The photo of Mikhail Bulgakov with his wife Lyubov Belozerskaya and actors of the Moscow Art Academic Theater was taken on a skiing trip in the winter of 1928. The back of the photo, preserved in the writer’s archive, is signed by the participants of the walk. In the first row, from left to right: actors of the Moscow Art Theater Nora Polonskaya, Alexey Komissarov (sitting), Alexander Kuzmin, the husband of the actress Alla Tarasova, (lying down), two unidentified persons, Maria Titova and Alexander Anders. Standing in the second row, from left to right: an instructor by the name of Nikulin, N. Mikhalevskaya, actors of the Moscow Art Theater Mikhail Balduman and Alla Tarasova, Bulgakov’s wife Lyubov Belozerskaya, actor Viktor Stanitsyn, Bulgakovs’ friend Irina Kislovskaya, actors Alexei Gribov, Mikhail Yanshin, Mark Prudkin. Mikhail Bulgakov is standing in the center, wearing a black cap, to the left of Lyubov Belozerskaya.

According to his friends, Mikhail Afanasyevich loved skiing — both with friends and alone. Bulgakov’s third wife, Yelena Sergeevna, recalled that when she met him, the writer immediately invited her for a skiing trip.

The Kudryavtsev mentioned by Bulgakov’s wife is the actor Ivan Kudryavtsev, who played Nikolka in the production of “The Days of the Turbins”. According to Mikhail Afanasyevich, Kudryavtsev was the best skier in their company, “skied like an angel in the clouds.”