Mikhail Bulgakov

Mikhail Afanasyevich Bulgakov was a Russian and Soviet novelist and playwright whose novel The Master and Margarita, published posthumously, has been called one of the masterpieces of twentieth century literature; he also wrote the novel The White Guard and the plays Ivan Vasilievich, Flight, and The Days of the Turbins. Several of his works, including Flight and everything he wrote between 1922 and 1926, were banned by the Soviet government and personally by Joseph Stalin for allegedly glorifying emigration and White generals, even though Stalin was said to love The Days of the Turbins and reportedly attended it at least fifteen times. Despite Stalin's occasional intercession Bulgakov was only briefly successful in his lifetime, but after the 1966-67 publication of The Master and Margarita his work was reassessed and he is now widely regarded as one of the great Russian authors of the twentieth century.