The manuscript was not published as a book until , in Paris. A samizdat version circulated that included parts cut out by official censors, and these were incorporated in a version published in Frankfurt. The novel has since been published in several languages and editions. The story concerns a visit by the devil and his entourage to the officially atheistic Soviet Union. The devil, manifested as one Professor Woland, challenges the Soviet citizens' beliefs towards religion and condemns their behavior throughout the book.
The Master and Margarita combines supernatural elements with satirical dark comedy and Christian philosophy, defying categorization within a single genre. Many critics consider it to be one of the best novels of the 20th century, as well as the foremost of Soviet satires.
Mikhail Bulgakov was born in Kiev on May 15th, He moved to Moscow in It was in Moscow that he would begin work on The Master and Margarita. Bulgakov was first trained as a doctor, which influenced his subsequent works. This is especially evident in The Master and Margarita when the body is described or when characters receive certain injuries. Only later did Bulgakov became a playwright and author. He started writing The Master and Margarita in , but burned the first manuscript in just as his character the Master did as he could not see a future as a writer in the Soviet Union at a time of widespread political repression.
In the early s, Bulgakov had visited an editorial meeting of an atheist journal. He is believed to have drawn from this to create the Walpurgis Night ball of the novel. He wrote another four versions. When Bulgakov stopped writing four weeks before his death in , the novel had some unfinished sentences and loose ends. His novel was also written amidst heavy criticism for his other works and plays.
During this time, he wrote to Stalin asking to be allowed to leave Russia because he felt that the literature critics at the time were proving that Bulgakov's writing did not belong in Russia. This was not approved, which greatly affected the writing of the piece including the descriptions of the Master and his works. A censored version, with about 12 percent of the text removed and more changed, was first published in Moskva magazine no. This version included many scenes and themes that had previously been censored—for example, Bulgakov's commentary on Soviet moral and governmental corruption.
