After the scandal surrounding the play, The Days of the Turbins, successive bans and permissions, letters from the OGPU and People’s Commissariat for Education, on 5th October 1926, the long awaited premier took place at the Moscow Art Theatre. The Art Theatre actor, Vladimir Avgustovich Stepun allowed his flat to be used for a celebratory banquet on the occasion of the premier – it would not have been possible to fit all of the guests into Bulgakov’s small flat.

Mikhail Bulgakov’s second wife, Lyubov Evgenevna Belozerskaya later remembered this banquet: ‘There were long, covered tables in the big rooms of the lower level… It was up to me to take care of the food and wine. Petya Vasilev came to help me. Fortunately, Okhotny Ryad still existed in the centre of Moscow – a wonderful area! We took a taxi and immediately went around all the shops in turn: a huge variety of caviars, balyk, beloribitsa, salmon, various kinds of sturgeon all in one place, barrels of different marinades, mushrooms and pickles in another, game and sausages at the third place and wine in the fourth. We ordered pies and cakes from a skillful trader on Stoleshnikov Lane. Then we took everything back to dear Stepun’s place… I remember how it was already morning when Lidun finished dancing her Russian dance with Maloletkov in the courtyard.’ Amongst the guests were actors who performed in the show: A. Anders, B. Dobronravov, V. Ershov, V. Istrin, E. Kaluzhsky, B. Maloletkov, V. Novikov, V. Sokolova, N. Khmelev, M. Yashin and so on. Other guests included Bulgakov’s friends Nikolay and Natalya Lyamin, the three Ponsova sisters and others.