Reading Master & Margarita15

Chapter 15

Nikanor Ivanovich's Dream

  On Thursday evening, when Nikanor Ivanovich was arrested for hiding foreign currency in his apartment, he finally landed up in Stravinsky’s clinic.

But he was not brought here directly. He was first taken to some other place. Bulgakov does not mention the name of this place but it is understood that it was the office of secret service. They ask him questions: first in a loving manner and then in an angry tone.

Suddenly Nikanor Ivanovich spots Koroviev in a corner of this office, who was mocking at him from behind an Amirah.

Nikanor Ivanovich’s mental condition deteriorates to such an extent that he had to be taken to Stravinsky’s clinic.

Nikanor Ivanovich was given a sedative and in his sleep, he sees a dream…a trial was going on in a theatre…people were giving foreign currency which they had hoarded somewhere:

'Well, Nikanor Ivanovich, set us a good example, sir,' the young artiste said soulfully, 'turn over your currency.'

Silence ensued. Nikanor Ivanovich took a deep breath and quietly began to speak:

'I swear to God that I...'

But before he had time to get the words out, the whole house burst into shouts of indignation.

Nikanor Ivanovich got confused and fell silent.

'As far as I understand you,' said the program announcer, 'you wanted to swear to God that you haven't got any currency?', and he gazed sympathetically at Nikanor Ivanovich.

'Exactly right, I haven't,' replied Nikanor Ivanovich.

'Right,' responded the artiste, 'and... excuse the indiscretion, where did the four hundred dollars that were found in the privy of the apartment of which you and your wife are the sole inhabitants come from?'

'Magic!' someone in the dark house said with obvious irony.

'Exactly right - magic,' Nikanor Ivanovich timidly replied, vaguely addressing either the artiste or the dark house, and he explained:

'Unclean powers, the checkered interpreter stuck me with them.'

And again the house raised an indignant roar. When silence came, the artiste said:

'See what La Fontaine fables I have to listen to! Stuck him with four hundred dollars! Now, all of you here are currency dealers, so I address you as experts: is that conceivable?'

We're not currency dealers,' various offended voices came from the theatre, 'but, no, it's not conceivable!'

'I'm entire of the same mind,' the artiste said firmly, `and let me ask you: what is it that one can be stuck with?'

'A baby!' someone cried from the house.

`Absolutely correct,' the program announcer confirmed, 'a baby, an anonymous letter, a tract, an infernal machine, anything else, but no one will stick you with four hundred dollars, for such idiots don't exist in nature.' And turning to Nikanor Ivanovich, the artiste added reproachfully and sorrowfully:

`You've upset me, Nikanor Ivanovich, and I was counting on you. So, our number didn't come off.'

Whistles came from the house, addressed to Nikanor Ivanovich.

'He's a currency dealer,' they shouted from the house, 'and we innocent ones have to suffer for the likes of him!'

`Don't scold him,' the master of ceremonies said softly, 'he'll repent.' And turning to Nikanor Ivanovich, his blue eyes filled with tears, he added: 'Well, Nikanor Ivanovich, you may go to your place.'

After that the artiste rang the bell and announced loudly:

'Intermission, you blackguards!'

The shaken Nikanor Ivanovich, who unexpectedly for himself had become a participant in some sort of theatre program, again found himself in his place on the floor. Here he dreamed that the house was plunged in total darkness, and fiery red words leaped out on the walls:

Turn over your currency!'

Here, we should notice a few things about this chapter:

The inquiry officers use affectionate as well as terrorizing means of extracting information from under trials;

The interrogations would often take place in open theatres and people would invariably confess to the crimes (this was the practice in Stalin’s time);

Bulgakov emphasizes the importance of eyes, saying that eyes are a mirror of the soul, no matter how hardcore the criminal is, the moment a question is put to him, his eyes give some sort of indication of the turmoil that is taking place in his heart, and then he is caught;

Bulgakov points towards the craze for foreign currency, the tendency for hoarding and stresses that the foreign currency is going to be of no use to them hence it is better to surrender it to the authorities.

Nikanor Ivanovich, though had not accepted any foreign currency but he had taken a bribe, he makes sure that there are no witnesses and then he hides this amount in the ventilator of his lavatory. There was a general tendency towards earning easy money, but they were also scared of witnesses.

The final paragraph of the chapter is very beautiful. It says that Nikanor Ivanovich sees a dream in the early hours of Friday that the Sun was going down behind the bald mountain and double rows of the armed forces had surrounded this mountain:

After the medicine, which suffused his whole body, a calm came like a wave and covered him. His body grew lighter, his head basked in the warm wind of reverie. He fell asleep, and the last waking thing he heard was the pre-dawn chirping of birds in the woods. But they soon fell silent, and he began dreaming that the sun was already going down over Bald Mountain, and the mountain was cordoned off by a double cordon ...

A smooth transition from the modern times to the ancient times….the reader is taken back to Yerushalem…