This is the second of four posts discussing The White Guard by Mikhail Bulgakov. I intend to host a live video call for paid subscribers on Tuesday, 4 November at 8 p.m. UK time.
If you missed my earlier background post on the historical setting, you might want to start there.
Chapter Six
Le Chic Parisien
We begin in Madame Anjou’s shop, a French boutique known as Le Chic Parisien. Whether this particular shop was real or not has been the subject of debate among literary scholars of Bulgakov, however it’s certainly a facsimile of the boutiques that Bulgakov would have walked past on Kiev’s main shopping streets. It has recruitment posters in the window, showing the symbolic contrast between bourgeois elegance and revolutionary ruin.
We head back to the Turbins’. Lieutenant Myshlayevsky is making eyes at Anyuta, the Turbins’ housemaid. He makes her nervous; we’re told that she’d drop dishes and become distracted in his company. It’s a nice little detail of romance in the household.
We then follow Alexei, Karas and Myshlaevsky as they report to an as-yet-unnamed Lieutenant Colonel in Madame Anjou’s shop. There’s an interesting bit of dialogue where the Colonel asks Alexei if he’s a socialist.
There is one little matter... social theories and all that... umm... you are a socialist, aren’t you? Like all members of the intelligentsia?”
[…]
“I regret,” Turbin suddenly blurted out, his cheek twitching, “that I am not a socialist, but a... monarchist. And, I have to say, the very word “socialist’ is anathema to me. And of all socialists I hate Alexander Fyodorovich Kerensky most of all.”
Bulgakov makes it clear that the Colonel is following orders in word but not in deed. At this point, the Colonel doesn’t know that the Hetman and the Germans are fleeing, but we know that he is sympathetic to Alexei’s cause. Once again, we get a contrast between careerists (the Colonel) and the Turbins. Alexei’s not about to betray his beliefs for the sake of advancement. Might his loyalty be misplaced? This idea is covered in Evgeny Dobrenko’s essay in the introduction to the Schwartz translation. It’s Dobrenko’s thesis that the Russian state has never been worthy of one’s loyalty, that it’s lacking in a spiritual core and its whole raison d’être is self-perpetuation at the expense of the populace. It’s an interesting piece, and one that I’m still pondering. It’s beyond the scope of this essay to go into that idea in any depth, but it’s a fascinating thesis.
Liberty News
Alexei is attached to a regiment as a doctor and goes home, where Yelena sews on his officers’ epaulettes. He goes out and buys a newspaper—Liberty News1—and Bulgakov treats us to excerpts from the news of the day. This is a fictional representation of the pro-Petlyurist, nationalist press of the period. Bulgakov would have seen dozens of such titles appear and vanish between 1917 and 1919. For Bulgakov, this “freedom paper” is an ironic device:
It claims to represent “freedom” and “the people,” yet it’s full of propaganda and moral hysteria.
It embodies the frenzied, self-justifying language of revolutionary media that he detested, the very “chaos in print” that replaced civic discourse.
So when Alexei reads it, he’s reading not an informative newspaper but a symptom of the City’s delirium. It shows that the old order of reasoned, structured communication has collapsed into slogans and polemics.
🏙️ Real Newspapers in Kiev (1917–1919)
Bulgakov’s fictional newspaper echoes real ones. During those chaotic years, the city had newspapers representing every faction imaginable. Among them:
“Kievlyanin” (Киевлянин) – the long-established conservative Russian-language daily, shut down by Petlyura in late 1918.
“Nova Rada” (Нова Рада) – a Ukrainian-language nationalist paper linked to the Central Rada government.
“Vidrodzhennia” (Відродження, “Renaissance”) – supporting the Hetmanate under Skoropadsky.
“Narodna Volya” (Народна Воля, “People’s Will”) and similar populist papers emerging under Petlyura’s Directory.
Bulgakov’s Vestnik Svobody folds all these types into one, a composite emblem of revolutionary journalism: self-righteous, chaotic and contradictory.
The City soon fills with crowds as yellow coffins belonging to young officers are carried through the streets. A voice calls out that they were young soldiers who fell asleep in Popelyukha and were slaughtered by some peasants, together with a group of Petlyura’s men. Their eyes were gouged out, and their epaulettes carved onto their shoulders. The war has come to the City. Alexei is disgusted.
Gymnasium
Alexei reminisces about his time as a student at the Gymnasium, then as a student of medicine and finally as a young doctor serving in the Imperial Army. One gets the sense that these are Bulgakov’s own memories. The Gymnasium is now a military training ground:
Why was there a weapons store in the school? Whose was it? Who? What for? Nobody knew the answers to these questions, just as nobody knew what had become of Madame Anjou and why there were bombs in her boutique lying beside empty hatboxes.
The cadets are undergoing their training, but morale is low. Myshlayévsky gives them a boost with some singing and the spirit of Borodino is invoked with the uncovering of the portrait of Emperor Alexander. At this point we’re introduced to Colonel Malyshev, the same Lieutenant Colonel who recruited Alexei in Madame Anjou’s shop. Malyshev gives the order that the cadets go home for the night, leaving the Gymnasium in small groups and without their epaulettes, and return at 7 a.m. the next morning for rifle training. Malyshev instructs Alexei to go home and return at two in the afternoon.
Myshlayévsky is put in charge of the lights and heating, whereupon an old, grey-haired man shuffles up the stairs. It’s Maxim, the former beadle of the Gymnasium during Myshlayevsky and Alexei’s time as students. Alexei finds himself indulging in melancholic thoughts of his past before stepping out into the winter to go home and rest.
Colonel Malyshev goes to Madame Anjou’s and receives a package from a motorcycle courier at two in the morning. We aren’t told what the package contains.
Chapter 7
We get an evocative description of Vladimir Hill, at the top of which stands a statue of Saint Vladimir himself. This statue is still in place today on Saint Volodymyr Hill (Ukrainian: Володимирська гірка). Bulgakov tells us that it would be absolute madness to be up on Vladimir Hill, with the ‘wind howling through the snowdrifts like banshees from hell.’
I included the opening lines from this chapter in the translation comparison section below.
City Layout
Bulgakov describes the Upper and Lower city. The Turbins’ flat is in Podól, which is in the lower city and we’re told that it’s impossible ‘to reach the Upper City by going past the lookout point and the water tower, because Prince Belorukov’s headquarters … were situated in the monastery building in Mikhaylovskaya Street. And you were in constant danger of coming across a military convoy or armoured cars.’
Upper City and Lower City
Upper City (Old Kyiv / Upper Town) — the historic, elevated heart of Kyiv that contains St Sophia, St Michael’s, St Andrew’s, St Vladimir’s Hill, and several government, ecclesiastical and aristocratic addresses. It overlooks the river and the merchant quarter below.
Lower City (Podól) — the riverside commercial and merchant district below the cliffs of the Upper Town, historically the docks, workshops, warehouses and market quarter. It sits on the Dnieper riverbank beneath the terraces and hills of Upper Town.
Belorukov’s HQ
The monastery on Mikhaylovskaya Street is St Michael’s Golden-Domed Monastery, located on Mykhaylivska / Trokhsviatytelska Street in the historic Upper City, just northeast of St Sophia and overlooking Podól below. Modern mapping services list it as being on Trokhsviatytelska Street.
Coordinates (approx): 50.4560° N, 30.5230° E — plug these into Google Maps or your map app to centre on the monastery. Latitude.
The Hetman
We move on to the Hetman’s palace, where he’s disguised as a wounded German major and whisked off in an ambulance. A colonel calls the mortar battalion from the palace in a soft, confidential tone.
And now we’re with Colonel Malyshev. He’s been on an hour-long errand from Madame Anjou’s shop in the early hours of the morning. He returns with a similar anxious expression to that of the colonel who called the mortar battalion.
The cadets return to the gymnasium for 7 a.m. as ordered. There’s tension in the air. Malyshev enters and announces that the battalion is disbanded.
“During the course of the night there have been marked and sudden changes affecting our position as a battalion, the wider position of the army and, I would say, the overall political position of Ukraine. As a result, I am announcing the disbandment of the battalion.
He sends everyone home and orders them to remove their epaulettes. At this, Captain Studzinsky attempts to arrest Colonel Malyshev. It’s a moving scene when Malyshev informs the battalion that the Hetman and the commander of the armed forces, Belorukov, fled the city through the night and that they were all now leaderless. Petlyura was at the gates with 100,000 troops and Malyshev was only sorry that he couldn’t save his battalion by sacrificing himself.
Belorukov
Prince Belorukov is a composite, fictional character. His title of Prince indicates his position as an old-style aristocrat and high-ranking officer in the Imperial Russian Army. His name carries a touch of symbolism and satire, being derived from bel (white) and ruka (hand), so he’s literally ‘White-handed’. The Russian idiom white hands is used to refer to someone who doesn’t like to get his hands dirty and could indicate Bulgakov’s lack of respect for the commanders in charge while the City is falling apart.
Although not directly based on one man, Belorukov likely draws inspiration from:
General Alexander Ragoza, the Hetmanate’s Minister of War, who oversaw the army under Skoropadsky.
General Dmitry Batyushin or Prince Alexander Dolgorukov, both Russian nobles serving in the Kiev command at various times.
Bulgakov’s own experiences as a military doctor in 1919 Kiev, where he saw similar officers more concerned with paperwork and uniforms than strategy.
Chapter Eight
On the far Moscow bank of the Dnieper, the illuminated cross on the top of the statue of St Vladimir rose high into the fathomless sky, shining until dawn.
One gets the sense in Bulgakov’s writing that St Vladimir is watching over Kiev as it descends into chaos.
Antisemitism
We find ourselves in the village of Popelyukha, eight miles from Kiev, in the company of Colonel Kozyr-Leshko. Cockrell informs us in his Notes that this fictitious colonel was based on the real Cossack leader, Kozyr-Zirka, a search on whose name reveals that he was strongly antisemitic and led pogroms in Ukraine. Antisemitism was rife in the Petlyurist army as opposed to the Hetman’s, where it was relatively hidden. Bulgakov shows the Hetman’s officers as reactionary, snobbish and monarchist. His own sympathies lay with the intelligentsia, who feared Bolshevism more than they hated Jews. This difference is important to note as background to the novel.
Kozyr-Leshko leads his troops towards Kiev and we get an idea of just how big Petlyura’s army really is. It feels like the city’s inhabitants haven’t a chance. The City is now surrounded by cavalry, infantry and artillery battalions. It’s interesting how much detail Bulgakov goes into about Petlyura’s troop movements.
We move back to the City and follow a Colonel Shchetkin as he changes from his uniform into civilian clothes and hides away in an apartment in Lipki, the elegant, upper-class district of the City. The writing is on the wall for the pro-Hetman officers and, by extension, the Whites.
We see here that we don’t have an omniscient narrator, as we’re told that maybe the foxy Hetman … was still there… possibly also His Excellency Prince Belorukov…
No, nobody will ever understand what was going on in the City during the afternoon of 14th December.
Colonel Bolbotun
We follow Colonel Bolbotun into the City. He’s a Petlyurist officer, part of the Directory’s forces entering Kiev under orders from Colonel Toropets. Bulgakov uses the name (echoing the real nationalist commander Petro Fyodorovich Bolbochan) for authenticity. The Hetman’s army has already collapsed by this point. He meets pockets of resistance as he enters the City.
We then follow the tragic fate of Grigory Feldman, a Jewish character whose wife is about to give birth. He meets mounted Cossacks as he attempts to reach the office of the midwife and is cut down with a sabre.
Chapter Nine
The reinforcements reaching Pechersk included fourteen officers, four cadets, one student and one actor from the Miniatures Theatre.
The defenders of the city are made up mostly of former Imperial officers and untrained students.
Bulgakov shifts from the Turbins to two new characters, the revolutionary official, Mikhail Shpolyansky and a syphilitic poet, Rusakov. It feels out of place to me, being stylistically different from the rest of the novel. In the 2012 TV adaptation, the characters are shown snorting cocaine, and this is alluded to in the novel when a group of prostitutes pass Rusakov and shout, ‘had one sniff too many?’ Rusakov reads one of his poems and then prays to God to forgive him for writing such rubbish and for strength to rid him of cocaine, of weakness of will and, above all, of Mikhail Semyonovich Shpolyansky.
This scene shows a different kind of character to the Turbins, a glimpse of Kiev’s seedy underbelly and how such people are reacting to the collapse. The narrator claims that it was because of Shpolyansky that the Hetman’s City died three hours earlier than it should have done. Shpolyansky himself enlists in the armoured division and is soon using his corrupting influence on the cadets.
The sentry … let him [Shpolyansky] through into the sheds […] Kopylov gave the packet a conspiratorial wink and asked:
“Sugar?”
“Uh-huh,” Shpolyansky answered.
The implication here is that Shpolyansky is bringing sugar into the barracks for the purpose of sabotaging the armoured vehicles. Only one of the four armoured cars is operational, with three having ‘some alien substance’ in their carburettors. In an earlier scene, he questions the legitimacy of the Hetmanate amongst his battalion:
“You know, my friends, it’s essentially a matter of considerable importance to decide whether or not we are doing the right thing in defending this Hetman fellow. In his hands, we’re nothing but an expensive and dangerous toy, which he can use to impose his outlandishly reactionary ideas on the population. Perhaps Petlyura’s struggle against the Hetman is a historical imperative, and a third force will arise out of this struggle that may well prove to be the only possible correct outcome.”
He’s not wrong. This scene is portrayed a little differently in the TV adaptation, where Shpolyansky challenges one of his battalion after this speech, questioning his loyalty at having sworn an oath to four different causes going back to the Tsar, through Petlyura to Skoropadsky. The soldier accuses Shpolyansky of being a provocateur, whereupon Shpolyansky shoots him. It’s in episode four towards the end and is available on Amazon Prime, at least in the UK. And then, at the beginning of episode five, we see him putting the sugar into an armoured vehicle’s fuel tank. He is indeed a provocateur.
Chapter 10
Remember Colonel Nai-Turs from Alexei’s dream in Chapter Five? Well, here he is, a battle-hardened commander who’s given the task of putting a battalion together at the beginning of December. This he does, telling his commanding officer that they won’t fight unless the entire battalion is kitted out with felt boots and fur caps. He ends up intimidating the quartermaster to get his request fulfilled and this gives us a good glimpse into his character and of the pointless bureaucracy that the general staff at HQ are still holding onto amidst the immediate threat of defeat.
Nai-Turs’ battalion ends up engaging with Kozyr-Leshko on the streets of the City and it’s our first battle scene in the novel. Bulgakov describes it well, placing the reader in the wintery streets as gunfire is exchanged and there are casualties. Nai-Turs sends off runners to check on the troops at the rear; they soon return to inform him that there are no troops at all, anywhere, whereupon the narrator tells us that Nai-Turs … gave the cadets a strange order they had never heard before in their lives. Could this be the order to disperse? That’s how it goes down in the TV adaptation, episode five. I guess we’ll get to that scene in Chapter Eleven.
Here’s a short clip of the battle scene with Nai-Turs and Kozyr-Leshko. Nai-Turs reminds me a bit of Lt-Col Kilgore in Apocalypse Now! as the bullets fly past his head and he stands fearless.
Meanwhile Nikolka Turbin is put in charge of the third section of the First Infantry Detachment, since all the commanders have gone off and not come back. He’s ordered to take the section out into the street. This he does, which we’ll get to in the next chapter.
Alexei Turbin has overslept. Remember he was to be back at the Gymnasium for two o’clock? He gets dressed quickly and heads out the door. He hails a cab, the driver of which reluctantly agrees to take him to the Gymnasium. They hear machine gun fire along the way and see officer cadets hanging out at the crossroads. There’s no one at the Gymnasium so Alexei heads to Madame Anjou’s boutique, where he finds Colonel Malyshev out of uniform and burning documents. Malyshev informs Alexei that the City is taken and orders him to remove his epaulettes and make his way home via the City’s courtyards.
Translators’ Choices
I have three translations of the novel and always enjoy comparing.
🧍♂️ Who is Carp / Karas?
Carp (Karas) is one of the Turbins’ military friends, a fellow officer who visits their apartment for company in the early chapters. He’s part of the small circle of loyalist or White-leaning officers who cling to the old order and gather together as Kiev collapses around them.
He’s typically seen in scenes alongside Shervinsky (the handsome, theatrical adjutant) and Myshlayevsky (the loud, cynical officer). Among them, Carp / Karas plays the role of the steady, earthy, good-natured type, a bit of comic relief but also a man of loyalty and simple values.
🐟 What does his name mean?
Here’s the fun bit.
In Russian, “Карась” (karas’) literally means “carp” (the fish). It’s a nickname, not necessarily his surname, one of those military or student monikers that Bulgakov’s characters often carry.
So:
Schwartz chose “Carp”, the literal translation of the nickname.
Cockrell and Glenny chose “Karas”, the original Russian form, preserving its foreign texture.
Both are technically correct — it’s simply a difference of translation philosophy:
Schwartz tends to domesticate names (make them natural in English).
Cockrell tends to retain Russian flavour by keeping transliterations.
The name itself reflects the character’s unpretentious, slightly comic nature; he’s not a lofty intellectual like Alexei Turbin or a schemer like Talberg, but rather one of those solid, unremarkable men you can imagine nicknamed after a fish by his comrades.
🎭 His role in the novel
Carp / Karas contributes to the camaraderie and banter of the officers’ scenes:
He joins in toasts to the Tsar and debates about honour, duty and Russia’s fate.
He represents the ordinary, loyal soldier’s perspective: bewildered by politics, holding onto camaraderie and ritual (drinking, songs, military stories) as the world collapses.
His warmth and loyalty contrast with Talberg’s opportunism and with the chaos outside.
Opening of Chapter 7
As I read this opening in the Cockrell then Schwartz, it became quite clear to me which version I prefer. Cockrell’s writing feels more evocative and less like a translation to me, but of course tastes differ and you might very well prefer Glenny or Schwartz. There are no right answers.
Look at downy mantle vs plump, endless layer and thick layer. It’s fascinating! I could study this stuff all day!
Nai-Turs’ Speech Impediment, Chapter Ten
Colonel Nai-Turs has a speech impediment and it’s interesting to see how the different translators deal with it. Personally, I’m a big fan of Cockrell’s ‘Rook rivery,’ replacing Ls with Rs. Schwartz has him speak normally, but describes the impediment with a gerund: burring; and Glenny appears not to deal with it at all.
Which translation are you reading?
Let me know in the comments below.
Video call
I’m hosting a video call for paid subscribers on Tuesday, 4 November at 8 p.m. UK time. Here is a list of questions for you to consider after our introductions:
Opening & Historical Context
What did you know about Kiev and Ukraine in 1918 before starting The White Guard and how has the novel changed your sense of that time and place?
Did the novel help clarify who the various factions were — Hetmanites, Petlyurists, Whites, Reds — or did it make things even more confusing?
The Turbin Home
What role does the Turbin apartment play in the novel — a refuge, a symbol, or something else? What does the tiled Dutch stove represent to you?Family and Loyalty
How do the Turbins differ from Talberg in terms of their loyalties and moral compass? Do you think Bulgakov is holding Talberg up for judgement?The City as Character
How does Bulgakov make “the City” feel alive — or dying? What emotions does his portrayal of Kiev evoke?How effectively does Bulgakov draw you into Kiev in December 1918? Did you find it easy to visualise the city and its atmosphere of collapse?
Chaos and Cowardice
Talberg flees while Alexei stays. What does the novel suggest about courage, cowardice and duty in a time of collapse?The Populist Uprising
How does Bulgakov depict the Petlyurists and the social upheaval they represent? Do you think his portrayal is sympathetic or critical?Dreams and Visions
What do you make of Alexei’s dream sequences and Bulgakov’s blend of realism with the fantastic? Do they add insight or distraction?Closing Reflections
Reading The White Guard today, do you see any parallels with the world’s current political and cultural divisions?What do you think Bulgakov wanted readers to feel by the end — despair, faith, survival, or something else?
Phew! Made it! Let me know in the comments how you’re enjoying the novel, or, indeed, if you’re not enjoying it all! This is my second reading in as many months and it’s making much more sense this time, particularly as I’m watching the TV adaptation and movie adaption.
Liberty News (Cockrell) / Freedom Gazette (Schwartz) / Voice of Liberty (Glenny) / Вестник Свободы (Vestnik Svobody) (Original)
This is fantastic thank u so much !
Thanks for all the commentary, Cams... especially the different approaches taken by Bulgakov's translators. I'm re-reading the Cockerell version, slowly, after an initial fast read.