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Abstract: The creation of the libretto “Peter the Great” fits into the difficult period of the creative biography of M. A. Bulgakov, characterized by professional restrictions and material difficulties. An analysis of the circumstances of the emergence of this idea allows identifying causal relationships between external conditions and the change of genre-thematic landmarks in the creative activity of the writer. And to consider the path of creating the libretto, it was necessary to go into the vicissitudes of the creative biography of the writer, closely related to the manifestations of state policy. The novelty of the study lies in the systematization of the history of the study of the libretto and the identification of prerequisites for the creative intention. The article clarifies the connection between the libretto’s plan and Bulgakov’s work in 1936 on the competitive project of the USSR history textbook. The appeal to the image of Peter the Great was relevant for the media field of the 1930s, when the idea of strong power was approved. The study highlights the parameters of interaction between M. A. Bulgakov and A. N. Tolstoy and the latter’s approaches to the image of Peter the Great. The article emphasizes the “family thought” on the basis of the special nature of the conflict of Bulgakov’s works, in which, unlike most works of that era, the difference in political views does not lead to hatred or fratricide. Based on biographical analogies, a hypothesis of a special type of autobiographic writing is put forward. The author traces the stages of eliminating Bulgakov’s works from the theater repertoire and analyzes the method of “cancellation” of the writer using critical articles in specialized and central periodicals. Thus, the creation of the libretto “Peter the Great” should be considered in the context of systematic pressure on Bulgakov’s creative activity in the 1930s. And the transition of Bulgakov to the Bolshoi Theater in the fall of 1936 and the change of the genre paradigm (from drama to libretto) should be considered not due to the aesthetic preferences of the author, but to external circumstances, which is confirmed by a complex of documentary evidence. For such a study, historico-literary and biographical approaches seem adequate. Further study of this issue requires analysis of all the editions of the libretto and their comparison with the historico-cultural context of the era.

About the author(s) :

Elena I. Kolesnikova

Institute of Russian Literature of the Russian Academy of Sciences (Pushkinsky Dom)
(Saint Petersburg, Russian Federation)

ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4441-565X

Publication Timeline:

Date of receipt: 16.07.2026; date of publication: 31.10.2026

References:

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