ABSTRACT
Historiographers of twentieth-century Russian literature are once again caught in an unenviable position. The predicament at hand concerns not just an updated compilation of literary history in the light of new publications in the former USSR. Neither is it just a question of determining the place of various writers (writing in Russian) in relation to the vast diaspora of three generations of emigrants, or even the problems of identifying a niche for samizdat and tamizdat in relation to the officially sanctioned literary works that were published in the Soviet period. The problem encompasses the chronology of even individual authors and their literary texts. And Mikhail Bulgakov is certainly not going to make matters easier for researchers. On the contrary, he is one writer who is going to give many a sleepless night to the historians of twentieth-century Russian literature.1 Which slot is he meant to fit into?—the 1920s and 1930s when he lived and created?—the 1960s and 1970s-the time of his first resurrection?—the 1980s-which heralded his second resurrection and also witnessed the gradual publication of his complete works in his homeland?—or else to all these three periods simultaneously which, in a way, encompass the entire twentieth century! Then there is the history of Bulgakov’s works printed outside the USSR. That too cannot be ignored.
