Several items mentioned in the novel “The Master and Margarita” have truly become iconic. Those include a primus in the paws of Behemoth and a kerosene can of Annushka the Plague.
Mikhail Bulgakov had a fascination with fire from his youth. His sister Nadezhda recalled that in her brother’s room there was a Latin inscription on the wall that read “Ignis sanat”, which means “fire heals”.
M.A., standing ankle-deep in water, with burned hands and hair, threw everything he could on the fire: blankets, pillows and all our clean linen. In the end, he extinguished the fire. <…> Firefighters arrived when it was over. The police were with them. A paper was drawn up. The firefighters suggested: let’s hose down the whole apartment! Misha, pressing his hand to his chest, refused.
The image of fire often appears in Bulgakov’s oeuvre. For example, in his early short story “No. 13. — The Elpit Workers’ Commune Building” flames engulf the building. Its prototype was the house at 10 Bolshaya Sadovaya Street. Bulgakov burns it down to the ground again in “The Master and Margarita.”
— ‘This is it, ’ Margarita said and turned to the poet.
— ‘No, not all of them, ’ — the poet replied, — ‘in a day, no later, I will be captured. I will end my life in a madhouse or in prison. If I don’t take my mind off it this very minute, my head will burst.’
He hung his head. Margarita snuggled up to him and spoke tenderly.
— ‘Don’t think about anything. The thing is, you see, there’s a lot of commotion in the city. And fires.’
— ‘Fires? ’
— ‘Fires. I suspect that they set Moscow on fire. Hence, they have absolutely no time for you.’
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