Author Guide · Russian Literature
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In 1930 Mikhail Bulgakov burned the first draft of a novel about the devil visiting Moscow. A few weeks later Stalin phoned him at home, asked whether he really wanted to leave the Soviet Union, and suggested he apply for a job at the Moscow Art Theatre. Bulgakov, a doctor from Kyiv turned writer, kept the job, saw almost everything he wrote banned, and went on rewriting the novel until shortly before he died in 1940. The Master and Margarita was first printed, heavily cut, in a Moscow magazine in 1966–67. Most of his best books reached readers decades after he wrote them, so the dates on this page give both. This guide covers his 9 key books, in order, and where to begin.
By Lisanne Swart · 9 key books · 1925–1968 · Updated October 2026
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Quick answer
Mikhail Bulgakov’s best-known books are The Master and Margarita (written 1928–1940, first published 1966–67), Heart of a Dog (written 1925, published 1968) and The White Guard (1925–27). Start with The Master and Margarita. Most of his work was banned in his lifetime, which is why the publication dates below run long after his death.
Where to Start with Mikhail Bulgakov
If you want his defining book
→ The Master and Margarita (1966) — Satan in 1930s Moscow, and Pontius Pilate in Jerusalem.
If you want something short and sharp first
→ Heart of a Dog (1968) — the 1925 satire banned for six decades.
If you want his own life in fiction
→ The White Guard (1925) — his family’s Kyiv in the civil war of 1918.
If you want the doctor before the writer
→ A Young Doctor’s Notebook (1925) — stories from a village hospital.
9 Mikhail Bulgakov Books, in Order
The White Guard
The Turbin family, officers in Hetman Skoropadsky’s army, defend Kyiv against Petliura’s forces in December 1918, while German, Red and White armies fight over the city. Written in 1923–24, it began as a serial in the journal Rossiya in 1925, but the journal closed after two instalments; the complete novel first appeared abroad in 1927.
The Fatal Eggs
In a Moscow of 1928, the zoologist Persikov discovers a red ray that makes living things multiply and grow aggressive. A state-farm manager, Rokk, borrows it to restore the chicken population, but a mix-up with a delivery of eggs breeds giant snakes and crocodiles instead. Written in 1924, it was included in his 1925 collection Diaboliad.
A Young Doctor’s Notebook
A cycle of stories about a newly qualified doctor alone in a village hospital in Smolensk province, drawn on Bulgakov’s own work there in 1916–18: amputations, difficult births, snowstorms. The stories appeared in Soviet medical journals between 1925 and 1927. Some English editions add “Morphine”, about a doctor’s addiction. A 2012 television series starred Jon Hamm and Daniel Radcliffe.
The Days of the Turbins
His stage version of The White Guard, which opened at the Moscow Art Theatre in October 1926 and became a great success, overshadowing the novel. Stalin is reported to have seen it at least fifteen times.
Flight
A play about White Russians in retreat and in exile after the civil war, from Crimea to Constantinople and Paris. Bulgakov wrote it between 1926 and 1928; it was banned after the censors showed it to Stalin, who agreed with the ban, and it was not staged until 1957. A Soviet film version appeared in 1970.
The Life of Monsieur de Molière
A biography of the French playwright, a writer Bulgakov saw as a fellow victim of censorship and royal favour. He completed it in 1933; it was not published until 1962. He also wrote a play about Molière, The Cabal of Hypocrites, banned in 1930.
Black Snow
The writer Sergei Maksudov sees his novel turned into a play at a great Moscow theatre and is ground down by its rituals. The theatre’s revered director, Ivan Vasilievich, is a portrait of Konstantin Stanislavsky. Begun in 1936 after Bulgakov’s break with the Moscow Art Theatre and left unfinished, it was first published in Novy Mir in 1965; Michael Glenny’s English translation followed in 1967.
The Master and Margarita
Satan arrives in 1930s Moscow as Professor Woland, with a retinue that includes Koroviev, Azazello and Behemoth, a huge black cat, and exposes the greed and pettiness of the city. A second story, about Pontius Pilate and Yeshua Ha-Notsri in Jerusalem, turns out to be the novel written by the Master, Margarita’s lover. Bulgakov worked on it from 1928 until his death in 1940. It first appeared in the magazine Moskva in 1966–67 with about 12 percent cut; the complete Russian text was published in Moscow in 1973.
Heart of a Dog
The Moscow surgeon Preobrazhensky takes in a stray dog, Sharik, and transplants a dead drunkard’s pituitary gland and testicles into him. Sharik becomes Sharikov, a crude new citizen who takes a job catching cats and denounces his creator to the authorities. Written in 1925, it was refused publication and the secret police confiscated the manuscript in 1926. It first appeared in 1968, in Michael Glenny’s English translation, and in the Soviet Union only in 1987.
In What Order to Read Mikhail Bulgakov
Nothing in Bulgakov continues from one book to the next, and the order on this page follows first publication, which is not the order he wrote in. Heart of a Dog and The Fatal Eggs come from the same year, 1925; The Master and Margarita is the work of his last twelve years. Reading in writing order shows the satires of the 1920s turning into the late novel.
If you start with The Master and Margarita, pick a full, uncensored translation; Pevear and Volokhonsky (1997) and Burgin and O’Connor (1993) are both complete. Read Black Snow after it: it is his own experience of censorship and the theatre, told as comedy.
A reading path
1. Heart of a Dog (written 1925)
2. The Fatal Eggs (1925)
3. The White Guard (1925–27)
4. Black Snow (written 1936)
5. The Master and Margarita (written 1928–1940)
Everything Else Mikhail Bulgakov Published
Beyond the 9 key books: 6 more, grouped by kind.
Open a group with the + to see every book in it.
Story collection
1
1 book · 1925
- 1925Diaboliadhis satirical stories, including The Fatal Eggs
Plays
5
5 books · 1926–1939
- 1926Zoyka’s Apartmentstaged in October 1926
- 1928The Crimson Islandstaged at the Kamerny Theatre in December 1928
- 1929The Cabal of Hypocritesabout Molière; completed 1929, banned 1930
- 1936Ivan Vasilievicha comedy, written 1936; filmed in 1973
- 1939Batumabout the young Stalin; banned before rehearsals
The years · 1891–1966
Quick facts about Mikhail Bulgakov
- Known for
- Bulgakov is known for The Master and Margarita, the novel about Satan in Stalin’s Moscow that he wrote in secret and that was published only a quarter of a century after his death.
- 1891
- Born in Kyiv
- 1926
- The Days of the Turbins opens
- 1940
- Dies in Moscow, aged 48
- Born
- 15 May 1891, Kyiv (then Kiev, Russian Empire)
- Died
- 10 March 1940, Moscow, of an inherited kidney disease; buried at Novodevichy Cemetery
- Education
- Medicine at Kyiv University, graduating in 1916
- Worked
- Village doctor, 1916–18; later at the Moscow Art Theatre from 1930
- Married
- Tatyana Lappa (1913), Lyubov Belozerskaya (1925), Elena Shilovskaya (1932)
- Censorship
- Most of his novels and many of his plays were banned or unpublished in his lifetime
The red mark is 1966: the first, censored publication of The Master and Margarita, 26 years after his death.
How Mikhail Bulgakov Writes: Satire with the Devil in It
Bulgakov writes satire by letting the impossible loose in an ordinary Soviet setting and watching how officials cope. A red ray breeds monsters in The Fatal Eggs; a dog becomes a bureaucrat in Heart of a Dog; in The Master and Margarita Woland’s retinue turns a Moscow variety theatre, a housing committee and the writers’ union upside down. The comedy is in how quickly people accept the miracle and go back to arguing about flats and permits.
Against that he sets a second register that is serious and plain. The Jerusalem chapters of The Master and Margarita are written as sober historical fiction, and The White Guard and A Young Doctor’s Notebook draw closely on his own life: his family’s house in Kyiv during 1918, and the village hospital where he worked as a young doctor.
Censorship runs through his subjects as well as his career. The Cabal of Hypocrites and his biography of Molière are about a writer dependent on a ruler’s favour; Black Snow and the Master are writers whose work is rejected. Woland’s line to the Master, who has burned his novel, became the book’s best-known phrase: manuscripts don’t burn.
Frequently asked questions about Mikhail Bulgakov’s books
How many books has Mikhail Bulgakov written?
This page lists nine key works, from The White Guard (1925) to Heart of a Dog (published 1968), and six more in the bibliography: the story collection Diaboliad (1925) and five plays. He also wrote short stories, sketches and other plays. Several works were published only decades after his death in 1940.
What are Mikhail Bulgakov’s books in order?
By first publication: The White Guard (1925), The Fatal Eggs (1925), A Young Doctor’s Notebook (1925–27), The Days of the Turbins (staged 1926), Flight (staged 1957), The Life of Monsieur de Molière (1962), Black Snow (1965), The Master and Margarita (1966–67) and Heart of a Dog (1968). By writing date, Heart of a Dog (1925) comes early and The Master and Margarita (1928–1940) last.
Where should I start with Mikhail Bulgakov?
The Master and Margarita, in a complete translation. If you would rather start short, Heart of a Dog is a novella of the same satirical kind, written in 1925.
What is Mikhail Bulgakov’s most famous book?
The Master and Margarita, the novel about Satan, as Professor Woland, visiting 1930s Moscow, with a parallel story about Pontius Pilate. He worked on it from 1928 until his death in 1940.
When was The Master and Margarita published?
It first appeared in the Moscow magazine Moskva in two parts, in November 1966 and January 1967, with about 12 percent of the text cut. The first book edition came out in Paris in 1967, and the first complete Russian text in Moscow in 1973. The first English translations, by Mirra Ginsburg and Michael Glenny, were published in 1967.
Why did Bulgakov burn The Master and Margarita?
In 1930, with his plays banned and no prospect of publishing, he burned the first draft. He started again in 1931 and kept revising until shortly before his death. In the novel, the Master also burns his manuscript, and Woland answers that manuscripts don’t burn.
What was Bulgakov’s relationship with Stalin?
After The Cabal of Hypocrites was banned in March 1930, Bulgakov wrote to the government asking to be allowed to leave the country or to work. On 18 April 1930 Stalin phoned him, asked whether he really wanted to leave, and suggested he apply to the Moscow Art Theatre, which hired him. Stalin is reported to have seen The Days of the Turbins at least fifteen times, but he also agreed with the ban on Flight, and Batum, Bulgakov’s play about Stalin’s youth, was banned in 1939.
Has The Master and Margarita been made into a film?
Several times: a Yugoslav-Italian film in 1972, a Polish television series in 1989, a Russian television series in 2005, and a 2024 film directed by Michael Lockshin with August Diehl as Woland. Heart of a Dog was filmed by Vladimir Bortko in 1988.
Why is Bulgakov controversial in Ukraine?
Bulgakov was born in Kyiv and set The White Guard there, but the novel’s view of Ukrainian nationalists such as Petliura is hostile. In 2022 the National Writers’ Union of Ukraine said he rejected Ukrainian statehood and proposed closing his museum in Kyiv; in 2024 an expert commission said memorials to him symbolise Russian imperial policy. After a Kyiv City Council decision in December 2025, his monument on Andriyivskyy Descent was removed in June 2026.
Is Mikhail Bulgakov still alive?
No. He died in Moscow on 10 March 1940, aged 48, of nephrotic syndrome, an inherited kidney disease, and is buried at Novodevichy Cemetery.
Footnotes
- Mikhail Bulgakov — Wikipedia
- The Master and Margarita — Wikipedia
- Heart of a Dog — Wikipedia
- Theatrical Novel — Wikipedia
- The Life of Monsieur de Molière — New Directions
- A monument to Mikhail Bulgakov was dismantled in Kyiv — PRM, 2026
Bibliography last verified 9 October 2026. Where sources give different first-publication years, this page uses the year in library catalogues or the publisher’s own record.
This list was not put together by a machine.
The notes are all mine,
and the books are all his.
Lisanne x
Written by Lisanne Swart, who has curated reading lists and author guides at lisanneswart.com since 2021.
See more on her personal bookshelf.
“Manuscripts don’t burn.”
— Woland, in Mikhail Bulgakov, The Master and Margarita (written 1928–1940, published 1966–67)
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