(«We must run. Everyone is running.» (M.A. Bulgakov and N.A. Teffi))

Abstract

«We must run. Everyone is running.» (M.A. Bulgakov and N.A. Teffi) The subject is new in literary criticism, the question of the influence of Teffi's works on Bulgakov's work has not yet been raised. The article analyzes Teffi's stories and feuilletons of 1918–1919, the period of the writer's stay in Kiev and Odessa, as well as her memoirs in 1931; and there are parallels between Teffi's image of Kiev in 1918 and Bulgakov's novel The White Guard. Special attention should be paid to the “running” motif, relevant in Teffi's work in the late 1910s, and which is developed in Bulgakov's play The Flight. Moreover, this play was influenced by the theme of Constantinople in Teffi's journalism during the first months of her exile. In connection with the insect motives of the play The Flight, we find the discourse of the “cockroach” in a certain number of works by Teffi, notably in Potapovna. For the writer, one of the important problems is the essence of the concept of “human”, a problem then developed by Bulgakov in Heart of a Dog, which is a variant of the “humanoid” creature that appeared in the work of Teffi in the late 1900s.