The article examines the documents deposited in the folder “The All-Union Society of Cultural Communication with abroad. English Department. Correspondence with the VOKS commissioner in England about the staging of Bulgakov’s play The Days of the Turbins at the Phoenix Theater”, which is part of the 5283 foundation “The All-Union Society for Cultural Communication with Abroad (VOKS)” of the State Archive of the Russian Federation. The content of these archival sources is related to the so-called “case of photographs” of the performance “The Days of the Turbins” of the Moscow Art Academic Theater (Moscow Art Theater), requested in August 1938 by the director M. Saint-Denis for the production of a play about the Turbins at the Phoenix Theatre in London. M. Saint-Denis’s request was transmitted to the Anglo-American department of VOKS through J. Todd, Secretary of the Society for Cultural Relations between the Peoples of Great Britain and the USSR. A letter from J. Todd, reviewed by the head of the Anglo-American VOKS department M. V. Milikovsky, who received information that E. Lyons was allegedly involved in the production in London. E. Lyons, the author of the anti-Soviet book “The Moscow Carousel”, serves as the beginning of the “case of photographs”, which later became — especially after the premiere on October 6, 1938 of the play M. Saint-Denis “The White Guard” is a case of “perversion” of the text of a Soviet play. In this case, M. A. and E. S. Bulgakov took part, as well as their foreign acquaintances (K. Maril, G. Kelverley), VOKS employees: acting Chairman of the VOKS Board, cinema administrator and screenwriter V. F. Smirnov, head of the Anglo-American department M. V. Milikovsky, and then M. I. Grinev, who replaced him in his post, employees of the USSR Plenipotentiary Mission in London (M. V. Korzh, etc.), J. Todd, the Arts Committee at the USSR National Assembly and the Moscow Art Theater Administration. Photos requested by M. Saint-Denis, were never sent to London. In February 1939, Bulgakov was summoned to the Main Directorate of Theaters of the Committee for the Arts for explanations. However, the story with the photographs brought the author of the play not only unpleasant troubles, it helped him to get information about the stage text of the London “White Guard” and to deal with the problem of royalties. In the 1960s and 1970s, M. Saint-Denis’s performance was mentioned in Soviet publications as an example of the creative impact of K. S. Stanislavsky’s teaching on world stage art.