Home Prevention The Master and Margarita full summary.

Prevention

The Master and Margarita full summary.

became Jesus Christ. They argued heatedly, which attracted the attention of a stranger who decided to have the audacity to interfere in their dialogue. The man resembled a foreigner in both appearance and speech.

Ivan's work was an anti-religious poem. Woland (the name of the stranger, who is also the devil himself) tried to prove the opposite to them, assuring them that Christ exists, but the men remained adamant in their convictions.

Then the foreigner, as proof, warns Berlioz that he will die from sunflower oil spilled on the tram rails. The tram will be driven by a girl in a red headscarf. She will cut off his head before she can slow down.

Chapter 2 Pontius Pilate

Today, a young man appeared before Pontius Pilate for trial, beaten and wearing torn rags. Yeshua was accused of calling the people to destroy the temple. Having learned better guy During the conversation, Pontius Pilate is imbued with sincere sympathy. The guy is smart and doesn't look like a criminal.

If it were his will, he would release him from custody, but this is not according to the law. The law required the death penalty for the convicted person. The prosecutor tried to convey to the young man so that he could take back his words, but the guy, out of naivety, did not deny anything, fully confirming his guilt.

The last attempt to give a chance for salvation was a request to the high priest to release one prisoner. Pilate pointed to Yeshua, but instead of him life was given to another man, the bandit Bar-Rabbana.

Chapter 3 Seventh proof

It was late when the professor decided to tell a fascinating story that happened to him personally. Those present doubted the veracity of the above, but the words of the witnesses forced them to reconsider their attitude towards the eccentric. Everyone believed the professor except Berlioz.

The last straw of his patience was the announcement of this abnormal person that he was going to move into his apartment. Leaving Homeless to look after the crazy man, Berlioz was going to take action against the foreigner, but first he had to run to the telephone booth. One call and the problem is solved.

On the way, he reflected on the words thrown after him that the devil exists and there is a seventh proof of this. He did not have time to bring his thoughts to their logical conclusion. Having slipped on sunflower oil spilled by someone, the writer falls under a tram. Screams, terrible screams, the horror-filled eyes of a carriage driver in a red headscarf. That's the last thing he saw before his head rolled down the road.

Chapter 4 Chase

The culprit of the tragedy was Annushka, who spilled the oil. The homeless man couldn't believe what happened. Remembering the nonsense that the professor was talking about, Ivan tries to connect the words and the death of Berlioz. Is this not an accident?

The foreigner must be held accountable. This is the first thing that came to mind. Maybe he's not a fool, but just pretending. The idea was not a success. The eccentric man pretended that he did not understand a word of Russian speech. His companion made it clear that dialogue would not work. Looking after the retreating couple, Ivan noticed that their company had been joined by a healthy, black cat, who had come from God knows where.

Further events became even more incomprehensible. Ivan's actions defied explanation. Having raided someone else's apartment in the hope of finding a professor there, he finds no one and rushes to the Moscow River. Having plunged into the water and gone ashore, the poet discovers that things are missing. Covering himself with whatever he can find, he makes his way through the alleys to MASSOLIT.

Chapter 5 There was a case in Griboedov

The famous Griboyedov House was the place where the meetings took place. The first floor is dedicated to a restaurant famous for its excellent cuisine. The whole company was assembled, except Berlioz. Satisfied with life, the journalists discussed the news happening around them. Feeling hungry, it was decided to go down for lunch.

There they learned about the tragedy that happened to Berlioz. This did not affect my appetite. They continued to fill their bellies, simultaneously solving the problem of the severed head and what to do with it next.

The appearance of Ivan in a strange outfit interrupted the discussion. He rushed under the tables in search of the missing professor, muttering under his breath phrases that no one could understand. The attempt to bring the guy to his senses failed. He jumped into the fray. The waiters called the psychiatric service team. After swaddling him like a child, the poet was loaded into the car.

Chapter 6 Schizophrenia, as stated

The doctors listened to Ivan with genuine interest. The homeless man was glad to listen. At least someone took him seriously. He laid out everything from the moment he first met the professor to the death of his close friend.

For all the troubles, I blame those two who were talking nonsense about evil spirits and played a fatal role in the death of Berlioz by pushing him onto the rails. Ivan rushed to the telephone booth, dialed the police and told him everything he knew.

On the way, he was intercepted by paramedics, who injected a sedative into his arm and sent him back to the ward where the same schizophrenics as the new patient lay.

Chapter 7 Bad apartment

A terrible hangover forced Stepan Likhodeev to get out of bed at such an early hour. Here they lived together with Berlioz. The apartment is not good. All residents disappeared without a trace, leaving no information about themselves.

He waited in vain for Mikhail; he did not appear. Instead, a stranger appeared, dressed in black. It was Woland. Professor of black magic. The other day they signed a contract for several performances, but Stepan did not remember the details.

While the details were being finalized, the number of guests increased. A black cat who could speak and a nasty red-haired subject, the owner of a vile voice, calling himself Azazello. They behaved in a proprietary manner, making it clear that they would not leave anytime soon. Likhodeev was superfluous. So that the man would not get in the way, the black retinue decided to send him away from Moscow, to Yalta.

Chapter 8 Duel between the professor and the poet

This time, Doctor Stravinsky came to Ivan’s room. He asked to tell in detail what actually happened, without embellishment or speculation. After hearing this, the luminary of medical science asked what Ivan would do if he were now released from the walls of the medical institution.

The homeless man had to repeat himself and explain that the first thing he would do was go to the police and present his version of what happened. Time passes, but the criminal is free. It is not right. Evil must be punished.

Stravinsky suggested that he formulate his thoughts in writing, instead of going to the police station, but on the condition that he had a good rest and came to his senses after the death of his friend. Ivan agrees.

Chapter 9 Koroviev things

After Berlioz's death, contenders were found for his living space. Barefoot, who holds the position of chairman of a housing cooperative, decided to visit there in person to assess the situation. The office was sealed. Having broken the seal and entered, he finds an unknown citizen who introduced himself as Koroviev.

Having fooled Nikanor Ivanovich’s head that he is here legally, with the permission of the owner, he offers a monetary reward as rent. Woland was not eager to see him on the threshold of the apartment again. He decides to frame Bosogo.

After one call to the relevant authorities, Nikanor’s house was searched. Large amount in dollars, planted by Koroviev played a cruel joke on him. He was arrested, which is what Woland wanted. The job was done.

Chapter 10 News from Yalta

The disappearance of the administrator caused some concern in the theater. Posters were full of the magician's performance. While different versions were being circulated, a telegram was received from the police that a man calling himself Likhodeev had approached them. It is necessary to find out who this impostor is.
Varenukha decided to call Stepan, but instead of his voice, he heard the news that the owner of the apartment had gone for a walk out of town. Not believing a single word, he decides to go to the police and show the telegram received from Yalta.

On the way, he is intercepted by a cat-like creature with a fang protruding from its mouth and, grabbing him by the arms, drags him into the ill-fated apartment. The surprises continued. At the sight of a naked girl who greeted him with a kiss, he loses consciousness.

Chapter 11 Ivan's split

No matter how much Ivan tried to describe what was happening on paper, the result was zero. The storm that broke out brought him to tears. He lay crying from powerlessness and the inability to change the situation. I had to give an injection to calm the guy down.

Now he is absolutely calm, not understanding what he was experiencing. Everyone is mortal. Everyone leaves without saying goodbye. Misha is gone, but that’s no reason to kill himself. Maybe he was wrong to attack a foreigner, accusing him of mortal sins.

Reflections were interrupted by the appearance of a stranger. He stood on the balcony, looking straight at Ivan. The poet did not like the stranger's gaze.

Chapter 12 Black magic and its exposure

Rimsky's thoughts about the disappearance of Varenukha were interrupted by the appearance of Woland, accompanied by his retinue in the form of a black cat and Koroviev. Soon they will appear and the professor will be represented on stage by Bengali, a local entertainer. At the end of the performance, the impostors should be exposed. This is exactly what was stated on the poster.

The program was intense. The focus was replaced by a focus that was more sophisticated and interesting. The audience was delighted. Bengalsky tried to expose each issue, but to no avail.

The last thing those present remembered was the shot and the disappearance of the cat along with Fagot, as if nothing had happened on the stage.

Chapter 13 The appearance of a hero

The stranger from the balcony introduced himself to Ivan as the Master. He is also a writer. At one time he wrote a novel about Pontius Pilate. He immediately realized that the events that happened to Ivan were the work of evil spirits.

His story was quite interesting. Winning the lottery, getting fired from work, starting a writing career, love that turned my life upside down. The meeting on the street was accidental. Two single people, being married, were unhappy. Having become each other's salvation, they drowned in the pool of love passions.

He finished the book. I submitted it to the publisher, but was refused. From that moment on, troubles began to fall on his head. Reviews, nasty things, critics with poisonous stings. Only the beloved remained delighted with the work. He was fed up with everything. He went crazy and one day he threw the novel into the firebox. They managed to save a few pages, and the author himself ends up in the hospital with frayed nerves, where Ivan was.

Chapter 14 Glory to the rooster!

After the performance, Rimsky came to his senses, looking out the window and thinking about what he saw. Suddenly, half-naked women appeared before his eyes. The spectacle was wild. The men looked at them and laughed nervously.

Suddenly Varenukha entered the room and reported that Likhodeev had indeed gone on a spree in the tavern. Telegrams, fights, scandals with his participation are all Stepan. Rimsky, observing his interlocutor as the conversation progressed, noticed strange things in him. One of them was that his figure did not cast a shadow on the wall.

Realizing that the devil has been exposed, he locks the door. A red-haired beauty flies through the window, completely naked. Their plan doesn't work. The crow of a rooster deprives them of their strength. The financial director leaves the city in a hurry.

Chapter 15 Nikanor Ivanovich's dream

Ward 119 has received a new patient. It turned out to be the chairman of the housing cooperative Nikanor Ivanovich Bosoy. It's all because of the stories about evil spirits and about the substitution of money. The foreigner is the cause of trouble, and he must be released.

We decided to check the words of a person behaving inappropriately. No one was surprised to see that the apartment was sealed. Naturally, there was no one outside the door. Mistaking him for a mentally ill person, Bosoy ends up in a mental hospital.

In the hospital he has a strange dream. A theater where everyone present is asked to hand over their currency. Meanwhile, Ivan also had a dream. The events in it took place on Bald Mountain.

Chapter 16 Execution

Judgment takes place at the top of the mountain. Three crucified people. Everything is cordoned off. A crowd of curious people watched what was happening. The scorching heat exhausted everyone. People were about to go home.

There was only one person left on the mountain. This is a tax collector, although he is already a former one. His name was Levi Matvey. He was a disciple of Yeshua, one of those crucified on the cross.

The outbreak of a thunderstorm dispersed the people from the scene of the tragic events. Levi had been waiting for this moment. He removes the condemned from the cross and takes the body of the teacher.

Chapter 17 Restless day

Strange things happened in the theater after the magician's performance. There is no trace left of his speech. Posters disappeared, documents and contracts disappeared. The police called did not find any traces. Dogs are of no use either. With their tails between their legs, they timidly huddled to the floor.

The accountant went to give up his report. Entering the office, he finds an empty suit at the table, scribbling some scribbles on paper. The secretary could not give a clear answer to what was happening. She just said that an unpleasant guy had recently stopped by. A fat man with the appearance of a cat.
Leaving the secretary alone, he goes to hand over the proceeds from the performance. Opening the briefcase, instead of rubles, Lastochkin sees currency.

Chapter 18 Unlucky visitors

Maxim Poplavsky receives a telegram about the death of his nephew. Now he has the right to inheritance. He never dreamed of an apartment in Moscow, but here is his chance. Upon arrival, an unpleasant surprise awaited him in the form of a cat and Koroviev. The guest was clearly made to understand that he had come here in vain, and there was no particular need to be present at the funeral. Poplavsky is left with his nose.

The next guest of the bad apartment was Sokov, a bartender at the theater. Woland did not listen to his complaints about the loss of earnings for the performance, dumbfounded by the news that he had 9 months to live. Death from liver cancer is what you should think about, not money.

PART TWO

Chapter 19 Margarita

Margarita did not forget the Master. Every day she replayed in her memory events related to her loved one. This saved her from melancholy and depression, which had become her faithful companions lately. She was disgusted with life with her husband. She had everything that any woman could dream of: wealth, a husband who doted on her, beauty and intelligence. The only thing she lacked in her marriage was love, the kind about which people write novels and go crazy. With the Master, she was able to fully experience what it means to love herself.

The best way to escape from heavy thoughts is a walk. The woman went to the Kremlin wall, sitting down on the same bench on which she and the Master sat just a year ago. Lost in her memories, she was distracted by a crowd of people dressed all in black.

A funeral procession was moving towards her. Berlioz was buried. Suddenly a man separated from the crowd and walked towards her. He casually mentions the missing head and quotes a few lines from the Master's novel, hinting that he knows her lover.

If she wants to get more information, then she should use the bottle that he gives her and smear herself with the magic ointment, strictly following the instructions. Then act according to the circumstances. The woman agrees.

Chapter 20 Azazello cream

The time was inexorably approaching 22 pm. It's time to follow these instructions. As soon as Margarita smeared herself with Azazello cream, she began to instantly transform. The maid, seeing the mistress in a new guise, was speechless with admiration. It dawned on her that this was the result of using the ointment. She decided that she would use the remainder in the bottle and also smear herself like a housewife.

Margarita, leaving a note for her husband, saddled up on a broom and flew out the window, almost giving her neighbor a heart attack with her appearance. She was glad that she was leaving the house forever, where she could not become happy. The feeling of the unknown and heady freedom intoxicated her. Not knowing what awaits her next, Margarita sets off to meet new adventures without fear or regret.

Chapter 21. Flight

Margarita enjoyed her freedom. She could fly and becomes invisible. On the way she came across Latunsky's house. This critic ruined the Master. The woman decides to take revenge. She flies into his house, causing a real pogrom there.

Behind her, she notices a maid straddling her neighbor. Having smeared herself with the remnants of the ointment, Natasha became a witch, and Nikolai Ivanovich became a boar. Margarita returned to Moscow not on a broom, but on a flying car.

Chapter 22. By candlelight

Margarita ended up in a bad apartment. Now it resembled a palace. Everything was tidied up and drowned in splendor. Koroviev put on his tailcoat. They explained to her that she was a queen and her presence at the annual Satan's ball was mandatory.

The whole company is in full force. Azazello, Gella, Woland and the Behemoth cat spent time peacefully playing chess. She went into their room to receive proper instructions regarding the upcoming event.

Woland advised him to calm down and not think about tomorrow. The only request is not to eat, only to drink.

Chapter 23 Great Ball at Satan's

Margarita had to undergo the procedure of bathing in blood. The next step is rubbing with rose oil. She must greet guests, paying attention to everyone. Those entering kissed her knee, and the cat Behemoth sat at the feet of Her Majesty.

The living dead chatted merrily. Today they can party all night long. Only one woman is sad and silent. Her name was Frida. She strangled her child with a handkerchief and since then has not been able to forgive herself for this sin.

Margarita is tired. The roosters crowed and the guests began to leave. Woland also disappeared, along with Berlioz's severed head, which he used as a drinking cup.

Chapter 24 Master Extraction

The ball is over. The guests left. Woland was pleased with Margarita. As gratitude, he is ready to fulfill any desire of a woman. All she wanted was for her beloved to be returned to her immediately.

As soon as she uttered this phrase, the Master appeared in front of her. He looked shabby and tired. Woland was kinder today than ever. He returns the burnt novel to the author and gives the keys to his apartment, which other residents have managed to occupy. The Master and Margarita return home to their love nest.

Chapter 25 How the procurator tried to save Judas

The thunderstorm at the execution site never calmed down. Afranius came with a report to the procurator, reporting that everything went without a hitch. He paid special interest to the details of the last minutes of Yeshua’s life.

Pilate's request to Afranius was to bury the three executed and crucified people. The second request is to ensure the safety of Judah. There were rumors that they were going to kill him. With this phrase, he made it clear that he was aware of what was happening and did not intend to prevent the murder.

Chapter 26 Burial

Pilate did not want to spoil his reputation and decided to write off the murder of Judas as suicide. Afranius returned to the place of execution and found only two bodies, the third disappeared without a trace. Then it turned out that Levi Matvey dragged Yeshua’s corpse in an unknown direction. The prosecutor calls him in for questioning.
He asks the guy to show him a parchment with the words of Yeshua. It was written there in black and white that cowardice is the most terrible vice. Levi accuses Pilate of Yeshua's death, accusing him of killing Judas with his own hands. He did not yet know that the deed had already been done.

Chapter 27 End of apartment No. 50

The investigation into Woland's case has not been completed. The police once again decided to visit the ill-fated apartment. Inside they were met by an imperturbable cat with a primus in his arms. Realizing that they have been exposed, he tries to save the situation by starting a shootout. There were no casualties.

Voices can be clearly heard in the apartment. It was Woland, Azazello, Koroviev, discussing the issue of leaving Moscow. The faster the better. The cat, making wild apologies, disappears. Before this, gasoline spilled throughout the apartment. A fire started. On the street, passers-by noticed several silhouettes flying out of the window. A pair of men's and one women's.

Koroviev and Behemoth have hooliganism in their blood. Finally, they decided to have some fun. The object of the draw was a candy store. Having overturned the shelves with goods, having eaten enough sweets, they set the room on fire and, satisfied with themselves, slowly leave.

The next place was Griboyedov's restaurant, where the couple headed. While they were dining decorously, strangers burst into the hall with a machine gun at the ready and started shooting at them. Koroviev and Behemoth disappeared from the establishment in one fell swoop. The restaurant behind them lit up like a candle.

Chapter 29 The fate of the Master and Margarita is determined

Woland and Azazello sat on the terrace, admiring the view. They had intimate conversations. No one stopped me from enjoying my moment of peace. Levi Matviy interrupted their solitude, announcing that it was time for the Master and Margarita to retire. This was Yeshua’s personal request to Woland.
Woland orders Azazello to carry out his instructions. The air smelled of thunder again. It's about to rain. It's time to get ready for the journey and we've stayed too long today.

Chapter 30 It's time! It's time!

Azazello came to visit the Master and Margarita without an invitation, prudently taking a bottle of wine. It was Woland's gift. The procurator drank similar wine. After taking a few sips, the lovers fall asleep. Azazello finished his business in the basement and once again poured them a couple of drops. When they came to their senses, he explained that he would grant them eternal peace.

Azazello erased his stay in the basement forever by a sudden fire. Everything burned down along with the novel. The trio saddled the black stallions and flew out the open window. On the way, the Master decided to drop by Ivan. He considered the guy his student and could not disappear without saying goodbye. As he leaves, he asks him to finish the novel.

Chapter 31. On Sparrow Hills

It's time to say goodbye to your beloved city. After the thunderstorm the sky became clear. The whole company was in full force. The master stood on the edge of a cliff, admiring the city from above. He was sorry to leave this place, but this was not the end. Rather, the beginning of a new, unknown.

He believed that in the kingdom of eternal peace, where they went, a happy future awaited him. Finally, having looked around the surroundings, he saddles his horse, rushing after the retreating riders.

Chapter 32 Farewell and eternal shelter

Margarita is amazed at how much the riders have changed during the journey, except for Woland. The cat changed his appearance to a young page boy. Koroviev became a sullen knight. Azazello turned into a demon killer. She couldn’t see what Margarita had become, but she noticed that the Master had acquired a scythe and boots with spurs. Woland explained that one should not be surprised. Tonight is the night of explanations and settling of scores.

Passing cities and countries, they approached the desert. There stood a throne with Pontius Pilate sitting on it. A huge dog lay at his feet, guarding his owner. Woland brought the Master here on purpose. Because of him, the hero of the unfinished novel sits on the throne for an eternity, talking to himself. He dreams of the same dream. The lunar road that Pilate could not take.

The master guessed what the reason was. He must be released and he shouts “Free! Free!” Pilate seemed to be waiting for this. Rising from the throne, he takes the dog and leaves along the lunar road towards eternity, where Yeshua is waiting for him.

Epilogue

Talk about evil spirits did not cease for a long time in Moscow. There was a roundup of all black cats in the city. They identified townspeople with surnames similar to Koroviev in the hope of finding the real criminal. Ivan gave up writing, devoting himself to teaching history at the university. Every night the Master and Margarita appeared to him, along with Pontius Pilate and Yeshua. His teacher explained that there was no reason to worry. It was over and it ended better than he expected.

Chapter XXVII. END OF APARTMENT No. 50
Margarita finished reading the novel in the morning. She stood up, stretched, and only now felt how tired her body was. Her thoughts were in perfect order, and she was not worried about the memories of Satan’s ball. By some miracle, the master was returned to her, a romance arose from the ashes, everything was again in its place in the basement in the alley from which the sneaky Aloysius was expelled.
She made sure that the master was sleeping peacefully in the next room, turned off the table lamp, stretched out on the sofa, and a minute later she was sleeping without dreams.
But at that time, that is, at dawn on Saturday, the entire floor of a Moscow establishment was awake, and its windows cast light on the square spread out in front of it. The investigation into Woland's case was underway. Numerous data that began to arrive on Friday had to be combined and analyzed.
The first to be called was Arkady Apollonovich Sempleyarov, chairman of the Acoustics Commission. He laid out everything not only about the nasty session and the fight in the box, but also about Militsa Andreevna Pokobatko, and about the Saratov niece, and much more. The testimony of this intelligent and cultured man, who described both the masked magician himself and his two scoundrel assistants, and the fact that he remembered the magician's name - Woland - significantly moved the investigation forward. A comparison of his testimony with the testimony of others, including the courier who was sent to apartment No. 50 on Sadovaya Street, immediately established the place where it was necessary to look for the perpetrators of all the adventures.
However, having visited this apartment several times, they found nothing, although it was felt that there was someone there. As for the foreign guest performer Woland, he was not listed anywhere, was not registered, and did not enter into any contracts! The head of the program department of the Chinese Entertainment Commission swore and swore that the missing Styopa Likhodeev did not report Woland and did not send any documents for signature. As for Prokhor Petrovich, who temporarily abandoned his costume, the chairman of the main Entertainment Commission regained his appearance as soon as the police appeared. He knew nothing about Woland. There were two versions: the magician was seen by thousands of people, as well as his assistants, but there was no way to find him. Did he fall through the ground or something? But if so, then he took with him the entire Variety administration. If we accept the second version, then the top of the theater administration, having committed some kind of dirty trick, disappeared from Moscow without a trace.
Rimsky was found very quickly in a hotel in Leningrad in a wardrobe. He was in a state of insanity and asked to be hidden in an armored cell and to be assigned armed guards. A response was received from Yalta that Likhodeev was flying to Moscow. There was no Varenukha yet. It took Professor Stravinsky some time and injections to stop the warblers. The most unpleasant and insoluble of all these cases was the disappearance of the head of the late writer Berlioz right from the coffin in the Griboyedov Hall, in broad daylight. One of the investigators arrived at Professor Stravinsky's clinic and asked for a list of admissions over the last three days. Thus, Nikanor Ivanovich Bosoy and the unfortunate entertainer were discovered, of whom there was little use.
The door of Ivanushka’s room opened on Friday evening, and a young, calm man, who did not look like an investigator, entered. He said that he had come to talk about the incidents the day before yesterday at the Patriarch's Ponds. Oh, if only he had appeared, say, on Thursday night, when Ivan was so passionately trying to get his story heard. But in the time that passed after the death of Berlioz, Ivanushka completely changed. Before the investigator arrived, he had visions of some strange city with colonnades, with roofs sparkling in the sun, with the gloomy tower of Anthony. In front of Ivan appeared a man sitting motionless in a chair with a twitched yellow face, a man in a white robe with red lining, looking at the city with hatred. Ivan also saw a treeless hill with empty pillars and crossbars. Ivan answered the investigator’s questions briefly: he was sitting far from the turnstile, the checkered one was sitting on a bench nearby, and did not go near the turnstile. I won’t write any more poetry, because I realized they are bad.
So the matter dragged on until midnight from Friday to Saturday, when Baron Mai-gel, dressed in Evening Dress and patent leather shoes, solemnly proceeded to apartment No. 50 as a guest. You could hear him being let in. Exactly ten minutes later they visited the apartment, but found no one there.
Likhodeev arrived. At his own request, he was placed in a secure cell. Varenukha was arrested at his apartment and disappeared in an unknown location for two days. He also asked to be locked in an armored cell. He said that two people beat him, one with fangs and red hair, and the other who looked like a cat. They brought Rimsky, who also asked to go into an armored cell. The testimony of Nikolai Ivanovich made it possible to establish that Margarita Nikolaevna and her housekeeper Natasha disappeared without a trace. Efforts were made to find them.
In the middle of the day they reported by phone that the damned apartment had again shown signs of life. The windows in it were opened from the inside, the sounds of a piano and singing could be heard from it, and in the window they saw a cat sitting on the windowsill and basking in the sun. At about four o'clock on a hot day, a large company of men in civilian clothes disembarked from three cars near house No. 302 bis. One part went straight to the front door, the other began to climb the back stairs.
At this time, Koroviev and Azazello were having breakfast. Woland, as usual, was in the bedroom, and Behemoth was doing something in the kitchen. Koroviev heard the sound of footsteps on the stairs. “And they are coming to arrest us,” Azazello said. Those who came were equipped with everything they needed: Mausers, master keys, thin silk nets, gauze masks and ampoules of chloroform. In one second the door was open, and everyone who came found themselves in the hallway; the second group burst into the kitchen. Finally, albeit partially, lucky. The remains of breakfast were cooling in the dining room, and in the living room, on the mantelpiece, next to a crystal jug, a huge black cat was sitting. He held a primus stove in his paws. They threw a silk net at him, but for some reason it caught the jug, which fell and broke with a ringing sound. The cat grabbed a Browning gun from behind his back and started firing. But he must have been hit earlier, because he fell to the floor in a pool of blood. He rolled his eyes, complained, then suddenly said: “The only thing that can save a mortally wounded cat is a sip of gasoline...” - and took a sip of the stove. And the hunt began. The cat jumped back onto the fireplace, from there onto the metal cornice, then onto the chandelier. There was terrible shooting, but, strangely enough, there were no dead or wounded. They threw a lasso and the chandelier fell down. The cat ended up on top of the gilded frame of the fireplace mirror. And then a heavy, low voice was heard: “What’s going on in the apartment? They’re stopping me from studying.” Another, unpleasant and nasal voice responded: “Well, of course, Behemoth, damn him!” The third, rattling, said: “Messir! Saturday. The sun is bowing. It is time".
The cat threw his Browning and broke both glasses in the window. Then he splashed gasoline down and it caught fire of its own accord. The flames shot up to the ceiling. The cat jumped onto the windowsill and disappeared behind it. They shot from outside, but to no avail. Meanwhile, the parquet floor in the apartment caught fire, and everyone saw the corpse of the former Baron Meigel. Fleeing from the fire, people rushed into the hallway. Someone managed to call the firefighters on the move. Under the sound of the bells of long red cars rushing from all parts of the city, people rushing in the courtyard saw how, along with the smoke, three dark male silhouettes and one female flew out of the fifth floor window.

Chapter XXVIII. THE LAST ADVENTURES OF KOROVIEV AND BEHEMOTH
The chapter describes how Koroviev and Behemoth, prone to all sorts of mischief, spent their last day in Moscow. It doesn’t have much significance for the plot; it’s better to read it in the full text of the book, and therefore we’ll only tell you how the incidents described in the chapter end: a fire in the grocery store and in Griboyedov’s house.

Chapter XXIX. THE FATE OF THE MASTER AND MARGARITA IS DETERMINED
At sunset, high above the city, on the stone terrace of one of the most beautiful buildings in Moscow, there were two people: Woland and Azazello. No one could see them from below, but they themselves could see almost the entire city. They were silent, occasionally exchanging short phrases. Something made Woland turn to the round tower on the roof that was behind him. A tattered, clay-stained, gloomy man in a tunic came out of its wall. “Bah! - Woland exclaimed, looking mockingly at the newcomer, - the last thing anyone would have expected was you here! What did you come with?..” - “He sent me... He read the master’s work and asks you to take the master with you and reward him with peace.” - “Why don’t you take him into the world?” “He didn’t deserve light, he deserved peace,” said Matvey Levi sadly. “He asks that you take the one who loved and suffered because of him too,” Levi turned pleadingly to Woland for the first time. “Without you, we would never have figured this out. Leave". Levi Matvey disappears, and Woland sends Azazello to arrange everything that is necessary. Woland's loneliness did not last long. Koroviev and Behemoth appeared, smelling of smoke. “...We have arrived, sir, and are waiting for your orders,” Koroviev reported. “There will be no orders - you have done everything you could, and I don’t need your services anymore. You can rest. Now a thunderstorm will come, it will complete everything that needs to be completed, and we will set off.”
A thunderstorm was already gathering on the horizon. A black cloud rose in the west and cut off half the sun. Then she covered it entirely. This darkness, coming from the west, covered the huge city. Bridges and palaces disappeared. Everything disappeared, as if it had never existed in the world.

Chapter XXX. IT'S TIME! IT'S TIME!
Margarita and the master are talking in their basement. Margarita has a black cloak draped over her naked body, and the master is in his hospital underwear. All of Margarita’s things remained in the mansion, but she simply could not go there. As for the master, all his suits were found in the closet, but he did not want to change clothes, developing in front of Margarita the idea that some kind of complete nonsense was about to begin. True, this was the first time he had been shaved. The master could not believe that Margarita was visiting Satan. “Now, therefore, instead of one madman, there are two! Both husband and wife. “He raised his hands to the sky and shouted: “No, this is the devil knows what!”” The Master is worried about what they will live on. At that moment, blunt-toed boots and the lower part of trousers with a vein appeared in the window. “Aloysius, are you home?” - asked a voice somewhere above, above the trousers. “Aloysius? - Margarita asked, coming closer to the window, - he was arrested yesterday. Who is asking him? What's your last name?" At the same instant, the knees and butt disappeared, and the gate could be heard slamming.
Margarita assures her lover that now everything will be fine, she will think for him too. And the master feels sorry for Margarita. Why should she ruin her life with a sick and poor person? Let her come home. It ended with the master crying, burying his face in Margarita’s hair, and she, crying, whispered to him, and her fingers jumped on the master’s temples. “Yes, threads, threads, before my eyes your head is covered with snow, ah, mine, my much-suffering head. Look what your eyes are like! There is a desert in them... Mutilated, mutilated,” Margarita shuddered with crying. Then the master wiped his eyes, lifted Margarita from his knees, stood up himself and firmly said: “Enough! You shamed me. I will never allow cowardice again... be at peace.” The master agrees, like Margarita, to seek salvation from otherworldly force, as he calls her. They sit down to have breakfast, and at that moment Azazello appears. Margarita poured him some cognac, and he drank it willingly. The master, without taking his eyes off him, occasionally quietly pinched his hand under the table, but the pinches did not help. Azazello did not disappear into thin air. And in general there was nothing terrible about this man, except that he had a eyesore, but this happens without any witchcraft. And wasn’t it he himself who proved to Ivan the day before yesterday that he met Satan at the Patriarch’s. And now for some reason I was afraid of this thought! After the third glass of cognac, which had no effect on Azazello, he said that the cellar was cozy, but what should one do in it? By the way, Messire says hello to them and invites them to take a short walk with him, if they don’t mind. Both agreed. “And again I forgot,” Azazello shouted, slapping himself on the forehead, “I got completely tired. After all, Messire sent you a gift,” here he addressed the master specifically, “a bottle of wine.” Please note that this is the same wine that the procurator of Judea drank. Falernian wine.” All three sipped their glasses and took a long sip. And the master felt that the end was coming. He still managed to see Margarita drop her head on the table and slide to the floor. “Poisoner,” the master still managed to shout, fell backward and cut the skin on his temple on the corner of the bureau board.
When the poisoned died down, Azazello began to act. The first thing he did was rush out the window and a few moments later he was in the mansion where Margarita lived. He needed to check if everything was done as needed. And everything turned out to be completely fine. Azazello saw how the gloomy woman, leaving the bedroom, suddenly turned pale, clutched her heart and fell.
A moment later Azazello was again near the defeated lovers. He turned Margarita to face him and peered at her. The poisoned woman's face changed before his eyes. It brightened and finally softened, and her grin became not predatory, like the witch’s, but simply a feminine, suffering grin. Then Azazello unclenched her white teeth and poured a few drops of the same wine into her mouth. Margarita sighed, began to get up without Azazello’s help, and sat down. She saw the lying master, shuddered and whispered: “I didn’t expect this... a murderer!” Azazello assured her that he would get up now, which is what happened. Opening his eyes, he looked gloomily and repeated his last word with hatred: “Poisoner...” But he immediately stood up, looked around with a lively and bright gaze and asked what this new thing meant? “It means,” answered Azazello, “that it’s time for you. Horses dig the ground. Say goodbye to the basement forever.” “Ah, I understand,” said the master, looking around, “you killed us, we are dead.” Oh, how clever that is! How timely! Now I understand everything.” “Oh, for mercy’s sake,” answered Azazello, “can I hear you? After all, you think, how can you be dead? Is it really necessary to sit in the basement in order to consider yourself alive? That's funny!" “I understood everything you said,” cried the master. “You are right a thousand times.” - “Great Woland! “He came up with a much better idea than I did,” said Margarita. “But just take the novel with you, wherever you fly,” she shouted to the master. He replied that he remembered it by heart. “Then fire! - Azazello cried, “the fire with which it all began and with which we all end.” He took the brand out of the stove and set fire to the tablecloth on the table, then a stack of old newspapers on the sofa, the manuscript and the curtain on the window. “Burn, suffering!” - Margarita shouted. They ran out through the doors. Three black horses snored near the barn, exploding the ground with fountains. Margarita was the first to jump up, followed by Azazello, and the last was the master. The cook, who was watching everything, wanted to raise her hand for the sign of the cross, but Azazello shouted menacingly from the saddle: “I’ll cut off my hand!” And the horses rushed over the roofs of Moscow. Then the roofs gave way to greenery. The master recognized the building of Stravinsky's clinic in the shroud of rain. They descended into a grove of trees in a clearing, not far from the clinic. Azazello said that he would wait for them here. The Master and Margarita jumped out of their saddles and ran through the garden. A moment later, the master, with his usual hand, moved aside the balcony grating in room No. 117, Margarita followed him. They entered Ivanushka, invisible and inaudible, during the roar and howl of a thunderstorm. The master stopped by the bed. Ivanushka lay motionless. Peering at the dark silhouette that rushed towards him from the balcony, he stood up, extended his arms and said joyfully: “Oh, it’s you!” And I'm still waiting, waiting for you. Here you are, my neighbor.” To which the master replied that he would no longer be a neighbor - he was flying away forever and came to say goodbye, because Ivanushka was the only person with whom he had spoken lately. “My name is,” said the master. “Wait, one more word,” Ivan asked, “did you find her? Has she remained faithful to you?” Margarita approached the bed. She looked at the lying young man, and sorrow was visible in her eyes. The young man grabbed her by the neck and she kissed him.
“Farewell, student,” the master said barely audibly and began to melt into the air. He disappeared, and Margarita disappeared with him. The balcony grille closed. Ivanushka became restless. Praskovya Fedorovna entered the room, looking at him anxiously. Ivan forced her to admit that his neighbor had died. But nothing terrible happened to Ivanushka. He just said: “I knew it! I assure you, Praskovya Fedorovna, that now one person has died in the city. I even know who,” here Ivanushka smiled mysteriously, “it’s a woman.”

Chapter XXXI. ON SPARROW MOUNTAINS
The thunderstorm was carried away without a trace, and a rainbow shone over Moscow. Three figures were visible on the hill between two groves. These were Woland, Koroviev and Behemoth in the saddles of black horses. There was a rustle in the air, and Azazello and behind him the master and Margarita landed next to him. “Well,” Woland turned to the master, “say goodbye to the city. It is time". The master jumped from the saddle and ran to the cliff of the hill. The black cloak trailed along the ground behind him. He looked at the city and felt a pang of sadness in his heart, which quickly gave way, however, to anticipation of the future. "Forever. This needs to be understood,” whispered the master.
The bassoon whistled shrilly, and the master ran back to the group of companions who were waiting for him. “Well,” Woland addressed him from the height of his horse, “have all the bills been paid? Has the farewell taken place?” “Yes, it’s done,” the master answered and, having calmed down, looked directly and boldly into Woland’s face. “It's time!!” - and the sharp whistle and laughter of Behemoth.
The horses rushed and the riders galloped up. The city disappeared into the fog.

Chapter XXXII. FORGIVENESS AND ETERNAL REFERRAL
“Gods, my gods! How sad is the evening earth! How mysterious are the fogs over the swamps. Whoever wandered in these mists, who suffered a lot before death, who flew over this earth, carrying an unbearable load, knows this. The tired one knows this. And without regret he leaves the mists of the earth, its swamps and rivers, he surrenders with a light heart into the hands of death, knowing that only she will calm him down.
The night thickened, flew nearby, grabbed those jumping by the cloaks and, tearing them off their shoulders, exposed the deceptions. And when Margarita, blown by the wind, opened her eyes, she saw how the appearance of everyone flying towards their goal was changing. It is unlikely that she now recognized Koroviev-Fagot, the self-proclaimed translator for the mysterious consultant, in the one who was now flying directly next to Woland on right hand the master's girlfriends. In place of the one who, in tattered circus clothes, left the Sparrow Hills under the name Koroviev-Fagot, was now galloping, quietly ringing gold chain occasion, a dark purple knight with the gloomiest and never smiling face. He rested his chin on his chest, thinking about something of his own. “Why has he changed so much?” - Margot asked quietly as the wind whistled from Woland. He said that this knight once made an unsuccessful joke about light and darkness, and after that he had to joke a little more and longer than he expected. But tonight is the night when scores are settled. The knight paid his account and closed it!
The night also tore off the fluffy tail from the Behemoth, tore off its fur and scattered its shreds across the swamps. The one who was a cat who amused the prince of darkness now turned out to be a thin youth, a demon page, the best jester that ever existed in the world. Now he fell silent and flew silently.
Woland flew in his real guise. “They flew like this for a long time, until the very terrain below began to change. Woland reined in his horse on the rocky, joyless flat top, and the riders moved on at a walk. The moon flooded the area green and bright, and Margarita soon saw in the deserted area an armchair and in it the white figure of a sitting man. It is possible that this seated man was deaf or too deep in thought,” so the riders, without disturbing him, approached him. Margarita saw in the light of the moon that the man sitting was rubbing his hands and fixing his seemingly sightless eyes on the disk of the moon. Next to the heavy stone chair lay a dark, huge, pointy-eared dog and, like its owner, it looked restlessly at the moon. The riders stopped their horses. “They read your novel,” Woland spoke, turning to the master, “and they only said one thing, that, unfortunately, it is not finished. So, I wanted to show you your hero. For about two thousand years he sits on this platform and sleeps, but when the full moon comes, he is tormented by insomnia. She torments not only him, but also his faithful guard, the dog. If it is true that cowardice is the most serious vice, then perhaps the dog is not to blame for it. Well, the one who loves must share the fate of the one he loves.” - "What he says?" - Margarita asked with compassion. “He says the same thing - that he has a bad position. And when he sleeps, he sees the same thing - the lunar path, and wants to go along it and talk with the prisoner Ha-Notsri, because, as he claims, he did not finish saying something then, a long time ago, on the fourteenth of the spring month of Nisan. But, alas, for some reason he fails to take this road, and no one comes to him. Then he has to talk to himself. He often adds that most of all in the world he hates his immortality and unheard-of glory. He would willingly exchange with the tramp Levi Matvey.” - “Twelve thousand moons for one moon once, isn’t that too much?” - “Is history repeating itself with Frida?” - Woland asked. “Let him go!” - Margarita suddenly screamed shrilly as she once screamed when she was a witch. Woland laughed. Then he turned to the master again and said: “Well, now you can finish your novel with one phrase!” The master seemed to be waiting for this while he stood motionless, looking at the sitting procurator. He clasped his hands like a megaphone and shouted so that the echo jumped across the deserted and treeless mountains: “Free! Free! He is waiting for you!" The mountains collapsed from this scream, only a platform with a stone chair remained. Above the black abyss into which the walls had sunk, an immense city with a garden that had grown luxuriantly over many thousands of moons caught fire. The lunar path long awaited by the procurator stretched straight towards this garden, and the pointy-eared dog was the first to run along it. A man in a white cloak with bloody lining rose from his chair and shouted something in a hoarse voice. It was impossible to make out whether he was crying or laughing or what he was shouting. All that could be seen was that he, too, quickly ran after the dog along the moonlit road.
“Should I go there and get him?” - the master asked worriedly. To which Woland replied that there is no need to chase in the footsteps of what is already over. Then he turned to Margarita: “Margarita Nikolaevna! It’s impossible not to believe that you tried to invent the best future for the master, but, really, what I offer you, and what Yeshua asked for for you, is even better.” Woland waved his hand towards Yershalaim, and it went out. “And there too,” Woland pointed back to the master, “what should you do in the basement? For what? Don't you really want to walk with your girlfriend under the cherry trees and listen to Schubert's music in the evening? Wouldn't it be nice for you to write by candlelight with a quill pen? Don't you really want to, like Faust, sit over the retort in the hope that you will be able to fashion a new homunculus? There, there. The house and the old servant are already waiting for you there, the candles are already burning, and soon they will go out, because you will immediately meet the dawn. Along this road, master, along this one. Farewell! I have to go". - “Goodbye!” - Margarita and the master answered Woland with one cry. Then black Woland, not discerning any path, rushed into the hole, and after him, his retinue collapsed noisily. There was nothing around - no rocks, no platform, no Yershalaim, no black horses. The Master and Margarita saw the promised dawn. The master walked with his girlfriend in the brilliance of the first morning rays across a rocky, mossy bridge. Someone was releasing the master, just as he himself had just released the hero he had created.
Due to the fact that the main characters of the novel do not appear in the Epilogue, we decided to omit it, leaving the pleasure for those who decide to read the full text of this magnificent work.

Chapter 2 Pontius Pilate

Today, a young man appeared before Pontius Pilate for trial, beaten and wearing torn rags. Yeshua was accused of calling the people to destroy the temple. Having gotten to know the guy better during the conversation, Pontius Pilate is imbued with sincere sympathy. The guy is smart and doesn't look like a criminal.

Chapter 3 Seventh proof

Chapter 4 Chase

Chapter 5 There was a case in Griboedov

Chapter 6 Schizophrenia, as stated

On the way, he was intercepted by paramedics, who injected a sedative into his arm and sent him back to the ward where the same schizophrenics as the new patient lay.

Chapter 7 Bad apartment

Chapter 8 Duel between the professor and the poet

Chapter 9 Koroviev things

After one call to the relevant authorities, Nikanor’s house was searched. The large sum of dollars planted by Koroviev played a cruel joke on him. He was arrested, which is what Woland wanted. The job was done.

Chapter 10 News from Yalta

Chapter 11 Ivan's split

Reflections were interrupted by the appearance of a stranger. He stood on the balcony, looking straight at Ivan. The poet did not like the stranger's gaze.

Chapter 12 Black magic and its exposure

The program was intense. The focus was replaced by a focus that was more sophisticated and interesting. The audience was delighted. Bengalsky tried to expose each issue, but to no avail.

The last thing those present remembered was the shot and the disappearance of the cat along with Fagot, as if nothing had happened on the stage.

Chapter 13 The appearance of a hero

Chapter 14 Glory to the rooster!

Chapter 15 Nikanor Ivanovich's dream

Ward 119 has received a new patient. It turned out to be the chairman of the housing cooperative Nikanor Ivanovich Bosoy. This is all due to stories about evil spirits and money substitution. The foreigner is the cause of trouble, and he must be released.

In the hospital he has a strange dream. A theater where everyone present is asked to hand over their currency. Meanwhile, Ivan also had a dream. The events in it took place on Bald Mountain.

Chapter 16 Execution

Chapter 17 Restless day

Chapter 18 Unlucky visitors

PART TWO

Chapter 19 Margarita

Chapter 20 Azazello cream

Chapter 21. Flight

Chapter 22. By candlelight

Woland advised him to calm down and not think about tomorrow. The only request is not to eat, only to drink.

Chapter 23 Great Ball at Satan's

Margarita is tired. The roosters crowed and the guests began to leave. Woland also disappeared, along with Berlioz's severed head, which he used as a drinking cup.

Chapter 24 Master Extraction

The ball is over. The guests left. Woland was pleased with Margarita. As gratitude, he is ready to fulfill any desire of a woman. All she wanted was for her beloved to be returned to her immediately.

Chapter 25 How the procurator tried to save Judas

Chapter 26 Burial

Chapter 27 End of apartment No. 50

Chapter 29 The fate of the Master and Margarita is determined

Chapter 30 It's time! It's time!

Chapter 31. On Sparrow Hills

Chapter 32 Farewell and eternal shelter

Epilogue

The mystical novel “The Master and Margarita” tells about betrayal, cowardice, sacrificial love, good and evil. The brilliant book intricately intertwines the realities of Moscow in the 30s of the last century, which Satan himself deigned to visit, and the short story about Yeshua and Pontius Pilate.

This multifaceted work should not only be read, but also reflected on its deep meaning. The novel, part of the treasury of world literature, should be discovered by everyone on their own.

To get a general idea of the work “The Master and Margarita”, summary We present to your attention chapter by chapter.

The novel contains only 23 chapters and an Epilogue.

Important! A detailed description of the characters and all events is set out in the text of the work; here a brief retelling of the events of the novel “The Master and Margarita” will be presented in parts.

First part

Chapter 1 is called “Never Talk to Strangers.” Events take place in Moscow. On a stuffy spring evening on the Patriarch's Ponds, two men hid from the heat in the shade of a linden alley to continue an important conversation.

The Chairman of the Board of MASSOLIT, Mikhail Aleksandrovich Berlioz, had previously commissioned Ivan Bezdomny to write a poem on an anti-religious theme.

The young poet completed the order in a short time, but the fruits of his labor categorically did not suit Berlioz. Mikhail Alexandrovich reproached the poet that in his work Jesus Christ appeared as an unattractive and repulsive, but really existing character. And according to the editor, the poet should not have denigrated Jesus, but presented his birth and resurrection as a grandiose hoax.

This conversation attracted the attention of an elegant gentleman walking along the alley. A middle-aged man introduced himself as a professor, a foreign specialist in black magic, who arrived in the capital for a consultation.

The foreigner was incredibly surprised that Soviet citizens did not believe in God. Unnoticed, the professor drew the writers into a discussion about who rules this world, if not God.

In response to Berlioz's answer that people themselves govern, the foreigner objects that man is mortal, and suddenly mortal, and therefore cannot even vouch for his own tomorrow. When the indignant Berlioz told the strange gentleman that he knew exactly his immediate plans, the foreigner told about a certain Annushka.

He said that she not only bought, but also managed to spill sunflower oil, and that evening a Komsomol member would cut off Mikhail Alexandrovich’s head. Then the professor told his stunned interlocutors an entertaining parable.

Pontius Pilate

In the morning, the governor of Judea, Pontius Pilate, smelled a subtle aroma of rose oil in the air - a harbinger of a headache attack. Today the hegemon had to pronounce sentence on the robber from Galilee. A young man in tattered clothes appeared before the procurator. The arrested Yeshua Ha-Nozri was accused of inciting the townspeople to destroy the temple.

Pilate, suffering from excruciating pain, had difficulty conducting the interrogation. Suddenly Yeshua started speaking strangely. It was as if he read the thoughts of the cruel procurator and saved him from a migraine. Afterwards, he advised the hegemon to take a walk in the vicinity of the palace and expressed the hope that he would be allowed to accompany the procurator.

Pilate was about to justify Ha-Notsri, recognizing him as a harmless madman, when the secretary handed the hegemon another scroll of parchment with a denunciation from Judas of Kiriatha.

It followed from the document that Yeshua Ha-Nozri rejected the authority of Caesar. This was a good reason to approve the death sentence for the tramp. The fate of the man sentenced to death strangely agitated the stern military leader.

Pilate tried to negotiate a pardon for Yeshua from the high priest Caiaphas, but he did not agree to the deal. Pontius Pilate was forced to send Ha-Nozri to execution, and unbearable melancholy gripped his heart.

Seventh proof

The foreign professor finished his long story, and Berlioz and Ivan noticed with surprise that dusk had already fallen over the Patriarch’s Ponds.

After this, incomprehensible metamorphoses suddenly began to occur with the consultant; he began to speak broken Russian and utter incoherent nonsense.

Mikhail Alexandrovich, suspecting something was wrong, began to give signs to Bezdomny, saying that the visitor had lost his mind.

Leaving Ivan to guard the mad professor, Berlioz rushed to the nearest telephone booth. When the man was about to cross the tram tracks, he slipped and fell under a moving tram.

The last thing the chairman of MASSOLIT saw in his life was the face of the beautiful carriage driver, distorted with horror. As the mysterious citizen predicted, Berlioz's head was cut off.

The young writer Ivan Bezdomny witnessed this terrible picture. From the conversation of idle onlookers, the poet learned that Annushka was indirectly to blame for the accident, breaking a liter of sunflower oil on the turnstile, on which Berlioz slipped.

The foreigner’s prediction came true almost verbatim. Stunned by what had happened, Ivan returned to the linden alley and saw that the consultant was rapidly leaving. Moreover, two people joined him: an imposing black cat and a man in a checkered jacket. The poet sets off in a fruitless pursuit of the suspicious trio.

The case in Griboyedov

While a tragic accident happened to Berlioz at the Patriarch's, twelve writers gathered for a meeting. They waited in vain for the chairman at MASSOLIT's residence, the Griboedov House.

Deciding that there was no point in wasting any more time, they went down to the magnificent restaurant. This establishment was famous throughout Moscow for its cuisine, but only members of the literary association could enjoy delicious dishes at a reasonable price. Suddenly the general meal was interrupted by the news of the tragic death of Berlioz.

The audience was alarmed by the terrible news, and then the poet Bezdomny appeared in the restaurant hall, looking wild and disheveled. The young man was dressed in long johns and a sweatshirt, and held a lit church candle in his hand.

The poet called on his comrades to go catch the evil foreigner. Ivan’s crazy speeches and unusual behavior became the reason that his fellow writers tied the man tightly and a truck took the restless poet to a madhouse.

In a hospital for the mentally ill, a writer is interviewed by a psychiatrist. The poet tries to explain to the doctor that it is necessary to urgently organize the capture of the foreign professor.

He tries to call the police so that five motorcycles with machine guns can be sent on the professor’s trail. But with his insane behavior, Ivan only confirms suspicions of his illness. The enraged man is given a sedative injection and sent to a separate room, where the poet falls asleep sweetly.

Bad apartment

After a night with its terrible and inexplicable events, the unwitting participants in this story greeted the morning of a new day in different ways. In the apartment where the unfortunate Berlioz lived, the director of the Variety Theater Stepan Likhodeev had difficulty recovering from a night of drinking.

It is worth noting that apartment No. 50, which Stepan occupied together with the chairman of MASSOLIT, had a bad reputation.

First the tenants disappeared, and then the owner of the damned apartment. With difficulty opening his eyes, the man discovered that he was not alone in the bedroom. Stepan saw the stranger with amazement. The man introduced himself as Woland, a specialist in black magic.

The foreigner claimed that Stepan had signed a contract with him for seven performances just yesterday. Likhodeev absolutely could not remember yesterday and this pleasant gentleman; even a couple of glasses of ice-cold vodka and a spicy snack could not revive these details in his memory.

The foreign artist presented Stepan with a contract, certified by the signatures and seal of Likhodeev himself and the financial director Rimsky.

When Likhodeev was almost convinced that he was suffering from memory loss, completely supernatural things began to happen.

The artist’s retinue appeared out of nowhere:

a monstrous black cat, whom the others called Behemoth;
a tall citizen in a checkered suit and a short, broad-shouldered Azazello.

Azazello, on Woland's orders, throws the director out of Moscow. The shocked Likhodeev ends up on the rocky coast of Yalta.

Koroviev things

Meanwhile, there were many hunters for the living space of the deceased Berlioz. From the very morning, the chairman of the housing association at building No. 302 bis on Sadovaya Street, Nikanor Ivanovich Bosogo, was attacked by petitioners who wanted to occupy the vacant square meters.

He decides to visit apartment No. 50. Having removed the wax seal from the door, the chairman saw an unknown subject on the half of the deceased.

A citizen in a checkered jacket introduced himself as an assistant to the foreign artist Woland. On behalf of the guest performer, he expressed his intention to rent an apartment for a week with a payment of 5 thousand rubles.

Nikanor Ivanovich was tempted by this amount, and in addition, the slippery citizen handed him a thick wad of bills as gratitude. But the chairman's joy was short-lived. When the man hid the cash and began to eat a delicious lunch, he was visited by two citizens who, instead of Soviet rubles found currency in the cache. The chairman was arrested.

News from Yalta

Preparations for the evening performance of the artist Woland at the Variety Show were in full swing. The theater administrator Varenukha and financial director Rimsky were preoccupied with the question of where Likhodeev had gone. Suddenly they receive a lightning telegram from Yalta, after reading which they have more questions than answers.

Based on the text, Stepan himself telegraphed to them, which was impossible, because Rimsky personally spoke to him this morning. Having put all the documents relating to Likhodeev’s disappearance into one envelope, the findirector gave it to Varenukha and ordered him to take it where it should go. But the administrator failed to complete this instruction.

A strong thunderstorm began. In the summer restroom, Varenukha was attacked by a cat-like citizen and Azazello. They took the envelope from him and dragged the beaten administrator away.

Ivan's split

The next morning, after a thorough medical examination, Ivan was visited by professor of psychiatry Stravinsky. The young man told the doctor his story, and the psychiatrist promised to release him if he proved to him that he was normal.

The homeless man eagerly began to describe his plan to capture the foreign professor, but Stravinsky objected to this that literally in 2 hours the young man would be detained again and taken to a hospital.

Stravinsky advised the suddenly depressed Ivan to describe in detail all the events on paper. The young writer agreed doomedly.

The poet Bezdomny, disturbed by the thunder, cried quietly in his room. He realized that he was not able to adequately describe everything that happened and instead of a coherent story, incoherent nonsense came out of his pen.

In despair, the poet decides to detach himself from the sad events and gradually calms down. Suddenly he sees another patient behind the glass, giving him some signs.

Black magic and its exposure

Rimsky thought sadly over latest events: To mysterious disappearance Likhodeev was added by the unfortunate disappearance of Varenukha. And at this time Mr. Woland arrived at the theater, accompanied by an assistant named Koroviev, also known as Fagot, and a fat cat performing incredible tricks. The performance of a foreign magician was announced by entertainer Georges Bengalsky.

The issue began a little unconventionally, with a conversation between Woland and Koroviev about how Muscovites have changed. However, despite the technical innovations, Messire came to the conclusion that people remained the same, “the housing issue only spoiled them.”

Seeing that the respected audience was bored, the magician instructed his assistants to entertain the audience.

Starting with card tricks, Koroviev brought down a real rain of money into the auditorium, and then invited the ladies to a chic store, which, as if by a wave of his hand, appeared on the stage. The audience's delight was marred only by inappropriate remarks from the entertainer.

Fagot decided to punish Bengalsky and ordered the cat to tear off his head. A terrible scene followed, during which blood flowed in fountains from the unfortunate man’s neck. However, the sir showed mercy and ordered the head of the talkative entertainer to be returned to its place.

The appearance of a hero

The narrative again takes the reader back to the ward of the psychiatric clinic.

The unknown person who tried to attract Ivan's attention turned out to be a patient who managed to steal the keys.

It was a man about 38 years old, dark hair, with anxious eyes. He began to ask the poet how he got here and was surprised to learn that he had been labeled a madman because of Pontius Pilate.

The night visitor demanded details. Inspired by the presence of a grateful listener, Ivan told his incredible story. The man told Ivan that he had talked with the devil at the Patriarch's Ponds.

Now it was the guest’s turn to confess. The man worked as a historian in a museum. By a lucky chance, he won 100 thousand rubles and rented two rooms in the basement, furnished them and began writing a novel about Pontius Pilate.

One day, while walking along Tverskaya Street, he saw a woman carrying in her hands yellow flowers. The beautiful stranger was the first to start a conversation, and they became acquainted. Margarita was not free, but she languished in an unhappy marriage, as if in a golden cage.

She became not only a secret wife, but also a muse for her lover, whom she called a master. They spent happy Days and evenings in the basement until the master finished his literary work and tried to publish it.

The book about Pontius Pilate was considered by the editors to be a manifesto of a “militant Old Believer.” And when the master was able to publish an excerpt from the novel, devastating articles appeared in print under the authorship of the critic Latunsky and the writer Lavrovich.

In these difficult times, only Margarita and his new friend Aloysius Mogarych supported the master. But the persecution did not subside and led the writer to mental illness. He almost burned the novel in the stove and ended up in a madhouse.

Glory to the rooster!

After the presentation of the foreign magician, the audience went home, and Rimsky gradually came to his senses. Some noise was heard from the street and the findirector, looking out the window, saw half-naked citizens rushing about on the street among the laughing crowd. These were the same ladies who were flattered by the Parisian outfits from Koroviev’s store.

Meanwhile, Rimsky was preparing to make an important call and talk about the atrocities that were happening at Variety. Suddenly, a telephone trill was heard and an insinuating female voice gently but persistently advised the man not to do this.

Frightened to death, Rimsky hurried to leave the office, but Varenukha suddenly appeared. The financial director was glad to see the administrator return, but something in his behavior seemed terribly strange to him.

Taking a closer look, Rimsky saw that Varenukha had been beaten, his neck, despite the heat, was wrapped in a scarf, and the man was not casting a shadow. The exposed administrator, together with the dead girl, attacks Rimsky, and only the victorious cry of the rooster saves him from death.

The financial director, who in a second turned into a shaking old man, rushes to the station, from where he leaves for Leningrad.

Nikanor Ivanovich's dream

IN mental asylum people keep coming. One of them was Nikanor Ivanovich Bosoy, whose mind could not bear the transformation of Soviet rubles into dollars.

During interrogation, he repented of all his sins, but claimed that he did not take bribes in foreign currency, and that evil spirits had settled in apartment No. 50. Soon the violent chairman of the house committee was taken to the Stravinsky clinic.

There Nikanor had a strange dream. It was as if many men had gathered in a richly decorated hall. A young man appeared on the stage and began calling on those gathered to hand over their currency. Barefoot woke up screaming after these visions. In the next room, Ivan became agitated, alarmed by the noise.

Execution

Three robbers condemned to execution were riding in a cart. The sun was rapidly rolling behind Bald Mountain, surrounded by a double cordon. The procession was secretly accompanied by Yeshua's disciple.

The former tax collector Levi Matvey asked God to send the wandering philosopher a quick and easy death, but the Lord did not heed his prayers.

Then the man stole a sharp knife from a bread shop and wanted to stab Yeshua to save him from suffering. But, having run to the place of execution, he saw that he was too late: Dismas, Gestas and Yeshua had already been crucified.

However, the merciful procurator soon granted death to the criminals. The cordon was removed from the execution site. Suddenly it began to rain heavily, Matthew Levi removed Ha-Nozri’s body from the cross and carried it away.

Restless day

On Friday, only the accountant remained from the Variety administration. Quiet and modest Vasily Stepanovich Lastochkin had to admit to the unenviable state of affairs of the police and cancel the evening performance of a foreign magician.

Then Lastochkin went to the entertainment commission to report on the incidents and hand over yesterday's cash register. Arriving at the address, Vasily Stepanovich saw that incredible turmoil reigned there.

An empty suit sat in the director's office and signed papers with a dry pen. The amazed accountant quickly retreated from there and went to the branch. There were worse things going on there.

All the employees, as if controlled by an invisible conductor, harmoniously sang popular songs, unable to stop. Lastochkin, who had completely lost his head, went to check out the cash register. When he unpacked the package, instead of rubles there was currency. Lastochkin was immediately detained.

Unlucky visitors

A certain Poplavsky, the uncle of the late Berlioz, arrives in Moscow from Kyiv. An enterprising citizen seriously hopes to take over the rooms of his tragically deceased nephew. But Azazello throws his relative out of the apartment. Poplavsky, deceived in his expectations, leaves without a quick slurp.

After the visit of the Kyiv uncle, another guest visited the bad apartment. This was the head of the Variety buffet, Andrei Fokich Sokov. An elderly man, after an ill-fated session of black magic, discovered that the cash register was full of cut paper instead of chervonets.

Sokov decided to turn to Woland to somehow resolve this issue. The door of apartment No. 50 was opened for him by the naked beauty Gella.

While Sokov was recovering from the impudence of the shameless girl, he was invited into the living room. There he met with Woland, who reprimanded him for second-fresh sturgeon and thin tea.

Andrei Fokich wanted to present the messenger with the cut paper, when he saw that his briefcase was again full of real ducats. The barman was in a hurry to leave the strange company, and in parting, the magician predicted his death from liver cancer in nine months.

Note! The summary of The Master and Margarita does not give a complete impression of the novel.

Second part

The master's secret wife Margarita had long languished in ignorance of his fate. On the day of Berlioz's funeral, the woman decided to take a walk. Sitting down on a bench near the Kremlin wall, she plunged into memories of the master.

How suddenly internal monologue the short, fanged man interrupted unceremoniously. It was Azazello, sent by Woland to invite Margarita.

Margarita and Azazello cream

Azazello won the trust of the exhausted woman by quoting lines from the novel about Pontius Pilate. As they talk, a funeral procession passes by.

This is the last farewell of the chairman of MASSOLIT. Messire's henchman tells Margarita that someone has stolen the dead man's head.

Azazello then hands the woman a golden jar of cream and gives her detailed instructions on how to use it. After hesitating a little, Margarita decides that she will do anything for her lover.

That same evening, Margarita opened the golden box and began to rub a yellowish ointment that smelled like swamp mud into her skin. A few minutes later, glancing in the mirror, Margarita saw that she had magically become younger and prettier.

The woman felt joy boiling in her blood and a feeling of boundless freedom; moreover, she gained the ability to fly. The black-haired beauty wrote a farewell note to her husband, said goodbye to the speechless housekeeper Natasha and, riding a broom, flew out into the moonlit night.

Soon Margarita got used to controlling the broom. While flying, a tall building caught her attention. Going lower, the woman realized that this was the “House of the Playwright and Writer.”

Baring her teeth predatorily, she studied the list of tenants and read in it the name of the master’s enemy - the critic Latunsky. In anger, Margarita climbed through the window into the critic’s apartment and began to destroy the situation.

Having satisfied her thirst for revenge, the woman continued her flight. In the night sky she met Natasha riding a pig. The girl could not resist and also smeared herself with cream. And when the downstairs neighbor Nikolai Ivanovich, struck by her beauty, began to invite the housekeeper to become his mistress, she rubbed him with ointment too.

After this, the respectable man's face turned into a pig's muzzle, and his legs into hooves. Hot from the flight, Margot swam in the river and rushed back to the capital in the car given to her.

Sitting in a car flying high above the ground, Margarita already understood to whom she was invited, but this did not bother her. Azazello accompanied the woman to apartment No. 50. In the dark hallway, which struck Margarita with its enormous size, Koroviev met them.

He informed the woman that she had the honor of becoming the queen of the annual spring full moon ball and introduced the master’s beloved Wolanda and his retinue. Messire asks Margarita if she has any sadness in her heart, but she answers in the negative.

Satan's Ball

Gella and Natasha began to prepare the queen to receive guests. She was first washed with blood, then anointed with rose oil, and put on a diamond crown and a gold chain.

The cat announced the beginning of the celebration. Margarita, as a hostess, stood at the beginning of the grand staircase and prepared to greet the guests.

At exactly midnight, skeletons began to appear from the huge fireplace. The half-decayed bodies immediately turned into men in elegant tailcoats or naked women.

Among the murderers, traitors and poisoners, the queen's attention was drawn to a woman with a restless look. Koroviev told her that it was Frida and told her story.

One day the owner called an attractive girl into the storeroom, and nine months later she gave birth to a child. Not knowing how to raise the baby, she strangled the baby with a handkerchief. Now, for 30 years now, the maid assigned to her has been handing her this scarf.

Soon the flow of guests dried up, and the exhausted Margarita had the opportunity to catch her breath. But soon, together with the owner of the ball, Woland, she again entered the hall. The severed head of Berlioz is brought to Messire on a platter, which is then turned into a golden cup for wine.

Queen Margot is surprised to learn that among the dead there was one living guest ─ Baron Meigel. He accepted the invitation so that he could later write a denunciation against the foreigner. Woland's minions kill the baron and fill the cup with his blood.

Woland and Margarita drink from it to the health of the guests. At this point, the reception comes to an end and the luxurious hall turns into the living room of an ordinary apartment.

Master Extraction

After a merry feast, the queen wanted to leave, when suddenly Woland stopped the hostess of the ball and asked what she wanted to get for this crazy night. Margarita asks that they no longer bring Frida a scarf. Woland invites her to give this order herself and finally voice her most cherished desire.

Margot tells Frida that she is forgiven and passionately cries out for the masters to be returned to her this very second. A man in hospital pajamas appears in the room, who secretly visited Homeless in the ward.

Margarita rushed to hug her lover. And he thought that he was seeing all this in hallucinations. But soon the master came to his senses and the sir began to ask him about the novel.

Having learned that this was a book about Pontius Pilate, Messire could not believe his ears and demanded to see the manuscript. The master replied that he burned the notebooks. “Manuscripts don’t burn,” Woland announced, and the helpful Behemoth handed him a thick stack of paper covered in writing.

Then Margarita asked the all-powerful sir to return her and her lover to their basement in Arbatsky Lane.

Attempt to rescue Judas

Evening, the city of Yershalaim was covered by a strong thunderstorm. Contemplating the continuous streams of rain, the hegemon was waiting for the guest. Soon the head of the secret service arrived.

Pontius Pilate began to question Afranius about the circumstances of the execution and learned that shortly before the death of Yeshua Ha-Nozri, he said that of all human vices he considered cowardice to be the main one.

This phrase made the procurator think for a long time. At the end of the conversation, he veiledly orders the guest to kill Judas of Kiriath that same night and return to the high priest the money received for the denunciation.

Pontius Pilate is left alone and realizes that he has committed criminal cowardice. The procurator of Judea wants to turn back time and acquit the wandering philosopher, but it is too late. Meanwhile, Afranius organizes an assassination attempt on Judas.

The young beauty Nisa lures the young man into an olive grove, where killers are waiting for him. After Judas was stabbed to death, a purse containing thirty pieces of silver was found on him. By order of the hegemon, the cursed money is planted in the palace of the high priest.

Yeshua is avenged, but Pontius Pilate does not feel peace. Late at night Afranius returns and informs Pilate about the death of Judas and that the bodies of the executed criminals were buried. Then Levi Matvey is brought to the procurator. The hegemon tells him that he took revenge on the traitor who doomed Yeshua to death.

Pilate reads the notes of Levi Matthew and invites him to stay with him. But the tramp refuses his position and money, asking only for a piece of blank parchment.

End of apartment No. 50

Trying to understand the incredible events that befell the capital, the Moscow police come to the conclusion that the place where they should look for the culprit of all the misadventures is apartment No. 50.

Despite the fact that this apartment had recently been under constant surveillance, during a search no one was found in it. Suddenly a noise was heard inside her. A group of policemen dressed in civilian clothes went up to the fifth floor of a building on Sadovaya.

Once in the rooms, the police dispersed and saw in the center of the room a table set for breakfast and a large black cat sitting on the mantelpiece. The cat held a primus stove in his paws.

Incredibly, a shootout broke out between the law enforcement officers and the cat, then a fire broke out from gasoline spilled from the primus stove. The Behemoth cat jumped out the window, and after him, four dark silhouettes fluttered out along with the smoke.

Woland's retinue decided to play some pranks one last time. Koroviev and Behemoth went to a store whose windows were full of scarce goods, but they traded here only for foreign currency.

At first they didn’t want to let the suspicious couple of ragamuffins in, but they still managed to get into the sparkling bowels of the luxury store. There, Hippo began to eat tangerines and chocolate with impunity. And after they tried to reason with the hooligans, the cat doused the counters with gasoline and a fire broke out.

After the police arrived, the partners quickly retreated and ended up in the restaurant of the Griboedov House. Despite the courtesy of the restaurant manager Archibald Archibaldovich, the establishment could not avoid a sad fate. The famous restaurant also burned down.

The fate of the heroes is determined

At sunset, Woland and his retinue contemplated the capital from the terrace of a tall building. Suddenly a gloomy black-bearded man appeared on the terrace - the former tax collector Levi Matvey.

A heated discussion takes place between him and Satan about the forces of good and evil. Then Levi reports that Yeshua sent him with one request: to give the master peace.

Azazello visits the lovers in a cozy basement. The messenger of Satan asks the couple about their future plans and invites the lovers to take a short walk with the messir. Then Azazello offers to drink a bottle of Falernian wine - a gift from Woland.

After a few sips, the master and Margarita fall backward, they died. But after a while, Satan’s henchman resurrects them by pouring into their mouths a few drops of the same wine with which they were poisoned.

Black horses are already waiting for the trio on the street. The master finally wants to visit Ivan Bezdomny. He bequeaths young man write a sequel to the novel about the procurator.

The sir and his entourage are waiting for the Master and Margarita on the Sparrow Hills. Satan invites the master to say goodbye to the city. Soon, despair and a feeling of bitter resentment in the master’s soul were replaced by a premonition of peace. The farewell took place, and the cavalcade of horsemen rushed away from Moscow.

The magical black horses flew forward, and Margarita noticed how the appearance of her companions had changed:

Koroviev-Fagot turned into a knight with a gloomy face.
The hippopotamus became a thin young page boy.
Azazello acquired his true form as a demon killer.

Soon the riders found themselves in a desert area. They saw a man sitting in a chair, with a huge pointy-eared dog lying at his feet. Woland explains to the master that this is Pontius Pilate, and invites the writer to give the hegemon the long-awaited freedom.

The forgiven governor of Judea, the horseman Pontius Pilate, leaves along the lunar road forward to the sparkling city. And the master finally finds peace with his faithful beloved in their common eternal home.

Epilogue

For a long time the echo of incredible events did not subside in Moscow. The most contradictory rumors circulated throughout the capital and the whole country. Dozens of suspicious citizens and black cats were detained. The investigation concluded that a gang of skilled hypnotists was operating in the city.

Time passed and the hype died down. But there were participants in this story who could not erase those events from their memory. Every spring on the full moon, the former poet Ivan Bezdomny appears in the linden alley on the Patriarch's Ponds. Every time after this walk he has an attack.

His wife gives him an injection, after which Ivan calmly falls asleep. In a dream, he sees a lunar path along which Pontius Pilate and a wandering philosopher are walking and talking about something.

Useful video

Let's sum it up

We briefly talked about the content of the novel. To become more familiar with the plot and characters, you can read the book in its entirety; an online summary is available on the Internet.

“The Master and Margarita,” in a brief chapter-by-chapter retelling, will help you become more familiar with the brilliant work of the great writer, which raises philosophical questions about the structure of the universe, human vices and virtues.

- I am part of that force

What always wants evil

And always does good...

Goethe. Faust

Never talk to strangers. Pontius Pilate. Seventh proof.

At sunset in Moscow, on the Patriarch's Ponds, the poet Ivan Po-nyrev, who writes under the pseudonym Bezdomny, and Mikhail Aleksandrovich Berlioz, chairman of MASSOLIT (one of the largest Moscow literary organizations), are walking.

Ivan wrote a poem about Jesus Christ. Berlioz scolds the poet: they say, Christ turned out to be an extremely unpleasant person, yes. But we need to prove to the general public that Jesus never existed at all!

On the bench, the writers meet a mysterious “foreign consultant” who conducts a strange conversation and is amazed at the “country of atheists”:

Who controls human life?

“It’s the man himself who controls,” Homeless answers angrily.

The mysterious stranger claims that he who is mortal cannot control his life. And suddenly mortal, mind you! He predicts Berlioz's imminent death. The chairman's head will be cut off. Who? Russian woman, Komsomol member. This is what will happen. Because “Annushka has already bought sunflower oil...”

What nonsense! What is Annushka like? Who is he, this foreigner?

The stranger introduces himself as a specialist in black magic, a consultant specially invited to Moscow.

It tells about the meeting of Christ with Pontius Pilate, the first procurator of Judea.

“In a white cloak with a bloody lining, a shuffling cavalry gait...” - this is how this story begins (with a description of Pilate). A poor vagabond philosopher, Yeshua Ha-Nozri, amazes the procurator with his wisdom, insight and kindness. He even calls the cruel Mark Rat-Boy “ a kind person" Ha-Nozri cured Pilate of a severe headache.

The procurator is thinking about hiding the doctor in his place.

But the Jewish high priest Kaifa demands his execution - the tramp’s conversations threaten the temple of the old faith. On the eve of the holiday, one of the four convicts can be spared from the shameful execution on the cross. Kaifa calls the name: Var-Rabban. The robber and murderer will be released, Ga-Notsri must be executed!

Ivan Bezdomny, listening to the story of a stranger, seems to see everything with his own eyes.

Berlioz notices that it is already evening. It's time for him to go to the meeting. While in a hurry, he slipped on the sunflower oil spilled by Annushka and fell under a tram driven by a woman in a red headscarf. The severed head of the chairman rolled along the cobblestones of Bronnaya Street.

Chase. There was a case in Griboyedov. Schizophrenia, as stated

Ivan goes into a terrible mental and nervous breakdown. He rushes in pursuit of the professor and his strange retinue - a huge black cat and a vile man in a checkered suit and cracked pince-nez.

But they seemed to disappear in the light of the evening lanterns. Unusually quickly - as in a dream - the chase occurs. Ivan breaks into someone else's apartment, pins a paper icon on his chest: he begins to see that the stranger is the devil himself!

While swimming in the Moscow River, Ivan was robbed, leaving him only with striped long johns and a torn sweatshirt. In such a terrible form, Ivan appears at the luxurious summer restaurant at the Griboedov House, where MASSOLIT is located. Writers feast and quarrel over benefits: apartments and vouchers to holiday homes.

At the sight of Ivan, an incredible scandal breaks out. The completely confused poet is sent to a psychiatric clinic. There he is diagnosed with schizophrenia.

Not a good apartment. Koroviev things. News from Yalta

Styopa Likhodeev, director of the Variety Theater and neighbor of the late Berlioz in large apartment No. 50, woke up with a terrible hangover. This is a bad apartment - its residents are often arrested. People are disappearing!

The same mysterious stranger appears to Styopa. He treats Stepina headache a shot of vodka and hot snacks. Likhodeev is horrified: it turns out that he signed a contract with a stranger to perform in the theater entrusted to him. And he doesn’t remember anything! Well, as the professor of black magic quite rightly noted, there was no need to drink port after vodka.

Likhodeev is amazed by Woland’s retinue (this is the stranger’s surname), especially by an impudent cat of extraordinary size who dashingly drinks soup with a pickled mushroom on a fork.

Woland declares that the rowdy and slacker Likhodeev is disturbing his retinue, and in an instant throws the theater director to Yalta.

Woland’s “checkered” companion (Koroviev) pays the chairman of the housing association, Nikanor Ivanovich Bosom, a huge sum in chervonets for the professor’s apartment. This is a bribe. Yes, Bosoy is a bribe-taker - after all, there is a housing crisis in the country. Based on Koroviev's denunciation, Bosoy is arrested for possession of currency. And in fact, there are dollars in the cache! Barefoot is taken away - “they swept away the chairman.”

Styopa Likhodeev bombards all his colleagues and acquaintances with telegrams: “Yalta has been abandoned by Woland’s hypnosis.” Everyone thinks that he got drunk in the suburban restaurant “Yalta” and is again acting up. Finally, administrator Varenukha is still going to send Styopa the money he needs to return. But the nasal voice on the phone demands not to send money anywhere. In the restroom near Variety, the cat beats Varenukha, and then the completely naked witch Gella, with the words “Let me kiss you...”, inflicts a bite on the unfortunate man, which turns him into a vampire.

Black magic and its exposure. Glory to the rooster!

At a session of black magic, Woland sits down in a chair that instantly appears on stage as if out of thin air and begins to look at the audience. This is why he announced his “session” - it’s more convenient to look at Muscovites en masse. His retinue performs card tricks. Then chervonets begin to rain down on the public, and everyone begins to feverishly collect them.

Entertainer Bengalsky is worried and demands that the money trick be exposed. It was precisely “exposure” that the poster promised. The public does not want to part with the chervonets; shouts are heard from the audience: “Tear off his head!” The cat pounces on the entertainer and instantly tears off his head. Blood from the torn arteries flows like a fountain, flooding his shirtfront.

For God's sake, don't torture him! - a female voice is heard.

Well, Satan draws his conclusions. - People are like people. They love money - but that's always been the case. Well, they are frivolous, so well... And mercy sometimes knocks on their hearts...

By order of the devil, the head is put back.

Then Koroviev-Fagot, Gella and the cat open a “ladies’ store.” In exchange for your not too fashionable clothes women receive Parisian shoes, stockings, dresses, perfume...

And at the end of the session, half-naked women are rushing along the street - everything has disappeared! And the chervonets turned into cut paper or labels from Narzan.

CFO Rimsky, observing this terrible picture, is going to call “somewhere.” But Varenukha comes to him, clicking his teeth unpleasantly. Rimsky notices that he does not cast a shadow. Varenukha realizes that he has been figured out and is going to make the findirector a vampire as well. Naked Gella tries to break into the window. But fortunately for Rimsky, the rooster crowed and drove away the evil spirits. Miraculously saved, the findirector immediately leaves Moscow by fast train.

The appearance of a hero

At night, a neighbor from a psychiatric hospital sneaks into Ivan Bezdomny’s room thanks to stolen keys.

It’s a strange coincidence - they both (albeit in very different ways) ended up in the clinic because of Pontius Pilate.

After listening to Ivan’s story about Woland’s story, the night guest screams:

Oh, how I guessed everything!

It turns out that this man wrote a novel about Pontius Pilate a year ago. And everything in the novel was depicted exactly as Woland said. The night guest calls himself not a writer, but a master. As proof, he presents “a completely greasy black cap with the letter M embroidered on it in yellow silk.”

By a lucky chance, the master wins a hundred thousand in the lottery, quits his job at the museum and his little room on Myasnitskaya: “Ugh, damned hole!” He rented a cozy apartment in an alley near Arbat from a rogue developer: books, a burning stove, the smell of lilacs outside the window... And he began to compose a book about Pontius Pilate. One day he met a beautiful woman with unprecedented loneliness in her eyes. “Love jumped out in front of us, like a killer jumps out of the ground in an alley, and struck us both at once!”

The woman - her name was Margarita - began to come to her secret lover every day. The stove was heated, and the master’s favorite flowers, roses, stood on the table. Margarita sewed a black cap for her lover - a symbol of his involvement in the secrets. The novel was flying towards the end - and now it was completed. None of the editors accepted the manuscript for publication. And suddenly a large excerpt was printed on a loose-leaf sheet of newspaper. A flurry of devastating articles rained down on the master's poor head. The critic Latunsky especially tried. The master shows signs of a mental disorder - as soon as you turn out the lights at night, it seems that a terrible octopus is trying to get through the window. During this “damned time” the unfortunate man made a friend - Aloisy Mogarych. He made a repulsive impression on Margarita. Mogarych had long conversations with the master about literature, explaining why such a novel could not be published at this time and in this country.

Morbid fear increasingly takes possession of the master. He burns his manuscript. Margarita manages to be saved - with her bare hands from the fire! - only a few burnt leaves. She is going to leave her husband and move in with the master. He gives her the remaining money - ten thousand. The woman is going to explain herself to her husband and come back for good in the morning. However, that same evening the craftsman was thrown out of the apartment into the cold - following a denunciation by his “friend” Mogarych. The truck driver took pity on the unfortunate patient and took him to the clinic...

Execution

This chapter describes the painful death on the cross of Ha-Nozri and two robbers. At the end of the day, in view of the approaching thunderstorm, the guards kill the unfortunates.

The faithful follower of Jesus, Levi Matthew, already ankle-deep in water, removes all three bodies from the crosses and takes with him the body of Christ.

Restless day

Miracles happen in Moscow: people disappear, chervonets are found among taxi drivers and in the buffet, which turn into pieces of paper and even... into black kittens. The psychiatric clinic is filled with strange people: for example, one of them (the entertainer) asks to have his head returned.

In one institution, instead of a bureaucratic boss, there sits... an empty suit! He continues to be rude to visitors and sign papers.

In another institution, all the employees, against their will, sing in chorus “The Glorious Sea - Sacred Baikal...” - and cannot stop. Variety's accountant brings the proceeds from the session to hand over - and currency is found in the briefcase! The accountant was immediately arrested.

Many, many strange things are happening in Moscow...

Margarita. Azazello cream. Flight. By candlelight

“Follow me, reader! Who said there is no true love in the world? ...Follow me, reader, and I will show you such love!”

Margarita Nikolaevna was the wife of a very prominent specialist - he was young, smart, handsome and adored his wife. They occupied an entire floor of a mansion in the garden, in one of the alleys near Arbat. Margarita Nikolaevna did not need money and never touched a primus stove. She had a housekeeper, Natasha. However, this one is smart and beautiful woman I felt unhappy. She needed her master!

After the disappearance of her lover, Margarita suffered greatly - and in mental anguish she barely lived until spring. And then one day she woke up with a premonition that something extraordinary was about to happen... And in fact, when she was sitting on a bench during a walk near the walls of the Kremlin, a strange stranger approached her: red-haired, with an eyesore and a terrible protruding fang. It was Azazello - one of Woland's retinue. He invited a woman to a ball with “a foreigner.” Margarita was indignant: “Street pimp!” But then it turned out that the redhead knew everything about her and about the master. At the ball you can learn about the fate of your lover. Azazello handed the woman a miraculous cream. She was ordered to strip naked at exactly half past nine, apply cream to her face and body and wait for further instructions.

A funeral procession is moving past the talkers: they are burying Berlioz, whose head has mysteriously disappeared from the coffin. Margarita looks with hatred at the critic Latunsky walking in the procession.

Having smeared herself with cream, Margarita was magically transformed. Over the months of suffering, she became ugly and aged. The cream made her not only a beauty, but also a witch.

The woman gained the ability to fly. Leaving all her things to the housekeeper Natasha, Margarita received instructions from Azazello, sat down on the mop that hobbled towards her and rose into the air. Flying over the gate, she shouted: “Invisible!”

While flying over Moscow at night, Margarita saw the luxurious bulk of a newly built writer's house. She found Latunsky's name on the sign. An enraged witch destroyed the apartment of the critic-destroyer: she smashed the piano, crushed all the furniture, poured ink into the bed and, in the end, flooded the apartment with water from the bathtub. Then she flew out of the apartment and began breaking windows throughout the house of the writers she hated. Until... Until I saw a little frightened boy in one of the rooms. Invisible Margarita began to console him, telling him a fairy tale. The baby fell asleep.

Suddenly the woman noticed her housekeeper Natasha riding a hog. Using the remains of the cream, the girl also turned into a beauty and a witch. And neighbor Nikolai Ivanovich turned into a hog, who, struck by Natasha’s devilish beauty, promised her mountains of gold “for love.” So she smeared cream on his bald head, which turned him into a hog.

Returning to Moscow, Margarita ends up in a “bad apartment.” Satan in a torn shirt (at home) plays live chess with a cat. The cat crawls under the bed to gild his mustache for Queen Margot. It turns out that Woland regularly organizes balls in different countries of the world - this time in Moscow. The queen of the ball must be a woman of royal blood named Margarita - and this honor fell to Margarita Nikolaevna.

Great Ball at Satan's

Apartment No. 50 suddenly turned out to be huge. Ballrooms with columns, an orchestra of the best (deceased) musicians, various plants, swimming pools with champagne, parrots flying in the air... The naked Margarita was placed at the very top of the grand staircase. A heavy metal image of a black poodle was hung around her neck. Music started playing. The guests began to appear: a disgusting parade of vile criminals, poisoners and murderers.

The Queen is delighted! - the cat yells and Koroviev-Fagot squeals.

Margarita's knee was swollen and blue from countless kisses. Natasha, who remained with the mistress, wipes him with something fragrant.

Only one, unhappy and desperate face was remembered by Queen Margot: the face of the unfortunate Frida, who was once “called into the pantry” by the owner, and nine months later the unfortunate woman gave birth to a child, whom she strangled in the forest with a handkerchief. And now she is given this terrible scarf every morning, awakening the torment of her conscience.

Frida, Frida, my name is Frida! - the unhappy Margarita shouts.

Margarita promises to remember.

Many wonderful things happen at the ball. Desperate cat Behemoth bathes in cognac. Margarita is forced to fly around the halls and greet the wildly merry guests. Woland turns Berlioz's head into a skull, and the skull into a precious cup from which Satan drinks to existence! Berlioz maintained throughout his life that after death a person goes into oblivion - and everyone is rewarded according to their faith. Baron Meigel comes to the ball - a man who, under the guise of a guide, tried to spy on the “foreign consultant”. Abadonna - the demon of death in black glasses - takes off these terrible glasses for a second and looks Meigel in the eyes. At the same moment, blood gushed from the baron’s chest into the cup.

Drink! - the owner of the ball said imperiously to Margarita.

“Margarita felt dizzy...” But the blood turned into wine. The ball was over.

The guests crumbled to dust, and the luxurious room again turned into a modest living room...

Extracting the master. How the procurator tried to save Judah from Kiriath

Woland and his retinue are resting. Happy Dinner! Azazello demonstrates the art of shooting - and Margarita applauds: she adores people who do something masterfully.

The woman is exhausted, but does not complain. She behaves with dignity, and her strength is gradually returning to her. During the conversation, it turns out that the apartment has been under surveillance for a long time - some people are on duty on the stairs.

Margarita feels that dinner has dragged on and begins to say goodbye. It seems to her that the conversation about the master will not take place. She thanks the owner for the wonderful ball. “I would gladly once again offer my knee so that thousands of hanged men and murderers could apply it to it...”

We tested you...” Woland said. - Never ask for anything! Especially those who are stronger than you. They will offer and give everything themselves! Sit down, proud woman! So, how much do you value your knee?

And then the queen of the ball remembers Frida and asks that they stop giving her the scarf. Not because, as Margarita explains, she is so merciful, but because “I had the imprudence to give her firm hope.”

Woland frowns, but tells his guest-hostess to do everything herself. Margarita calls Frida and says majestically: “You are forgiven. They will no longer serve the handkerchief.”

Koroviev advises the “diamond donna” to be careful with her statements, to ask for what she only needs, and she demands that her masters be returned to her immediately.

The master finds himself in strange company. He is sick and broken and ready to consider everything a hallucination. Woland, with the words “Manuscripts don’t burn,” restores the burnt novel.

Aloisy Mogarych was thrown out of the master's apartment upside down (in order to take possession of it, he wrote a denunciation - they say that the master kept illegal literature), the master's documents were restored. The lovers return to their lane on Arbat, but the master wants nothing more. He hates his novel.

Housekeeper Natasha begged to be left as a witch.

Margarita, having put the master to bed, rereads the novel...

“The darkness that came from the Mediterranean Sea covered the city hated by the procurator...” Pontius Pilate skillfully hints to the chief of the guard, Afranius, about the need to kill the traitor Judas, who gave Ga-Nozri shelter in his house and handed over the wandering philosopher for thirty pieces of silver.

The beautiful Nisa, on behalf of Afranius, lures Judas into the Garden of Gethsemane, where the traitor is killed by planting his vile money on him. Pilate tries to give money to Matthew Levi, who was brought to him, but he refuses, because he considers Pilate guilty of the death of his teacher.

The punishment of Judas and concern for the burial of Ha-Nozri somewhat calms Pilate’s conscience. He manages to fall asleep. The only creature he loves sleeps next to him - the dog Bunga.

The end of apartment No. 50. The adventures of Koroviev and Behemoth

The people who were watching her break into the bad apartment. All its inhabitants are invisible, except huge cat holding a primus in his paws.

I’m not being naughty, I’m not bothering anyone, I’m fixing the primus... - the cat said, frowning unfriendly. - And I also consider it my duty to warn that the cat is the most ancient and inviolable animal...

The cat snatches the Browning gun from behind his back and opens fire. They shoot at him from a Mauser. The bloody cat says: “The only thing that can save a mortally wounded cat is a sip of gasoline...” Having drunk gasoline from the primus, the cat gets up as if nothing had happened.

An ugly chase and shootout, in which the bullets do not cause any harm to the cat, disturb Woland's peace. The invisible one expresses dissatisfaction. The cat throws down the primus stove, gasoline spills, a fire breaks out on its own....

The apartment burns down completely. And three dark male figures and the silhouette of a naked woman fly out of her window....

The cat-like fat man with a primus stove and Koroviev are wandering around Moscow. They start riots and fires: in the currency store (for foreigners) and in the Griboedov House. All-destroying flames are sweeping through the city.

The fate of the master and Margarita is determined. It's time! It's time!

Woland, dressed in black, with a sword, looks at Moscow from the roof of Pashkov’s house and talks with Azazello.

Suddenly, Matthew Levi emerges from the round tower. Woland is dissatisfied that Levi Matvey did not greet him, but Levi replies that he, a student of Ha-Notsri, does not want evil to live.

Satan argues that good cannot exist without evil, just like light without shadow.

Levi does not enter into an argument with him, he only conveys that the Teacher has read the novel and asks Woland to take the master and his Margarita with him and give them peace.

He didn’t deserve light, he deserved peace... - Levi said in a sad voice.

The Master and Margarita in their apartment. A woman that her loved one is devastated and exhausted, but believes in the help of the Devil. And so it happens: Azazello comes to visit and treats the lovers to Falernian wine. They both fall dead.

At the same time, a certain Margarita Nikolaevna dies in the mansion. And in a psychiatric clinic - a patient from ward one hundred and eighteen.

Azazello wets his lips as he lies on the floor - and they rise again.

For everyone in Moscow, these two are dead - but they gain eternal life. The developer's house burns to the ground - like several others in Moscow.

The Master and Margarita fly in to say goodbye to Ivan Bezdomny, who promises never to write poetry - he realized how bad they are.

Forgiveness and eternal shelter

A cavalcade of black horses rushes over the city. Woland's black cloak flutters. The master has changed in appearance - his hair is gathered in a gray braid, he is wearing a cloak and boots with spurs. The hippopotamus turned out to be a thin young man, a demon page, the best jester in the world. The ridiculous fang has disappeared, Azazello’s thorn has disappeared.

Koroviev appeared as a gloomy dark purple knight - he was punished for having once made an unsuccessful joke on the themes of light and darkness. The horsemen say goodbye to Moscow.

The devil announces to the master that his novel has been read. I read it and it was said that, unfortunately, it is not finished.

Woland shows the master his hero - Pontius Pilate is sitting on a stone platform in a desert area, suffering from insomnia in the light of the moon. His dog also suffers with him. Pilate dreams of reaching an agreement with someone who was once executed.

Let him go! - Margarita screams desperately.

Woland invites the Master to end his novel with one phrase.

Free! He is waiting for you! - the master shouts.

A man and a dog are moving away along the lunar road.

The Master and Margarita are going to their beautiful eternal home, where music will play in the evening and those they expect and love will come to visit.

Epilogue

Rumors about evil spirits circulated around Moscow for a long time. Many innocent black cats were caught. The Korovins, Korovievs and Karavaevs were arrested.

Miracles were explained by hypnosis.

Ivan Nikolaevich Ponyrev left both poetry and his pseudonym - Bezdomny. He decided to say goodbye to his ignorance, studied and began working at the Institute of History and Philosophy. He often goes to the Patriarch's Ponds and remembers the beginning of an amazing story.

At night he cries and worries, his devoted wife looks after him. He sees a conversation between Pilate and Ha-Nozri. They are walking along the lunar road. Jesus consoles his companion, convincing him that the execution was definitely in his imagination.

In the end, Ivan calms down - and nothing worries the professor, not even the “cruel fifth procurator of Judea, the horseman Pontius Pilate.”