White Guard

White Guard, Mikhail Bulgakov’s semi-autobiographical first novel, revolves around a Ukrainian family in their home city of Kiev in 1918. Alexei, Elena, and Nikolka Turbin, adult siblings who have just lost their mother, find themselves plunged into the chaotic civil war that erupted in the wake of World War I and the Russian Revolution. In the context of this family’s saga, Bulgakov recreates not only the moment-to-moment experience of battles, but also the long pauses that come before and after. He confronts the reader with the cruelty and violence that overtakes people and events, yet holds up for contrast individual acts of heroism and humanity.

 First published in 1924, it was later adapted as a play for the Moscow Art Theater before being banned. Though the novel received hostile reviews for its sympathetic portrayal of White officers, paradoxically, it was said to be one of Stalin’s favorite plays.