From March to June 1938, a number of Bulgakov’s essays were published in the magazine, Voice of the Educators (Kaenpe and Kape, In the School of the Town of the Third International, The Birds in the Mansard, and, The First Children’s Commune).

The journal Voice of the Educators was dedicated to issues in education. Bulgakov’s essays shed light on the process of reforming the teaching staff, problems with financing schools and a teaching experiment from the new era – the system of child self-management. Bulgakov addressed the theme of education in other publications (the essays The Week of Enlightenment, Enlightenment with Bloodshed, How School Descended into the Underworld, and others), and also in Heart of a Dog and The Master and Margarita and so on. Embedding himself in the eccentric reality of 1920s Moscow, Bulgakov actively became involved in various socieities and unions (‘I became overgrown with memberships like shaggy dog and its hair’, he wrote in one of his tales): he belonged to the Moscow branch of the academic worker section at International Red Aid in the Scholar’s Club, held the title of ‘Friend of the Children’ and was a member of the All-Russian Union of Educational Workers (membership ticket No. 37846, issued 19th February 1923).