{{Short description|1925 novel by Mikhail Bulgakov}} {{about|the novel}} {{use dmy dates|date=August 2024}} {{infobox book | <!-- See Wikipedia:WikiProject Novels or Wikipedia:WikiProject Books --> | name = The White Guard | title_orig = Белая гвардия | translator = | image = Белая-гвардия-1927.jpg | caption = 1927 ''émigré'' edition published in Riga | author = Mikhail Bulgakov | illustrator = | cover_artist = | country = Soviet Union | language = Russian | series = | genre = | publisher = ''Rossiya'' (serial) | release_date = 1925 | english_release_date = 1971 | media_type = Print | pages = | isbn = | preceded_by = | followed_by = }} '''''The White Guard''''' ({{langx|ru|links=no|Белая гвардия|Belaja gvardija}}) 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.

== Background == ''The White Guard'' first appeared in serial form in the Soviet-era literary journal ''Rossiya'' in 1925,<ref name=Dob/> but the journal was closed down before the serial was completed. The complete book was published in Paris in 1927. A censored version was published in the Soviet Union in 1966. The complete version was published in 1989.

After the first two instalments of ''The White Guard'' had been published in ''Rossiya'', Bulgakov was invited to write a version for the stage. He called the play ''The Days of the Turbins''. It was produced at the Moscow Art Theatre, to great acclaim. According to some sources, Stalin saw it no fewer than 20 times.<ref name=Dob>Dobrenko, Evgeny: Introduction to Bulgakov, Mikhail 2008. ''White Guard''. transl. Marian Schwartz, Yale University Press, p. xix. {{ISBN|978-0-300-15145-9}}</ref>

In fact, the play completely overshadowed the book, which was in any event virtually unobtainable in any form in the Soviet Union.

== Plot == Set in Ukraine from late 1918, the novel concerns the fate of the Turbin family as the various armies of the Ukrainian War of Independence (the White Army, the Red Army, the Imperial German Army and Ukrainian nationalists) fight over the city of Kiev. Historical figures such as Pyotr Wrangel, Symon Petliura and Hetman Pavlo Skoropadsky appear as the Turbin family is caught up in the turbulent effects of the October Revolution.

The novel's characters belong to the sphere of Ukrainian and Russian intellectuals and officers in the army of Skoropadsky and participate in defending the city from the Ukrainian nationalist forces, led by Petliura, in December 1918. The character Mikhail Shpolyansky is modelled on Viktor Shklovsky.<ref name="Dobrenko">{{cite book |last1=Bulgakov |first1=Mikhail Afanasevich |last2=Schwartz (translator) |first2=Marian |editor1-last=Dobrenko |editor1-first=Evgeny |title=White guard |date=2008 |publisher=Yale University Press |isbn=9780300148190 |language=English}}</ref>

The novel contains many autobiographical elements. Bulgakov gave the younger Turbin brother some of the characteristics of his own younger brother. The description of the house of the Turbins is that of the house of the Bulgakov family in Kiev. (It is now preserved and operated as the Mikhail Bulgakov Museum.)

==Characters == * '''Alexey Vasilyevich Turbin''', a physician * '''Nikolai Turbin''' (''Nikolka''), his younger brother * '''Elena Vasilyevna Talberg''', their sister * '''Sergei Ivanovich Talberg''', her husband * '''Viktor Viktorovich Myshlaevsky''', lieutenant * '''Leonid Yuryevich Shervinsky''', aide to Prince Belorukov * '''Fyodor Nikolaievich Stepanov''', nicknamed '''Carp''' (''Karas'') * '''Father Alexander''' * '''Vasily Ivanovich Lisovich''', nicknamed '''Vasilisa''' * '''Larion Larionovich Surzhansky''' (''Lariosik'') * '''Colonel Nai-Turs'''

== English translations == Bulgakov's widow had ''The White Guard'' published in large part in the literary journal ''Moskva'' in 1966, at the end of the Khrushchev era. It was the basis for the English translation by Michael Glenny, first published in 1971, which lacks the dream flashback sections. In 2008, Yale University Press published a translation by Marian Schwartz of the complete novel, an edition that won an award.

* ''The White Guard'', translated by Michael Glenny, London: Collins and Harvill Press, 1971. {{ISBN|0002619059}}. **London: Harvill, 1996. Revised edition. {{ISBN|1860462189}}. * ''White Guard'', translated by Marian Schwartz, introduction by Evgeny Dobrenko. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2008. {{ISBN|978-0-300-15145-9}} * ''The White Guard'', translated by Roger Cockrell. Richmond: Alma Classics, 2016. {{ISBN|978-1-84749-245-6}}.

== Adaptations == * ''The Days of the Turbins'', a 1925 stage adaptation written by Bulgakov. * ''The Days of the Turbins'', a 1976 3-part television adaptation of the play. * ''Play of the Month: The White Guard'' - BBC One adaptation (1982)<ref>{{cite web |title=BBC One - Play of the Month|url=https://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/860ff328b0474265ab44d683ff236866 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250913043956/https://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/860ff328b0474265ab44d683ff236866 |url-status=dead |archive-date=13 September 2025 |website=genome.ch.bbc.co.uk |access-date=4 March 2025 |date=20 September 1982}}</ref> * ''The White Guard'', a 2012 mini-series adaptation of the book.

== References == {{reflist}}

== External links == {{Commons category|The White Guard}} * {{Citation | title = The White Guard| url = https://lib.ru/BULGAKOW/whtguard.txt | place = RU | publisher = Lib | type = full text in Russian}}. * {{Citation | url = https://studyenglishwords.com/book/%D0%91%D0%B5%D0%BB%D0%B0%D1%8F-%D0%B3%D0%B2%D0%B0%D1%80%D0%B4%D0%B8%D1%8F/430 | publisher = Get parallel translations | title = The White Guard | language = ru, en }}.

{{Mikhail Bulgakov}}

{{Authority control}} {{DEFAULTSORT:White Guard, The}} Category:1966 novels Category:1925 Russian novels Category:Novels set during the Russian Civil War Category:Novels set in the Russian Revolution Category:Soviet novels Category:Novels by Mikhail Bulgakov Category:Novels first published in serial form Category:Works originally published in Russian magazines Category:Works originally published in literary magazines Category:Novels set in Ukraine Category:Novels set in Kyiv