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Only since the fall of Communism in Russia and due to the relentless efforts of his third wife, Yelena Bulgakova, did Mikhail Bulgakov attain the status of a world-class author during the later 1990s. His novel The Master and Margarita is now recognized as one of the great masterpieces of Twentieth Century literature, while his other works are considered classics.

With funding from the Arts Council England, Alma Books has brought out a translation of Bulgakov's Diaries and Selected Letters. The introduction fails to relate where these autobiographical documents come from, or when and where they surfaced, as in the course of the text it becomes clear that the diaries were confiscated by the OGPU, the All-Union State Political Administration or secret police of the Soviet Union between 1922 and 1934, later known as the NKVD and best known in its final form as the KGB. The Alma edition merely states that is is based on a Russian edition that was published in 2004, while referring to an earlier, extended edition, also published in Russian, in 1997. Throughout the text there are lacunae, instances of missing or illegible text, as well as editorial cuts.

Beside biographies, autographs of their favourite authors such as letters and diaries are of special interest to readers. Such autobiographical documents, primary sources, are often read in appreciation for their style, and because they give detailed descriptions or clues about the genesis of parts of the oevre and autobiographical details which may have a bearing on the appreciation of the autho's works. While biographies are written form a retrospective perspective, bringing together vast masses of documents and facts together with an interpretation and describing of wider background and context, autobiographical writings are limited to the concurrent perspective of the author.

The limited perspective of the author is particularly poignent in this edition of Mikhail Bulgakov's Diaries and selected letters. The text shows the ascent, development and failure of the writer. His career initially blooms, then stagnates and is finally completely destroyed, and all the while the author seems oblivious of why that should be happening to him. Readers now are familiar with the history of the Soviet Union and will know about the policies of Lenin (1870 - 1924) and Stalin (1878 - 1953). Modern readers have a basic knowledge of the way dictatorships worked and how they came into being, and the way Stalin in particular used centralized power to purge and deport vast masses of people by either having them murdered directly or sending them to a gulag in Siberia. This fate was especially meted out to people who were suspected of opposing ideological views. Obviously, Bulgakov had no knowledge or premonition of such facts as they were developing. In Bulgakov's Diaries and selected letters the reader sees the author struggling and wondering why his livelihood is being destroyed, while the reader with hindsight understands so well.

To many readers, becoming a writer seems a mysterious process, a mixture of calling and destiny. While talent is definitely a crucial factor, since Jack London's Martin Eden it should be clear that there is nothing mystic about it. Most writers can point out a particular moment when they decided to live by the pen. Journalism paves the way in an existence of poverty and gradually getting more and more stories published, as fame grows, and to talented authors this takes anywhere between three to five years.

Mikhail Bulgakov trained as a doctor and with some luck escaped being sent to fight in the First World War. During the Russian Civil War he worked and sympathized with the White Movement, as his brothers fought in the White Army against the Red Army. In 1919, Bulgakov decided to become a writer. The Alma edition contains Bulgakov's diaries from 1922 to 1925. They take a mere 50 pages, and are very fragmented partly because of omissions and editorial cuts, and largely because Bulgakov was not a very loyal journalist. The diaries show great lapses, and were often abandoned for many months. Still, they show the author's development as an author, relate his initial successes and describe Bulgakov's struggle in poverty. In 1925, the diaries were confiscated together with the complete manuscript of A Dog's Heart.

After the confiscation of the diaries, Bulgakov discontinued writing journals for fear they, too, would be confiscated. From then on, he wrote only letters. The Alma edition does not state whether Bulgakov made or kept copies of his correspondence. This edition contains a selection of letters from the period 1925 till 1939, on 163 pages. The letters are extensively annotated, as in almost each letter there are several references to contemporaries of Bulgakov, now largely unknown to foreign readers. Most letters are official letters to Joseph Stalin, the secret service and other organizations in the Soviet Union, asking for help or explanations why his existence as an author is made so difficult. Some of these letters are a bit repetetive, as they contain the same information and argument. Through the letters and photo section, readers get a fairly good, but fragmented insight into Bulgakov's life.The main focus of the letters is on the development of his career, particularly in the theatre. However, even here there are large gaps, and only with a careful study of the notes it becomes clear how Bulgakov's career was destroyed, and how he ended up writing libretti for the opera. Basically, the available material or the selection is too limited to bring out a coherent description of his career. There are many references to plays which were successfully published in the early 1920s, but to the later plays there is sometimes only one reference, while the significance or humiliating aspect can only be understood through the annotations. There are only two or three fleeting references to the manuscript which is believed to be the origins of what was later to become The Master and Margarita .

Although Mikhail Bulgakov's livelihood was destroyed and he could not publish his works or have his plays performed, Bulgakov was not purged or deported. Given his openly professed sympathy for the White Movement, and his political and ideological ideas, it is most likely that the secret service would profile him as a class enemy, and reactionary. Nonetheless, it seems Bulgakov must have had some protector at a high level, Stalin himself was rumoured to be.

Mikhail Bulgakov's Diaries and selected letters offer the reader a close-up of the development of the author's career as a writer, the struggles he underwent in Russia, and his inability to fight plagiarism and exploitation beyond its borders. The significance of the publication is largely borne out by it being a contemporary primary source showing the impact of political changes and ideology on the lives of Russian citizens in the 1920s. The edition of the diaries and letters by Alma also sheds light on the background of various other, less well-known works by Mikhail Bulgakov, many of which are now published by Alma Classics, such as Diaboliad and Other Stories, The Fatal Eggs, The Life of Monsieur Molière and A Young Doctor's Notebook, besides the better known classics. Diaries and selected letters was published in 2013 in a hardcover edition. ( )