The address of Maria and Boris Zemsky

1 Vorotnikovsky Lane
This is where Mikhail Bulgakov’s relatives Maria Danilovna and Boris Mikhailovich Zemsky lived. The Zemsky’s house was one of the first addresses in Moscow which Bulgakov visited in September 1921 when he arrived in Moscow.
Maria Zemskaya was in charge of the Little Golden Fish nursery school in house 1 on Vorotnikovsky Lane. The Zemskys occupied flat 2 in the same house. In a conversation with Marietta Chudakova, Tatyana Lappa remembered, ‘Maria Danilovna, known as Pupochka at home, the wife of Boris Zemsky, was in charge of the nursery. It was a small kind of house, downstairs was the nursery school and above lived the Zemskys – Boris, his wife and children. His wife was small, plump and dark…’ It was here among the Zemskys that Mikhail and Tatyana Bulgakova met in 1922 and 1923. In a letter to his sister (of 24th March 1922), Mikhail Afanasevich described Boris Zemsky’s flat: ‘He lives well. How comfortable his place seems, especially after the dreadful flat 50. The stove is always stoked…’