Mikhail Afanasyevich Bulgakov was born on 15 May 1891 in Kiev in the family of an associate professor (later a professor) of the Kiev Theological Academy and a teacher of a women's progymnasium. Besides him, there were six other children in the family.

In 1909 Mikhail Bulgakov graduated from the First Kiev gymnasium and, seeking financial well-being, applied to the medical faculty of Kiev University. Bulgakov took seven years to complete his profession, having an exemption due to kidney failure. Later he tried to get a job as a military doctor in the navy, but was refused. On 31 October 1916, Mikhail Bulgakov held in his hands a red diploma of a physician.

When the First World War broke out, Mikhail worked for several months as a doctor in the front-line zone. Then he worked as a military doctor in Kamyanets-Podolsk during the Brusilov breakthrough, and later in Chernivtsi. After that he was sent to work in the village of Nikolskoye in Smolensk province, and from there - in Vyazma.

In 1917 Bulgakov began to use morphine to alleviate allergic reactions to antidiphtheria drug, and after a long time could not give it up. In the spring of 1918, Mikhail returned to his homeland and became a private doctor-venereologist.

During the Civil War Bulgakov worked as a volunteer in the officers' squads for the defence of Kiev from the troops of the Directory, as a military doctor in the army of the Ukrainian People's Republic, as a doctor of the Red Cross and of the 3rd Terek Cossack Regiment.

Mikhail Bulgakov in literature

In early 1920 Bulgakov fell ill with typhoid fever and was forced to leave for Vladikavkaz, where he began to try his hand at dramaturgy. On 1 February 1921 he wrote to a cousin: "I am four years late with what I should have long ago started to do - to write".

In 1921 Mikhail Bulgakov moved to the capital permanently and began to collaborate as a feuilletonist with the newspapers "Gudok", "Rabochy" and the magazines "Medical Worker", "Russia", "Revival" and "Red Journal for All".

Since October 1926 at the Moscow Art Theatre with great success was his production of "Days of the Turbins", which was appreciated even by Joseph Stalin, despite the fact that he found it anti-Soviet. On the writer poured a barrage of criticism, but he continued to create. And in the same year in the Vakhtangov Theatre premiered the play "Zoykina Apartment". And in 1928, theatregoers saw the production of "Crimson Island".

At first everything went great, but in 1930 to create a writer became very difficult, almost impossible: he stopped printing, the plays were withdrawn from the repertoire of theatres. Then Bulgakov sent a letter to the Government of the USSR with a request to determine his fate: either to let him emigrate, or to give him the opportunity to work in the Moscow Art Theatre.

April 18, 1930 he received a call from Stalin and recommended that he apply to the theatre. So Bulgakov got a job as a director at the Central Theatre of Working Youth, then worked at the Moscow Art Theatre as an assistant director until 1936. In 1935, he himself played Judge in the play "Pickwick's Club" by Dickens. The experience of working at the Moscow Art Theatre was reflected in "Notes of the Dead". Later Bulgakov worked as a librettist and translator at the Bolshoi Theatre.

Mikhail Bulgakov: illness

In 1939, the writer began to lose his eyesight, which was caused by hypertensive nephrosclerosis. Bulgakov again began to use morphine and began to dictate the last version of the novel "The Master and Margarita" to his wife.

Since February 1940, friends and family constantly on duty at the bedside of the creator. 10 March at forty-ninth year of life, he died. Mikhail Bulgakov was buried in the Novodevichy cemetery. The writer left life early, but left a huge trace in literature. Among the famous creations of Mikhail Bulgakov are the following books:

"Dog's Heart"

"Notes of a Young Doctor"

"The Theatre Novel"

"The White Guard"

"The Fatal Eggs"

"The Devoliad

"Ivan Vasilyevich"

"The Master and Margarita"