Mikhail Bulgakov in the context of The Master and Margarita

Konstantin Sergeyevich Stanislavski (/stænɪˈslævski/; Russian: Константин Сергеевич Станиславский, IPA: [kənstɐnʲˈtʲin sʲɪrˈɡʲejɪvʲɪtɕ stənʲɪˈslafskʲɪj]; né Alekseyev; 17 January [O.S. 5 January] 1863 – 7 August 1938) was a seminal Russian and Soviet theatre practitioner. He was widely recognized as an outstanding character actor, and the many productions that he directed garnered him a reputation as one of the leading theatre directors of his generation. His principal fame and influence, however, rests on his "system" of actor training, preparation, and rehearsal technique.

Stanislavski (his stage name) performed and directed as an amateur until the age of 33, when he co-founded the world-famous Moscow Art Theatre (MAT) company with Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko, following a legendary 18-hour discussion. Its influential tours of Europe (1906) and the US (1923–24), and its landmark productions of The Seagull (1898) and Hamlet (1911–12), established his reputation and opened new possibilities for the art of the theatre. By means of the MAT, Stanislavski was instrumental in promoting the new Russian drama of his day—principally the work of Anton Chekhov, Maxim Gorky, and Mikhail Bulgakov—to audiences in Moscow and around the world; he also staged acclaimed productions of a wide range of classical Russian and European plays.

The White Guard (Russian: Белая гвардия) is a novel by Mikhail Bulgakov, first published in 1925 in the literary journal Rossiya. It was not reprinted in the Soviet Union until 1966.

Ivan Vasilievich is a play by Mikhail Bulgakov, written in the Soviet Union from 1934 until 1936. Performance of the play was forbidden upon its completion, and it was not published until 1965, a quarter century after Bulgakov's death.

The action takes place in Moscow, where a malfunctioning time machine sends apartment building superintendent Ivan Vasilievich Bunsha-Koretskiy to the 16th century and brings tsar Ivan the Terrible into the 20th century. The title is a reference to the fact that Ivan the Terrible shares the patronymic Vasilievich with the superintendent. In comparing the tsar's authority with that of a Soviet official, the play satirizes similarities between the Soviet Union and Russian Tsardom, as well as Joseph Stalin's rehabilitation of Ivan the Terrible.

Flight, or On the Run, is a play by Mikhail Bulgakov. It is set during the end of the Russian Civil War, when the remnants of the White Army are desperately resisting the Red Army on the Crimean isthmus. The lives of the abandoned Serafima Korzukhina, the university professor Sergei Golubkov and the White generals Charnota and Khludov are closely intertwined.

Written in 1927, the play was rehearsed but never allowed to be performed during Bulgakov's lifetime, as the authorities felt that it glorified the Whites. It wasn't played until 1957, 17 years after Bulgakov's death.

The Days of the Turbins (Russian: Дни Турбиных, romanized: Dni Turbinykh) is a four-act play by Mikhail Bulgakov that is based upon his novel The White Guard.

It was written in 1925 and premiered on 5 October 1926 in Moscow Art Theatre (MAT) and was directed by Konstantin Stanislavsky. In April 1929, the production was canceled as a result of severe criticism in the Soviet press. On 16 February 1932, the direct interference of Joseph Stalin resulted in the play being resumed, and it continued until June 1941, to considerable public acclaim. It ran for 987 performances in the course of those ten years.