The sofa presented in the exhibition is part of the furniture set from the editorial office of the newspaper “Gudok” (“Signal”). It was used in the 1940s. Despite the fact that the sofa appeared in the editorial office later, when Mikhail Afanasyevich Bulgakov no longer worked there, it is associated with the writer’s biography. At the newspaper “Gudok” in the first half of the 1920s, Bulgakov wrote his feuilletons along with Eduard Bagritsky, Ilya Ilf, Boris Pereleshin and other writers.

Bulgakov inspired the main character of the story “Copper that Triumphed” from this collection.

Bulgakov’s feuilletons were distinguished by their special topicality and sharp satire. Even when writing about the most boring railway topics, he made incredibly funny texts. His only competition in this area was Mikhail Zoshchenko, who at the same time was composing satirical stories for “Gudok’s” magazine “Drezina” in Leningrad.

Despite his success, Mikhail Bulgakov was tired of the feuilletons: they made it difficult for him to work on the novel “The White Guard”. He was forced to write it at night.

In the mid-1920s, Mikhail Bulgakov began writing almost exclusively plays and left the editorial office of “Gudok” forever.