 |
The Master's Basement Apartment   completely private apartment--During NEP private individuals were allowed to own and build small buildings. The apartment Bulgakov describes is that of Sergei and Vladimir Topleninov at Mansurovsky per. 9, where his friends the Yermolinskys rented a room (Miagkov 172ff). They recall that he worked by candlelight on the novel there while the stove crackled. There were indeed lilacs and lindens not far from the basement windows. Bulgakov's second wife thinks it refers to the apartment of Pavel Sergeevich Popov (1892-1964) at Plotnikov per. 10 (Ianovskaia, Tvorcheskii put', 298-99)--the latter is indeed closer to the Arbat, though the 6 storey building is hardly a "small house in a garden." Both Popov and Sergei Topleninov were arrested in the 30s. The house was build in the 1830s.
|
