A Walking Route: Literary Tour of Moscow
A Walking Route: Literary Tour of Moscow
One is obliged to take a literary tour around Moscow.
It’s no surprise to anyone that some of the best literature in the world comes from Russia, and one of the best novels of the 20th Century, and easily one of the best Soviet satires, comes from Moscow: The Master and Margerita (Ма́стер и Маргари́та) by Mikhail Bulgakov.
The book is set in 1930s Moscow and tells the story of the Devil’s visit to the very atheist Soviet Union.
Because it’s set in Moscow, you can easily go and visit some of these places. There’s over 20 different locations to see and they were either famous before, or became very famous thanks to the novel, like Patriarch’s Ponds and Sparrow Hills.
There are two museums you can visit in Moscow that honour the memory of Mikhail Bulgakov and The Master and Margarita which are situtated in Bulgakov’s old apartment building in Moscow, in which parts of The Master and Margarita were set!
The Bulgakov House (Булгаковский Дом) on the ground floor contains personal belongings, photos and several exhibitions related to the author’s life while the Museum M.A. Bulgakov (Музей М. А. Булгаков) is in apartment 50 on the fourth floor, which claims to be “the first and only Memorial Museum of Mikhail Bulgakov in Moscow”, and contains various items and photos, similar to the Bulgakov House. There’s a rivalry between the two museums so you should probably visit both!
They can be found at 10 Bolshaya Sadovaya Ulitsa in Moscow.
Other areas worth seeing are the Alexander Garden, which was one of the first public parks in Moscow, Arbat, which is the most touristic street in Moscow today and the Spaso House on Spasopeskovskaya Ploshad. Spaso House has been the American Embassy since 1933 and a very famous scene from the book takes place here: the Great Ball at Satan’s.
You should also go and see the Torgsin store on Smolenskaya Ploschad. Torgsin is a Soviet contraction of the Russian for “to trade with foreigners” and was the name for shops where Russians could purchase “exotic” items that were unobtainable in Russia, like certain foods or items of clothing.
Jade Mitchell-Ross is an English student, currently on an internship while studying Russian at Liden & Denz
