The White Guard. Notes of a Young Doctor

In the series of stories «Notes of a Young Doctor» and in the novel «The White Guard», M. A. Bulgakov reflects many episodes of the writer's life. Mikhail Afanasevich spent his childhood in a large, friendly, intelligent family in Kiev. The whirlwind of the Civil War swept it away in different directions. The dramatic events of that time formed the basis of the novel «The White Guard». Bulgakov graduated from the medical faculty of Kiev University. Then he worked in a small village, Nikolskoye, in the Smolensk region, where the young doctor was saved from drug addiction by his wife, Tatyana Lappa. Complex cases from his medical practice would later be described by Bulgakov in stories. The decision to seriously engage in literature was made in Vladikavkaz, where he worked as a military doctor. Shortly before the arrival of the Red Army, Mikhail Afanasevich fell ill with typhus, was bedridden and was forced to remain in the country. In an effort to leave Russia, Bulgakov and his wife reached Batumi, but there he had a fateful meeting with Osip Mandelshtam. The poet convinced Mikhail Afanasevich to go to Moscow and print his works there. In the capital, Bulgakov began writing feuilletons for various newspapers and magazines, and in 1925, the magazine «Russia» started publishing his novel «The White Guard». That same year, the leadership of the Moscow Art Theatre offered Bulgakov to adapt the novel for a stage production, and soon the premiere of the play «Days of the Turbins» took place. Bulgakov did not hide his controversial attitude towards the revolution. Stalin repeatedly stated in his speeches that «Days of the Turbins» is an anti-Soviet work; however, he also ordered the play to be returned to the stage when its performance was banned. Mikhail Afanasevich lived only forty-nine years. After his death, A. A. Fadeev wrote that he was «...a man who did not burden himself with political lies in his creativity or life... His path was sincere and organic, and if at the height of his journey (and sometimes afterwards) he did not see everything as it really was, then there is nothing surprising in this: it would have been worse if he were false...».

The book is illustrated with drawings by contemporary St. Petersburg artist Tatyana Kosach. She graduated from the historical faculty of St. Petersburg State University and is a specialist in medieval art. Her iconographic and graphic works can be found in private collections of art lovers in Russia, the USA, Italy, and France. In the BML series, her illustrations adorn the novels «An American Tragedy», «The Financier», «Titan», «Stoic» by Theodore Dreiser, «Doctor Zhivago» by Boris Pasternak, and «Stories» by Abruaz Beers.