Mikhail Bulgakov and Vladik avkaz. The play The Sons of the Mullah [Synovia mully] and its Ossetic translation

The article is concerned with a little-researched period in the life of M. Bulgakov, who spent 1919 to 1921 in Vladikavkaz. The study discusses the reasons for his settling in the city and for the hasty departure to Tiflis in 1921. Also included in the article is the first scholarly publication of an Ossetic translation of Bulgakov’s only surviving early play The Sons of the Mullah [Synovia mully]. Bulgakov famously loathed his early theatrical works and wished that the plays, including The Sons…, written in Vladikavkaz after he gave up his medical practice, would sink into oblivion. The play’s holograph, however, survived, and so did its Ossetic translation by B. Totrov, a professional actor and a personal acquaintance of Bulgakov’s. E. Dzaparova reconstructs the history of the stage production of The Sons of the Mullah in Vladikavkaz and provides numerous details to describe Bulgakov’s life in the city in the years 1919–2021. The study concludes with a comparison between the Russian text and its Ossetic translation.