The Master and Margarita:Etchings by Andrey Kharshak

The Leningrad‑born artist Andrey Alexandrovich Kharshak entered the world in 1950 in a painter’s family. After graduating from the Secondary Art School he enrolled in the graphic department of the Repin Institute of Painting, Sculpture, and Architecture, completing his studies in 1975 in the book‑illustration studio.

Harshak’s series of etchings for The Master and Margarita is arguably his magnum opus. Created between 1987 and 1990, the plates were preceded by meticulous groundwork: the artist visited “house 302‑bis” (actually No. 10 on Bolshaya Sadovaya), traced Ivan Bezdomny’s route from Patriarch’s Ponds, and explored Mansurovsky Lane, where the Master once lived. The resulting illustrations have since toured numerous exhibitions in Russia and across Europe and America.

For a long time only poor scans of these works circulated online. Thanks to the generosity of Mitya Kharshak—who sent high‑quality photographs of his father’s prints—we can now admire the etchings as they deserve. My heartfelt thanks to Mitya for this splendid gift on the 120th anniversary of Mikhail Bulgakov.