Is it true that Bulgakov wrote “twelve chairs”?

In blogs and articles, you can sometimes find the statement that the novel “Twelve Chairs” was written not by Ilf and Petrov, but by Mikhail Bulgakov. We decided to figure out what this statement is based and whether it corresponds to reality.

The theory of Bulgakov as the author of the Twelve Chairs can be found in a wide variety of sources: in the newspaper "Literary Russia", On the blogs of the writer Dmitry Galkovsky and a field commander sentenced by a court in The Hague Igor Strelkov. Relatively recently, in February 2023, the text on this subject was repostated at Livejournal State Duma deputy Oleg Matveychev. All authors of articles claim that Bulgakov is a true creator of the novel. Allegedly, he agreed to give his work, as he faced the refusal of publishing his other books. And Ilf and Petrov are supposedly just a screen, little-known authors, behind which a truly great writer was hidden. This theory is also popular on YouTube: one of the videoOV on the authorship of Bulgakov Sicked 217,000 views, there are references Here And Here.

"Bulgakov" theory

The first work, which in detail is versed in the possible authorship of Bulgakov, is the book of Irina Amlinsky published in Berlin "12 chairs from Mikhail Bulgakov"(2013). The author questioned the traditional attribution of the famous novel. In her opinion, the authorship of Bulgakov is proved by numerous textual coincidences and allusions contained in the “twelve chairs”. For example, Amlinsky claims that the prototype Ostap Bender is a crook of amethysts from the play of Bulgakov “Zoikina Apartment”. And the former nobleman of Osolininov from the same play is the prototype of Vorobyaninov from the Twelve Chairs. This is the similarity for the first time Described Alexander Levin in the 2011 article.

Irina Amlinski, in turn, claims that Ilf and Petrov could not be familiar with the text of the Zoikina Apartment, which was published in Russian only in 1969, and the first translation appeared in 1929, two years after the writing of the Twelve Chairs. The argument that the theater premiere "Zoikina Apartment" took place In October 1926, the researcher celebrates, insisting that Ilf and Petrov did not go to the theater.

The main argument of Irina Amlinsky is the coincidences of names and speech turns. The author compares the text (including draft options) with “Masters and Margarita” with “twelve chairs”. According to her theory, Levi Matvey is equal to Hippolytus Matveevich Vorobyaninov, and the mother -in -law of Vorobyaninov Claudia Petrovna - Pontius Pilate. In addition, the author of the work claims, there are no draft “twelve chairs”, only “Belova Autograph of the novel”.

Authorship of Ilf and Petrov

In an interview with the “verified” researcher of Ilf and Petrov, Mikhail Odessa, the author of comments (together with David Fieldman) to the full author’s text “Twelve Chairs”, called the Bulgakov authorship “causing perplexity”. According to him, the history of the creation of the novel has been well studied and the specialists in the authorship of Ilf and Petrov have no doubt.

First of all, notes Mikhail Odessa, in the archive there is a manuscript "Twelve Chairs", which and used When compiling a complete edition of the novel. This manuscript with copyright edits belongs to Evgeny Kataev (aka Evgeny Petrov, co -author of Ilya Ilf). In addition, there are two typewritten copies signed by the authors - Ilf and Petrov. Finally, the first publication of "Twelve Chairs" in the magazine "Thirty days»I went out in a truncated form. In further publications, excerpts from the manuscript were included in the text. In the absence of drafts for the manuscript, there is nothing strange, explains Mikhail Odessa: there is no reason to store draft sketches with a manuscript with copyright editors. Storage of drafts with all possible options is an individual feature of individual writers, this is not a generally accepted rule.

The second argument is a well -known story of the creation of a novel, which was not disputed by either contemporaries, Bulgakov, nor researchers of creativity, on the one hand, Bulgakov, on the other - Ilf and Petrov. Writer Valentin Kataev, the elder brother of Evgeny Kataev (Petrova), tells this story in his memoirs "My diamond crown". According to Kataev Sr., he, following the example of Alexander Dumas-father, decided to take advantage of the work of “literary blacks”, that is, those who would embody his ideas on paper. As such assistants, he chose “his friend and his brother,” that is, Ilya Ilf and Evgeny Kataev. He prompted them the idea of ​​writing a novel about diamonds hidden in a furniture set.

Further, Valentin Kataev describes the development of events as follows: “As soon as I appeared in the cold, rainy Moscow, as my co -authors appeared before me. With dignity, somewhat even dry they informed me that they had already written more than six printed sheets. One of them took out a neat manuscript from the folder, and the other began to read it aloud. Already ten minutes later it became clear to me that my slaves performed all the ingenuous plot moves set by him and perfectly depicted the portrait of Vorobyaninov, but, in addition, introduced a completely new, invented magnificent character - Ostap Bender, whose name was now a household name, such as nostrils. ” After that, Kataev Sr. said: “That's what, brothers. From now on, you are both the only author of the future novel. I am eliminated. " At the same time, in the first and subsequent publications, Valentin Kataeva was invariably given. It seems sets out This story and Evgeny Kataev (Petrov).

The third argument is a literary and social environment in which a novel was created. A friendly company of writers called "Poet's Collective", in the center of which was Valentin Kataev, appeared Back in the early 1920s in Odessa. This circle included Yuri Olesha, Vera Inber, Eduard Bagritsky and Ilya Ilf. Close friends of Kataevs took part in the edition of the novel. Another Odessa acquaintance of Kataeva and Ilf, Vasily Rezin, was responsible for the editing of the magazine version of the novel. And published the magazine "Thirty days" close friend of Kataev Vladimir Narbutwho agreed to print "twelve chairs." Bulgakov was friends with Kataev, but had nothing to do with this company, Mikhail Odessa emphasizes.

The coincidences of some names and speech turnover in the “Twelve Chairs” and “Zoikina Apartment” noted by Alexander Levin and Irina Amphinsky really exist. As Mikhail Odessa notes, in the novel of Ilf and Petrov there are many references to friends and acquaintances of writers, for example, to Bulgakov’s wife. In the book "My diamond crown"Valentina Kataeva is such a passage about Bulgakov:" One fine day, he inserted a monocle in the eye, divorced his old wife, changed his circle of acquaintances and married a certain Beloselskaya-Belozerskaya, nicknamed Poisonous authors of the "twelve chairs" "Princess of the Belarusian-Baltic". "

The assumption that Ilf and Petrov could not be familiar with Zoikina Apartment, is based on the fact that they did not go to theaters. The source of this statement is the memories of the same Valentin Kataev, who contrasts the lifestyle of Bulgakov and the Kataev company: “He was somewhat older than all of us, the characters of my composition, then the Gudkovites, and favorably differed from us in that he was a positive, family, with principles, while we were the most desperate bohemian, nihilists, decisively denied everything that had at least some kind of connection with The pre -revolutionary world, starting with the Wanderers and ending with the Art Theater, which we despised to such an extent that, having arrived in Moscow, not only had never been to it, but we had no idea where it was, on which street. ” But already in the next phrase, Kataev writes: “In the field of arts, there were only two authorities for us: commander and Meyerhold.” The commander is Mayakovsky, and the mention of Vsevolod Meyerhold casts doubt on the dislike of Kataev and Ilf to the theater as such.

In addition, to get acquainted with Bulgakov’s texts, his friends did not have to go to the theater or read them in printed form. Kataev Remembering: “Bulgakov sometimes read his things to us - no longer feuilletons, but excerpts from the novel. I remember how one fine day he told us: "You know that, comrades, I am writing a novel, and if you do not mind, I will read a few pages." And he read to us several excerpts of a very well -written, lively, bright work, which then gradually turned into the novel "White Guard". " About such literary evenings I remembered And the wife of Bulgakov, Lyubov Belozerskaya. Thus, it is likely that for the first time Ilf and Petrov could not even be found even in the theater, but at the Bulgakov’s house. In addition, all of them in 1926 worked together in the Gudok newspaper and, as Valentin Kataev testifies, competed in wit and exchanged observations.

The fourth argument is the absence of any direct instructions or even hints of the authorship of the “twelve chairs” surrounded by Mikhail Bulgakov. During his lifetime he was almost not printed, plays were forbidden, and the main novel of his life, “Master and Margarita”, from afar 26 years after the death of the writer. “Twelve chairs” at that time were translated into foreign languages ​​and reprinted several times. But Bulgakov biographers, The studying in detail The writer's archives, about his involvement in the creation of a novel about Ostap Bender do not write anything.

In 1927, when the Twelve Chairs were created, Bulgakov was married to Lyubov Belozerskaya. She left detailed memories About this period of their life, and in them, too, there is not a word about the secret authorship of Bulgakov. The third wife of the writer, Elena Sergeevna Bulgakova (Shilovskaya), retained all the archives of Bulgakova and always jealous of literary criticism of her husband, whom they refused to print. But also in her diary There is not a hint of stolen authorship of a popular novel.

Thus, the theory that “twelve chairs” was written by Bulgakov, and not Ilf and Petrov, is not confirmed either textologically or from the point of view of the biography of writers, nor a literary context. The evidence that the author and supporters of the theory give are based on indirect coincidences and conspiracy thespirological arguments. In addition, confidence in the arguments of Irina Amlinsky undermines her current Adherence The theories of the conspiracy - for example, about psychotropic weapons, which the "world elite" allegedly used in Ukraine, adding to drinking water.

Photo on the cover: Ilf and Petrov at work, 1932. Eliazar Langman / Wikimedia Commons

Not true

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