Museum-Theater “Bulgakov’s House” is a non-profit partnership founded by enthusiasts and philanthropists, fans of the outstanding Russian writer Mikhail Bulgakov.
The first museum in Russia dedicated to the work of M. A. Bulgakov opened in 2004. The museum theater is located on the first floor of house number 10 on Bolshaya Sadovaya (Garden Ring, Moscow). M. A. Bulgakov lived here from 1921 to 1924, and it is in this house that the main scenes of the novel The Master and Margarita are played out.
The building was designed in the Art Nouveau style between 1902 and 1905 as an apartment building by order of the Russian millionaire Ilya Pigit, owner of the Dukat tobacco factory. At that time, construction in Moscow was flourishing. Just then, the Garden Ring was being built around the center of Moscow, consisting of wide streets lined with trees.
In September 1921, the Soviet writer Mikhail Bulgakov moved into apartment number 50 on the first floor with his wife, Tatyana Nikolaevna Lappa.
Bulgakov made the building one of the most significant places in his famous novel Master and Margarita. It is there that the “Bad Apartment” is located.
In Master and Margarita, Bulgakov did not give the building number 10 – its actual number – but instead used the number 302-bis with a specific allusion to the intricate bureaucratic system of the Soviet system at the time.
In the summer of 1924, Bulgakov moved to the fifth floor, to a quieter apartment at number 34, some characteristics of which he also used to describe apartment 50 in his novel.
In one of house number 10 apartments on Bolshaya Sadovaya, Sergei Yesenin met the American dancer Isadora Duncan, who later became his wife.
The grand opening of the cultural and educational center “Bulgakov’s House” took place on May 15, 2004.
The cultural center has a permanent exhibition dedicated to the life and work of M. A. Bulgakov, as well as periodically changing exhibitions. The former apartment has an area of just over 100 sq. m and five rooms. Exhibition areas on the stairs and the summer veranda in the courtyard are periodically connected.
The most widely known is the unique electronic exposition dedicated to the life and work of M. A. Bulgakov. It contains more than 500 photographs, documents, and fragments from films and performances based on the writer’s works.
The cultural center regularly conducts excursions around Bulgakov’s Moscow and simply Moscow history excursions. Especially popular are night tours of Bulgakov’s Moscow, as well as theatrical tours with the participation of professional actors. In total, more than 40 different excursions have been developed, including bus, walking and visiting museums.
In 2009, the Bulgakov’s House cultural center launched a stylized “rubber-running tram” around Bulgakovskiy places in Moscow, which is now regularly on duty at the exit of the Pushkinskaya metro station and is very popular.
Working hours: Mon-Fri 13:00–19:00; Sat, Sun 12:00–19:00
Address: Bolshaya Sadovaya street, 10, Moscow (ground floor)
Nearest metro: Mayakovskaya, Pushkinskaya, Chekhovskaya, Barrikadnaya.
