Woland surveyed the view of Moscow from the roof of Pashkov’s House, which was built in 1784-1786, supposedly by V. Bazhenov, and is located on the corner of Znamenka and Mokhovaya. From here, the characters watch the fire at the Griboyedov House, which was started by Korovyev and Behemoth. This is where the Master and Margarita’s fate was decided.

In Bulgakov’s novel, this building was described as, ‘One of the most beautiful in Moscow’. Confirming this, E. Bulgakova remembered that Pashkov’s House and its neighbourhood were one of the writer’s favourite places in the city. In Autumn 1921, Bulgakov planned to write a play about Rasputin and asked at the Rumyantsev Museum for periodicals from 1917. Whilst he was working on the materials for the production at the end of 1920s and beginning of the 1930s, Bulgakov often visited the State Library as a reader (there are library passes in the writer’s archive). In The Master and Margarita, Woland claims that he was invited to the State Library to index the works of the black magic practitioner Gerbert Avrilaksky. In one of the editions of the novel (1932-1936), Bulgakov described Pashkov’s House in detail - after the scene on the roof of the house, Woland and his retinue pass through the reading rooms and cloakroom to find themselves in the courtyard.

Pashkov’s House is also mentioned in Bulgakov’s story The Birds in the Mansard – the students and teachers go to the Rumyantsev Museum to use the lavatories, seeing as the student halls are not suitable for human habitation.