The White Guard

by Mikhail Bulgakov

book data

319 ratings, 3.91 average rating, 17 reviews (more data...)

rating	frequency	%
5		31%
4		36%
3		24%
2		6%
1		1%

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published

January 28th 1995 by Academy Chicago Publishers (first published 1970)

details

Paperback, 319 pages

isbn

0897332466 (isbn13: 9780897332460)

description

<DIV><DIV><DIV><DIV><P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">White Guard, Mikhail Bulgakov’s semi-autobiographical fir…more

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other reviews (showing 1-20 of 511)

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Jan 13, 2009

Kerry rated it:

(review of isbn 0099490668)

Read in July, 2008

A trip to Kiev cannot be complete without a little Bulgakov. A museum dedicated to the master lies just off of St. Andrew’s Descent, a cobblestone street passing from St. Sophia’s cathedral down to the Dneiper. The museum is contained in House No. 13 where, at one time, Mikhail Bulgakov and his family lived. While “The White Guard” is not as widely known as “The Master and Margarita” (which Salman Rushdie drew upon heavily for “Midnight’s Children”), it provides a better sen...more A trip to Kiev cannot be complete without a little Bulgakov. A museum dedicated to the master lies just off of St. Andrew’s Descent, a cobblestone street passing from St. Sophia’s cathedral down to the Dneiper. The museum is contained in House No. 13 where, at one time, Mikhail Bulgakov and his family lived. While “The White Guard” is not as widely known as “The Master and Margarita” (which Salman Rushdie drew upon heavily for “Midnight’s Children”), it provides a better sense of Ukraine and, particularly, Kiev.

House No. 13 in Kiev provides the place, while 1918 and Ukrainian civil war provides the setting. The story is about the survival of the Turbin family in the midst of this upheaval. Bulgakov’s writing is transcendent:

For many years before her death, in the house at No. 13 St. Alexei’s Hill, little Elena, Alexei the eldest and baby Nikolka had grown up in the warmth of the tiled stove that burned in the dining-room. How often they had followed the story of Peter the Great in Holland, ‘The Shipwright of Saardam’, portrayed on its glowing hot dutch tiles; how often the clock had played its gavotte; and always towards the end of December there had been a smell of pine-needles and candles burning on evergreen branches..…But clocks are fortunately quite immortal, as immortal as the Shipwright of Saardam, and however bad the times might be, the tiled Dutch stove, like a rock of wisdom, was always there to radiate life and warmth. (p.10)

The tiled stove, upon which many political and apolitical messages are written, is nearly a character in its own right. The life it gives is not only comfort, but humor too:

Then printed [on the stove:] in capitals, in Nikolka’s hand:
I herby forbid the scribbling of nonsense on this stove. Any comrade found guilty of doing so will be shot and deprived of civil rights. Signed: Abraham Goldblatt,
Ladies, Gentlemen’s and Women’s Tailor.
Commissar, Podol District Committee.
30th January 1918.

Bulgakov’s mastery of these slices of life make this an ideal book for reading while in Kiev. The city comes alive with a personality that might otherwise have gone unnoticed. Reading how things were, while seeing how things are makes both the past and the present striking.

This book has not only history, but action too. The stakes are incredibly high. Characters are shot, they are robbed; characters live, they die. The politics of the novel provide a roiling backdrop, though I do not think politics is the point. The intersection of politics and daily life, particularly when politics has brought war, is a fascinating topic and one that Bulgakov explores, but never in a heavy-handed manner. The political is merely backdrop to the personal:

Something had settled in Alexei’s chest like a stone and he whistled as he breathed, drawing in through bared teeth a sticky, thin stream of air that barely penetrated to his lungs. He had long ago lost consciousness and neither saw nor understood what was going on around him. Elena stood and looked. The professor took her by the arm and whispered:
‘Go now, Elena Vasilievna, we’ll do all there is to do.’
Elena obeyed and went out. But the professor did not do anything more. (p. 275)

This moment, to me, was perfect. Bulgakov has captured the essence of this type of situation. The only thing the professor could do for Alexei was to reassure Elena.

Bulgakov brilliantly sketches even minor characters. Outside of House No. 13, a war is raging. Several family members are involved and, in this way, the reader is provided a view of the wider world and the characters that inhabit it. Perhaps my favorite is this troubling scene in which the janitor, drafted into service as coroner, is helping Nikolka, the younger brother, find Colonel Nais-Turs, Nikolka’s fallen comrade-in-arms.

Moving carefully in order not to slip on the floor, Fyodor grasped Nais-Turs by the head and pulled hard. A flat-chested, broad-hipped woman was lying face down across Nai’s stomach. There was a cheap little comb in the hair at the back of her neck, glittering dully, like a fragment of glass. Without stopping what he was doing Fyodor deftly pulled it out, dropped it into the pocket of his apron and gripped NaiTurs under the armpits. As it was pulled out of the pile his head lolled back, his sharp, unshaven chin pointed upwards and one arm slipped from the janitor’s grasp. (p.271)

Bulgakov keeps the plot taut and the reader engaged. This book requires little suspension of disbelief. The White Guard is realist, unlike the much more fanciful “The Master and Margarita.” Bulgakov does, however, add a touch of the supernatural. And while the book is political enough to have been suppressed by Stalin, the question of which of the three sides fighting the war is “right” is never really posed, much less answered. The interesting questions all pertain to the individual and, more, to a family trying to survive a civil war. The primary loyalties are personal which, in Ukraine as elsewhere, reflects reality. The book is ambivalent toward political loyalties and the revolutions borne of having putting those loyalties before the personal. The author, as surely as the characters, must have had little enthusiasm for revolutionary politics.

In the end, perhaps the highest praise I can give is that it would be difficult to read “The White Guard” without becoming attached to the Turbin family. Perhaps, this, more than any overt politics, is why the novel was banned in the Stalinist Soviet Union.
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Apr 09, 2008

J.A. rated it:

(review of isbn 0099490668)

Read in June, 2008

Mikhail Bulgakov is one of my favorite authors, and this book has been on my reading list for far too long. I’ve had a copy of it for years, albeit a copy in the original Russian. I’m somewhat ashamed of the fact that I’ve allowed my Russian skills to languish to the point that I had to purchase an English translation in order to finally read The White Guard, but a little shame should never stand in the way of a worthwhile read! This story was known more widely in its play form than as a b...more

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Apr 20, 2008

Rachael rated it:

(review of isbn 0099490668)

Read in February, 2007

I loved this book mostly for the descriptions of Kyiv. I read this just before one my trips there so it was interesting to walk around the city and remember scenes from the book. It also gives an excellent historical account of life in Ukraine during the years just before the establishment of the Soviet Union.

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Apr 05, 2007

Michael rated it:

(review of isbn 0099490668)

bookshelves: fiction

Originally a play that, despite its sympathetic potrayal of a 'White' Kievan family during the Civil War following the Bolshevik Revolution, Stalin was fond of, (see the passage in The Life of Monsieur De Moliere), this is a lovely tale of the effect of the revolution on a middle class family.

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Mar 03, 2008

Calvin rated it:

bookshelves: russian-studies

One of the masterpieces of Russian Literature

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Mar 01, 2010

stephanie is currently reading it (review of isbn 0099490668)

bookshelves: currently-reading

Had to restart this one because i didn't know enough about Ukrainian history to understand what was going on. A few minutes on wikapedia and it's all clear now. So far not as delightfully absurd as his other works, but good none the less.

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Jan 20, 2009

Philip rated it:

(review of isbn 0099490668)

Read in January, 2007

I read this one while travelling in Ukraine (Bulgakov's homeland) and really enjoyed it.

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Oct 03, 2008

ArEzO.... rated it:

(review of isbn 0099490668)

گارد سفيد نوشته ميخائيل بولگاكف را با ترجمه نرگس قندچي خوانده ام
اين رمان فبل از چاپ بصورت پاورقي در يك نشريه چاپ مي شده
ساختمان رمان از سه بخش نامتساوي شكل گرفته اول سرگشتگي ها و اوج بي سرو ساماني دوم از سقوط شهر مي گويد و سوم تلاش براي رستاخيزي ديگر
انگار ستارگان
�...more

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Aug 27, 2008

Anna rated it:

I love Bulgakov's works. This book presents the middle-class family in trouble times in year of 1918 - German military units near Kiev, Semen Petlura's Sich Rieflemen, bolsheviks and the Volunteer Army. On one side there are representatives of Russian intelligence living in Kiev for generations and on the other side there is very young Ukrainian national consciousness. The Russian intelligence felt unwanted and alienated. Great book

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Jul 29, 2009

Liza added it (review of isbn 030012242X)

bookshelves: best-covers

This cover creeps me out every time I look at it. It is off-putting and memorable.

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Sep 30, 2008

James rated it:

Read in October, 2008

A sort of autobiographical story about a tsarist family in Kyiv during the Russian Civil War. There are numerous themes here, but the book is primarily concerned with chaos and uncertainty during times of war, even as people try to go about their daily lives. Bonus points for the colorful descriptions of Kyiv.

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Aug 25, 2008

Lauri rated it:

(review of isbn 0099490668)

This book is highly regarded in 20th century russian literature. Not the easiest read, but reminded me of "All Quiet on the Western Front." Good WWI drama.

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Feb 05, 2008

Thomas rated it:

If you love Master & Margarita it does NOT mean you will like this book. This is much more traditional russian historical fiction centering on the death of a class.

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Jan 21, 2008

Elizabeth added it (review of isbn 0099490668)

a drama about a family during the russian revolution, no satire, not as creative as the other two

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Oct 14, 2008

Yulia added it (review of isbn 0099490668)

a story of people in civil war.

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Aug 31, 2009

fbuser1433967853 rated it:

(review of isbn 0099490668)

Perfect book...

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Aug 17, 2007

fbuser528116816 rated it:

(review of isbn 0099490668)

Read in June, 2006

First off, I have absolutely no knowledge about the background of this story which is the Russian Civil War between the White and Red. Evidently, it was a brief time immediately following WWI and before the Bolshevik Revolution. The main characters are a middle class doctor’s family in Kiev who join the White Guard to help defend their home.

It was good, although I find the book description on the used marketplace where I bought it which said it was, "lovely" quite laughab...more

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Mar 21, 2010

Fernando marked it as to-read (review of isbn 0099490668)

bookshelves: to-read

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