CHAPTER 7 - A Naughty Apartment
Styopa Likhodeev wakes up in a haze of nausea, flashes of lightning and a heavy ringing in his head. He struggles to open his eyes, recalls a vague memory of a napkin‑kiss promise, and finally discovers through the pier‑glass that he lies in his own bed in apartment No. 50 on Sadovaya Street—the same six‑storeyed building whose former owner, the jeweller’s widow Anna Frantsevna de Fougeray, had a notorious history of mysterious disappearances (lodgers, a policeman, the housekeeper Anfisa, etc.). The apartment has been empty for a week before Berlioz and his wife moved in, followed shortly by Styopa and his wife, whose own disappearances are later hinted at.
While Styopa attempts to call housekeeper Grunya for aspirin, an unknown man dressed in black with a beret appears at the foot of the bed. The stranger speaks in a low, heavily accented voice, greets Styopa as “my most sympathetic Stepan Bogdanovich,” and explains he has been waiting since ten o’clock because Styopa had made an appointment. He produces a gold watch, rings it eleven times, then serves Styopa a tray with white bread, caviar, pickled mushrooms, frankfurters in tomato sauce, and a frosty decanter of vodka kept in ice. After drinking, Styopa’s mind begins to clear; he remembers the previous day at Khustnya, the dacha of sketch‑writer Khustov, a gramophone that made dogs howl, and a mysterious lady he tried to kiss.
The stranger reveals himself as Professor Woland, a professor of black magic, and recounts that he arrived in Moscow, offered his show to the Variety, obtained a contract signed by Styopa (with Styopa’s own signature) and an advance of ten thousand roubles, and was scheduled to meet Styopa the next morning at ten. Styopa, confused, examines the contract, sees his signature and a note from the Variety’s findirector Rimsky approving the advance, and panics at the realization he cannot recall signing it.
Styopa leaves the bedroom to fetch the telephone, but hears no response from Grunya. In the front hall he notices a massive wax seal on the studded door of Berlioz’s study; a strange voice in his head comments “Hello!”. As he watches, reflections in a dusty mirror show a long pole‑like figure with pince‑nez, and a black cat darts past and vanishes. The cat reappears, now speaking, claiming to belong to Woland and noting that Grunya has been sent to Voronezh.
Returning to the bedroom, Styopa finds Woland accompanied by the cat, the pole‑like man (Azazello, with a feathery moustache and one lens of pince‑nez), and a short broad‑shouldered man in a bowler hat and red hair (Behemoth). The cat drinks vodka with a fork‑pierced mushroom, Azazello snarls about Styopa’s corrupt behavior, and the red‑haired man (named Azazello by the cat) declares his intention to expel Styopa from Moscow. The chaotic retinue threatens Styopa, who collapses and loses consciousness.
In his blackout, Styopa imagines himself seated on a stone jetty by the sea, the waves lapping at his feet, a blue sky above and a white mountain city behind. A rough‑looking smoker on the jetty tells him he is in Yalta. Overwhelmed, Styopa collapses onto the jetty and fades to unconsciousness, ending the chapter.