Demonization

Author: Mikhail Bulgakov

The novel was written in 1924, and it deeply and painfully depicted the state of chaos that had afflicted the country, and the citizens' feelings of loss and alienation, and their fear for the future and their approaching collapse, in the face of a gang of people who were tampering with everything and destroying everything for a purpose that only "the devil" could understand!
The hero of the work, the secretary of the match warehouse, who has removed from his mind the idea of ​​"the vicissitudes of time" and instilled instead the confidence that he will continue in this job, in the warehouse until the end of life on the planet's surface, finds himself living through an ordeal that rarely occurs except in totalitarian regimes, or in Moscow at the beginning of the twenties, a time of transition from one regime to another.

At this point, Korotkov finds himself fired from his job on flimsy pretexts. The character who fires him—whom the author sarcastically names "Kalsonner"—is a very strange character, part human and part goblin. He takes over the institution and begins to tamper with it and its employees. When Korotkov tries to understand what is going on, his troubles begin, from the theft of his personal documents to the discovery that "Kalsonner" and his gang are running the entire country. Then this Klassonier is not a human being like us. He is capable of transforming into everything the reader would never imagine: a white rooster, a wall clock, a dragon. He may even dive into the bowels of the earth, leaving behind a pungent smell of sulfur. He and his group are capable of pursuing Korotkov and driving him to madness... The work ends with Korotkov, who refuses to obey, being besieged on the roof of one of the tallest buildings in Moscow. He chooses to throw himself into the abyss, chanting, “Death, not shame.” But when he surrenders his body to the air, he feels that he is flying upwards towards the sun... and he continues his flight until he feels that luminous golden mass collide with his head... and he stops feeling anything.