The Topleninovs’ house (Bulgakov’s friends). The house of the Master

9 Mansurovsky Lane
Subway station «»
The rooms on the lower floor of house 9 on Mansurovsky are generally considered to be the model for the basement where the Master lived in The Мaster and Margarita. Bulgakov’s friends and acquaintances lived here in this house (the Topleninov brothers, S. Ermolinsky and M. Chimishkian), whom he regularly visited.
«“Ah it was a golden age,” whispered the narrator with shining eyes, “a completely separated little flat with a sink and running water… And the fire in the stove was always glowing!”» as the Master says about his little basement flat in the novel. From the late 1920s, Bulgakov often came to house 9 on Mansurovsky Lane and stayed in a room with a stove, which was specially put aside for him. S. Topleninov’s wife, Maria Nesterenko described the house in a conversation with M. Chudakova, ‘…six or seven steps led downstairs to the entrance room, where you took you shoes and coats off. To the left was a stove and next to it, a big, white, porcelain sink… you know, most people washed in the shared kitchens and bathrooms, but we had our own basin. In the room, there were two windows and an oval table with chairs around it. It was a Russian stove, which was always stoked. It was warm and everyone said how comfortable our place was.