The Institute of National Memory recognized the writer Mikhail Bulgakov as a symbol of Russian imperial policy
- Author:
- Oleksandra Amru
- Date:
The writer Mikhail Bulgakov was recognized as a symbol of Russian imperial policy, and the further use of his name in the names of geographical objects, companies, and the presence of monuments in his honor in the public space will be considered propaganda of Russian imperial policy.
This is stated in the conclusion of the Expert Commission of the Ukrainian Institute of National Remembrance.
The commission considers Bulgakov an imperialist in outlook and an ardent Ukrainophobe who "despite years of living in Kyiv, despised Ukrainians and their culture, hated the Ukrainian aspiration for independence, spoke negatively about the formation of the Ukrainian state and its leaders."
"Among all the Russian writers of that time [Bulgakov] is the closest to the current ideologues of Putinism and the Kremlinʼs justification of genocide in Ukraine. His worldview was in the positions of Russian imperialism, White Guardism, and he approved of the expansion of Russian communism," the conclusion states.
The National Memory Institute also says that there is not a single positive Ukrainian character in the writerʼs works. Instead, he parodies or mockingly distorts the Ukrainian language, mocks the Ukrainian autocephalous church and denies the very existence of the Ukrainian nation. As an example, the commission cites, among other things, the play "Days of the Turbines", "the anti-Ukrainian content of which was noted by domestic artists as early as 1929", as well as the story "On the Night of the 3rd", which has an anti-Ukrainian orientation due to the grotesque depiction of the soldiers of the first regiment of the Blue Division.
In Bulgakovʼs story "I Killed", the commission of the Institute of National Remembrance sees the narratives of current Kremlin propagandists Oleksandr Dugin, Volodymyr Solovyov, and Olga Skabeeva.
In addition, the commission claims that the story contains the ideology of fascism:
"A wounded Ukrainian military doctor is killed by the doctor character, Bulgakovʼs alter ego, just because of his nationality. The author, a doctor by profession, artistically savors the moment of murder and, guided by the idea of ethnocide, proves an absurd thesis: a doctorʼs oath, the Hippocratic code can be violated."