Nikanor Ivanovich's dream of the currency theatre

Nikanor Ivanovich Bosoy, the corpulent and practical chairman of the tenants' association at 302-bis Sadovaya Street, becomes one of the first ordinary Muscovites to be crushed by the machinery of state terror after his encounter with Woland's retinue. His dream in Stravinsky's clinic—a surreal theatrical performance in which a master of ceremonies forces currency dealers to confess and surrender their hidden wealth—is a grotesque parody of the Soviet show trials, revealing how the regime's methods of interrogation and punishment have become a nightmarish, inescapable spectacle that penetrates even the subconscious of its victims.

The Trap and the Arrest

Nikanor Ivanovich's downfall begins when he visits Apartment No. 50 to inspect the late Berlioz's sealed rooms. There he meets Koroviev, who introduces himself as an interpreter for the foreign artiste Woland. Koroviev, with his rattling tenor and cracked pince-nez, convinces the chairman that Likhodeev has invited Woland to stay and offers to rent the entire apartment for a week at five hundred roubles a day. The practical Nikanor Ivanovich, tempted by the chance to cover the tenants' association's deficit, agrees. Koroviev deftly draws up a contract, obtains Woland's signature, and pays the chairman five thousand roubles in new banknotes. Then, with a wink, he slips a thick, crackling wad of money into Nikanor Ivanovich's other hand as a bribe, whispering that with foreigners it is done. The chairman, though murmuring that it is severely punishable, accepts. After he leaves, Woland remarks that he did not like this chiseller and crook, and Koroviev immediately telephones the police, tearfully denouncing Nikanor Ivanovich for speculating in foreign currency and claiming he has four hundred dollars hidden in the ventilation of his privy. Minutes later, while Nikanor Ivanovich is about to enjoy a bowl of borscht with a marrow bone, two citizens in white side-buttoned shirts enter his apartment. They find the wad in the ventilation, but it has transformed into dollars. The contract, the passport, and the money have all vanished from his briefcase, leaving only a folding ruler. Nikanor Ivanovich is arrested, staggering like a drunk man and muttering about unclean powers.

The Dream Theatre

In Stravinsky's clinic, after an injection calms him, Nikanor Ivanovich falls into a dream. He sees himself led solemnly to a big lacquered door, where a resounding bass voice welcomes him and tells him to turn over his currency. He finds himself in a small, costly theatre with a gilded ceiling and crystal chandeliers. The audience is all male, all bearded, sitting on the polished floor Turkish-fashion. A young, pleasant-featured artiste in an evening jacket comes on stage and announces the next number: Nikanor Ivanovich Bosoy, chairman of a house committee. The master of ceremonies calls him up and asks him to set a good example by turning over his currency. When Nikanor Ivanovich swears he has none, the audience bursts into indignant shouts. The artiste explains that no one can be stuck with four hundred dollars, and that Nikanor Ivanovich has upset him. Whistles come from the house, and the artiste tells him he may go to his place. The dream then shifts to a series of other cases. Sergei Gerardovich Dunchil, a fine-looking but unkempt man of about fifty, stubbornly refuses to turn over his currency. The artiste claps his hands, and a young beauty brings out a golden tray with a fat wad of dollars and a diamond necklace, revealing that Dunchil has hidden them in Kharkov with his mistress, Ida Herkulanovna Vors. Dunchil sways and nearly falls. The artiste then introduces a famous dramatic talent, Sawa Potapovich Kurolesov, who performs excerpts from Pushkin's The Covetous Knight, confessing how he refused a wretched widow on her knees in the rain. The performance ends with the knight dying of a stroke on his chest of currency. The master of ceremonies warns the audience that the same thing will happen to them if they do not turn over their currency. Finally, a shy, fair-haired citizen named Nikolai Kanavkin comes forward and confesses to having a thousand dollars and twenty gold pieces hidden with his aunt on Prechistenka. The artiste congratulates him, but then tricks him into revealing that the aunt also has hidden currency. The dream ends with cooks bringing soup and bread, urging the spectators to turn over their currency and go home. Nikanor Ivanovich cries out that he has none, and the cook turns into the nurse Praskovya Fyodorovna, who soothes him.

The Mechanism of Terror

Nikanor Ivanovich's dream is a direct parody of the Soviet show trials of the 1930s, where the accused were forced to confess to fabricated crimes in a public spectacle designed to terrorize the population. The dream theatre, with its master of ceremonies, its audience of bearded men, and its relentless pressure to confess, mirrors the actual interrogation rooms and courtrooms where the secret police extracted confessions. The dream reveals how the terror has become internalized: even in sleep, Nikanor Ivanovich is subjected to a theatrical interrogation that strips him of his dignity and forces him to participate in his own condemnation. The use of Pushkin's poetry as a tool of psychological pressure, and the final image of cooks offering soup as a reward for compliance, underscores the grotesque banality of the terror. The dream also echoes the earlier scene in the novel where the poet Ivan Homeless is interrogated by Professor Stravinsky, who uses a similar technique of calm, logical questioning to break down his resistance. Both scenes demonstrate how the state's power operates not only through physical violence but through a pervasive, inescapable system of psychological manipulation that invades the most private spaces of the mind.