The White Guard
 Recent English paperback edition cover |
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| Author | Mikhail Bulgakov |
|---|---|
| Original title | Белая гвардия |
| Country | Russia |
| Language | Russian |
| Genre(s) | Novel |
| Publisher | Художественная литература |
| Publication date | 1973 |
| Media type | Print (Hardback & Paperback) |
| Pages | 811 pp |
The White Guard (Russian: Белая гвардия) is a novel by 20th century Russian writer Mikhail Bulgakov, famed for his critically-acclaimed later work The Master and Margarita.
History
The White Guard first appeared in serial form in the Soviet-era literary journal Rossiya in 1926, but was never fully released as the magazine was closed by the USSR government. Never reaching proper publication until after the death of Stalin, The White Guard was instead turned into the play The Days of the Turbins, shown at the Moscow Arts Theatre until eventually being banned itself. Bulgakov then pleaded to Stalin himself to be permitted to leave the country, but instead Stalin personally gave him a job at the Moscow Arts Theatre, where he would still be working when he completed The Master and Margarita, before he died in 1940. His widow managed to have The White Guard partially published in the literary journal Moskva in 1966, and the entire novel was finally published as a whole in 1973.
The novel: settings, themes and narrative style
Set in Ukraine, beginning in late 1918, the novel concerns the fate of the Turbin family as the various armies of the Russian Civil War - the Whites, the Reds, the German Army left over after Russia left the First World War, and the peasants of Ukraine fight over the city of Kiev. Real historical figures such as Petlyura and Skoropadsky feature as the various Turbins are caught up in the turbulent effects of the Russian Revolution and the Russian Civil War on their lives.
Autobiographical elements
The novel contains many autobiographical elements. The younger Turbin brother is modeled after Bulgakov's own younger brother. The house of the Turbins is an exact description of the house of the Bulgakov family in Kiev (which currently is the Mikhail Bulgakov Museum).
External links
- http://www.sovlit.com/whiteguard/ - an overview of the novel, also with information on the author.
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