Australia and New Zealand Slavists’ Association

Some Allusions and Interlingual Elements in Bulgakov's "Flight": An Affirmation of

Russkost'?
Author(s): KEVIN WINDLE
Source: New Zealand Slavonic Journal, w Zealand Slavonic Journal (2001), pp. 191-197
Published by: Australia and New Zealand Slavists’ Association
Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/40922072
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 New Zealand Slavonic Journal

2001

KEVIN WINDLE

Some Allusions and Interlingual Elements in Bulgakov's Flight

An Affirmation of Russkost"!

At first glance, some of Bulgakov's plays might leave one wondering whether
conceived them primarily for the stage or for silent reading. For all that we know of his
to have his plays staged, often in vain, they have obvious features which lend themselv
reading and cause serious practical difficulties in staging. For one thing, they often ha
conscious literariness' in the stage directions - highly atmospheric and helpful to the cast
director, but difficult to convey to an audience. Secondly, they often have epigraphs
footnotes.

While it is not at all unusual for plays to be furnished with a single epigra
Bulgakov's play about the White defeat, evacuation from southern Russia and exile, has
for each of the eight 'dreams', in addition to the Zhukovsky verse used for the play a
whole.1 As for footnotes, these are clearly unusual in a play, since there is no easy wa
conveying the content to the audience, even when their purpose is restricted, as in
(Flight), to providing translations of material in foreign languages. They immediately
rise to two questions: 1) who supplied them? and 2) for whose benefit? With regard t
first, it seems fairly clear from all the editions and all versions that they are the work of
author himself, but it may well be that editors have made some amendments to them. A
the second, the cast will clearly be the most obvious beneficiaries, since the techn
difficulties of conveying foreign language material to the audience, easily overcome in
are less easily managed on stage.

Flight stands out among Bulgakov's twelve plays in posing problems of this nature
greater numbers than the other plays. The elaborate stage directions sometimes run to alm
a full page and read like passages from a novel.2 Its epigraphs are more numerous
significance of these has been examined by several expert commentators, and I do
presume to quarrel with their findings).3 Since half of the play is set outside Russia,
amount of foreign-language material, as well as the range of languages, exceeds that in
of Bulgakov's other plays, and the author clearly felt that the cast - at least - should have
benefit of knowing what they are saying. Hence the footnotes providing translations.

I propose to consider what is perhaps the most inconsequential aspect of Bulgakov

play about the White exodus, namely its footnotes, in the hope of establishing the functio
the material in these notes in the larger framework of Bulgakov's design. At the same
attention will be directed to some of the allusions which have caused some of its translators to
append footnotes of their own, in addition to those already supplied by the author.

First, it is worth looking briefly at the way in which foreign-language material (I mean
mainly that in Western languages which use the Latin script) is introduced and conveyed.
This is not necessarily as in the classics of the nineteenth century, where in Eugene Onegin
and Anna Karenina French is cited in its original form, in Latin script. Generalising broadly,

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because the pattern varies with the editions of the plays and the reasons may sometimes be
typographical, it appears that Bulgakov elected to use the original Latin script when the lines
are spoken by native or near-native speakers of western languages, and Cyrillic when the
speaker is less competent in a given language and/or for comic effect.4

This pattern may be observed in a number of Bulgakov's plays. In Alexander Pushkin

(Poslednie dni), for example, Shishkin, who speaks a folksy down-to-earth form of Russian
and displays little education, says to Aleksandra Goncharova, "O peByap, MaaeMya3eJib" in
Cyrillic, and she replies in untainted French "Au revoir, monsieur" in Latin script. (Sobranie
sochinenii, Vol 3, 1989, 466.)

The aviatrix Maria Viruez in Adam and Eve speaks no Russian but is fluent in French
and presumably has Spanish as her native language. Her lines are entirely in Latin script,
sentences in Spanish alternating with sentences in French: "Soy aviador espanol! Ou est-ce
que se trouve Adam?" Zewald, a German aviator, speaks only German - also in Latin script,
confirming, as I see it, that these speakers are convincingly foreign. (Gothic may not have
been available.) (Sobranie sochinenii, Vol 3, 1989, 377-79.)5

When the multilingual convenor of the cockroach races in Flight, Artur Arturovich,
who is said to be Hungarian, with a hint that he is Jewish, cries "0 cicyp!" (255; in all
versions known to me) a footnote tells us that this is "Au secours" and provides a Russian
translation, just as when cries are heard of "Mt M3 3 cywiuui!" (254). The procedure is the
same with Artur's "Am 6er ep napjioH!" (254) and "2Ke By neMaHU 3H ne ..." (255), but in
some earlier versions this phrase is in Latin script. This suggests that as the playwright
worked on his revisions he was increasingly mindful of the possibilities of the respective
scripts, and wished to give added emphasis to the overwhelmingly burlesque element at this
point.6

Whichever script is used, Bulgakov is scrupulous, most of the time, about providing
translations even for well-known expressions, occasionally in the text (264), but mostly in
footnotes, so it is not clear how a theatre audience benefits.7

In Flight, more particularly in its later versions, numerous isolated phrases in French,
English, Italian, Greek, Turkish, Arabic and German are predominantly in Cyrillic,8 either- it
appears - because they are comically foreign (like the British sailors and Artur, the
Cockroach King) or - in rare cases - unconvincingly foreign (eg Korzukhin), that is, spoken
by Russians who would prefer not to be Russian. Korzukhin's French may be grammatically
faultless, but the Cyrillic transcription invites an actor to produce spectacular phonetic
distortions. Korzukhin owns to having turned his back on his native language, instructing his
Russian servant to learn French as soon as possible because in Paris Russian is good only for
swearing "or worse, proclaiming destructive slogans".9

In addition to what we may take to be deliberate distortions occasioned by the use of

Cyrillic, the English, in particular, displays curious features that cause one to wonder about
the author's command of English. The translations provided in the footnotes (apparently the
author's, mostly unimproved by editors) are not always reliable, nor is the English in the
dialogue. The scene most affected is the brawl at the cockroach races in Dream Five, where,
for example, the British sailors back the cockroach of their choice with cries of "JloHr JiflMCj)
FlyroBMTua!" (255).10 Note also the inexplicable inconsistency by which this line begins
"Hip! Hip! Hurah!" (sic, Latin script)! They then exclaim "3bch! 3bch!", which is rendered

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in a footnote as "jJojioh!" (The context seems to require the version used by Michael Glenny
in his English translation: "Shut up, go to hell!" rather than any nautical expression.)11

One version (1928) cited in P'esy 20 gg (449) has npocnm Tka-KpacaBiwa, who has
a bit part only in the brawl scene and is apparently Russian, standing on a restaurant table and
urging the Russians and the Italian sailors to belabour the British sailors more energetically.
She shouts, "EeiiTe, 6paTHWKH, [aHrjnmaH]! liTa.ibflHUbi. Ha iio'ioiiib! Oh, bloody rood!
HoacaMH mx, HoacaMH!" In a footnote the English phrase is explained, without translation, as
"aHrjiHMCKoe pyraTejibCTBo". Where FIpocTHTyTka-KpacaBnua might have picked this up
is not clear (not, surely, from a British sailor in 1921), but Bulgakov must have been advised
that a serious intercultural misunderstanding had occurred, and that spectators with
knowledge of English would interpret 'rood' as the homonymous 'rude'. This phrase is not
present in the 1937 version.

Where Cyrillic transcription is used in the text, the footnotes provide the same foreign
text in the original script (including one in Greek, 255 and P'esy 20 gg, 418). An exception is
made where Arabic appears, and on one occasion the original form is omitted for Turkish,
where it would have been useful, as the Turkish policeman's line is clearly corrupt (P'esy 20
gg, 449, (a 1928 version)), with minor distortions in two words ("raBxa" for 'kavga' [brawl],
"uiaMjiH" for 'simdi' [now]). The reproduction of a well known line in Arabic, the muezzin's
call to prayer and first pillar of Islam, (263) is as questionable as some of the English, but
P'esy 20 gg (284) corrects it in a footnote, adding 'pravil'no': "Jlfl HJiJinxa MJiJia JiJiaxy
MyxaMMaji pacyjiy-Ji-Jiaxn." Bulgakov's version in the text loses some key syllables,
altering the meaning to the doctrinally unacceptable: "There is no god but Muhammad . . ."12

The footnotes occasionally omit to provide Russian translations, in one case incorrectly
restoring the French in Latin script from the Cyrillic, and thereby producing a distortion of
sense: la defiante (from Cyrillic ae^nm) Imperatrice russe (for defunte: noKOHHan, 253).13
Occasionally no translation is given of the cries of Turkish hawkers (251 and P'esy 20 gg,
275): 'kaymak' is 'cream' but what is 'ambulyasi' (not given in dictionaries and not
recognised by Turkish speakers)?

In a similar context to these, where we see a Franco-Russian clash of cultures, a

translation is supplied, although it is likely that the action on the stage renders it redundant
(1928 only, P'esy 20 gg, 446). A French sailor places an order for a portion of vobla, which is
listed on the menu as PyccKHH neJiMicaTec ("Garcon! Un vobla!"). He immediately spits it
out with a cry of, "Mais e'est degoutant!" (The footnote helpfully explains, "a to
OTBpaTHTeJlbHO!")14

Although parts of Flight seem cosmopolitan in the range of languages and the cultural
encounters that occur, it is likely that the other languages may serve mainly as part of a
colourful background, a largely comic foil to the main action, which takes place in Russian
and among Russians. Although translations are usually provided at least for the cast, the exact
meaning of the words spoken may not always be important. If they are not understood by the
audience, this may in fact detract little from the effect, or effectiveness of the play as
Bulgakov conceived it. They contribute to a picture of 'abroad' as a place where nobody can
feel at home or be fully understood. The downcast mood of the Russian izgoi (Khludov,
Charnota, Golubkov, Serafima), most of them penniless in an alien environment, suggests
they are suffering from an acute case of He cafard' - a double meaning that Bulgakov must
have had firmly in mind. The babble of tongues can emphasise just how alien the new

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environment is. Worse, zagranitsa is a place of pastimes that are either frivolous, like
cockroach races, or morally suspect, like profiteering, prostitution and gambling.

The Russian encounter with * abroad' has not been a happy one. The characters who
have the playwright's sympathy cannot contemplate a lifetime outside Russia. Repeatedly
they voice their disgust with foreign cities and their contemptible inhabitants:

Lius'ka [on Constantinople]: FHycHbiH ropon!

Charnota [on Madrid]: He 6biBaJi. Ho Mory napH nepacaTb, hto ubipa. [...]
j'o nero rpeKM aeajwbiM Hapoji [...] Haiuw pyccKMe
Jiynuie, onpenejieHHo Jiynuie. (259);
[on Constantinople]: CyKHH ropon! (276)
Golubkov [on Constantinople]: YacacHbiH ropon! HeerepnHMbiM ropou! JlyiiiHbiH
ropon! (263);
Charnota again: Btmeji u A(])MHbi, h Mapcejib, ho ... nouuibie
ropojia! (277).

The numerous examples emphasise that most of the characters feel at home only among
Russians and are prey to much toska and simple nostalgia (Serafima: "Xony onflTb Ha
KapaBaHHyio, a xony yBnaeTb CHer!" [276]).15 As they contemplate a life in exile, their
sense of national identity, of russkost' gains prominence in their minds. Only the likes of the
degenerate Korzukhin - in Carol Avins' phrase "a modern caricature of the Europeanised
Russian"16 - can put Russia firmly behind them, ie forget their past and adopt a foreign
culture.

Life outside Russia is a form of homelessness, itself a theme in much of Bulgakov's

writing. Here as elsewhere he is the lover of hearth and home, and we know of the pain and
frustration he experienced in his first days in Moscow from having no home of his own, only
shared rooms.17 Outside the homeland, his characters have lost what Avins calls "the site of
the self, the locus that any home provides.18 But Bulgakov understands only too clearly the
situation of those who felt they had no choice. We know that he came within an ace of
emigrating during the Civil War period, when his two brothers departed, and ten years later he
wrote his famous letter to the Soviet government asking permission to emigrate.19

The eighth and last dream turns us sternly away from the trivialities and apparently
joyless frivolities of this life in exile. The motifs of gambling, sport, play-acting, disguise,
changes of clothes and roles, of language assumed and abandoned as part of a pretence or
disguise, all noted by N A Kozhevnikova, are set aside, along with the babble of foreign
tongues and a cacophony of jolly tunes.20 Attention now turns to more serious questions of
guilt and redemption, and how (and where) to live one's life. To do this Bulgakov turns from
intercultural contact to a framework of allusions rooted firmly in the culture of the rodina.
This is apparent in the epigraph to this 'dream': a single line ")Khjih jiBeHanuaTb
pa36oHHHKOB", which introduces, with maximum economy, an austere message of mortal
sin, the torments of conscience, and atonement.

This line is the opening line of the well known Russian ballad, 'JlereHna o ABeHajwaTH
pa36oHHHicax' 'The Legend of the Twelve Brigands', derived from a poem that forms part of
Nekrasov's 'Koiuy Ha Pycw acHTb xopouio?' but much shorter, and with only four stanzas in
common. In the closing scene (all versions) it is heard again, heard particularly by Khludov,
for whom it has special meaning. Khludov, a central figure, modelled on the White general

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Slashchev, whose memoirs Bulgakov had studied, has a reputation for his brutal methods in
the retreat to the Crimea.21 We hear only one verse and the first line of the second:

^Cmjim nBeHanuaTb pa36owHHKOB m Kyuenp-aiaMaH,

MHOm pa360MHHKH npOJIHJIH KpOBM HeCTHblX XpHCTHaH.

Focnony Bory noMOJiwvicfl, upeBHioio 6biJib BO3BecTHM. (278)

Although this is all that is heard, these lines alone have great suggestive power and bring
sharply into focus one of the play's main themes. Kudeiar, the leader of the band of brigands,
after a career of pillage and rape, comes to understand the error of his ways: "Bnpyr y
pa36oMHMKa JiFOToro coBecTb Focnoiib npo6ynnJi", and he ends his days as a monk in one
of the monasteries on the Solovetsky Islands.

CaM Kynenp b MOHacTbipb yuieji, Bory h jiiohhm cjiyacmb. [...] TaK b CojioBKax
HaM paccKa3biBaji caM Kyjienp aTaiviaH.

(These lines - from the song only, not Nekrasov's poem - are not sung in the play; the
allusion depends on the audience's prior knowledge.) The parallel with Khludov as he
prepares his last act - suicide in the 1937 version, a return to Soviet Russia and almost certain
execution in some earlier versions - is clear. Khludov, who is haunted by his own dark deeds,
referred to in a form of shorthand &sfonari (on which he hanged his victims), has earlier been
called zveriuga, shakal and mirovoi zver' by one of his victims (235-36), reminding us of
Nekrasov's poem, where Kudeiar is dubbed zver'-chelovek (though in this case not in the
sung version).

The implied reference to the monastery in this finale lends symmetry by returning us to
the opening scene, where refugees from the north shelter in a monastery and monastic chants
contribute much to the atmosphere. There is also an implied reference to Kiev - implied
because this line is not heard in the play: "CaM Kyjieap M3-noji KweBa, BbiKpan neBHuy-
Kpacy" - harking back to Charnota's fond recollections of the city (252), in terms close to
those once used by Bulgakov himself in an early piece entitled 'Kiev-gorod'.22

If the intercultural element, the use of foreign languages, may be partially captured in
translations of the play - albeit without every foreign phrase being explained - its
'monocultural' allusions to Russian poetry and music present a more intractable problem. The
melody and the opening lines of The Twelve Brigands cannot convey their intended meaning
to an unprepared audience. This view is clearly shared by one of the English translators of
Flight (Michael Glenny), who suppresses the lines, with the central allusion, altogether,
saying only "sound of choir swells".23 Thus some atmospheric effect may survive, but the
lyrics, even if translated, cannot stand as an allusion to the part not heard.

Thus a play that may seem in some ways multicultural and multilingual remains in its
essence profoundly monocultural and obstinately Russian in its central framework of
allusions, and hence less suited to the theatrical repertoires of other countries, in other
languages, than some of Bulgakov's other works. In effect Flight becomes a play about
untranslatability in more than one sense of this word. The playwright rehearses an argument
for resisting emigration by showing that his Russian characters cannot be happily transplanted
to foreign soil, and the play's multilingual elements serve mainly to underscore the
'otherness' of zagranitsa, bringing home to the characters what it means to be Russian. The

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central allusion, to Ataman Kudeiar, by its very untranslatability, in its own way lends clear
salience to the idea of russkost'.

Seen in this light, Bulgakov's hopes that the ideological barriers to his play might not
prove insurmountable become easier to understand. But, of course, protestations of Russian
patriotism would not suffice to ensure access to the stage or to print in the climate of the late
1920s and '30s. Many years would pass before "the most reactionary play of our time"24
could take its place in the post-Stalin repertoire of the Soviet theatre.

Notes

1 Bulgakov's notes on how the Moscow Art Theatre considered presenting the epigraphs
are reproduced in Anatolii Smeliansky, Mikhail Bulgakov v Khudozhestvennom teatre,
(Moscow, 1989), 179, Is Comrade Bulgakov Dead? Mikahil Bulgakov at the Moscow
Art Theatre, translated by Arch Tait, (New York, 1993), 145.
2 A Colin Wright records that a Moscow production in 1967 had Golubkov acting as
narrator and reading the stage directions at the beginning of each scene; Mikhail
Bulgakov: Life and Interpretations, (Toronto, 1978), 131. Lesley Milne, Mikhail
Bulgakov: A critical biography, (Cambridge, 1990), 156, also provides information on
this and comments on the literary and rhetorical quality of the stage directions. See also
Barbara Kejna Sharratt, 'Flight: A Symphonic Play', Canadian Slavonic Papers,
Vol 14, No 1 (1972), 85; and Ellendea Proffer, Bulgakov: Life and Work, (Ann Arbor,
1984), 285.
3 Milne 155-56, On the Zhukovsky epigraph, see Andrzej Drawicz, Mistrz i diabel
(Cracow, 1 990), 1 80, The Master and the Devil translated by Kevin Windle (New York,
2001), 173, Anatolii Smeliansky, Mikhail Bulgakov v Khudozhestvennom teatre,
(Moscow, 1989), 171 ff, Is Comrade Bulgakov Dead? Mikahil Bulgakov at the Moscow
Art Theatre, translated by Arch Tait, (New York, 1993), 141 ff.
4 Just as Bulgakov varied the plot and parts of the dialogue, so he varied the choice of
script (Cyrillic or Latin) in the lines spoken in foreign languages. I am relying mainly
on the authoritative Sobranie sochinenii, 1989, Vol 3, which appears to be based on
Bulgakov's last known draft, in conjunction with A Ninov's superb M A Bulgakov,
P'esy 20-kh godov, Leningrad, 1989, which gives the different redactions.
5 Subsequent page references in the text are to this edition.
6 Ellendea Proffer rightly notes that Artur's cockroach races are a parody of 'royal
amusements' and Dream Five is 'pure farce'. Ellendea Proffer, Bulgakov: Life and
Work, (Ann Arbor, 1984), 283.
7 On the related matter of the use of Ukrainian and its translation in the text of the stage
version of The White Guard, see Gerard Abensour, 'Bulgakov et l'Ukraine', Revue des
Etudes Slaves, Vol 65, fasc 2 (1993), 308. On Ukrainian in the novel The White Guard,
see Kevin Windle, 'Ukrainian Text in a Russian Context: Bulgakov's Belaia gvardiia in
English Translation', Australian Slavonic and East European Review, Vol 10, No 2,
1996.

8 Phrases in Armenian and Tartar appear in the 1928 version but not in that of 1937.
(P'esy 20 22).
9 Earlier versions have Korzukhin's fluent French in Latin script, but Antoine's (Anton's)
minimal French response "J le Kyro" in Cyrillic.
1 0 Latin script in an earlier versions as "Long live, Pugowitza!" (comma as given), P esy
20 gg, 449.

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1 1 Mikhail Bulgakov, Six Plays, (Flight tr by Michael Glenny), London, 1 99 1 ) 1 97. As can
be seen, for an English-language audience Bulgakov's English sometimes requires
further translation, as effected by Glenny. Another English version, however, by Mirra
Ginsburg, Flight & Bliss, (New York, 1985), leaves Bulgakov's English untouched,
with some loss of clarity.
1 2 The reason why, in some early versions, the Arabic appears in the text in Latin script
must remain obscure. The 1937 version, with and without the editorial correction, has it
in Cvrillic.
1 3 Earlier versions have the translation pokoinaia in the text, making clear that 'dSfunte' is
intended.
14 Note that at this point the Frenchmen's order for beer "Un bock!" (3h 6ok in 1937,
251) offers opportunities for bilingual word-play, given the Turkish setting. Turkish
'bok' = Eng 'shit'. There is no apparent attempt to exploit this coincidence, and it may
be that Bulgakov was unaware of it.
15 See Drawicz, The Master and the Devil 175, Mistrz i diabel 182, on Bulgakov's
"subjective autopersuasion" in looking back on a period when he too might have
departed, but did not.
1 6 Carol Avins, Border Crossings: The West and Russian Identity in Soviet Literature
1917-34, Berkeley, 1983, 84. See also Drawicz, Mistrz i diabel, 180; The Master and
the Devil, 173.
1 7 Drawicz, Mistrz i diabel, 40-48; The Master and the Devil, 31-38.
18 Carol Avins. 80.

1 9 For information on the life of Russians in exile in the early 1 920s, Bulgakov co
on the stories of his then wife. Liubov' Belozerskaia had personal experience of
life in Constantinople, Berlin and Paris with her first husband. Wright, 125; P
Bulgakov: Life and Work, (Ann Arbor, 1984), 279; Smeliansky, Mikhail Bulg
Khudozhestvennom teatre, 181; Smeliansky, Is Comrade Bulgakov Dead, 147.
20 N A Kozhevnikova, 'O skvoznykh motivakh v p'esakh M. Bulgakova', V
stilistiki, Vyp 12, M, 1977, 64-80.
2 1 On Bulgakov's use of Slashchev's memoirs, and of this song, see Lesley
(143-46) and Drawicz, Mistrz i diabel, 183-84; The Master and the Devil,
VVNovikov's introduction to Mikhail Bulgakov, P'esy, Moscow, 1986,
Ellendea Proffer, Bulgakov: Life and Work, (Ann Arbor, 1984), 279-80.
On Khludov's 'duel with his conscience' and the staging of the finale see N
Cherkasov (the actor who played Khludov at the Leningrad Pushkin Drama The
1958), 'Rabota nad obrazom', Neva, No 12, 1973, 203-04.
22 Mikhail Bulgakov, Belaia gvardiia, Kiev-gorod, Kiev, 1995, 40.
23 Mikhail Bulgakov, Six Plays (Flight tr by Michael Glenny), London, 1991
version, Flight also loses all its nine epigraphs, although the Zhukovsky v
examined by Lesley Milne in her Introduction to the volume (xix). Ginsburg,
other hand, retains all epigraphs.
24 A Selivanovskii, Literaturnaia gazeta 23.9.29, quoted in Drawicz, The Master
Devil, 183.

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