the house of the turbins (the white guard)

'events. what events? the white guard is fiction.'

having been so prosaically real the white guard ends in a welter of dreams (just as in under milk wood). alexei turbin (the elder brother/ the sensible one/ the analogue for bulgakov himself maybe) survives the siege of kiev (at least in the novel he does, in the play he dies). within the novel he survives because his perfect sister (elena turbin) prays for him when he is injured and sick with typhus. eveybody has behaved honourably (apart from the generals, a few sneak thieves and elena's husband). 

nekrasov writes an epilogue. he visits what he tells us is the house. he tells us about going to see the play (the days of the turbins) at the moscow arts theatre and about the reception of this and bulgakov's other novels (as they arrive from out of the maw of censorship).  nekrasov knew the kiev of the time (though he carefully claims not to have known any white russians). 

if the bulgakovs are the turbins (as nekrasov claims) then the turbin family is mostly destined for exile in paris.

who knows what is destined to happen in the current tussle over kiev. 

in the book horsemouth found his bookmark - a pale pink zone 1 tube ticket from 30th june 2001. horsemouth hid it gingerly back in the book. 

yesterday a bright sunny day (and not too cold). horsemouth went for a wander up on the common in the morning (taking the bulgakov) and ran up the drive in the afternoon (for exercise). he finished reading the bulgakov in the evening (he is trying to get back into the habit of reading). 

today a grey damp morning (but the weather is still mild). we move towards the end of the week and then the new year. 

horsemouth continues to hunt for an end of year statement that gives him a clearer vision of where he is going and what he is doing but he probably needs to be doing it for it to come.