. When he submitted the book to the publisher, he was asked who inspired him to write about such a strange subject. The book was not accepted for publication. Even though it was never published, newspaper critics began attacking the book and its author. The critic Latunsky was especially merciless. In a fit of insanity, the Master imagined that the octopus was getting into his room; it “suddenly seemed to him that the autumn darkness would squeeze out the glass, pour into the room and he would choke in it, as if in ink.” And the Master burned his book. Margarita remained calm and accepted this, but the Master, convinced that he was terminally ill, went to the hospital. He had been here for 4 months and never saw Margarita again.

“The Master and Margarita” is one of the most mysterious novels in history; researchers are still struggling with its interpretation. We will give seven keys to this work.

Literary hoax

Why is Bulgakov’s famous novel called “The Master and Margarita”, and what is this book actually about? It is known that the idea of ​​creation was born to the author after his fascination with mysticism of the 19th century. Legends about the devil, Jewish and Christian demonology, treatises about God - all this is present in the work. The most important sources that the author consulted were the works “The History of Relations between Man and the Devil” by Mikhail Orlov and Amfiteatrov’s book “The Devil in Everyday Life, Legend and Literature of the Middle Ages.” As you know, The Master and Margarita had several editions.

They say that the first one, on which the author worked in 1928-1929, had nothing to do with either the Master or Margarita, and was called “The Black Magician”, “Juggler with a Hoof”. That is, the central figure and essence of the novel was the Devil - a kind of Russian version of the work “Faust”. Bulgakov personally burned the first manuscript after his play “The Cabal of the Holy One” was banned. The writer informed the government about this: “And I personally, with my own hands, threw a draft of a novel about the devil into the stove!” The second edition was also dedicated to the fallen angel and was called “Satan” or “Great Chancellor”. Margarita and the Master have already appeared here, and Woland has acquired his retinue. But only the third manuscript received its current name, which, in fact, the author never finished.

The Many Faces of Woland

The Prince of Darkness is perhaps the most popular character in The Master and Margarita. On a superficial reading, the reader gets the impression that Woland is “justice itself,” a judge who fights human vices and patronizes love and creativity. Some even think that Bulgakov portrayed Stalin in this image! Woland is multifaceted and complex, as befits the Tempter. He is viewed as a classic Satan, which is what the author intended in early versions of the book, as a new Messiah, a reimagined Christ, whose coming is described in the novel.

In fact, Woland is not just a devil - he has many prototypes. This is the supreme pagan god - Wotan among the ancient Germans (Odin among the Scandinavians), the great “magician” and freemason Count Cagliostro, who remembered the events of a thousand years of the past, predicted the future, and had a portrait resemblance to Woland. And this is the “dark horse” Woland from Goethe’s Faust, who is mentioned in the work only once, in an episode that was missed in the Russian translation. By the way, in Germany the devil was called “Vahland.” Remember the episode from the novel when the employees cannot remember the name of the magician: “Perhaps Faland?”

Satan's Retinue

Just as a person cannot exist without a shadow, so Woland is not Woland without his retinue. Azazello, Behemoth and Koroviev-Fagot are instruments of diabolical justice, the most striking heroes of the novel, who have a far from clear past behind them.

Let's take, for example, Azazello - “the demon of the waterless desert, the demon killer.” Bulgakov borrowed this image from the Old Testament books, where this is the name of the fallen angel who taught people how to make weapons and jewelry. Thanks to him, women have mastered the “lascivious art” of painting their faces. Therefore, it is Azazello who gives the cream to Margarita and pushes her onto the “dark path”. In the novel, this is Woland’s right hand, performing “dirty work.” He kills Baron Meigel and poisons the lovers. Its essence is incorporeal, absolute evil in its purest form.

Koroviev-Fagot is the only person in Woland’s retinue. It is not entirely clear who became its prototype, but researchers trace its roots to the Aztec god Vitzliputzli, whose name is mentioned in Berlioz’s conversation with the Bezdomny. This is the god of war, to whom sacrifices were made, and according to the legends about Doctor Faustus, he is the spirit of hell and the first assistant of Satan. His name, carelessly pronounced by the chairman of MASSOLIT, is a signal for Woland’s appearance.

Behemoth is a werecat and Woland's favorite jester, whose image comes from the legends about the demon of gluttony and the mythological beast of the Old Testament. In I. Ya. Porfiryev’s study “Apocryphal Tales of Old Testament Persons and Events,” which was clearly familiar to Bulgakov, the sea monster Behemoth was mentioned, living together with Leviathan in the invisible desert “to the east of the garden where the chosen and righteous lived.” The author also gleaned information about Behemoth from the story of a certain Anne Desange, who lived in the 17th century and was possessed by seven devils, among which Behemoth, a demon from the rank of Thrones, is mentioned. This demon was depicted as a monster with an elephant's head, trunk and tusks. His hands were human, and his huge belly, short tail and thick hind legs were like those of a hippopotamus, which reminded him of his name.

Black Queen Margot

Margarita is often considered a model of femininity, a kind of Pushkin’s “Tatyana of the 20th century.” But the prototype of “Queen Margot” was clearly not a modest girl from the Russian hinterland. In addition to the obvious similarity of the heroine with the writer’s last wife, the novel emphasizes Margarita’s connection with two French queens. The first is the same “Queen Margot,” the wife of Henry IV, whose wedding turned into the bloody Night of St. Bartholomew. This event is mentioned on the way to Satan's Great Ball. The fat man, who recognized Margarita, calls her “bright Queen Margot” and babbles “some nonsense about the bloody wedding of his friend in Paris, Hessar.” Gessar is the Parisian publisher of Marguerite Valois's correspondence, whom Bulgakov made a participant in St. Bartholomew's Night. Another queen is also seen in the image of the heroine - Margarita of Navarre, who was one of the first French women writers, the author of the famous "Heptameron". Both ladies patronized writers and poets; Bulgakov’s Margarita loves her brilliant writer - the Master.

Moscow – Yershalaim

One of the most interesting mysteries of The Master and Margarita is the time when the events take place. There is not a single absolute date in the novel from which one can count. The action dates back to Holy Week from the first to the seventh of May 1929. This dating provides a parallel with the world of the “Pilate Chapters”, which took place in Yershalaim in the year 29 or 30 during the week that later became Holy Week. “The same apocalyptic weather stands over Moscow in 1929 and Yershalaim on the 29th, the same darkness is approaching the city of sin like a thunderstorm wall, the same Easter full moon floods the alleys of Old Testament Yershalaim and New Testament Moscow.” In the first part of the novel, both of these stories develop in parallel, in the second, more and more intertwined, in the end they merge together, gaining integrity and moving from our world to the other world.

Influence of Gustav Meyrink

The ideas of Gustav Meyrink, whose works appeared in Russia at the beginning of the 20th century, had a huge impact on Bulgakov. In the novel by the Austrian expressionist “The Golem,” the main character, master Anastasius Pernat, is reunited in the finale with his beloved Miriam “at the wall of the last lantern,” on the border of the real and otherworldly worlds. The connection with The Master and Margarita is obvious. Let us recall the famous aphorism of Bulgakov’s novel: “Manuscripts do not burn.” Most likely, it goes back to “The White Dominican”, where it is said: “Yes, of course, the truth does not burn and cannot be trampled on.” It also tells about the inscription above the altar, because of which the icon of the Mother of God falls. Just like the burnt manuscript of the master, reviving Woland from oblivion, who restores the true story of Yeshua, the inscription symbolizes the connection of truth not only with God, but also with the devil.

In “The Master and Margarita,” as in Meyrink’s “The White Dominican,” the main thing for the heroes is not the goal, but the process of the journey itself—development. But the meaning of this path is different for writers. Gustav, like his heroes, sought it in his creativity; Bulgakov strove to achieve a certain “esoteric” absolute, the essence of the universe.

Last manuscript

The last edition of the novel, which subsequently reached the reader, was started in 1937. The author continued to work with her until his death. Why couldn't he finish the book he'd been writing for a dozen years? Perhaps he believed that he was not sufficiently informed about the issue he was taking on, and his understanding of Jewish demonology and early Christian texts was amateurish? Be that as it may, the novel practically “sucked out” the life of the author. The last correction he made on February 13, 1940 was Margarita’s phrase: “So this means that the writers are going after the coffin?” A month later he died. Bulgakov’s last words addressed to the novel were: “So that they know, so that they know...”.

His nerves gave way, as they say, and Rimsky did not wait for the protocol to be completed and ran to his office. He sat at the table and with sore eyes looked at the magic ducats lying in front of him. The financial director's mind went beyond reason. There was a steady hum from outside. The audience poured out of the Variety building into the street in streams. The financial director's extremely heightened hearing suddenly heard a distinct police trill. By itself, it never promises anything pleasant. And when it was repeated and another, more authoritative and prolonged, came to her aid, and then a clearly audible guffaw and even some kind of hooting joined in, the findirector immediately realized that something else scandalous and dirty had happened on the street. And that this, no matter how much one would like to dismiss it, is in close connection with the disgusting session carried out by the black magician and his assistants. The sensitive financial director was not at all mistaken.

As soon as he looked out the window overlooking Sadovaya, his face twisted, and he did not whisper, but hissed:

I knew it!

In the bright light of the strongest street lamps, he saw on the sidewalk below him a lady in only a shirt and purple trousers. The lady, however, had a hat on her head and an umbrella in her hands.

Around this lady, who was in a state of complete confusion, now crouching, now trying to run somewhere, the crowd was worried, emitting the same laughter that sent a chill down the back of the findirector. A citizen was rushing about near the lady, tearing off his summer coat and, out of excitement, unable to cope with the sleeve in which his hand was stuck.

Screams and roaring laughter came from another place - namely from the left entrance, and, turning his head there, Grigory Danilovich saw the second lady, in pink lingerie. She jumped from the pavement onto the sidewalk, trying to hide in the entrance, but the flowing public blocked her path, and the poor victim of her frivolity and passion for outfits, deceived by the damned Fagot's company, dreamed of only one thing - to fall through the ground. The policeman rushed towards the unfortunate woman, whistling through the air, and some cheerful young men in caps hurried after the policeman. It was they who emitted this same laughter and hooting.

A mustachioed, thin reckless driver flew up to the first undressed one and brought down the bony, broken horse with a flourish. The mustache's face grinned happily.

Rimsky hit himself on the head with his fist, spat and jumped away from the window.

He sat for a while at the table, listening to the street. The whistling at different points reached its highest intensity, and then began to subside. The scandal, to Rimsky’s surprise, was liquidated somehow unexpectedly quickly.

The time had come to act; I had to drink the bitter cup of responsibility. The devices were fixed during the third section, it was necessary to call, report what had happened, ask for help, make excuses, blame everything on Likhodeev, shield yourself, and so on. Ugh you devil! Twice the frustrated director put his hand on the phone and twice took it off. And suddenly, in the dead silence of the office, the device itself burst out ringing right in the findirector’s face, and he shuddered and went cold. “However, my nerves are very upset,” he thought and picked up the phone. He immediately recoiled from her and became whiter than paper. A quiet, at the same time insinuating and depraved female voice whispered into the phone:

Don’t call, Rimsky, don’t call anywhere, it will be bad.

The tube was immediately empty. Feeling a shiver in his back, the findirector hung up the phone and for some reason looked back at the window behind him. Through the sparse and still weakly covered with green branches of the maple, he saw the moon running in a transparent cloud. For some reason, chained to the branches, Rimsky looked at them, and the more he looked, the stronger and stronger the fear seized him.

Making an effort, the findirector finally turned away from the moonlit window and stood up. There could be no more talk about calling, and now the findirector was thinking about only one thing - how he could leave the theater as quickly as possible.

He listened: the theater building was silent. Rimsky realized that he had long been alone on the entire second floor, and a childish, irresistible fear took possession of him at this thought. Without a shudder he could not think about the fact that he would now have to walk alone along empty corridors and down the stairs. He feverishly grabbed the hypnotist's ducats from the table, hid them in his briefcase and coughed to cheer himself up at least a little. The cough came out hoarse and weak.

And here it seemed to him that a putrid dampness suddenly wafted from under the office door. A shiver ran down the findirector's spine. And then suddenly the clock struck and began to strike midnight. And even the battle caused trembling in the financial director. But his heart finally sank when he heard an English key quietly turning in the door lock. Clutching the briefcase with wet, cold hands, the findirector felt that if this rustling in the well continued a little longer, he would not be able to stand it and would scream shrilly.

Finally, the door gave way to someone’s efforts, opened, and Varenukha silently entered the office. Rimsky stood and sat down in a chair, because his legs gave way. Taking a deep breath into his chest, he smiled as if an ingratiating smile and said quietly:

God, how you scared me!

Yes, this sudden appearance could frighten anyone, and yet at the same time it was a great joy. At least one tip has poked out in this complicated matter.

Well, speak quickly! Well! Well! - Rimsky wheezed, clinging to this tip, - what does all this mean?

And Varenukha, without taking off his cap, walked to the chair and sat down on the other side of the table.

It must be said that in Varenukha’s answer there was a slight oddity that immediately pricked the financial director, whose sensitivity could rival the seismograph of any of the best stations in the world. How so? Why did Varenukha go to the financial director’s office if he believed that he was not there? After all, he has his own office. This is one time. And secondly: no matter from which entrance Varenukha entered the building, he inevitably had to meet one of the night guards, and it was announced to everyone that Grigory Danilovich would be staying in his office for some time.

But the financial director did not think long about this oddity. There was no time for that.

Why did not you call? What does all this parsley and Yalta mean?

Well, what I said,” the administrator answered, smacking his lips as if he was bothered by a bad tooth, “they found him in a tavern in Pushkin.”

Like in Pushkin?! Is this near Moscow? And the telegram from Yalta?

What the hell is Yalta! He got the Pushkin telegraph operator drunk, and both of them began to misbehave, including sending telegrams marked “Yalta.”

Yeah... Yeah... Well, okay, okay... - Rimsky didn’t say, but sort of sang. His eyes glowed with a yellow light. A festive picture of Styopa’s dismissal from work formed in my head. Liberation! The long-awaited release of the financial director from this disaster in the person of Likhodeev! Or maybe Stepan Bogdanovich will achieve something worse than removal... - Details! - said Rimsky, hitting the paperweight on the table.

And Varenukha began to tell the details. As soon as he arrived where he had been sent by the financial director, he was immediately received and listened to most attentively. No one, of course, even thought that Styopa could be in Yalta. Everyone immediately agreed with Varenukha’s assumption that Likhodeev, of course, was in Pushkin’s “Yalta”.

Where is he now? - the excited financial director interrupted the administrator.

“Well, where should he be,” the administrator answered with a wry grin, “naturally, in the sobering-up station.”

Oh well! Ay, thanks!

And Varenukha continued his story. And the more he narrated, the more vividly the long chain of Likhodeev’s rudeness and disgrace unfolded before the findirector, and every subsequent link in this chain was worse than the previous one. What was it worth even to drunkenly dance in an embrace with a telegraph operator on the lawn in front of the Pushkin telegraph office to the sounds of some loitering harmonica! Chasing after some civilians screaming in horror! An attempt to fight with a barman in Yalta itself! Scattering green onions on the floor of the same "Yalta". Breaking eight bottles of dry white Ai-Danil. The taxi driver's meter breaks down because he didn't want to give Styopa a car. Threat to arrest citizens who tried to stop Stepin's disgrace. In a word, dark horror.

Styopa was widely known in Moscow theater circles, and everyone knew that this man was not a gift. But still, what the administrator said about him was too much even for Styopa. Yes, too much. Even very much...

Rimsky's prickly eyes pierced the administrator's face across the table, and the further he spoke, the darker these eyes became. The more life-like and colorful the vile details with which the administrator filled his story became... the less the findirector believed the storyteller. When Varenukha reported that Styopa had become so reckless that he tried to resist those who came for him to return him to Moscow, the financial director already knew for sure that everything that the administrator who returned at midnight was telling him was all a lie! A lie from the first to the last word.

Varenukha did not go to Pushkino, and Styopa himself was not in Pushkin either. There was no drunk telegraph operator, there was no broken glass in the tavern, Styopa was not tied up with ropes... - none of this happened.

As soon as the findirector became convinced that the administrator was lying to him, fear crawled through his body, starting from his feet, and twice again it seemed to the findirector that a rotten, malarial dampness was creeping across the floor. Not for a moment taking his eyes off the administrator, who was somehow strangely writhing in his chair, all the time trying not to leave from under the blue shadow of the table lamp, somehow surprisingly hiding himself from the light of the light bulb that was disturbing him with a newspaper, the findirector thought of only one thing, What does all this mean? Why does the administrator who returned to him too late lie to him so brazenly in a deserted and silent building? And the consciousness of danger, an unknown but formidable danger, began to torment the findirector’s soul. Pretending not to notice the administrator’s evasions and tricks with the newspaper, the findirector examined his face, almost no longer listening to what Varenukha was weaving. There was something that seemed even more inexplicable than the for some unknown reason invented slanderous story about adventures in Pushkin, and this something was a change in the appearance and manners of the administrator.

No matter how he pulled the duck visor of his cap over his eyes to cast a shadow on his face, no matter how he twirled the newspaper sheet, the findirector managed to see a huge bruise on the right side of his face, right next to his nose. In addition, the usually full-blooded administrator was now pale with a chalky, unhealthy pallor, and for some reason an old striped muffler was wrapped around his neck on the stuffy night. If we add to this the disgusting manner of sucking and smacking that the administrator developed during his absence, a sharp change in his voice that became dull and rude, thievery and cowardice in his eyes, one could safely say that Ivan Savelyevich Varenukha became unrecognizable.

Something else was disturbing the findirector, but what exactly, he could not understand, no matter how much he strained his inflamed brain, no matter how much he peered at Varenukha. One thing he could claim was that there was something unprecedented, unnatural in this connection between the administrator and a well-known chair.

Well, we finally overcame him and loaded him into the car,” Varenukha boomed, peeking out from behind the sheet and covering the bruise with his palm.

Rimsky suddenly extended his hand and, as if mechanically with his palm, at the same time playing with his fingers on the table, pressed the button for the electric bell and froze.

In an empty building, a sharp signal would certainly be heard. But there was no signal, and the button sank lifelessly into the table board. The button was dead, the call was ruined.

The findirector’s cunning did not escape Varenukha, who asked, shuddering, and a clearly evil fire flashed in his eyes:

Why are you calling?

Mechanically,” the findirector answered dully, pulled his hand back and, in turn, asked in an unsteady voice: “What is that on your face?”

The car skidded and hit the door handle,” Varenukha answered, looking away.

"Lies!" - the findirector exclaimed mentally. And then suddenly his eyes widened and became completely crazy, and he stared at the back of the chair.

Behind the chair, on the floor, lay two crossed shadows, one thicker and blacker, the other weak and gray. The shadow back of the chair and its pointed legs were clearly visible on the floor, but above the back on the floor there was no shadow head of Varenukha, just as there were no legs of the administrator under the legs.

"It doesn't cast shadows!" - Rimsky cried out desperately in his mind. A shiver hit him.

Varenukha looked around furtively, following Rimsky’s mad gaze, behind the back of the chair and realized that it was open.

He rose from his chair (the financial director did the same) and took a step away from the table, clutching his briefcase in his hands.

You guessed it, damn it! “I’ve always been smart,” Varenukha said, grinning viciously right in the findirector’s face, suddenly jumped from his chair to the door and quickly pulled down the button of the English lock. The findirector looked around desperately, retreating to the window leading to the garden, and in this window, flooded by the moon, he saw the face of a naked girl pressed to the glass and her bare hand, sticking through the window and trying to open the lower bolt. The top one was already open.

It seemed to Rimsky that the light in the table lamp was going out and that the desk was tilting. Rimsky was hit by an icy wave, but, fortunately for himself, he overcame himself and did not fall. The rest of my strength was enough to whisper, but not shout:

Help...

Varenukha, guarding the door, jumped up near it, getting stuck in the air for a long time and swaying in it. He waved his crooked fingers towards Rimsky, hissed and smacked his lips, winking at the girl in the window.

She hurried, stuck her red head into the window, extended her arm as far as she could, began to scratch the lower latch with her nails and shake the frame. Her hand began to lengthen, like rubber, and became covered with corpse green. Finally, the green fingers of the dead woman grabbed the head of the latch, turned it, and the frame began to open. Rimsky cried out weakly, leaned against the wall and put his briefcase forward like a shield. He understood that his death had come.

The frame opened wide, but instead of the night freshness and aroma of linden trees, the smell of the cellar burst into the room. The deceased stepped onto the windowsill. Rimsky clearly saw spots of decay on her chest.

And at that time, the joyful, unexpected cry of a rooster came from the garden, from that low building behind the shooting range where the birds participating in the programs were kept. A loud, trained rooster trumpeted, announcing that dawn was rolling toward Moscow from the east.

Wild rage distorted the girl’s face, she let out a hoarse curse, and Varenukha squealed at the door and fell out of the air onto the floor.

The rooster crowed again, the girl clicked her teeth, and her red hair stood on end. With the third crow of the rooster, she turned and flew out. And after her, jumping up and stretching out horizontally in the air, resembling a flying Cupid, Varenukha slowly floated out the window through the desk.

An old man, gray as snow, without a single black hair, who had recently been Rimsky, ran to the door, unfastened the button, opened the door and rushed to run along the dark corridor. At the turn to the stairs, groaning in fear, he groped for the switch, and the stairs lit up. On the stairs, the shaking, trembling old man fell, because it seemed to him that Varenukha had softly fallen on him from above.

Having run downstairs, Rimsky saw the attendant who had fallen asleep on a chair at the cash desk in the lobby. Rimsky tiptoed past him and slipped out the main door. On the street he felt somewhat better. He came to his senses so much that, clutching his head, he managed to realize that his hat had remained in the office.

It goes without saying that he did not return for her, but, out of breath, ran across the wide street to the opposite corner near the cinema, near which a reddish dim light loomed. A minute later he was already near him. No one had time to intercept the car.

To the Leningrad courier, I’ll give you a tip,” the old man said, breathing heavily and holding his heart.

“I’m going to the garage,” the driver answered with hatred and turned away.

Then Rimsky unzipped his briefcase, pulled out fifty rubles and handed them through the open front window to the driver.

A few moments later, the rattling car, like a whirlwind, flew along the Sadovaya ring. The rider was tossing about in the seat, and in the fragment of the mirror hung in front of the driver, Rimsky saw either the driver’s joyful eyes or his own crazy ones.

Jumping out of the car in front of the station building, Rimsky shouted to the first person he came across in a white apron and with a badge:

The man with the badge, looking back at the glowing watch, tore the chervonets from Rimsky’s hands.

Five minutes later, the courier disappeared from under the glass dome of the station and completely disappeared into the darkness. Rimsky also disappeared with him.

70 years ago, on February 13, 1940, Mikhail Bulgakov finished the novel “The Master and Margarita.” RIA Novosti offers a summary of the novel.

The work contains two storylines, each of which develops independently. The action of the first takes place in Moscow over several May days (days of the spring full moon) in the 30s. of our century, the action of the second also takes place in May, but in the city of Yershalaim (Jerusalem) almost two thousand years ago - at the very beginning of the new era. The novel is structured in such a way that the chapters of the main storyline are interspersed with chapters that make up the second storyline, and these inserted chapters are either chapters from the master’s novel or an eyewitness account of Woland’s events.

On one hot May day, a certain Woland appears in Moscow, posing as a specialist in black magic, but in reality he is Satan. He is accompanied by a strange retinue: the pretty witch Gella, the cheeky type Koroviev or Fagot, the gloomy and sinister Azazello and the cheerful fat man Behemoth, who for the most part appears before the reader in the guise of a black cat of incredible size.

The first to meet Woland at Patriarch's Ponds are the editor of a thick art magazine, Mikhail Aleksandrovich Berlioz, and the poet Ivan Bezdomny, who wrote an anti-religious poem about Jesus Christ. Woland intervenes in their conversation, claiming that Christ really existed. As proof that there is something beyond the control of man, Woland predicts a terrible death for Berlioz under the wheels of a tram. In front of the shocked Ivan, Berlioz immediately falls under a tram, Ivan unsuccessfully tries to pursue Woland, and then, appearing at Massolit (Moscow Literary Association), he sets out the sequence of events so confusingly that he is taken to the country psychiatric clinic of Professor Stravinsky, where he meets the head the hero of the novel is a master.

Woland, having appeared at apartment No. 50 of building 302 bis on Sadovaya Street, which the late Berlioz occupied together with the director of the Variety Theater Stepan Likhodeev, and finding the latter in a state of severe hangover, presented him with a contract signed by him, Likhodeev, for Woland’s performance in the theater, and then kicks him out of the apartment, and Styopa inexplicably ends up in Yalta.

Koroviev appears to Nikanor Ivanovich Bosom, the chairman of the housing association at building No. 302-bis, and asks to rent out apartment No. 50 to Woland, since Berlioz died and Likhodeev is in Yalta. Nikanor Ivanovich, after much persuasion, agrees and receives from Koroviev, in addition to the payment stipulated by the contract, 400 rubles, which he hides in the ventilation. On the same day, they come to Nikanor Ivanovich with an arrest warrant for possession of currency, since these rubles have turned into dollars. The stunned Nikanor Ivanovich ends up in the same clinic of Professor Stravinsky.

At this time, the financial director of the Variety Rimsky and the administrator Varenukha are unsuccessfully trying to find the disappeared Likhodeev by phone and are perplexed when they receive telegrams from him one after another from Yalta asking him to send money and confirm his identity, since he was abandoned in Yalta by the hypnotist Woland. Deciding that this is Likhodeev’s stupid joke, Rimsky, having collected the telegrams, sends Varenukha to take them “where they need to be,” but Varenukha fails to do this: Azazello and Koroviev, taking him by the arms, deliver Varenukha to apartment No. 50, and from the kiss he is naked The witch Gella Varenukha faints.

In the evening, a performance begins on the stage of the Variety Theater with the participation of the great magician Woland and his retinue. Bassoon, with a pistol shot, causes money to rain in the theater, and the entire audience catches the falling chervonets. Then a “ladies’ shop” opens on stage, where any woman sitting in the audience can dress from head to toe for free. A line immediately forms at the store, but at the end of the performance the chervonets turn into pieces of paper, and everything purchased in the “ladies’ store” disappears without a trace, forcing gullible women to rush through the streets in their underwear.

After the performance, Rimsky lingers in his office, and Varenukha, transformed by Gella’s kiss into a vampire, comes to him. Seeing that he does not cast a shadow, mortally frightened, the instantly gray-haired Rimsky rushes to the station in a taxi and leaves for Leningrad by courier train.

Meanwhile, Ivan Bezdomny, having met the master, tells him about how he met a strange foreigner who killed Misha Berlioz; the master explains to Ivan that he met Satan at the Patriarch's, and tells Ivan about himself. His beloved Margarita called him a master. Being a historian by training, he was working in one of the museums, when suddenly he unexpectedly won a huge sum - one hundred thousand rubles. He left his job at the museum, rented two rooms in a small house in one of the Arbat alleys and began writing a novel about Pontius Pilate. The novel was almost over when he accidentally met Margarita on the street, and love struck them both instantly. Margarita was married to a worthy man, lived with him in a mansion on Arbat, but did not love him. Every day she came to the master, the romance was nearing its end, and they were happy. Finally, the novel was completed, and the master took it to the magazine, but they refused to publish it there, however, several devastating articles about the novel appeared in the newspapers, signed by critics Ariman, Latunsky and Lavrovich. And then the master felt that he was getting sick. One night he threw the novel into the oven, but the alarmed Margarita came running and snatched the last bundle of sheets from the fire. She left, taking the manuscript with her in order to say goodbye to her husband with dignity and return to her beloved forever in the morning, but a quarter of an hour after she left, there was a knock on his window - telling Ivan her story, at this point he lowers his voice to a whisper - and so A few months later, on a winter night, he arrived at his home, found his rooms occupied and went to a new country clinic, where he had been living for four months, without a name or surname, just a patient from room No. 118.

This morning Margarita wakes up with a feeling that something is about to happen. Wiping away tears, she sorts through the sheets of the burnt manuscript, looks at the master’s photograph, and then goes for a walk in the Alexander Garden. Here Azazello sits down with her and conveys Woland’s invitation to her - she is assigned the role of queen at Satan’s annual ball. In the evening of the same day, Margarita, stripping naked, rubs her body with the cream that Azazello gave her, becomes invisible and flies out the window. Flying past the writer's house, Margarita causes destruction in the apartment of the critic Latunsky, who, in her opinion, killed the master. Then Margarita is met by Azazello and takes her to apartment No. 50, where she meets Woland and the rest of his retinue.

At midnight, the spring full moon ball begins - Satan's great ball, to which informers, executioners, molesters, murderers - criminals of all times and peoples - are invited; the men appear in tailcoats, the women naked. For several hours, naked Margarita greets guests, exposing her knee for a kiss. Finally, the ball is over, and Woland asks Margarita what she wants as a reward for being his ball hostess. And Margarita asks to immediately return the master to her. The master immediately appears in a hospital robe, and Margarita, after consulting with him, asks Woland to return them to the small house on Arbat, where they were happy.

Meanwhile, one Moscow institution begins to become interested in the strange events taking place in the city, and they all line up into a logically clear whole: the mysterious foreigner of Ivan Bezdomny, and a session of black magic at the Variety Show, and Nikanor Ivanovich’s dollars, and the disappearance of Rimsky and Likhodeev. It becomes clear that all this is the work of the same gang, led by a mysterious magician, and all traces of this gang lead to apartment No. 50.

Let us now turn to the second plot line of the novel. In the palace of Herod the Great, the procurator of Judea, Pontius Pilate, interrogates the arrested Yeshua Ha-Nozri, to whom the Sanhedrin sentenced him to death for insulting the authority of Caesar, and this sentence is sent for approval to Pilate. Interrogating the arrested man, Pilate understands that this is not a robber who incited the people to disobedience, but a wandering philosopher preaching the kingdom of truth and justice. However, the Roman procurator cannot release a man accused of a crime against Caesar, and approves the death sentence. Then he turns to the Jewish high priest Caiaphas, who, in honor of the upcoming Passover holiday, can release one of the four criminals sentenced to execution; Pilate asks that it be Ha-Nozri. However, Kaifa refuses him and releases the robber Bar-Rabban. At the top of Bald Mountain there are three crosses on which the condemned were crucified. After the crowd of onlookers who accompanied the procession to the place of execution returned to the city, only Yeshua’s disciple Levi Matvey, a former tax collector, remains on Bald Mountain. The executioner stabs the exhausted convicts to death, and a sudden downpour falls on the mountain.

The procurator calls Afranius, the head of his secret service, and instructs him to kill Judas of Kiriath, who received money from the Sanhedrin for allowing Yeshua Ha-Nozri to be arrested in his house. Soon, a young woman named Nisa allegedly accidentally meets Judas in the city and makes an appointment for him outside the city in the Garden of Gethsemane, where he is attacked by unknown assailants, stabbed to death and robbed of his wallet with money. After some time, Afranius reports to Pilate that Judas was stabbed to death, and a bag of money - thirty tetradrachms - was thrown into the high priest's house.

Levi Matthew is brought to Pilate, who shows the procurator a parchment with the sermons of Ha-Nozri recorded by him. “The most serious vice is cowardice,” reads the procurator.

But let's return to Moscow. At sunset, on the terrace of one of the Moscow buildings, Woland and his retinue say goodbye to the city. Suddenly Matvey Levi appears, who invites Woland to take the master to himself and reward him with peace. “Why don’t you take him into the world?” - Woland asks. “He didn’t deserve light, he deserved peace,” answers Matvey Levi. After some time, Azazello appears in the house of Margarita and the master and brings a bottle of wine - a gift from Woland. After drinking wine, the master and Margarita fall unconscious; At the same moment, turmoil begins in the house of grief: the patient from room No. 118 died; and at that very moment, in a mansion on the Arbat, a young woman suddenly turns pale, clutching her heart, and falls to the floor.

Magic black horses carry away Woland, his retinue, Margarita and the master. “Your novel has been read,” Woland says to the master, “and I would like to show you your hero. For about two thousand years he has been sitting on this platform and sees a lunar road in a dream and wants to walk along it and talk with a wandering philosopher. You can now end the novel with one sentence.” “Free! He is waiting for you!" - the master shouts, and over the black abyss an immense city with a garden lights up, to which a lunar road stretches, and the procurator quickly runs along this road.

"Farewell!" - Woland shouts; Margarita and the master walk across the bridge over the stream, and Margarita says: “Here is your eternal home, in the evening those you love will come to you, and at night I will take care of your sleep.”

And in Moscow, after Woland left her, the investigation into the criminal gang continues for a long time, but the measures taken to capture it do not yield results. Experienced psychiatrists come to the conclusion that the gang members were hypnotists of unprecedented power. Several years pass, the events of those May days begin to be forgotten, and only Professor Ivan Nikolaevich Ponyrev, the former poet Bezdomny, every year, as soon as the spring holiday full moon comes, appears on the Patriarch's Ponds and sits on the same bench where he first met Woland, and then, walking along the Arbat, he returns home and sees the same dream, in which Margarita, the master, Yeshua Ha-Nozri, and the cruel fifth procurator of Judea, horseman Pontius Pilate, come to him.

Material provided by the internet portal briefly.ru, compiled by N.V. Soboleva