Who is the Styopa Likhodeyev? Everyone who knows the contents of Bulgakov’s book, which tells about the arrival of the devil’s retinue in the Soviet capital, knows the name of this character. This is one of the heroes of the famous novel "The Master and Margarita."
Resident of apartment number 50
Styopa Likhodeev is the director of the Variety Theater, who enters, taking advantage of his position, in connection with women, does not perform official duties and drives a state machine in vain. The role of Likhodeev in the imperishable Bulgakov plot is small. Nevertheless, his image is memorable.
This character, unlike the colleagues of his deceased neighbor, does not bring harm to the Master. At first glance, it is absolutely harmless. Nevertheless, Woland and his henchmen send an unlucky director a thousand kilometers from Moscow. For what? What did this seemingly good-natured tenant of a “bad” apartment do? So, what was Styopa Likhodeev punished for?
Misty morning
Styopa Likhodeev in the novel "The Master and Margarita" is mentioned only a few times. In more detail - in the seventh chapter. And then the author gives him a total of several lines. However, it is worth saying that it is in the chapter "Bad Apartment" for the first time that the assistants of Satan in their entirety appear before the reader, and that is why it is so memorable.
Once, after a stormy evening, Likhodeev wakes up in his bed (although it’s difficult to name the condition of the director of Variety this morning) and discovers an unknown person sitting next to him in a black beret. An unexpected visitor speaks with an accent, introduces himself as an artist with whom Styopa Likhodeyev allegedly signed a contract shortly before this ill-fated day. The director of Variety does not remember this. And no wonder, because last night he drank port wine after vodka, then he explained himself to some lady in love, went to someone to the cottage in Skhodnya ... In a word, the night was full.
Likhodeyev, without remembering the events of the past days, drinks the vodka offered by the guest, bites delicious dishes and, being a cunning and intelligent person, he tries to hide his own forgetfulness before the stranger. And suddenly, going into the front, he discovers there an extraneous black cat of terrible size.
Unpleasant thoughts
Stepa goes to the front in order to call “Variety” and inquire about the upcoming performance of a foreign artist. The seal on the door of Berlioz catches his eye. He still does not know anything about the death of his neighbor Step Likhodeev. The characteristic of the director of Variety, however, was given by the author precisely when describing the feelings that possessed him at the thought of possible troubles with the editor-in-chief of a literary magazine.
What does the seal on the door of the room mean? That trouble happened with her master. Thoughts about the death of a neighbor do not occur to Likhodeev. The first thing he thinks about is arrest. The memory of a stupid article that Styopa had recently recently tapped Mikhail Aleksandrovich for some reason, and of dubious conversations in the dining room at dinner, flurried in the head of poor Stepa. Experiences about the fate of Berlioz did not touch his soul. Only unpleasant thoughts. It is not known what Stepa would have thought of this morning, being in front of the sealed door of the writer, if not for the appearance of the aforementioned cat.
This is how they go crazy!
What happened next in a bad apartment, undoubtedly, fans of the novel “Master and Margarita” remember. Styopa Likhodeev, whose characterization will be given a little later, returns to the room and sees his guest there in a more than strange company. In the chair sits a rather unpleasant type with feather-mustache and a cracked pince-nez. On the puff, the same cat was placed, which a minute ago unceremoniously moved along the front.
“That's how they go crazy!”, The director of Variete thinks, seeing the cat drinking and dashingly biting. The characteristic of Likhodeev is given precisely by the Hippopotamus and Koroviev. Thanks to their clear and capacious remarks, the reader understands what constitutes the neighbor of the tragically dead Berlioz.
The image of Stepa Likhodeev
What do Woland's assistants say about the theater director? They are known to know everything. And the fact that Likhodeev does not fulfill his duties ("he rubs points for his superiors"), and that he leads a loose-headed lifestyle. Styopa, according to Koroviev, does nothing, because he knows how to do nothing. The main character traits of Likhodeev are disorder, laziness, a penchant for drunken orgies.
Styopa leads a depraved lifestyle, in addition, he is extremely irresponsible, which Roman subsequently confirms, having received a strange telegram from Yalta and deciding that this is nothing more than the next tricks of Likhodeev. To the characterization of this character should be added cunning (by no means wisdom), cowardice and deceit.
In Yalta
The punishment of Stepa Likhodeev is insanity. He finds himself in Yalta, but the picturesque seascapes do not please him at all. How could you be so far from the capital in just a few seconds? The author talks about the fate of Likhodeev in subsequent chapters only in passing. It is known that the novel was subjected to repeated editing. In the final version of the work, Step, like his colleagues, is in the Stravinsky clinic.
But Likhodeev could have been completely different ...
And in the first edition of the novel there was such a character as Likhodeev. His name, however, was different. Garusya Padulaev - in 1929 Bulgakov gave the director of the theater that name. This hero had a prototype - a friend of the writer (a native of the solar Vladikavkaz) Taudzhin Peizulaev. This man worked with the writer on the play Sons of the Mullahs. In the original version of the novel, Garusya, like Styopa, leaves apartment No. 50 against her will, located in 302 bis building on Sadovaya Street. But Woland sends him not to Yalta, but to the homeland of his prototype - to Vladikavkaz.
On the way from the capital to his small homeland, Garusya enjoys the view of the wonderful Moscow landscape. That is, in Vladikavkaz Padulaev is not instant. There is even something romantic about his journey. Bulgakov and Padulaev treated much softer than with Likhodeev. But later, upon learning of the death of his co-author, the writer decides to radically change the image of the character expelled from Moscow. In 1936, Bulgakov once again rewrote the novel. And now the director of the theater by the name of Likhodeev appears on the pages of this work.
Patients Stravinsky
After a two-day stay in the resort town, Stepa returns to Moscow, where he is immediately sent to a psychiatric clinic. In these difficult days for Muscovites, Professor Stravinsky has a lot of work. First, a poet is brought to the hospital, constantly telling about Pontius Pilate and the foreign tourist, who urgently needs to be caught. Then an entertainer arrives at the clinic demanding that his head be returned. And finally, one by one, theater officials are brought to Stravinsky, who, as if by agreement, are begging for imprisonment in an armored chamber.
Likhodeev spends eight days in a hospital. According to the latest edition of the novel, after a while he will receive the post of manager of a grocery store in Rostov.
Out of place man
In one of the editorial offices, the author called Stepa “the red director”. What does this phrase mean? In the 1920s and 1930s, party workers began to be appointed to administrative positions in theaters. They, moreover, quite officially, were called "red directors".
These people were far from art. They, as Fagot put it, "did not do anything, and indeed did not know how to do anything." Such administrators were well acquainted with Mikhail Bulgakov. The writer first came into contact with the theatrical world when staging the play "The White Guard". As usual, the author years later ridiculed in one of his works both the famous director and the actors known in those years. As for theatrical officials - they served as the material for creating the image of Likhodeev.
Major vice
The characteristic of the director of Variete has already been given above. However, deceit and cunning are the traits that are endowed with all the negative characters of the novel. The main vice of Likhodeev is drunkenness. And this is precisely what makes him different from the rest of the book.
In just a few days, Woland and his assistants managed to excite the whole of Moscow. They talked for a long time about a huge black cat, a cheeky regent in a checkered jacket, a red-haired stocky type, and a mysterious foreigner in the city. Rumors and speculation haunted Muscovites. Most of the gossipers only heard of a strange gang of either psychics, or sorcerers, or clever scammers. But there were those who were unlucky to meet with evil spirits, as they say, face to face. And these meetings became fateful.
Homeless ceased to compose poetry. Varenukha stopped lying. Poplavsky forgot about the Moscow apartment. As for Stepa Likhodeev, he no longer drank ... port with vodka. Only vodka, and only infused with currant buds.
Bad apartment
How can you talk about a character like Styopa Likhodeev and not say a word about the apartment in which he lived until his teleportation? But the director of the theater was doomed to disappear even when he crossed its threshold.
In the seventh chapter, in which the reader gets acquainted with Likhodeev, the author tells about the former residents of apartment No. 50. They all seemed to have sunk into the abyss. The first disappeared tenant widow jeweler. The woman owned an apartment, which, being particularly entrepreneurial, partially rented out to tenants, whose fate turned out to be rather sad. However, like everyone who was attracted to the apartment at the famous address. The mistress herself and even her housekeeper Anfisa disappeared without a trace. But if the location of the first tenants remained unknown, then the fate of Berlioz and Likhodeev was familiar to everyone who lived in the 302 bis house located on Sadovaya. True, Likhodeev was more fortunate than his neighbor. But Bulgakov had his own scores with writers.