La guardia bianca

by Mikhail Bulgakov, Serena Prina (Translator)

Il romanzo che diede a Bulgakov celebrità in vita, prima della fama universale postuma raggiunta con Il maestro e Margherita. Tutto ruota attorno alle vicende dei tre fratelli Turbin (Aleksej, Nikolka ed Elena) nella tempestosa Kiev del convulso inverno 1919-1920. La città è nelle mani dell’avventuriero Simon Petljura ma si trova anche nella morsa di un duplice accerchiamento, quello dell’atamano (cosacco) Shoropadskij e dei bolscevichi. Le avventure dei fratelli Turbin si susseguono fra malattie, guarigioni miracolose, preghiere, eroismi, fughe, divorzi, amori e amicizie. Sullo sfondo, tratteggiata con rapidità futurista ma allo stesso tempo con potente afflato epico, la Storia di una nazione e di un popolo fotografati in un momento decisivo.

Genres: Fiction, Classics, Russia, Russian Literature, Historical Fiction, Literature, War

429 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1924

About the author

Mikhail Afanasyevich Bulgakov (Russian: Михаил Булгаков) was a Russian writer, medical doctor, and playwright. His novel The Master and Margarita , published posthumously, has been called one of the masterpieces of the 20th century.

He also wrote the novel The White Guard and the plays Ivan Vasilievich, Flight (also called The Run ), and The Days of the Turbins . He wrote mostly about the horrors of the Russian Civil War and about the fate of Russian intellectuals and officers of the Tsarist Army caught up in revolution and Civil War.

Some of his works ( Flight , all his works between the years 1922 and 1926, and others) were banned by the Soviet government, and personally by Joseph Stalin, after it was decided by them that they "glorified emigration and White generals". On the other hand, Stalin loved The Days of the Turbins (also called The Turbin Brothers ) very much and reportedly saw it at least 15 times.

Reviews

[Vit Babenco · Rating 5 out of 5]

“And the third angel poured out his vial upon the rivers and fountains of waters; and they became blood.” Revelation 16:4
A hellish pandemonium reigns all around… And the heroes of the book dwell in the land of delusions… And their story begins with the party… And this party is like a feast at the time of plague…

‘Russia acknowledges only one Orthodox faith and one Tsar!’ shouted Myshlaevsky, swaying.
‘Right!’
‘Week ago... at the theater… went to see Paul the First’, Myshlaevsky mumbled thickly, ‘and when the actor said those words I couldn’t keep quiet and I shouted out “Right!” – and d’you know what? Everyone clapped. All except some swine in the upper circle who yelled “Idiot!”’
‘Damned Yids’, growled Karas, now almost equally drunk.
A thickening haze enveloped them all… Tonk-tank… tonk-tank… they had passed the point when there was any longer any sense in drinking more vodka, even wine; the only remaining stage was stupor or nausea. In the narrow little lavatory, where the lamp jerked and danced from the ceiling as though bewitched, everything went blurred and spun round and round. Pale and miserable, Myshlaevsky retched violently. Alexei Turbin, drunk himself, looking terrible with a twitching nerve on his cheek, his hair plastered damply over his forehead, supported Myshlaevsky.

And the innocent are doomed… And the meek inherit nothing… And those who go into the battle to defend their ideals die first…

‘Are you deaf? Run!’
Nikolka felt a strange wave of drunken ecstasy surge up from his stomach and for a moment his mouth went dry.
‘I don’t want to, colonel’, he replied in a blurred voice, squatted down, picked up the ammunition belt and began to feed it into the machine-gun.
Far away, from where the remnants of Nai-Turs’ squad had mine running, several mounted men pranced into view. Their horses seemed to be dancing beneath them as though playing some game, and the gray blades of their sabres could just be seen. Nai-Turs cocked the bolt, the machine-gun spat out a few rounds, stopped, spat again and then gave a long burst. Instantly bullets whined and ricocheted off the roofs of houses to right and left down the street. A few more mounted figures joined the first ones, but suddenly one of them was thrown sideways towards the window of a house, another’s horse reared on its hind legs to an astonishing height, almost to the level of the second-floor windows, and several more riders disappeared altogether. Then all the others vanished as though they had been swallowed up by the earth.
Nai-Turs dismantled the breech-block, and as he shook his fist at the sky his eyes blazed and he shouted:
‘Those swine at headquarters – run away and leave children to fight…!’

When on high they cut throats fighting for power, at the bottom all the vermin crawl out of cracks and start marauding, looting and killing.

[Ilenia Zodiaco · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Tutto passerà. Le sofferenze, i tormenti, il sangue, la fame e la pestilenza. La spada sparirà, ma le stelle resteranno anche quando le ombre dei nostri corpi e delle nostre opere non saranno più sulla terra. Non c'è uomo che non lo sappia. Perché dunque non vogliamo rivolgere lo sguardo alle stelle? Perché?"

Fino alle due e mezza di stanotte, angosciatissima per Aleksej Vasil'evič Turbin, sconvolto dal tifo. Rimanere indifferenti a questo romanzo è impossibile. La famiglia Turbin, la Città (Kiev), il pigolare dei telefoni, il sonnambulismo dei soldati e il tiranno invisibile Petljura. Tutti questi elementi concorrono a creare un racconto melanconico sulla dissipazione di un'epoca (tanto da riportarmi alle atmosfere create da Roth ne "La cripta dei cappuccini") eppure intessuto di diavolerie stilistiche. Visionario e all'avanguardia il genio di Bulgakov, sferzante e impietoso. Per quanto il romanzo sia vivacizzato dall'estro dello scrittore, il lettore non viene risparmiato da quella vertigine terribile che si prova leggendo i severi romanzi di tradizione russa. La Guardia bianca è un romanzo fatto di occhi: "occhi a doppio fondo, occhi luttuosi, occhi folli e torbidi come quelli di un avvelenato, occhi dolenti, occhi inquieti e stralunati, occhi incassati". I destini miserabili dei protagonisti appartengono ai vinti, non ai vincitori. E la nobiltà d'animo di Nikolka, l'astro di Aleksej, la gentilezza e il coraggio di Elena, serviranno solo a resistere, non a rivalersi.
"Come un alveare a più piani, fumigava e rumoreggiava e viveva la Città", la Città presa, la Città perduta.

P.S. Alla luce dei tremendi avvenimenti che tempestano oggi l'Ucraina, questo romanzo si dimostra ancora di più portentoso.

[Steven Godin · Rating 4 out of 5]

After graduating from Kiev University, Mikhail Bulgakov would go on to decide his future lie in literature rather than practicing as a doctor, during which he witnessed the horrors of the Russian civil war. Bothered though by the censors and political unrest, Bulgakov would write to Stalin asking to be allowed to emigrate, if he couldn't make a living as a writer in the USSR. And the word goes Stalin actually phoned him up offering a job in the Moscow Arts Theatre instead. Similar to that of revolutionary writer Victor Serge, Bulgakov's work only saw the light of day posthumously.
Safe to say, thank god it did.

The White guard is certainly closer to non-fiction, and built on Bulgakov's own experiences during the turmoil and unpredictability of conflict. The story takes place in a snow covered Kiev, 1918, turning the spotlight on the once wealthy Turbin family. After their mother passes away, the three children of, doctor Alexei, the oldest, Elena, twenty four, and seventeen year old Nikolka face up the fact of a new regime, as Bolsheviks, Socialists and Germans fight for total control over the city. Elena's husband Captain Talberg would leave for battle, as the household enters a fragile and worrying time.
The city itself is vivid to the eyes, as confusion grows on the streets as to who is fighting with who?, through all it's unorganized chaos, Bulgakov does a grand job of showing just that, the chaos.
Nothing is ever perceived clear as to what is actually going on, in terms of leadership.

Bulgakov asserted that Kiev changed hands some 14 times in little over a year, and could have written an epic Tolstoyish novel that covers more ground, but this is more of a snapshot, a panoramic view, moving from character to character at regular intervals, and it's length pleased me fully. The departing German Imperial Army lead by the Hetman of Ukraine are replaced by opportunist leader Petlyura's supposed rise to power, whilst the Ukrainian nationalist movement along with the 'The White Guard' (supporters of the Tsar) jostle in the background. Both brothers Alexei and Nikolka are White Guard officers who place their lives in danger as change takes shape. There is no doubt Bulgakov pokes fun at both Petlyura and Hetman for their weak inabilities, and the sheer waste of life, youth and energy sacrificed in fighting. And Bulgakov seems to foresee tribulations yet to come.

The novel is very military Regarding the narrative, not all the time, but when things get going in terns of the different forces involved, Bulgakov clearly knows his stuff; corruption in rife, anti-Semitism is high, and the various armies struggle with personnel and supplies during some seriously cold weather. But the household of the Turbins still remains central to the story, which provides the humane touch, although it doesn't feature as often during the middle third, Elena waits for news on husband and one of the brothers who failed to return home, whilst friends of the family come and go, each with their own problems.
The Turbins do side with Tsar, but there isn't any reel political stance from Bulgakov's viewpoint,
as normal life is trying to continue, people get up for work, mingle out shopping, kids play out in the snow little realizing what's happening around them, and folk gather to talk rumours that spread like wildfire.

There are gaps in between the conflict where Bulgakov clearly shows his love for Kiev, the ancient cathedral sits graceful, the huge statue of Saint Vladimir overlooks the city holding aloft the cross, whilst a blanket of snow wistfully settles on the homes and buildings below, creating a whiteness through dark times. Bulgakov presents a glimpse of the fear, confusion and death that faced so many, and he does it exceptionally well.

The snow would melt, the grass would grow, and the sun would rise to dry the blood of battle....but sadly one hundred years on, not much has changed, divided territories are still the recipe for disaster, where loved ones will not be returning to loves ones, and all for what?

[Fernando · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Sí, la muerte no se hizo esperar. Llegó por los otoñales y luego invernales caminos de Ucrania junto con la seca y aventada nieve. Comenzó a traquetear en los bosques, en ametralladoras. Ella misma no era visible, pero manifiesta la áspera ira campesina que la precedía. Esta ira corría por la nevasca y el frío, con agujereadas alpargatas de líber, con heno sobre las cabezas descubiertas e inclinadas, y aullaba."

Mijaíl Bulgákov es uno de los mejores escritores de la literatura rusa. Paradójicamente, junto a Nikólai Gógol, es ucraniano. Ambos contribuyeron a la modernización de la literatura de Rusia y lograron una obra perdurable y que se lee aún hoy.
Bulgákov, que era médico, fue un escritor que vivió en el siglo XX, a la sombra de todo ese cambio tremendo que significó para la Rusia zarista el fin de su existencia a partir de la revolución bolchevique de 1917 y del terrorífico año 1918, que coincidía con el fin de la Primera Guerra Mundial y del desembarco de los comunistas que tiñeron de rojo (rojo comunista y rojo sangre) a toda la nación rusa y muy puntualmente a la capital de Ucrania, Kiev, conocida como la “madre de todas las ciudades rusas”.
Nacido en esa ciudad, Bulgákov desarrolla toda la historia de “La guardia blanca”, ambientándola en los sucesos de la invasión roja en Ucrania después del retiro de las fuerzas los alemanes, que mantenían su ocupación en tiempos de la Gran Guerra y de cómo todo este torbellino de sangre y muerte afecta a la familia de los hermanos Turbín –Elena, Alekséi y Nikolka- y de un grupo de amigos ante la noticia de saber que esta invasión está por llegar y de cómo se produce el cruento enfrentamiento de una guerra civil en el que se luchan los ejércitos rojo, blanco, polaco, ucraniano y aliado para tomar el control del país.
En un principio, Bulgákov comienza a contarnos las pequeñas historias personales del médico Alekséi Vasílievich Turbín, de su hermana Elena, que sobrelleva la desaparición de Serguéi Ivánovich Talberg y del más joven de la familia, el valiente e intrépido Nikolái ‘Nikolka’ Dobri Turbin.
Pero con la llegada del temible Petliura y de toda su tropa dispuesto a arrasar Kiev, todo rápidamente trastocará en sucesos de sangre, muerte y de verdaderas luchas por la supervivencia.
Caben destacar dos cuestiones en “La guardia blanca”. En primer lugar, la ambientación de todos los sucesos de la guerra civil en un crudo invierno, que de alguna manera se transforma en un personaje más.
Por otro lado, el logrado manejo que Bulgákov hace de los tres personajes principales. Sin entrar en una introspección psicológica profunda, nos hace compenetrarnos muy especialmente con las vivencias de Alekséi, que se enlista como médico del ejército contrarrevolucionario y de Nikolka, que con sus jóvenes 17 años decide también involucrarse en la lucha armada.
Por último, somos testigos de las vivencias de Elena, de la frustración y el abandono sufrido por parte de su marido y de pasar a vivir con el corazón en la boca debido a que sus hermanos pueden morir en cualquier instante.
Los turbulentos sucesos políticos ya sobre el fin del año 1918 son puestos en evidencia por el mismo narrador, que le da un rostro al Mal en dos pasajes del libro. En primer lugar en la afirmación "Hay que explicarle a los alemanes que nosotros no somos un peligro para ellos. Ahora ya está. ¡Hemos perdido la guerra! Ahora tenemos algo más terrible que la guerra, que la guerra, que todo el mundo. Tenemos a Trotski."
Sobre el final, se da este diálogo:
"-Es joven, pero encierra tanta infamia como un monstruo milenario... y resuenan ya las trompetas de guerra de las pecadoras huestes y se ve sobre los campos el rostro de Satanás que marcha tras ellas.
-¿Trotski?
-Sí, ese es el nombre que ha adoptado. Su verdadero nombre en hebreo es Abadón, y en griego Apolión, que significa "exterminador".
Bulgákov, que escribió "La guardia blanca" entre 1923 y 1924, ya bajo el férreo control comunista, ya sufría persecuciones y sobre todo censura en su obra por parte del Estado, y aunque pudo publicar algunos capítulos de la novela entre 1925 y 1926 en París, no vivió para ver su libro publicado sin censura en el suyo propio sino que este libro pudo leerse sin prohibiciones recién en 1966 en la Unión Soviética.
El autor sí pudo continuar de algún modo la novela transformando en una obra de teatro llamada "Los días de los Turbín", que pudo estrenarse en 1926 y siendo representada en 987 ocasiones hasta la prohibición total entre 1929 y 1932.
Durante toda su obra fue perseguido y prohibido y más especialmente a partir de la publicación de su obra maestra, "El maestro y Margarita" y de otras dos grandes novelas más, "Corazón de perro" y "Los huevos fatales", todas ellas de una profunda aversión al comunismo y de su lucha por la búsqueda de la libertad.
"La guardia blanca" marca una diferencia del tono paródico e irónico de estas otras tres obras, apuntando más a un compromiso de ideales libertarios y de levantar la voz en contra de un sistema opresivo y totalitario.
Increíblemente, Bulgákov mantenía una buena relación epistolar con el incipiente dictador Josef Stalin. En una carta de 1930 le solicita el permiso para emigrar de la Unión Soviética e increíblemente recibe una llamada telefónica del propio Stalin que a cambio le ofrece ser el Director del Teatro de Arte de Moscú, mientras que por otro lado le boicoteaba cada una de las publicaciones de sus obras.
En otra de sus cartas, tan solo le queda escribir una súplica: "Le pido que considere que, para mí, el no poder escribir es lo mismo que ser enterrado vivo."
Abrumado ya por tanto sufrimiento y persecución estatal, Bulgákov decide quemar el manuscrito de la segunda parte de "El maestro y Margarita" y muere el 10 de marzo de 1940 con tan solo 49 años, producto de una afección renal.
Mijaíl Bulgákov, con su estilo mordaz, irreverente y contestatario, tuvo el coraje de escribir en uno de los peores momentos de Rusia y abogó siempre por la libertad y el derecho de expresión, resumiéndolo todo en la frase que lo define cabalmente: "Si un verdadero escritor se calla, morirá."

[Sawsan · Rating 4 out of 5]

العمل الروائي الأول للكاتب الروسي المبدع ميخائيل بولجاكوف
نُشرت عام 1925 في مجلة روسيا, وقامت السلطات بإغلاق المجلة لنشر رواية مُعادية للثورة البلشفية
وتَعرض بولجاكوف بعدها للملاحقة والتضييق ومنع أعماله الروائية والمسرحية
الرواية مزيج من التاريخ والسياسة والحرب, العلاقات الانسانية والاختلافات الفكرية
الحرس الأبيض هم ضباط الجيش القيصري المناهضين للثورة البلشفية واستيلاء البلاشفة على السلطة
تدور الأحداث في مدينة كييف في أوكرانيا في بداية استقلالها عن روسيا بعد الثورة
في فترة شديدة التعقيد من شهر ديسمبر 1918, حتى فبراير 1919
أثناء انسحاب الألمان وسلطة الحكم الذاتي التابعة لهم, ودخول سيمون بتليورا وقواته أوكرانيا وتولي الحكم
من خلال أفراد عائلة توربين وجيرانهم وأصدقاؤهم الضباط من الحرس الأبيض
يحكي بولجاكوف طبيعة الحياة ومعاناة الناس والجنود خلال فترات الاضطرابات السياسية
ويُصور حالة الفوضى والارتباك في القوات العسكرية ما قبل دخول بتليورا أوكرانيا
أسلوب الكاتب بارع ومرئي في الوصف

[Kalliope · Rating 4 out of 5]

Now that I wander through the angular sentences of Andrei Bely’s Petersburg, reading the novel in a GR group, I feel I have to jump in my mind to another city, to Kiev - The City for Bulgakov. From a city-novel to another city-novel and forwards in time – from 1905 to 1918. If in one I am feeling immersed in a kaleidoscopic representation in this one I felt more immersed in chaos.

The history of this novel, and especially its theatrical version (Days of the Turbins), offers also an echo with Shostakovich’s Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk in the way it drew, with alarmingly intimidating repercussions, Stalin’s attention. The dictator stated publicly that Bulgakov was anti-Bolshevik.

In Kiev Bulgalkov lived through times in which at least five political forces confronted each other. He counted between ten to eighteen coups in a relatively short period of time. We have Germans, with the Hetman Pavlo Skoropodasky, the Ukranian nationalists with their leader Symon Petliura, and then the Russians: the Monarchists (like the Turbins themselves), the Whites and the Reds (the hated ones by everyone). Five conflicting forces.

The spects that struck me most were the descriptions of the town. One can feel that in Bulgakov’s heart, it is The City – and in that dreamlike place (turned into a nightmare place), the house in number 13 of the Andriyivskyy Descent becomes the only place where some sort of sanity can be attained. This is where Bulgakov was born and lived and is now the Bulgakov Museum. These descriptions become oases in the read –a respite to the ongoing violence in their evocation of sheer beauty.



There is also the humour. And in this one could recognize the author of the later The Master and Margarita. It has a surreal tone, it is subtle (it has to be when wedded to the violence) and figures like the Devil already make an appearance.

Before I leave this sorrowful Kiev and return to Petersburg, I want to draw attention to the translations of this novel. Originally serialized, until the magazine where is was published was closed down, it metamorphosed into the very successful play (if not with Stalin), it was then published in the sixties when Bulgakov was rehabilitated. But it had suffered cuts, and this trimmed version was the one translated into English by Michael Glenny. Later on a new translation by Marian Schwartz, of the original full text, was issued.

I read one in Spanish that corresponds to the complete Russian version. The translator, José Laín Entralgo is the brother of the more famous and somewhat older Pedro. The latter was a member of the Spanish Royal Academy and was a very prolific writer. José joined the Communist party during the thirties and later emigrated to the Soviet Union but came back to Spain in the late fifties and worked as a translator. Both brothers fought on opposite sides during the Spanish Civil War. José died in 1972 and Pedro in 2001.

[Dmitri · Rating 3 out of 5]

“So here it was, the winter of 1918. The life of Kiev was so bizarre and unnatural, a life that might never be repeated in the twentieth century. Behind their walls apartments were crammed. Long time inhabitants squeezed in for the new arrivals who streamed into the City. Gray haired bankers and their wives had fled, as had smooth operators who left trusty assistants in Moscow not to lose contact with the new world being born in Muscovy, and also the landlords, who had abandoned homes to loyal stewards, the industrialists, merchants, attorneys, and public figures. Journalists fled from Petersburg and Moscow, venal, greedy cowards and demimondaines, virtuous ladies from aristocratic families and genteel daughters. Pale debauchees with lips painted carmine red. Secretaries to directors fled and passive young sodomites. Princes and skinflints fled, poets and usurers, gendarmes and actresses from the imperial theaters.”

“This mass held its course for the City. All spring it filled up with new arrivals sleeping in apartments, on sofas and chairs, dining at large tables in luxury homes. Shops opened selling comestibles and engaged in trade until late in the night, as did cafés where coffee was served and you could buy a woman, see famous actors who fled the capitals, who entertained and amused the public. At night string music played in the cabarets, faces of unearthly beauty shone on white emaciated prostitutes hopped up on cocaine. Gaming clubs murmured until dawn, as did the prominent and proud German lieutenants whom Russians feared and respected.”

“Landed Ukrainian Russians already hanging from a thread gambled. From booths large diamonds flashed and Siberian furs glistened. There was the smell of sweat, liquor and French perfume. In the summer of 1918 flowers crowded shop windows, smoked salmon with golden fat hung from planks and bottles of champagne sealed with the two headed eagle shimmered. All summer long new people pressed in, gristly white faces with graying stubble, tenor soloists with polished boots and insolent faces, who sent letters through Poland to Germany, the great country of honest Teutons.”

Mikhail Bulgakov, 1925

“I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God and the books were opened … and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books according to their works ... and whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire ... and I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away … and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain, for the former things are passed away.”

Revelation 20: 12-13, 15, 21:1 & 21:4 (quoted by Bulgakov)

************

Bulgakov’s 1925 ‘White Guard’ begins in 1918 as the eldest Turbin brother Alexei returns to Kiev, a young doctor in WWI similar to Bulgakov, to join his siblings: Elena, her husband Talberg and brother Nikolai, as a civil war approaches. Their mother dies shortly after his arrival, their father long dead. They are monarchists, who oppose both the Bolsheviks and the Ukrainian nationalists, and believe that Ukraine should remain part of the former Tsarist Russia. Bulgakov was from a similar background, the house in Kiev, a younger brother and their shared political views semi-autobiographical. The majority of peasants were serfs, a different country from landowners who ruled for centuries, and the intelligentsia between them.

In 1918 Ukrainian nationalists sought to overthrow the Kiev monarchist government who wanted to reunite with Russia. As they approach Kiev the brother-in-law Talberg, a White Army captain, deserts the city and flees to Germany. Ethnic Russians had counted on Kaiser Wilhelm to save them from the Red Army. The White Terror would be responsible for as many deaths as the Red Terror if the pograms against Jews are included. Alexei learns that Tsar Nicholas was executed. In the summer of 1918 the city had filled with refugees from Petersburg and Moscow, many wealthy and creative, who were able to escape the north, crowding restaurants, bars and casinos, carrying on with great gaiety as if the world hadn’t changed.

As life continued in Kiev, and fears of Reds were allayed by Teutonic might, no one considered the millions of peasants, many who had returned from WWI and stashed machine guns, rifles, mortars and ammo in the countryside, who hated the Ukrainian capital as much as Moscow. In Europe vultures were picking the Kaiser’s corpse clean. Alexei and Nikolai, their two friends Myshlaevsky and Stepanov enlist in an artillery brigade to battle Petliura and the nationalist Ukrainian People’s Army who were in revolt against the pro-German government. After mustering the troops it’s learned that the Hetman, leader of the Rada, had stepped down and went into exile in Germany. Their commander orders the men to go home.

The White Guards exited the city while the Nationalists entered, and the Germans didn’t care who won the war in Ukraine as long as they got oil and grain. Bulgakov at times resorts to pseudo-poetry and onomatopoeia, unlike in his other works. This wasn’t Bulgakov’s greatest book, although he liked it the best, but it’s still a good one. It’s amazing his four most known ones were written in the late 20’s despite being published much later. Since he had lived through it his hatred of the overthrow is evident. The disarray of Kiev is reflected in the novel. Bullets and shells burst in the city streets, with the white guard leaders and troops dispersing alike, ripping the epaulets off from their shoulders. The brothers Alexei and Nikolai are reunited with Elena at their family house.

The book is partially hallucinatory, involving dream scenes. Some passages need to be read several times to figure out what is being said. It’s not the grounded magical realism and satire of his following efforts. Constant name variations of the same characters add to the confusion. The tension of war in the city and the disruption of their lives is palpable. A young nephew of the absent Talberg unexpectedly moves into the apartment when Alexei has been wounded by the nationalists. This is a 2008 translation by Marion Schwartz which superseded Michael Glenny’s 1971 expurgated version for better or worse. As Bolsheviks edge closer the city is in further disorder. ‘White Guard’ is a classic novel but doesn’t match his later works.

The politics of Bulgakov are apparent in this book, which also informed ‘The Master and Margarita’ and ‘Heart of a Dog’. He was a period monarchist who hated the Nationalists and Bolsheviks and the clamoring masses that made up their ranks. In the context of what happened during the civil war it’s not difficult to understand. He was a professor, doctor, writer and Russian Orthodox, groups that were suppressed after the Revolution. Factions of the White and Red armies, nationalist and imperial armies are a challenge to keep track of unless their history has been studied. The leadership had changed hands a dozen times. Stalin loved the stage version, ‘The Days of the Turbins’, attending it over twenty times, sometimes incognito.

[MihaElla · Rating 5 out of 5]

This heavy volume included two works: The White Guard and Theatrical Novel (Notes of a Deceased).
Bulgakov's fate seemed to be governed by the same mixture of satire, fantasy and tragedy that is the hallmark of his entire work. A trained doctor (aka Chekhov), after he abandoned his medicine career in 1920 to devote entirely to writing, he joined the theater world and his first play put on stage The Days of the Turbins, adaptation of the novel The White Guard, has received a great success, paradoxically, becoming Stalin's favourite play. The obvious sympathy for the White officers made that the play to be eventually banned, so from 1929 is no longer published any book, nor is played any of his new plays, or previous ones. Leading an existence to the limit of survival, Bulgakov felt forced to send to the dictator Stalin a petition, then, also in a letter to the Soviet government, to talk about the mental imbalance to which an artist is subjected to when his living existence is threatened. The letter remained famous both as a model of the writer’s assumed dissidence and its unexpected effects. Although following a direct phone call from Stalin, Bulgakov is re-employed at the theater, yet all his works remained unpublished, writing in the last decade of his life with frenzy, afraid he will not finish the novel The Master and Margarita, for which the latest corrections he made in 1940, on the deathbed, blind, dictating to his wife, Maria Sergeevna, who apparently inspired the character of Margaret.

The White Guard is a work portraying a historical reality. The focus is on the Whites, normally depicted in Soviet literature as evil reactionaries, who are nonetheless ordinary human beings with their own problems, concerns and ideals.
The novel, same as its stage adaptation The Days of the Turbins, had an extremely complex history. [Written between ’22-’24, and receiving numerous substantial revisions later, it was originally conceived as the first volume of a trilogy portraying the entire sweep of the post-revolutionary Civil War from a number of different points of view. Although the first and only volume was criticized for showing events from the viewpoints of the Whites, the third volume would apparently have given the perspective of the Communists. Many chapters of the novel were published separately in literary journals as they appeared. The ending of the novel (the sequence of dreams) never appeared because the journal it was due to be printed in, was shut down by official order, precisely because it was publishing such material as Bulgakov’s. The novel only appeared complete in Russian, having been proofread by the author, in 1929 in Paris.]
The background is the Civil War in Kiev after the Bolshevik Revolution. The novel starts with December 1918 and ends in February 1919, and it portrays a series of conflicting events happening during the confrontations between the three main armed forces (Whites/Tsarist Empire, Ukrainian Nationalists and Bolsheviks/Communists) that were trying to dispute and gain the power and authority of the City (aka Kiev), and consequently of the Country (aka Ukraine).
As for the major protagonists, the novel unfolds the story of the Turbins, a noble but now in poverty family, broadly moderate Tsarists in their view, and therefore anti-Bolsheviks but, being ethnically Russian, have no sympathy with the Ukrainian Nationalists either, and so end up fighting for the White Guards.
At the beginning of the novel, apparently, we are still in the world of the old Russia, with artistic and elegant furniture dating from the Tsarist era, there is a piano, books and high-quality pictures on the walls. There is the Turbins’ warm flat, in which the family can take refuge from the events outside, however the general atmosphere is nonetheless of fear for the future, and great apprehension at the world collapsing. The novel ends with a series of sinister apocalyptic dreams which foresee the catastrophe for the society, as a whole, and, of family, as its cell of unity.
Maybe I was being drifted a bit too far away, but, for a massive part of the novel, I felt like re-watching the movie The Barber of Siberia, released in 1998 and directed by Nikita Mikhalkov. [Needless to say that I had to stop my flowing reading for a while and went on you-tube to watch some couples of scenes from the movie. Nostalgia showered on me recalling that I have watched it first time in a Moscow cinema, 20 years ago, directly in its Russian-talking version which, sadly, I didn’t understand much, but then I watched the English version and everything turned to pure light ;-). Additionally, most critics attacked it furiously for various reasons, but I just loved it ‼! I still love it :-)].
The only thing is that in the movie, opening with the Tsarist atmosphere of 1885, there is no openly engaged war, at least not as the one to break up starting with the WW1, continuing with the 1917 Bolsheviks revolutions, the Civil War and then Stalin dictatorship.
Surprisingly for such a big novel - normally it would have taken me some good days – I felt in a rush to read it through. As a matter of fact, I found myself sympathizing with the Turbins, the two brothers and sister, even if it doesn’t necessarily mean that I was in some partial agreement with the actions that they felt compelled to do. I enjoyed the story in its real, dramatic and tragic sense. I felt that Bulgakov really loved his characters, despite their weaknesses. In a way, it can be that the author himself identified with the overall story and it can be interpreted, on a different layer, as a autobiography.

A Theatrical Novel (Notes of a Deceased), or, in other versions, Black Snow or White Snow.
This is a very interesting piece of text about the theatre and life within theatre. It is regarded as a strong satire on events in the Soviet theatre – in November 1936 – after Bulgakov eventually resigned from the management of MHAT (Moscow Arts Academic Theatre) and his play Moliere was vigorously attacked by the Communists and rejected from being put on stage.
On a different angle, if we follow just the narrative thread, Theatrical Novel can be seen as the story of the destiny of White Guard and its play adaptation, The Days of the Turbins, in other words, it’s the story of a story.
It starts with a short introduction, allegedly by an author who has found a manuscript written by a so-called theatrical personage who has committed suicide. The style is very direct and harsh. Bulgakov takes a swipe at censorship and the vicious and abject authorities of the theatre world, dealing savagely with the reputations of those people that lead the theatre, who are seen as some tyrannical figures who crush the individuality and flair of writers and actors in the plays they are directing.
The manuscript ends inconclusively, with the dead writer still proclaiming his wonder at the nature of theatre itself, despite its intrigues and frustrations; the initial author who has found the manuscript does not reappear, and it’s uncertain whether the point is that the theatrical figure left his memories uncompleted, or whether in fact Bulgakov failed to finish his original project. It leaves room to imagine some possible scenarios, for those who love to use their imagination generosity.

[Ian · Rating 4 out of 5]

Written in the 1920s, but this early Bulgakov novel touches on some topical issues like Ukrainian nationalism and the relationship between the Ukrainian and Russian languages. Plus ça change...? More than that though, it's a drama about a family caught up in the collapse of their society. The middle class Turbin family live in Kiev but are ethnic Russians, monarchists and generally firm adherents to the old social order. But the Tsarist Empire has collapsed and the family are swept up in a 3 way conflict involving the Bolsheviks, the "Whites" and the Ukrainian nationalists. Confusion is the dominant theme. Soldiers on the frontline do their duty unaware their generals have already abandoned them; crowds listen to political speeches without having any idea who or what they are listening to; and ordinary people have no notion of what is happening 10 miles outside the city. Throughout the chaos the Turbins and their friends try to maintain their loyalty to each other, the only anchor they have left.

The novel's portrayal of the anti-Bolshevik Turbins is entirely sympathetic. Unsurprisingly its publication at the time was blocked and Bulgakov was marked down as a counter-revolutionary. A modified version was however produced for the stage under the title "Days of the Turbins" and apparently many in the audiences were deeply affected by Bulgakov's recreation of the terrible days of 1918-19. Another well-crafted novel by this truly great writer.

[Tessa Nadir · Rating 5 out of 5]

M. Bulgakov s-a nascut la Kiev in 1891 si a absolvit Facultatea de Medicina. Stabilindu-se la Moscova in 1921 a renuntat la profesie in favoarea literaturii. A fost contestat adesea de criticii acelor vremuri si a reusit sa publice foarte putine dintre scrierile sale in timpul vietii. Cea mai cunoscuta opera a sa ramane "Maestrul si Margareta".
Romanul "Garda alba" infatiseaza Razboiul Civil din Rusia anului 1918 si urmareste destinul familei Turbin care sunt sustinatorii tarului.
Cartea debuteaza cu moartea Annei Vladimirovna, mama celor 3 protagonisti Elena, Alexei, si Nikolka. Acestia insotesc sicriul pana la cimitir si isi aduc aminte de ultimele ei cuvinte: "Sa traiti cu totii in buna intelegere". Dar cum sa traiasca in pace cand vremurile sunt atat de tulburi?
Elena este casatorita cu capitanul Seghei Talberg iar Alexei Vasilievici este medic si a fost pe front.
Tunurile bubuie necontenit la 2 pasi de casa lor, sotul Elenei o paraseaste si fuge ca un las, este un frig crancen, oamenii fura tot ce apuca si sunt zvonuri ca imparatul Nicola Alexandrovici si imparateasa au fost ucisi de catre bolsevici.
In capitala tot felul de asasinate au loc iar depozitul de munitie explodeaza. Cea mai mare nedumerire de pe buzele tuturor este insa in legatura cu misteriosul si teribilul Simon Petliura. Nimeni nu stie cine este si ce are de gand.
Cel mai emotionant moment al cartii este cel in care Alexei este ranit si este ajutat de catre o femeie cu suflet bun care practic il duce acasa.
Ultimele pagini sunt sfasietoare, am plans, am sperat si m-am bucurat alaturi de Elena, Alexei si Nikolka. Practic am trecut prin toate starile posibile.
Mi-a ramas in minte secventa in care Elena ingenuncheaza in camera ei si se roaga la Dumnezeu ca Alexei sa nu moara, facand acel targ cu El in care ofera dragostea ei pentru sotul care a parasit-o in schimbul vietii fratelui.
Romanul este frumos, autorul parca picteaza cu cuvintele, textul curge lin fiind bogat ornamentat si elegant. Imaginile sunt usor de inchipuit, in special descrierile orasului Kiev iar sentimentele sunt puternice si profunde. Va recomand sa-l cititi pentru atmosfera de razboi pe care o reproduce cu fidelitate si autenticitate si pentru ca cititorul e rapit acolo cu personajele - lupta, sufera, ii e teama, pierde si invinge alaturi de ele.
Iata si cateva citate care sunt in asentimentul cartii:

"Sa nu te lasi coplesit de amaraciune, rosti sfios, dar cu deosebita convingere. E un mare pacat amaraciunea..."
"Are cearcane sangerii in jurul ochilor. I le-au zugravit acolo frigul, spaima, votca si o neostoita ura."
"Ne ameninta acum ceva mult mai ingrozitor decat razboiul, decat nemtii, decat orice pe lume. Ne ameninta Trotki."
"Nimic pe lumea aceasta nu incalzea mai mult sufletul mohorat al lui Alexei Turbin decat niste ochi de femeie. Ah, ce jucarie a izbutit sa mestereasca Domnul Dumnezeu- ochii acestia ai femeilor!..."
"Dar cuvantul de onoare nu trebuie nimeni sa si-l incalce, pentru ca altfel nu s-ar mai putea trai pe lume. Asa gandea Nikolka. "
"[...] aceasta lume... cred ca sunteti si dumneavoastra de acord, este murdara, sangeroasa si complet lipsita de sens."
"Poate ca banii te impiedica sa fii simpatic? Iata, spre exemplu, nici unul din cei de fata nu are bani, dar de simpatici sunt simpatici cu totii."

[Anthony · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fantasy Meets the Revolution

The White Guard by Mikhail Bulgakov, written in 1924 is a semi autobiographical account of the experience of Tsarist and White officers in Ukraine during the years 1918-1919. When the Russian Civil War was in full swing. It accounts the story of the Turbin family, but namely Alexsei and his younger sister Elena and brother Nikolka as they navigate a changed and violent world.

The White Guard was banned by the Bolsheviks and it is east to see why. The Turbins are pro monarchist, Alexesi in an ex-White officer and they recount the stories of Old Russia and live in a world where most around them dream of an independent Ukraine. Bulgakov himself was from a similar middle class (or Bourgeoisie) background as the Turbins and was also an officer surgeon in the White Army in the Civil War. The house they live in, is based on his only family home in Kiev. All of these things were unacceptable to the communist ideology of the USSR. The Master and the Margarita is a subtle critique of this society, whilst The White Guard is more stark.

This is a warts and all story of death, tragedy, love found and lost and hopes and dreams dashed. It is also the story of individuals and family, their thoughts and aims in a world of much grander visions of society and destructive events. Bulgakov has clearly drawn huge inspiration from Leo Tolstoy’s War and Peace in this sense. Alexsei is much like Tolstoy’s Nihilist Prince Andrey Volkonsky, someone who is fed up with the world. Nikolka, his younger brother is like Count Petr Rostrov, the eager and enthusiastic recruit. Until they both face the reality of war.

The narrative spans less than two months in the unusually harsh winter of 1918-1919. Following the collapse of the German occupation, the abdication of the Hetman and the assault of ‘The City’ (the never named city Kiev) by the Whites. In all of this the Turbins who have just welcomed Alexsei back from war try to maintain normality in their first floor apartment, whilst the world around them gets harder. Bulgakov reminds us this is neither fact or history, but an alternative world of what ‘might have been’ during all of this. The literary licence seeps through the book, to take us on a tour of dreams and fantasy intermingled with sobering realistic episodes. The murder of Jews by the Whites, being hunted and shot by Bolsheviks. The cold, the hungry and suffering. But also the sense of love, family and comfort of home. These are all intertwined with poems, songs and stories of the past.

The White Guard is a great novel and I have loved each Bulgakov’s novels I had read. It’s fun and harrowing at the same time. There is action and story. There is reality and fantasy, history and fiction. It somehow works and isn’t disjointed in anyway. Bulgakov’s ultimate message however is that if you stay home with those you love, you can pull back the curtain and shut at the misery of the world, at least for a little time. Is this a good way to live? Bulgakov doesn’t say, but maybe it’ll get you to the next day.

[Michael Perkins · Rating 3 out of 5]

The year is 1919 and the Civil War has spread to Kiev, Bulgakov’s home town. Ukraine is under the control of the iron-fisted nationalist, Petliura,. He’s brutally securing Kiev in preparation for the invasion of the Reds (Bolsheviks) looming on the horizon.

Central to the novel is the Turbin family who live in a cozy apartment in town. (The Turbins are loosely based on Bulgakov and his family). The furnishings and atmosphere of the dwelling have a 19th century feel as if they were still living under the Tsar, which is what they’d prefer. They’re trying to shut out the upheaval outside by closing “the cream colored curtains” and pretending they are still in the past.

But the death of the Turbins’ mother is a harsh reminder of reality. The funeral has an apocalyptic feel and the priest is unable to comfort the eldest, Alexei.

The White Guard is a novel without a hero. One curious townfolk is Shpolyansky, an eccentric man who keeps a ballerina as a mistress. He despises Petliura, so is ready to back the Bolsheviks when they invade. Rusakov, a poet who suffers with venereal disease, is convinced that Shpolyansky is the Antichrist.

Alexei is caught out on the street during a violent clash. He is wounded, but does not die. While recovering, he has many apocalyptic dreams. They’re a message that Alexei and his family have been wrong about many things. They have clung to the myths of Tsarist Russia. But the world has changed. It will not go back to the old ways.

One cynic tells Alexei’s sister, Elena, “go ahead and doze by the reading lamp while the storm outside howls—and wait until they come for you.”

The book is full of literary allusions including Dostoevsky’s The Possessed that Elena is reading but fails to connect to what is happening in Kiev.

Bulgakov modeled his book after War & Peace, but it is much more narrowly construed. The action takes place over 47 days and the great Russian army that was victorious in Tolstoy has long since been crushed by 1919.

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This just in, many in the Ukraine disdain Bulgakov, especially as depicted in The White Guard. Some are calling for his museum in Kyiv to be closed.

"Bulgakov “hated” the idea of Ukrainian statehood and “glorified” the Russian tsar and monarchy. He also “smeared” Ukrainian nationalists including Symon Petliura, whose troops entered Kyiv in 1918"

https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2...

To access the full article, click "I'll do it later" to open it.

[Dimitri · Rating 5 out of 5]

Grande fu l’anno, e terribile, il 1918 dalla nascita di Cristo, il secondo, dall’inizio della rivoluzione.

Aleksej, Elena e Nikolka: tre fratelli a Kiev in pieno caos, tra zaristi, bolscevichi, tedeschi e nazionalisti ucraini.

No, nessuno comprenderà quello che accadde nella Città il giorno del 14 dicembre.

I capitoli centrali raccontano la confusione e lo smarrimento degli abitanti in quel giorno. Il diciottenne Nikolka, dopo aver provato a resistere assieme a uno sparuto gruppo di soldatini inesperti come lui, fugge inseguito dai nemici, messi sulle sue tracce da un portiere della zona con le sembianze di Nerone. La priorità diventa una e solo una: salvare la pelle ovvero riuscire a tornare a casa senza che nessuno lo riconosca come sottufficiale della guardia bianca.

Diavolo. Anche qui il portone che dava sulla Raz’ezzaja era chiuso. Sbarrato. Quindi, di nuovo il muro. Si arrampicò su un mucchio di mattoni rotti e poi, come una mosca, su un muro perpendicolare, infilando le punte dei piedi in certi buchi in cui, in tempo di pace, non sarebbe riuscito a infilare nemmeno una copeca. Si strappò le unghie, si insanguinò le dita e, aggrappandosi, si trascinò su per il muro. Quando vi fu disteso sopra con la pancia, udì che alle sue spalle, nel primo cortile, si erano levati un fischio assordante e la voce di Nerone, mentre in quel terzo cortile, a una finestra nera del primo piano, lo guardava un volto di donna sconvolto dal terrore, che subito scomparve. Cadendo dal secondo muro, gli andò abbastanza bene: atterrò su un mucchio di neve, ma ciò nonostante gli si storse il collo e sentì un forte contraccolpo nel cranio. Con la testa che gli rintronava e barbagli dinanzi agli occhi, Nikolka corse verso il portone.
Oh, che gioia! Anche questo era chiuso, ma qui era una vera sciocchezza! Un cancello di ferro battuto. Nikolka, come un pompiere, ci si arrampicò sopra, lo scavalcò, scese dall’altra parte e si ritrovò in via Raz’ezzaja. Vide che era completamente sgombra, non un’anima. ‘Prendo fiato un quarto di minuto, non di più, altrimenti mi scoppia il cuore’, pensò Nikolka, e inghiottì l’aria arroventata. ‘Sì … i documenti …’ Nikolka tirò fuori dalla tasca della giubba un pacchetto di certificati tutti unti e li fece a pezzi. E questi se ne volarono via, come neve. Sentì che, alle sue spalle, cominciava a crepitare una mitragliatrice e che in risposta si levavano salve di fucile e di mitraglia provenienti da un punto oltre Nikolka, da qualche parte nella Città. Ecco cos’era successo. Avevano preso la Città. In Città c’era battaglia. La catastrofe.
Da dietro l’angolo Nikolka diede prudentemente un’occhiata alla Lovskaja e molto lontano vi intravide la cavalleria danzante con macchie azzurre sui colbacchi. Laggiù c’era scompiglio e gli scoppi degli spari. Prese per la Lubocickaja. Lì per la prima volta vide un’anima viva. Una signora stava correndo lungo il marciapiede opposto, e portava il cappello dall’ala nera di traverso, e tra le mani le ballonzolava una borsa grigia da cui spuntava, cercando in ogni modo di scappar fuori, un gallo disperato, che gridava a squarciagola: “Peturra, peturra”. Da un sacchetto che la signora teneva con la mano sinistra, attraverso un buco, si sparpagliavano sul marciapiede delle carote. La signora gridava e piangeva, cercando di addossarsi al muro.

[MJ Nicholls · Rating 4 out of 5]

Before Bulgakov wrote several of the most exquisite Russian satires known to woman, he toyed in the Tolstoyan mode with this wartime chronicle set during the Ukrainian War of Independence, featuring a cast of terror-pocked soldiers and wives. A mixture of poetic reflection on the changing face of Ukraine, action sequences, domestic turmoil, and dreamlike digressions, the novel is an overlooked historical étude, trumped by the arrival of masterpieces like Heart of a Dog and The Fatal Eggs, not devoid of humour, although most certainly an attempt at a grand literary statement to make the Moscow literati spit their stolichnaya (the novel remained unpublished until the 1960s).

[Велислав Върбанов · Rating 4 out of 5]

„Бялата гвардия“ е много силна и трогателна книга за жестоката гражданска война между белогвардейците и болшевиките. Това е дебютният роман на Михаил Булгаков и в него авторът е вложил различни биографични елементи от онези страховити времена. Действието се развива в Украйна през 1918 г. и представя достоверна картина на историческите събития, проследявайки драматичната история на семейство Турбини...

[Mahmoud Masoud · Rating 4 out of 5]

الحرب العالمية الأولى و الأحداث التي تلتها في روسيا .. من ثورة فبراير ١٩١٧ و الثورة البلشفية في أكتوبر من نفس السنة .. و الاضطرابات التي حصلت خلالها وبعدها .. ألهمت كتاب كُثر ليكتبوا عنها .. من ضمنهم شولوخوف كتب الدون الهادئ .. وبولغاكوف كتب الحرس الأبيض .. وغيرهم طبعاً .. انتهيت من قراءة الدون الهادئ من يومين .. وحان وقت رواية بولغاكوف ..

"- هل سيدفع أحد ثمن الدم؟
- لا، لن يدفعه أحد.
سيذوب الثلج فحسب، وسينمو العشب الأوكراني الأخضر، وسيضفر الأرض، وستنبجس البادرات النضرة الناعمة، ويترجرج القيظ فوق الحقول، ولن يتبقى أي أثر للدم. الدماء رخيصة في الحقول القرمزية، ولن يشتريها أحد .."

تدور أحداث الرواية في مدينة كييف الأوكرانية بين عامي 1918 و 1919، حيث تتحدث بشكل أساسي عن صعود نجم سيمون فاسيليوفيتش بتليورا، بعد الإفراج عنه، حيت تم اعتقاله من قبل الهتمان الأوكراني آنذاك، و بعد خروجه قاد قواته نحو كييف وقام باحتلالها في ذلك العام..

"لا يجوز الاستسلام إلى الكآبة، الكئابة هي خطيئة كبيرة، ولو أنني أعتقد أن البلايا ستحدث، حقاً، بلايا كبيرة.."

وفي نفس الوقت، تعرض الرواية حال المواطنين من خلال أسرة توربين، تلك الأسرة التي لم يبقى من أفرادها سوى 3 أشقاء بعد وفاة الأب والأم.. ألكسي الأخ الأكبر يعمل طبيب في الجيش ويقوم بالكشف على بعض الحالات في منزله، ومن خلال تلك الشخصية يعرض لنا بولغاكوف حال الجيش و التخبط في صفوفه..

"كل شيء سيمضي مع الأيام. المعاناة والآلام والدموع والجوع والوباء. وسيختفي السيف، أما النجوم فستبقى حين لن تبقى ظلال أجسادنا وأفعالنا على الأرض. ولا يوجد أي إنسان لا يعرف هذا. فلماذا لا نريد أن نوجه أنظارنا إليها؟ لماذا؟"

يقول بولغاكوف عن أعماله"مأساة أناس الواجب والشرف في لحظات الكوارث الاجتماعية، حيث يصبح أثمن شيء في الدنيا هو ليس الأفكار بل حياة الإنسان."
.

[Malakh · Rating 4 out of 5]

El año 1918 del nacimiento de Cristo y segundo del comienzo de la revolución fue grande y terrible. El verano fue abundante en sol y el invierno, en nieve. Muy alto, en el cielo, brillaban dos estrellas: la Venus vespertina de los pastores y Marte, rojo y tembloroso.

Con estas sobrias palabras da comienzo Mijaíl Bulgákov a una novela de tintes autobiográficos que tiene lugar en «la Ciudad», que no es otra que Kiev, en el agitado y turbulento invierno entre los años 1918 y 1919. Narra la historia de la familia Turbín, que habita en el número 13 de la bajada Alexéievski, lugar de nacimiento del propio Bulgákov. Su figura queda reflejada en el personaje de Alexei, médico de profesión como el autor, mientras que el pequeño Nikolka hace de trasunto del hermano del escritor kievita. La Primera Guerra Mundial y la Guerra Civil Rusa, inevitablemente solapadas en tiempo y espacio, coinciden en sus diferentes facetas y contendientes en una Ucrania que actúa como escenario de sangrientos combates. Bulgákov, testigo presencial de los sucesos que sitúa como contexto de su obra, muestra un Kiev que «conoció la ocupación alemana, el encumbramiento y la caída del hetman Skoropadski, el pasajero triunfo de Petliura, la definitiva llegada del Ejército Rojo».

La inminente llegada de Petliura configura el estado de tensión en el que se encuentra la ciudad, los hermanos Turbín y sus allegados militares, afines a la causa zarista. La creación de una guardia con el objetivo de defender Kiev de la ofensiva nacionalista es una tentativa desesperada que acarreará desastrosas consecuencias para aquellos inexpertos jóvenes que son abandonados a su suerte. «Aquel 14 de diciembre» constituye un jalón crucial en la vida de los jóvenes Turbín, presos de la incertidumbre y el miedo en el que se encuentra inmersa la urbe de la montaña de San Vladimir. Sobre esta base se construye una narración que juega con la temporalidad de los acontecimientos y se sirve de recursos oníricos que enfrentan al lector a la desorientación y desasosiego que los mismos protagonistas sienten. A su vez, el plantel de personajes que desfila por la obra muestra las diferentes respuestas posibles a la caótica situación: desde la antítesis que suponen las figuras de Talberg y Nai-Turs en virtud de su heroísmo a las diversas actuaciones de los hermanos. No obstante, el amor que se profesan los Turbín actúa como un lucero en la tenebrosidad de la guerra, reflejada en aquel cadáver del judío que, en la entrada del puente, permanecía a la intemperie mientras a su alrededor todo desaparecía, «como si nunca hubiera existido».

La Guardia Blanca fue reestructurada por el propio Bulgákov para su adaptación teatral, titulada Los días de Turbín y que tuvo una excelente acogida en el Teatro de Arte de Moscú. No obstante, es bien conocido el rechazo parcial que provocó el drama en el secretario general del PCUS, Joseph Stalin. Pese a que podía extraerse del contenido de la obra la idea de un poder colosal bolchevique – al que incluso una familia como los Turbín había de someterse –, la novela refleja una velada crítica de la sociedad rusa, un fenómeno habitual en el conjunto de su producción literaria. Por ello, fue repudiado y señalado como un elemento hostil al régimen, causa de que algunas de sus grandes composiciones como la afamada El maestro y Margarita o Novela teatral no vieran la luz hasta el proceso de desestalinización comenzado a la muerte del georgiano.

Esta edición de la obra está traducida y prologada por José Laín Entralgo, miembro de la escuela de traducción soviética o «grupo de Moscú» y hermano del conocido escritor falangista Pedro Laín Entralgo, conocido por su disputa con Rafael Calvo Serer acerca del «problema de España». Contra lo que se ha afirmado numerosas veces, la versión que nos ocupa logra reflejar en lengua castellana las diversas circunstancias y sensaciones que buscaba transmitir Bulgákov en la composición original. En un momento en el que Rusia y su cultura parecen volverse indescifrables para el mundo occidental – de forma paradójica, dada la omnipresencia de este país en el debate público –, es de agradecer que se conserven los trabajos de aquellos españoles que en otra época nos acercaron con sus traducciones a ese «acertijo, envuelto en un misterio, dentro de un enigma» que halló Winston Churchill en el carácter de lo ruso.

[Janet · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bulgakov's elegant first novel about the unfolding of the October revolution in Kiev--referred to as The City in the novel--has been rereleased by the wonderful independent publisher Melville House this year, in the Michael Glenny translation. Outstanding.Told through multiple points of view, the book centers upon two days in the Russian Civil war, December 13 and 14, 1918, when the city of Kiev, up to then controlled by the Ukrainian Hetman Skoropadsky, a German puppet and ally of the Monarchist Russians, falls to the armies of Petlyura, a Ukranian peasant nationalist, a figure of mystery and rumor. The enemy of the Whites, Petlyura's troops especially target the Russian officers who have supported the corrupt Skoropadsky and the Russian imperialist presence.

As Faulkner said, the past is not over. It is not even past.

The heart of the novel is the family of the Turbins, Alexei, a doctor returning from WWI, his little brother Nikolai, 17 and a cadet at the Russian military academy, and their sister Elena, the muse of a circle of Alexei's officer friends, each quickly but masterfully drawn, as well as the Turbin's comic foil, Vasily Lisovich, known as Vasilisa (after the folk heroine Vasilisa the Beautiful) an almost Doestoyevskian idiot who is the Turbin's downstairs neighbor.

Admirably told, the novel reveals the hand of Bulgakov the dramatist as well as that of the prose artist. I especially admired the skill in passing the story from one point of view to another, the brilliant timing. The dreams and Alexei Turbin's delirium in a fever from typhus very much herald the arrival of the surrealist Master and Margarita, as well as recalling some of the more feverish moments of The Magic Mountain.

The White Guard beautifully portrays the chaos of a civil war, in which rumor is only contradicted by actual shooting, in which someone's giving you orders one minute and in the next, jumps on a train heading for Germany, or simply disappears. There is no clearcut 'good' or 'bad' in this book, except for loyalty itself. Although it describes the taking of Kiev from the White side, it shows that the real loyalty in this world lives in one's family (the Turbins) and friends (the officers), a total stranger who saves your life, or a superior who holds his ground in the face of a dissolving defense. Bulgakov, it was said, had a very happy home life growing up, and the affection and mutual aid of the three Turbins and their household definitely reflects that.

The prose work was published in 1925 as a magazine serial, but the magazine folded before the serial was complete. The popular play based on this story ran in Soviet Russia from 1926 to 1941--though the book did not appear until 1966. Stalin was said to have seen the play many times, and it probably saved Bulgakov's life. The Master and Margarita was far more politically questionable and never saw the light of day in Bulgakov's lifetime.

[Brodolomi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Modernistički san o gradu, raširen od Džojsovog Dablina do Belovog Petrograda, sanjan je i o Kijevu. Sanjao ga je Bulgakov u svom romanesknom prvencu. A sanjao ga je, baš onako kako se sneva - očekivano je pretvoreno u neočekivano. Moralistički siže o porodičnoj sreći u istorijskim vremenima, koji, kao da je ispao iz Tolstojevog voza, u Bulgakovljevim rukama gubi pravi početak i kraj, a sredina ostaje izbušena korozivnim rupama koje su popunjene onim čime naizgled ne bi trebalo popunjavati visokomimetski narativ: satirom, slepstikom, feljtonom, karnevalskim narodnim telom. Tragizam opere je sveden na komičnost operete i obrnuto. Ta formalna korozija je u direktnoj sprezi sa istorijskim događajima o kojima se piše. Reč je o ukrajinskom Hetmanatu, marionetskoj kratkotrajnoj državi koju su osnovali Nemci pri kraju Prvog svetskog rata, gde su nakon Boljševičke revolucije mnogi Rusi izbegli. Hetmanat je bila banana republika proglašena u cirkusu, bez prave državničke moći, kratkog daha, ali je iza takve operetske atmosfere kuljala duboka mržnja između višestruko zaraćenih strana (beli Rusi, ruski boljševici, Nemci, ukrajinski seljaci, ukrajinski boljševici, itd). Kako se kaže: „U Gradu niko ništa nije shvatao, I ubuduće, prema svemu, niko neće skoro ništa ni shvatati.” A negde gore nad Kijevom sijao je crveni astrološki mars u obliku petokrake.

I dok se stari svet raspada na više načina, svuda se pojavljuju pukotine. A pukotine na fizičkom svetu postaju prolazi ka metafičkom, i to ne samo za slivanje božanske milosti koja dovodi do razrešenja zapleta u maniru deus ex machina, nego i do kamea nečastivog. Nečastivi još uvek se nosi ime Voland, već se zove Špoljanski; elegantno je obučen, šarmantan je dasa i nosi onjeginovske zulufe.

[ioannis. anst · Rating 5 out of 5]

Σε λίγες μέρες συμπληρώνονται εκατό χρόνια από την Οκτωβριανή εργατική επανάσταση (1917) που επακολούθησε αυτής της Φεβρουριανής των αστοδημοκρατων η οποία είχε ως αποτέλεσμα την πτώση της Τσαρικής Αυτοκρατορίας, την άμεση κ αναπόφευκτη παραίτηση του Νικόλαου Β κ τον τερματισμό της δυναστείας των Ρομανοφ έπειτα από 300 χρόνια. Με την εγκατάσταση κ την μετάβαση της εξουσίας στα Σοβιέτ ως όργανα λαϊκής εξουσίας, την σταδιακή κατάργηση παλιών οργάνων και Διοικητικών θεσμών, την άμεση εφαρμογή των περίφημων ‘διαταγμάτων της Γης και της Ειρήνης’ δημιουργήθηκε η εντύπωση της προσδοκώμενης Αλλαγής. Τον Ιανουάριο του 1918 ο Τρότσκι αναλαμβάνει την αναδιάρθρωση του Στρατού κυρίως με την στρατολόγηση εργατών και χωρικών -υποχρεωτική που οδήγησε ακόμη και στην παραδειγματική εκτέλεση ελάχιστων που αρνήθηκαν να συνεισφέρουν στην υπεράσπιση της Ιδέας-. Και εγένετο ο Κόκκινος Στρατός.

Η αντίσταση στο νέο εργατικό καθεστώς του Λένιν, το όποιο ανήλθε στην εξουσία εν μια ιστορική νυκτι στην Πετρούπολη, αρχίνισε από την επομένη κιόλας ημέρα .Παλιοί μοναρχικοί, αντικαθεστωτικοί, η καταργηθείσα Δουμά με τα αστικά πολιτικά της κόμματα, η απελθούσα μεσαία τάξη εναντιώθηκαν, εξεδήλωσαν πίστη στην Προσωρινή Αστική Κυβέρνηση της Φεβρουαριανής Επανάστασης και η έναρξη ενός οδυνηρού πολύπλευρου Εμφυλίου Πολέμου υπό τις ευλογιές των Ευρωπαϊκών Δυνάμεων –που ανησυχούσαν από την μεριά τους για την εξάπλωση των σοσιαλιστικών ιδεών- είναι γεγονός. Απότοκο της ένας νέος στρατός, με διαφορετικό χρωματισμό, με διαφορετικές επιδιώξεις και διεκδικήσεις αλλά παρόμοιες νοσηρές ματαιοδοξίες, η Λευκή Φρουρά. ''Ερυθρός Οφθαλμoν αντί Λευκού Οφθαλμού'' για μια ακόμη πολιτική κ ιδεολογική επικράτηση.

Δεκέμβριος του 1918, βρισκόμαστε στην παγωμένη κ ντυμένη στην καταχνιά Ουκρανία, στην γενέτειρα Πόλη του Μπουλγκακωφ, στο Κίεβο που δοκιμάζεται και από τον δικό της Εμφύλιο πόλεμο μεταξύ ακραίων Ουκρανών εθνικιστών/συμμοριτών και ένα συνονθύλευμα από Λευκοφρουρους, αντιμπολσεβικικούς, μοναρχικούς, Γερμανούς κτλ. Ειρήσθω εν παρόδω, σύμφωνα με την συνθήκη που έμεινε γνωστή ως ‘συνθήκη άνευ προσαρτήσεων-αποζημιώσεων’ και υπεγράφη στο Μπρεστ-Λιτοφσκ, τον Μάρτιο του 1918, μεταξύ των Μπολσεβίκων κ των Κεντρικών Δυνάμεων, η Ουκρανία διοικείτο από Ουκρανό στρατιωτικό διοικητή, τον περιβόητο Γκετμαν, εγκάθετο και άνθρωπο των Γερμανών.

Κεντρικός πρωταγωνιστής του έργου είναι η οικογένεια και η αφήγηση της ζωής των αδελφών Τουρμπιν που μόλις έχουν κηδεψει την μητέρα τους . Ο μεγαλύτερος γιος, στρατιωτικός ιατρός, ταλαιπωρημένος από τις κακουχίες ενός ταπεινωτικού πόλεμου, επαναπατρισθέντας στην Πόλη με όνειρα και φιλοδοξίες Αλεξει -στου οποίου το πρόσωπο διακρίνουμε αρκετά στοιχειά από τον βίο του Μπουλγκακωφ- η όμορφη, στοργική και προστάτρια πλέον Γιελενα και ο μικρότερος Τουρμπιν ο Νικολκα, δόκιμος αξιωματικός, πατριώτης με ένα βλέμμα αγνό, με ένα νεανικό αυθορμητισμό και με μια κιθάρα συντροφιά να γρατζουνάει στρατιωτικούς σκοπούς, όλοι αυτοί λοιπόν αλλά κ η Ανιουτα την οποία μεγάλωσε η μαμα-Τουρμπιν διαβιούν σε ένα διώροφο κτίριο στην Άνω Πόλη όπου η θαλπωρή, η τρυφερότητα της οικογενειακής εστίας, η διαπαιδαγώγηση και η μέθεξη σε όλες τις Τέχνες κυριαρχούν στην καθημερινότητα. Το πανέμορφο γωνιακό κτίριο με κύριο χρώμα την κίτρινη ώχρα και τις λευκές αποχρώσεις στα πολυάριθμα μπροστινά κ λιγότερα πλαϊνά παράθυρα του δεν είναι δημιούργημα μυθοπλασίας, ξεχωρίζει αμέσως για την αρχιτεκτονική του δομή και μορφή και λειτουργεί ως 'Μουσείο του Μπουλγκακωφ', οικία άλλωστε κ της ενηλικίωσης του.

http://images.guidetrip.com/images/up...

Μέσα από τον πολυτάραχο προσωπικό βίο των αδελφών Τουρμπιν κ των αγαπημένων τους παιδικών φίλων παρακολουθούμε ταυτόχρονα κ την μάχη μεταξύ των Ουκρανών Εθνικιστών του Αρχάγγελου της καταστροφής Πετλιουρα και των συνασπισμένων δυνάμεων της Λευκής Φρουράς γ την κατάληψη της Πόλης. Μιας μοναδικής Ιστορικής πόλης που βρέχεται από το τρίτο μεγαλύτερο ποταμό της Ευρώπης, τον Δνείπερο, στης οποίας κουδουνίζουν ευχάριστα στους πλακόστρωτους τα περίφημα τραμ με τις κίτρινες φουσκωτές θέσεις, φωνασκούν λαλίστατα οι αμαξάδες προς άγρα πελατείας, που έχει τα περισσότερα και τα πιο δαιδαλώδη πάρκα στο κόσμο, όπου έχει γίνει το τελευταίο καταφύγιο προσφύγων από την Μόσχα κ την Πετρούπολη διαφορετικών προσωπικοτήτων και επαγγελματιών δίνοντας νέα ώθηση στην πολεοδομική, οικονομική και πολιτισμική ανθηση, που ‘καπνίζει σαν πολύεδρη κηρήθρα’.

Ο φιλαλήθης συγγραφέας απεικονίζει ρεαλιστικά τις καταστροφικές διαστάσεις που μπορεί να λάβει ένας πόλεμος. Σε ένα Έθνος ακαλλιέργητο, αμόρφωτο, εξαθλιωμένο από συνεχείς πολέμους και από την διχοστασία, ο κίνδυνος να εξαρτηθεί η μοίρα ενός λαού από εγκληματικούς στρατηγούς και από φυγόπονους οκνηρούς αξιωματικούς όπου η τιμή κ η ευσυνειδησία είναι περιττό βάρος είναι νομοτελειακός. Η οξεία δριμύτητα με την όποια καταγγέλλονται οι πολιτικοί κ οι στρατιωτικοί έρχεται σε εμφανής αντιδιαστολή με την ηρωισμό που δίνεται από μερικούς κατοίκους της Πόλης, τους ρομαντικούς συνταγματάρχες σαν τον Ναι Τουρς, τους άβγαλτους δόκιμους σαν τον ανυπότακτο Νικολκα Τουρμπιν που μάχονται μεταξύ άλλων και για την οικογένεια τους κ το σπίτι τους το μοναδικό χώρο που μπορεί κανείς να νιώσει θαλπωρή και ζεστασιά. ''Ο κόσμος έξω είναι βρώμικος, αιματοβαμμένος, άνευ νοήματος''

Για τον Μπουλγκακωφ ‘'τα όπλα ο άνθρωπος τα δημιούργησε χωρίς να το ξέρει για ένα μόνο σκοπό- να προστατεύουν την ανθρώπινη γαλήνη και εστία. Για τίποτα άλλο δεν πρέπει να πολεμάει κανείς’’.

Υ.Γ. Οι εκδόσεις Ερατώ αποφάσισαν να μας δώσουν το πρώτο μυθιστόρημα του σπουδαίου Μπουλγκακωφ σε νέα μετάφραση δίδοντας το δύσκολο έργο της σε μια έμπειρη μεταφράστρια Ρωσικών εμβληματικών κειμένων, την Ελένη Μπακοπουλου . Στην έκδοση συνυπάρχει ένα χρονολογιο με προσωπικές φωτογραφίες και αναφορές στα σπουδαιότερα γεγονότα που στιγμάτισαν την ζωή του Μιχαηλ Μπουλγκακωφ.

Ακόμη σπουδαιότερης σημασίας είναι το επίμετρο ενός κριτικού Λογοτεχνίας , του Ιγκορ Μπελζα ο οποίος μέσα σε τριάντα σελίδες βομβαρδίζοντας μας με ουσιώδεις πληροφορίες και εύστοχα σχόλια (κυρίως απουσιάζουν παραληρηματικά, επιτηδευμένα, δυσανάγνωστα ευφυολογήματα άλλων αντίστοιχων Ελληνικών εκδόσεων) δίνει νέα πνοή και κατανόηση στο επικό κείμενο και την συγγραφή του Μπουλκακωφ, η οποία είναι τόσο πλούσια σε καλλιτεχνικές εικόνες, σε ποιητικότητα, ενάντια στον βάναυσο κ ωμό πολεμικό ρεαλισμό και πλουσια σε αναφορές σε άλλους μεγάλους συγγράφεις -στον μέντορα του Πούσκιν, στον Γκόγκολ που ανακάλυψε όταν ήταν εννιά χρονών, στον Γκαιτε αλλά και στην αγαπημένη του 'Αποκάλυψη' του Ιωάννη που γράφτηκε στο πανέμορφο νησί της Πάτμου και η επίδραση της είναι πανταχού παρών- πράγμα που αν μη τι άλλο επιτάσσει στον γοητευμένο αναγνώστη την επανάγνωση του έργου, κάτι που συμβαίνει μόνο με σπουδαία κ απολαυστικά έργα.

[Osama Ebrahem · Rating 3 out of 5]

ملاحظة...
الثلاث نجمات تقيم للعمل فقط وليس للترجمة ايضا لأني حسيت اني هظلمها لو قيمتها بالترجمة البشعة.

هل هذا هو قلم بولغاكوف المبدع هل هذا بولغاكوف المعلم ومرجريتا هل هذا بولغاكوف ال��سقاطات الثقيلة والسرد الممتع..... بكل تأكيد لا

لا أحداث شيقة ولا سرد ممتع ولا شخصيات منسوجة جيدا وما زاد الطين بلة هو الترجمة البشعة التي اودت بروح النص.

من البداية كنت متحمس جدا لحبي الشديد لقلم هذا الكاتب
الكتاب أولا مقسم لثلاث أقسام القسم الاول كان كفيل بترك الرواية لكن بسبب عادتي في عدم ترك كتاب فتحته وحبي للكاتب هو ماجعلني اكملها..وكلي امل انها سوف تتعدل
وفعلا كان القسم الثاني افضل بكثير وبدأت الأشخاص تتلاقى والأحداث ووصف بولغاكوف لبعض المشاهد كان جميل جدا..

نأتي لموضوع الرواية وهو في مدينة اوكرانية ايام رغبة اوكرانيا بالانفصال عن روسيا بقيادة بتيلورا وعن حال روسيا في ايام تقلباتها وانتهاء العهد القيصري بموت القيصر نيقولا الثاني و الثورة البلشفية بقيادة لينين وتروتسكي...
ويوضح بولغاكوف ايضا خيانة القيادات العليا والحلفاء الألمان للضباط والجنود وتركهم فريسة سهلة لقوات بتيلورا والأحوال التي تردت من سرقة وقتل بعد سقوط المدينة في يد بتيلورا...



صورة لآخر قياصرة روسيا نيقولا الثاني

نصيحة لمن يريد قراءتها يوجد ترجمة أخرى للمترجم يوسف نبيل وأعتقد انها ستكون افضل بكثير...

[Jayaprakash Satyamurthy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I wasn't sure if Bulgakov's first novel, described as a historical novel about the fortunes of the city of Kiev in the year 1918, as the repercussions of the Russian revolution and the tail-end of the first world war play out, would be as good as his satirical masterpieces, The Master And Margarita and Black Snow.

It certainly is.

Bulgakov was a literary genius, that's the only conclusion I can draw. Not only does he maintain complete control over a narrative that segues constantly from the panoramic to the personal, he keeps finding memorable motifs and metaphors to bring his tale to life. There is an entire section where he describes people's expressions and states of minds in terms of clock-hand positions. It seems like a subjective, potentially opaque conceit, but Bulgakov makes it work brilliantly. A good deal of his tale is told through dreams - again something potentially confusing and tedious that he does incredibly well. His talent for invoking the truly fantastic was evident in The Master, as was his facility with conjuring the bad numinous. Here, in an early vision of heaven, he brings us face to face with an equally convincing vision of divinity, both comforting and chilling. There are numerous bravura scenes of crowds and action, and of the thoughts and experiences of a his focus characters. This novel is also amazingly well structured, casting out a bewildering array of narrative threads that are all woven together into a tight, immaculate narrative tapestry. The novel ends with a virtuoso display of oneiric head-hopping which culminates in a passage which shows where the true strength of this novel lies - not in its many technical merits and literary flourishes, amazing though they are - but in its strong sense of the pathos of human destiny.

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

From BBC Radio 4 Extra:
1/2: Kiev is protected by an uneasy alliance. Two brothers discover it's a bad time to be Tsarist. Stars Paul Hilton and James Loye.

2/2: The Turbin brothers find their survival skills tested, and Elena is driven to intense prayer.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00761h8

[Max Berendsen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Review to follow

[Hendrik · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mir hat vor allem der experimentelle Stil gefallen, weit mehr als die eigentliche Handlung. In der Neuübersetzung von Alexander Nitzberg kommen die sprachlichen Eigenheiten, wie z.B. absichtlich fehlerhafte Satzgebilde oder synästhetische Elemente, wohl tatsächlich besser zur Geltung als zuvor. Ein Pluspunkt dieser Ausgabe ist der umfangreiche Anmerkungsapparat. Beim ersten Blick in das Buch fallen sofort die unzähligen Fußnoten im Text auf. Zunächst wundert man sich darüber, aber nach ein paar gelesenen Seiten möchte man sie nicht missen. Denn vieles versteht sich nicht unbedingt von selbst.

Das betrifft vor allem den historischen Kontext des russischen Bürgerkriegs. Ohne fundiertes Wissen verliert man schnell den Überblick über die Abfolge der Ereignisse. Es war eine chaotische Zeit, geprägt durch Unsicherheit und Gewalt. Der Roman vermittelt ein gutes Bild der damaligen Atmosphäre. Er zeigt Menschen in einer Phase des gesellschaftlichen Umbruchs, die im Bewusstsein einer großen Veränderung leben, ohne eine genaue Vorstellung von der Zukunft zu haben. Sie befinden sich in einem Schwebezustand zwischen Gestern und Morgen.

Zusätzliches Interesse weckt in diesen Tagen auch der Ort an dem die Handlung spielt, die Große Stadt (gemeint ist Kiew). Einige Bilder und Stimmungen erinnern stark an die aktuelle Situation. In dieser Hinsicht erscheinen auch bestimmte Passagen in einem ganz anderen Licht. Zum Beispiel als Alexej Turbin sagt: "Wer terrorisiert die russische Bevölkerung mit dieser einfach nur scheußlichen Sprache, die noch nicht einmal existiert?". Gleiches ist derzeit wieder aus Russland zu vernehmen, d.h. die staatliche und kulturelle Souveränität der Ukrainer wird in Abrede gestellt. Unter anderem deshalb ist der Roman lesenswert, auch wenn er sicher nicht an Meister und Margarita heranreicht.

[EllaFuchs · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mein erster Bulgakow, und ich habe ihn vor allem als historischen Roman gelesen.
Die Lage 1918 , in der Ukraine wurde durch Deutschland ein Hetmanat errichtet. Bürgerkrieg mit mehreren Parteien- die bolschewikischen roten Garden, die nationalistischen Gruppen um Petljura und die auch sehr diversen weissen Garden, die sich als loyale Kämpfer für ihr Land und die Traditionen begreifen. Zu diesen gehört die Familie Turbin, die wir begleiten.
Von Anfang an ist die Situation total unübersichtlich. Auch der Leser hat meist wenig Ahnung was vorgeht und mit wem man es zu tun hat.
( ich als Leserin habe mich an Serhij Zhadans Internat erinnert gefühlt. )
Zwischendurch dann traumhafte ,halluzinatorische Sequenzen in einer bilderreichen Sprache.
Im Ganzen habe ich einiges gelernt, fand es spannend auch humorvoll in Teilen. Und ich bin jetzt sehr neugierig auf die späteren Werke Bulgakows.

[❀ · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5
Ukraine has gone through everything, that's for sure

━━━━⊱⋆⊰━━━━
i gotta prepare for the master and margarita

[Saturn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ambientato a Kiev negli anni della rivoluzione russa e della guerra civile, dove molte forze politiche si contrapponevano, lo sguardo dei fratelli Turbin esprime l'affanno e l'incertezza di un periodo storico turbolento che è più facile comprendere col senno del poi che nel momento in cui lo si sta vivendo. In questa opera prima Bulgakov ha già uno stile definito e originale che lo rende uno scrittore inconfondibile non solo a livello nazionale. Non è facile raccontare la storia dal punto di vista degli sconfitti e i suoi personaggi sembrano battuti dalla vita a più livelli. Non c'è solo la sconfitta politica, sono i fallimenti personali, le occasioni mancate, tutto ciò che si perde lungo la strada che segnano le loro vite e li inseriscono in una dimensione tragica in cui si sentono come intrappolati. Ciò che colpisce maggiormente è comunque il talento fulgido di questo narratore e lo stile unico in cui scrive le sue storie.

[Simone Invernizzi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Se avessi letto questo romanzo qualche anno fa, probabilmente non sarei stato in grado né di comprenderlo né di apprezzarlo appieno. Nell'ultimo anno e mezzo infatti, spinto dagli eventi in Ucraina, ho avuto modo di studiare e approfondire la storia di questa regione del mondo, che è a dir poco essenziale per comprendere il contesto in cui si sviluppa l’opera di Mikhail Bulgakov.

"La guardia bianca" racconta le vicende di Aleksej, Elena e Nikolka, i tre fratelli Turbin, a Kiev, nell’inverno 1918-19, durante la guerra civile russa. Con la pace di Brest-Litovsk del marzo 1918, l’Ucraina è divenuta indipendente dalla Russia, ed è ora sotto la protezione tedesca nell’ambito della prima guerra mondiale. Nel novembre 1918, la Germania si dichiara però sconfitta e ritira i suoi soldati. A questo punto, sono tre le forze che competono per il possesso di Kiev: l’Etmanato, cioè una dittatura militare appoggiata dalla borghesia, i "bianchi"; i nazionalisti ucraini, formati da gente delle campagne e guidati da Symon Petljura; e i bolscevichi che avevano appena preso il potere a Mosca grazie alla rivoluzione.

Quando il romanzo inizia, Kiev si trova sotto il controllo dell’Etmanato, ma l’etmano è già fuggito. I bolscevichi incombono lontani all’orizzonte e il nazionalista Petljura sta per assalire la città, accompagnato da pogrom, torture e omicidi. (Proprio a causa delle violenze perpetrate in questa occasione, ancora oggi in Ucraina si dibatte sulla controversa figura di Petljura, che agli occhi dell’opinione pubblica non è del tutto legittimato a far parte del Pantheon dei fondatori dell’Ucraina moderna).

I fratelli Turbin, pur non essendo soldati, si uniscono quindi alla guerra, nell'estremo tentativo di salvare la propria terra e soprattutto il proprio mondo. Essi infatti facevano parte del gruppo sociale dell'Intelligencija conservatrice, una forza culturale borghese di un certo spessore nel panorama politico dell'epoca. I Turbin si arruolano tra i bianchi, che saranno inevitabilmente vinti. E il racconto infatti si concentra sulla fine dell'epoca zarista, e su un mondo, quello borghese, che sta scomparendo per sempre.

La famiglia di Bulgakov era parte di quella borghesia bianca, e proprio per questo l'autore decide di narrarci di quei drammatici momenti della sua storia. La rivoluzione proletaria travolse ogni cosa, incluso il mondo dello stesso scrittore. Bulgakov era nato a Kiev, e infatti i riferimenti della sua vita e della sua famiglia presenti all'interno del romanzo sono moltissimi: La casa dei Turbin raccontata nel romanzo, ad esempio, si trova proprio nello stesso luogo in cui sorgeva la casa della famiglia Bulgakov, oggi diventata un museo. E il nome dei Turbin non è affatto un nome inventato, ma è il cognome della nonna dell'autore. Prima di diventare scrittore inoltre, Bulgakov aveva svolto il ruolo di medico durante la guerra, lo stesso ruolo che viene dato nel romanzo ad Aleksej Turbin. E proprio Aleksej nel romanzo si ammala di tifo, esattamente come accadde allo scrittore Bulgakov. Tra le altre similitudini troviamo quella legata al marito di Elena Turbin, Sergej Ivanovič Tal'berg, che è un calco del cognato di Bulgakov, marito della sorella Varvara.

Le vicende narrate da Bulgakov nel romanzo sono volutamente scritte in modo caotico, perché quel momento storico fu molto confusionario e complesso, sia per chi lo visse in prima persona, sia per chi lo osservasse dall'esterno. In diversi punti questo caos è tangibile, e viene espresso attraverso cambi improvvisi di registro, di ambientazioni e di personaggi. E il lettore un po' si perde mentre segue questi personaggi in una moltitudine di salti temporali in avanti e all’indietro, da un uomo all’altro, fra svariati sogni e la dura realtà. "La guardia bianca" non è affatto un’opera semplice da leggere e comprendere. Ognuno dei molti personaggi ha la propria visione degli eventi in corso, e questo mostra i diversi gradi di ambivalenza dell’intelligencija di Kiev. E relativamente allo stile utilizzato da Bulgakov, bisogna ricordare che l'autore viveva in un’epoca in cui era normale che i letterati leggessero ad alta voce le proprie opere nei circoli. Questo portava quindi all’uso delle figure di suono: i vari passi del romanzo sono resi in modo onomatopeico, e spesso parole dal suono simile, ma dal significato diverso, sono associate per rinforzarsi a vicenda. La maggior parte di questi aspetti sonori del testo in russo però, si perdono quasi completamente con la traduzione dell'opera in altre lingue.

Un altro elemento di complessità, accennato parlando di Kiev, città storica e universale, è che il romanzo punta a rappresentare l’azione su due piani: quello dell’evento storico, particolare, e del suo valore universale ed eterno. Basti pensare alle due epigrafi iniziali: una è tratta da "La figlia del capitano" di Puškin, dove viene narrata una rivoluzione storica: in essa, la tempesta di neve è un simbolo, ricorrente nella letteratura russa, di perturbazioni politiche. L’altra epigrafe viene invece dall’Apocalisse di San Giovanni, introducendo il tema del Giudizio Universale, e, implicitamente, la questione di come giudicare i membri delle varie parti in lotta, chi è nel giusto e chi no.

Le prime due parti de “La guardia bianca” furono pubblicate nel 1925, sulla rivista “Rossija”. Bulgakov inviò anche il finale al suo editore, ma la rivista chiuse prima che il numero su cui doveva apparire andasse in stampa. Nel frattempo il panorama culturale russo era cambiato, e non era più quello dei primi anni ‘20; la cultura borghese infatti, era stata attaccata a più riprese e infine sconfitta ed esiliata da diversi nuovi movimenti, fra cui i futuristi. Non c’era più spazio per un'opera come "La guardia bianca". Il romanzo però non era destinato all’oblio; e prima della chiusura di "Rossija", un dirigente del Teatro d’Arte di Mosca, aveva invitato Bulgakov a produrne una riduzione teatrale. Questa versione, scritta sul modello di Čechov e intitolata "I giorni dei Turbin", ebbe grandissimo successo. Come magistralmente raccontato dal prof. Alessandro Barbero nella lezione dedicata a Mikhail Bulgakov, un grandissimo estimatore de "I giorni dei Turbin" fu Iosif Stalin stesso, che la vide intorno alle quindici volte, e che spiegava il suo piacere dicendo che per lui i bolscevichi rappresentavano, nella vicenda, una forza positiva. Questo fatto salvò forse la vita di Bulgakov durante il terrore staliniano degli anni ’30; o è possibile che Bulgakov fosse, dopo il suicidio di Majakovskij, il solo autore sovietico di fama internazionale superstite, per cui si decise di salvarlo.

Bulgakov non riuscì mai a riavere dal redattore di “Rossija” il manoscritto con il finale. Egli pubblicò quindi il romanzo completo a Parigi nel 1929, rimaneggiando i capitoli conclusivi. L'idea iniziale di rendere questo racconto una trilogia venne del tutto abbandonata, e così Bulgakov cercò di creare un finale concludendo le varie trame che, idealmente, sarebbero state sviluppate nei volumi successivi.

Concludo citando due bellissimi pezzi di questo primo romanzo scritto da Bulgakov, che a mio avviso sono poesia pura:

“Pagherà mai qualcuno per il sangue versato? No, nessuno. Semplicemente la neve si scioglierà, ricrescerà la verde erba ucraina, rivestirà la terra…ricresceranno le biade rigogliose…tremerà l’afa sui campi, e traccia non resterà del sangue versato. Piccolo prezzo ha il sangue sui campi dorati, e nessuno si prenderà la briga di riscattarlo. Nessuno.”

"Tutto passa. Le sofferenze, i tormenti, il sangue, la fame e la pestilenza. La spada sparirà, e le stelle invece rimarranno, quando anche le ombre dei nostri corpi e delle nostre azioni più non saranno sulla terra. Le stelle rimarranno allo stesso modo immutabili, allo stesso modo scintillanti e meravigliose. Non esiste uomo sulla terra che non lo sappia. Perché allora non vogliamo la pace? Perché non vogliamo rivolgere il nostro sguardo alle stelle? Perché?"

[Leah · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Blood is cheap on those red fields...”

It is 1918, and Kiev in the Ukraine is at the swirling centre of the forces unleashed by war and revolution. The three Turbin siblings live in the house of their recently deceased mother in the city. They are White Russians, still loyal to the Russian Tsar, hoping against hope that he may have escaped the Bolsheviks and be living still. But there are other factions too – the German Army have installed a puppet leader, the Hetman Skoropadsky, and the Ukranian peasantry are on the march in a nationalist movement, under their leader Petlyura. This is the story of a few short days when the fate of the city seems up for grabs, and the lives of the Turbins, like so many in those turbulent times, are under constant threat.

Great and terrible was the year of Our Lord 1918, of the Revolution the second. Its summer abundant with warmth and sun, its winter with snow, highest in its heaven stood two stars: the shepherds' star, eventide Venus; and Mars – quivering, red.

I found the beginning of this book rather difficult because I had no idea who all the various factions and real-life characters were, nor what they were attempting to achieve. But I soon realised that in this I differed less from the fictional characters than I first thought. This is a book about confusion and betrayal, shifting allegiances, chaos and fear. Bulgakov takes a panoramic approach, following one character and then panning off to another. This gives it an episodic feel and adds to the sense of events moving too quickly for the people involved ever to fully grasp. The Turbins actually aren't in it a lot of the time, but they provide a thread for us to catch at in the maze, and a human side to the story for us to care about.

One of the early episodes tells the story of the soldier Victor, a friend of the Turbins, who with 39 companions is ordered to defend the city from the approaching forces of Petlyura. Ill-equipped and insufficiently clothed for the extreme cold, two of the men die of frostbite and the rest are lucky to survive. They achieve nothing. While reading this, I was simultaneously reading the beginning of Trotsky's History of the Russian Revolution , where he talks of the mass mobilisation of workers and peasants into the Russian army to fight against Germany in WW1. His description of the ill-trained, poorly-equipped troops dying needlessly in vast numbers is chillingly similar and I found that each book lent verisimilitude to the other.

Although the Turbins are on the side of the Tsar, the book itself doesn't seem to take a political stance. If anything, it paints an equally despicable picture of all the various faction leaders, as cowards hiding behind the men they send carelessly to their deaths. As senior officers on all sides run into hiding, middle-ranking officers are left to decide whether to make a stand or disband their troops, many of them no more than young boys in cadet corps. It gives an only too credible feeling for the chaos in the city, for people not knowing what's happening, and for each new rumour spreading like wildfire. Amidst all this, we see odd glimpses of life continuing – boys out playing in the snow, workers making their way to their jobs, people shopping. Through the Turbin brothers, Nikolka and Alexei, we see the battle each man must individually face between fear and heroism, while Elena, their sister, must wait at home, praying for their safety.

In the gaps between scenes of extreme brutality, Bulgakov lets us glimpse his love for the city. He describes the streets his characters pass through, the alleyways they use to escape, the ancient cathedral, the huge statue of Saint Vladimir on the hill above the city. But we are never allowed to forget the approaching threat...

But the brightest light of all was the white cross held by the gigantic statue of St Vladimir atop Vladimir Hill. It could be seen from far, far away and often in summer, in thick black mist, amid the osier-beds and tortuous meanders of the age-old river, the boatmen would see it and by its light would steer their way to the City and its wharves. In winter the cross would glow through the dense black clouds, a frozen unmoving landmark towering above the gently sloping expanse of the eastern bank, whence two vast bridges were flung across the river. One, the ponderous Chain Bridge that led to the right-bank suburbs, the other high, slim and urgent as an arrow that carried the trains from where, far away, crouched another city, threatening and mysterious: Moscow.

As the chaos worsens, so we see the atrocities that are never far from war – the criminals jumping on the lack of order to terrorise an already demoralised citizenry, the bodies left unidentified and unclaimed in the City's morgue, the wounded frightened to seek help for fear of capture. Not quite knowing who every faction was made it even more unsettling, though I wondered if Bulgakov's first readers would have known, and so might have read it differently.

A truly brilliant book that, while concentrating on one small city, gives a brutal and terrifyingly believable picture of the horrors unleashed in the wake of bloody revolution. And here we are, one hundred years later, with Moscow again invading the Ukraine – this troubled and divided territory still fighting what is essentially the same war...

The snow would just melt, the green Ukranian grass would grow again and weave its carpet over the earth... The gorgeous sunrises would come again... The air would shimmer with heat above the fields and no more traces of blood would remain. Blood is cheap on those red fields and no one would redeem it.

No one.

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