Griboedov House

The Griboedov House, an old, two-storeyed, cream-coloured building set back from a ring boulevard in a seedy garden, is the headquarters of Massolit, the major Moscow literary association. Though it is alleged to have once belonged to an aunt of the writer Alexander Sergeevich Griboedov, this claim is dubious; nevertheless, the house is universally known by that name. It is the epicenter of the novel's satire of Soviet literary officialdom, a place where privilege, hypocrisy, and the pursuit of material comfort are on full display.

The Seat of Massolit and Its Privileges

Massolit has settled itself at Griboedov's in the best and cosiest way imaginable. The building is a labyrinth of offices and sections, each with its own sign: the "Fishing and Vacation Section," "One-day Creative Trips," "Perelygino" (the writers' colony), and a poster advertising "Full-scale Creative Vacations" in luxurious locations like Yalta and Borovoe. The most coveted prize is a membership card, brown, smelling of costly leather, with a wide gold border, known to all Moscow. The envy of outsiders is palpable, as the members enjoy a life of ease and access to the finest fare.

The Legendary Restaurant

The entire ground floor of the aunt's house is occupied by a restaurant, justly considered the best in Moscow. It is not accessible to just anyone off the street, and its fare is available at the most reasonable prices. The menu is a litany of gastronomic delights: poached perch done to order, sterlet in a silvery chafing dish with crayfish tails and fresh caviar, eggs en cocotte with mushroom puree, fillets of thrush with truffles, and quail a la genoise. The restaurant is a place of ritual and conversation, where members like the ruddy-lipped, golden-haired poet Amvrosy and the skinny, run-down Foka discuss the virtues of dining there over the inferior Coliseum. The service is courteous, and a jazz band plays in the evening.

The Night of Berlioz's Death

On the evening of Berlioz's death, the restaurant is the scene of a dramatic and chaotic sequence of events. While twelve writers languish in the upstairs office waiting for the late chairman, the restaurant below is in full swing, with the jazz band striking up and the hall breaking into dance. The news of Berlioz's death causes a wave of grief that quickly subsides as the members return to their tables. The real disruption comes when the poet Ivan Homeless, barefoot, in a torn Tolstoy blouse and striped drawers, with a paper icon pinned to his chest and a lighted wedding candle in his hand, bursts onto the veranda. He announces that a foreign consultant has killed Berlioz and demands that the professor be caught. His erratic behavior leads to a scuffle, during which he hits a man on the ear, and he is eventually subdued by waiters with napkins. The commander of the restaurant, Archibald Archibaldovich, a man with a dagger-like beard who is rumored to have been a pirate, coldly orders the doorman to call the police and a psychiatric clinic. Ivan is carried out, swaddled like a doll, shouting "You bastard!" at the poet Riukhin.

Symbol of Literary Corruption and Thematic Significance

The Griboedov House embodies the corruption and hypocrisy of the Soviet literary establishment. It is a place where artistic merit is secondary to bureaucratic connections and the pursuit of material rewards. The contrast between the luxurious restaurant and the empty, formulaic literature produced by its members is a central satirical point. The house is a stage for the performance of literary success, where the members' true natures are revealed in their greed, envy, and cowardice. Ivan Homeless's intrusion, in his underwear and with a candle, is a grotesque parody of a literary event, exposing the absurdity and spiritual emptiness of the world he once belonged to. The house's fate, like that of its members, is ultimately subject to the chaotic and judgmental forces unleashed by Woland's visit to Moscow.