Editing Mikhail Bulgakov (section)

===Last years===
In the late 1930s, he joined the [[Bolshoi Theatre]] as a [[librettist]] and consultant. He left after perceiving that none of his works would be produced there. Stalin's favor protected Bulgakov from arrests and execution, but he could not get his writing published. His novels and dramas were subsequently banned and, for the second time, Bulgakov's career as playwright was ruined. When his last play ''Batum'' (1939), a complimentary portrayal of Stalin's early revolutionary days,<ref name="az_lib_batum">{{cite web |url=http://lib.ru/BULGAKOW/batum.txt |title=Батум. Комментарии |publisher=lib.ru |access-date=10 October 2011 |archive-date=12 November 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191112122007/http://lib.ru/BULGAKOW/batum.txt |url-status=live }}</ref> was banned before rehearsals, Bulgakov requested permission to leave the country but was refused.

[[File:Bulgakov Grave April 2015.jpg|thumb|upright|Gravestone of Mikhail Bulgakov and [[Elena Sergeevna Bulgakova|Elena Bulgakova]]]]

In poor health, Bulgakov devoted his last years to what he called his "sunset" novel. The years 1937 to 1939 were stressful for Bulgakov, veering from glimpses of optimism, believing the publication of his masterpiece could still be possible, to bouts of depression, when he felt as if there were no hope. On 15 June 1938, when the manuscript was nearly finished, Bulgakov wrote in a letter to his wife:
<blockquote>"In front of me 327 pages of the manuscript (about 22 chapters). The most important remains – editing, and it's going to be hard, I will have to pay close attention to details. Maybe even re-write some things... 'What's its future?' you ask? I don't know. Possibly, you will store the manuscript in one of the drawers, next to my 'killed' plays, and occasionally it will be in your thoughts. Then again, you don't know the future. My own judgement of the book is already made and I think it truly deserves being hidden away in the darkness of some chest..."</blockquote>

In 1939, Bulgakov organized a private reading of ''The Master and Margarita'' to his close circle of friends. [[Elena Sergeevna Bulgakova|Elena Bulgakova]] remembered 30 years later, "When he finally finished reading that night, he said: 'Well, tomorrow I am taking the novel to the publisher!' and everyone was silent", "...Everyone sat paralyzed. Everything scared them. P. (P. A. Markov, in charge of the literature division of MAT) later at the door fearfully tried to explain to me that trying to publish the novel would cause terrible things", she wrote in her diary (14 May 1939).

In the last month of his life, friends and relatives were constantly on duty at his bedside. On 10 March 1940, Bulgakov died from [[nephrotic syndrome]]<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Zilberstein|first1=Gleb|last2=Maor|first2=Uriel|last3=Baskin|first3=Emmanuil|last4=D'Amato|first4=Alfonsina|last5=Righetti|first5=Pier Giorgio|title=Unearthing Bulgakov's trace proteome from the Master i Margarita manuscript|journal=Journal of Proteomics|volume=152|pages=102–108|doi=10.1016/j.jprot.2016.10.019|pmid=27989937|year=2016}}</ref> (an inherited kidney disorder). His father had died of the same disease, and from his youth Bulgakov had guessed his future mortal diagnosis. On 11 March, a [[civil funeral]] was held in the building of the [[Union of Soviet Writers]]. Before the funeral, the Moscow sculptor [[Sergey Merkurov]] cast a [[death mask]] of his face. He was buried in the [[Novodevichy Cemetery]] in Moscow.