The writer Sergei Zayaitsky met Bulgakov in the spring of 1924. Bulgakov read The White Guard to Zayaitsky and his friends at Dolgy Lane. It was Zayaitsky who introduced the, then, unknown writer from Kiev of the old Muscovite intelligentsia to the inhabitants of Prechistenka and the surrounding area. Amongst Bulgakov’s new friends were art critics, artists and literary people: N. Lyamin, N. Ushakova, S. Topleninov, V. Avilov and others.

Sergey Zayaitsky was one of the most distinguished members of the Prechistentsy circle. A graduate of the famous Polivanovskaya Gymnasium, clever and jolly, a writer and author of a number of slice-of-life books, from childhood he had suffered from bone tuberculosis. Together with Zayaitsky, Bulgakov was a participant in a circle of fantasy writers for a short time – the writers gathered at Zayaitsky’s place once or twice. The circle ceased to exist fairly quickly. According to P. Zaytsev’s memoirs, ‘At one of the next sessions, Bulgakov briefly reported that he had been called in and told that the circle was attracting attention and that it must be shut down’. Bulgakov was friends with Zayaitsky right up until his death in 1930.