1928

21st February 1928

Addendum to the Application of M.A. Bulgakov
to the Department of Administration,
Moscow City Council

Purpose of Travel Abroad

I wish to travel so that I can call to account Zakhar Leontievich Kagansky, who has claimed while abroad to have acquired from me the rights for The Days of the Turbins, on the basis of which he has published the play in German, secured the rights for America and so on and so forth.

Kagansky (together with other individuals) has moved at top speed to take advantage of my name as a writer, thereby placing me in an extremely difficult position. That is why I need to go to Berlin.

I wish to go to Paris to conduct negotiations with the Théâtre des Mathurins concerning the production of The Days of the Turbins, as well as with the Société des Auteurs Dramatiques, of which I am a member.

I request that permission be granted for my wife to accompany me as my interpreter. Without her it will be extremely difficult for me to carry out all that I have to do (I don’t speak any German).

In Paris I intend to get to know the city so that I can best stage the production of my play Escape* that has now been accepted by the Moscow Arts Theatre (Act 5 of Escape takes place in Paris).

My trip abroad will definitely take no longer than two months, after which I have to be in Moscow (for the production of Escape).

I hope that permission to travel abroad on the important business that I have so conscientiously set out here will not be refused.

M. Bulgakov, 21/2/1928
Moscow
Bolshaya Pirogovskaya Street 35a, Apartment 6
Telephone: 2-03-27

PS: The refusal to grant me permission to travel abroad would seriously jeopardize my future work as a playwright.

27th September

To Yevgeny Zamyatin*

Dear Yevgeny Ivanovich!

I have delayed replying to your letter this time precisely because I wanted to reply to it as soon as possible.

Over the course of two weeks I have added thirteen more pages of ‘The Première’* to the seven that have been lying untouched in my top drawer. And yesterday, in the very same stove in my apartment by which you have sat many times, I burnt all twenty closely written pages, after correcting any mistakes.

It’s good I came to my senses in time.

There can be no talk at all about sending a work such as this for publication while those close to me are still alive.

I’m glad I didn’t send it. Please forgive me for not doing as I promised I would. I can say with certainty that you wouldn’t have published it under any circumstances.

That’s the end of ‘The Première’.

And, more generally, it seems that all my incursions into the field of belles-lettres have stopped.

But that’s not the problem; the problem is that I have neglected my business correspondence.

I’m simply a hopeless case.

As well as the love I feel for you after your congratulations I also have a feeling of (reverential) awe.

You congratulated me two weeks before permission was given for The Crimson Island to be staged.*

In other words you are a prophet.

As for the permission, I don’t know what to say. I’ve finished Escape and submitted it.

But, in the meantime, permission has been given for The Crimson Island.

Total mystery.

Who? What? Why? What for?

My brain has become enveloped in the densest fog.

I hope you will keep me in your prayers!

Greetings also to Lyudmila Nikolayevna.*

The old boy* has been staying with us. We reminisced about our trip to the coast. Oh, what a ravishing city Leningrad is!

Yours,                 

Mikhail Bulgakov

8th October

To the Ladyzhnikov Publishing House in Berlin

I hereby give permission to the Ladyschnikow Publishing House for the translation of my play Zoyka’s Apartment into German, the inclusion of this play in their list and the protection of my rights as an author on the conditions set out in the letter from the Ladyschnikow Publishing House that was sent to me on 3rd October 1928.

I would like to inform you that I have never granted the rights to this play either to Mr Livshits or to Mr Kagansky. The play has not been published in Russia.

I consent to the Ladyzhnikov Publishing House prosecuting those individuals who have been illegally exploiting my work Zoyka’s Apartment, according to the conditions set out in the letter of 3rd October 1928 from the Ladyzhnikov Publishing House which agreed to accept the responsibility for any legal expenses.

I will send the legal power of attorney as soon as it has been prepared.

With the sincerest respect,

Mikhail Bulgakov

Mikhail Afanasyevich Bulgakov

Bolshaya Pirogovskaya Street 35a, Apartment 6, Moscow.