Boris Kocheyshvili. Life in Art

[Тамара]

Thank you, Kirill!
But the real story of Bulgakov, and even with the participation of Bulgakov sluchivshayasya Boris Kocheyshvili many years ago:

The story of Bulgakov and the death mask.
  "Year can not remember, but it was February, immediately after the release of the magazine with" The Master and Margarita. Many artists were then rushed to illustrate a novel, well, me too. It was clear that in the Wizard the easiest way to see the author, and photographs in the public domain or indeed any information about him did not exist. It was then arose and Schwartz, a young scholar, but his name has not recall. He volunteered to accompany me in the Museum Theater, where he reportedly kept a plaster mask of the master, t . e. Bulgakov.
In the winter twilight we let into the dimly lit hall, where a tiny old woman like a moth on a tray brought a plaster mask, covered with a white napkin. Warned us that taking pictures and can not draw, the old lady walked away on business. We looked into the mask, near where a strolling cows with the company. Cold gypsum fosforitsiroval was twofold - to FAS Tatar cheekbones, and a profile Voltaire. How much time can be seen, I remember it perfectly, I remember now. Finally, leaning close to the high temple, I saw two faded hair. Cow in the back quietly coughed. Convulsively I began to think how the mask is removed and there is no hair transformer, and how this could get technical. Later confirmed that it is possible, the hair itself Bulgakov. The hair, not to hinder unmask plentifully greased, for example vaseline, but in the beginning, where moving a little resistance in the skin and, apparently, still, were uprooted and moved to casting a mask. (Mask with Mr Mikhail Merkulov shot by the way, the one that removed his mask with Lenin.)
The fact that I saw said Schwartz. Last strongly ordered: "Pull!" Cows with the company on his guard in the room darkened, I reverently pulled hair, he walked easily, without resistance, as a foam. The same with the second. We put the extracted treasure in the paper, and Schwartz said that in America now conducted all genetic tests, and we will rebuild Bulgakov. Cows with the company zaopladirovali. Schwartz invited to share extracted, but I am in gratitude to divide did not and in a short time, Schwartz himself went to America. Confirm this story only he can, but many years have passed and live there any Schwartz ...
The next day he took me in some sort of secret room of the Lenin Library, where we looked at family albums, particularly the front picture on the cardboard with the address of the Arbat, where the Master sits in the dark glasses, and Margarita - strabismus witch - stands with his hand on his shoulder . Remembered. What they were dressed in the same winter coat.
The reality proved to be beyond all interpretations, and I threw illustrate defies illustrations and, by the way, crushing, as it turned out, and cinema. "