09 — Legacy and Assessment

The corpus as it now stands in English, the last years — the throat cancer of 1939 and the loss of his voice, the occupation, the stroke of June 1944 and the death on 13 July — and a closing assessment that weighs what he did, what was done to him, and what the collection leaves open.

Tradition: Russian Orthodox (emigration)

Files in This Section

File Description
The Corpus in English What has been translated, by whom, when — a working bibliography and reading order for an English reader
Assessment The illness and the death, the influence he had, and a sober weighing of a contested legacy

The Discipline of This Section

Two rules govern the final file in particular.

METHODOLOGY §3.5. Bulgakov’s own account of his experience during the 1926 and 1939 illnesses is reported as his testimony, pinned to the works in which he gives it. Sister Joanna Reitlinger’s eyewitness account of a light on his face during the two hours before his death is reported as her testimony, pinned to her published memoir — never asserted as a documented fact, and never as a certification of sanctity.

The non-canonized rule. Bulgakov is not a saint, is not venerated by the Church, and there is no canonization process. Nothing in this section is written to imply otherwise.

See Also