• MIKHAIL AFANASYEVICH BULGAKOV, THE WHITE GUARD (БЕЛАЯ ГВАРДИЯ): KIEV/KYIV, 1918-1919„...no other city in the world is more beautiful…” said Bulgakov

    Author(s):
    Juan-Carlos Herken-Krauer (see profile)
    Date:
    2022
    Subject(s):
    Russia, History, Russian literature, Ukraine
    Item Type:
    Blog Post
    Tag(s):
    Juan Carlos Herken, Mikhail Bulgakov, Russian history, Ukrainian history
    Permanent URL:
    https://doi.org/10.17613/s9rj-pm77
    Abstract:
    A personal reappraisal of the first major work of the Russian writer Mikhail Afanasyevich Bulgakov (Михаил Афанасьевич Булгаков), (*1891-†1940), The White Guard, rooted in the years spent by the author of this essay in Kiev/Kyiv between 1998-2001, and confronting the original Russian text with a German translation of it. Although the novel is based on the tumultuous months between the end of 1918 and the beginning of 1919, Bulgakov uses the turmoil of the “civil-war” to reflect on the past and the future of Russia, accompanied by similar cogitations of other major Russian writers. Notwithstanding the evident purpose of capturing through literature the anguish, the dreams and nightmares of people caught in a civil-war, we argue that this novel is, above all, a “love-song” to Kiev/Kyiv, his city-of-birth. That “City”, which is never mentioned by name, seems to be the most alive being in the universe, offering light, rescue and hope, in spite of everything.
    Metadata:
    xml
    Status:
    Published
    Last Updated:
    12 months ago
    License:
    Attribution

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