In the apartment on Bolshaya Pirogovskaya, Bulgakov lived with his second wife Lyubov Belozerskaya for five years, from 1927 to 1932. However, not many of the things that were part of their everyday life have survived. Nearly all the furniture and books were lost, the whereabouts of the candelabra from Bulgakov’s desk and many other items are unknown. All the more valuable are the few memorabilia that have survived, including this metal coffee pot with a hinged lid.

The couple bought the coffee pot in the 1920s, probably before they moved to Bolshaya Pirogovskaya or, perhaps, immediately afterwards, when the Bulgakovs began to settle down in their first separate, not communal, apartment. An identical coffee pot has been preserved among the belongings of the writer Nikolay Ostrovsky, who wrote the novel “How the Steel Was Tempered”.

Bulgakov sometimes received good coffee and tea along with other gifts from his brother Nikolay in Paris. However, in 1930 Mikhail Afanasyevich had to refuse his brother’s parcels because of the high import duty. At that time, the writer struggled: all his plays were removed from the repertoire, and his prose was banned from publication.

Coffee is also drunk by Behemoth the cat,

The writer’s friends often remembered him with a cigarette in his hands, but not with a cup of coffee. Nevertheless, coffee became a common part of Mikhail Bulgakov’s life at 35a Bolshaya Pirogovskaya street, and later in Nashchokinsky lane.