The Institute of National Memory recognized Bulgakov as a Ukrainophobe

Mykhailo Bulgakov

Experts of the Ukrainian Institute of National Memory (UINP) recognized the Russian writer Mikhail Bulgakov a Ukrainophobe and an imperialist in outlook. Therefore, toponyms and monuments dedicated to him can be considered symbols of Russian imperial policy, and their presence in public space – propaganda of the aggressor country.

This is stated in the conclusion of the UINP.

“The writer, despite his years of living in Kyiv, despised Ukrainians and their culture, hated the Ukrainian desire for independence, spoke negatively about the formation of the Ukrainian state and its leaders. Among all the Russian writers of that time, he is the closest to the current ideologues of Putinism and the Kremlin’s justification of ethnocide in Ukraine“, experts of the institute note.

In the conclusion, it is recalled that in 1919, Bulgakov deserted from the army of the Ukrainian People’s Republic and joined the Volunteer Army because of his loyalty to the Russian Empire. He “glorified the capture of Kiev by the Reds and the destruction of the fighters for Ukraine – “despicable Petlyurites“.

“From the standpoint of Russian megalomania and advocating a single indivisible empire, he does not present a single positive Ukrainian character in his works, parodies or mockingly distorts the Ukrainian language, mocks the Ukrainian autocephalous church, denies the very existence of the Ukrainian nation. Anti-Ukrainian content of the play “Days of the Turbins” celebrated by domestic artists back in February 1929 at a congress of Soviet Ukrainian and Russian writers in Moscow“, – emphasized in the UINP.

The authors of the conclusion mention another work of the writer – a short story “I killed” (1926) that in their opinion, “fully resonates with the narratives of current Kremlin propagandists Dugin, Solovyov, Skabeeva and is the prototext of today’s calls to destroy Ukrainians“.

“The story contains the ideology of fascism: a wounded Ukrainian military doctor is killed by the doctor character, Bulgakov’s alter ego, just because of his nationality. The author, a doctor by profession, artistically savors the moment of murder and, guided by the idea of ​​ethnocide, proves an absurd thesis: a doctor’s oath, the Hippocratic code can be violated“, the text says.

In view of such conclusions, the experts of the National Institute of National Statistics of Ukraine note that geographical objects, names of legal entities, monuments and commemorative signs dedicated to Bulgakov contain symbols of Russian imperial policy. Therefore, further use of the writer’s name in titles is propaganda of Russian imperial policy, and therefore subject to demolition and renaming.