This past Friday the 13th marked exactly 68 years since the completion of Mikhail Bulgakov's magnum opus, The Master And Margarita. It is, in a way, the only clear birthday one can celebrate for his cult masterpiece, a decidedly un-Soviet fantastical satire in which the devil comes to Moscow and torments the sinners (i.e., everyone). Bulgakov died in 1940, leaving the novel unfinished. His wife completed it in 1941, but the government refused to publish it until the Thaw, although by that time it was already an underground sensation. Bulgakov’s old flat, the very same "no good apartment" haunted by the devil's minions in the novel, has become a Mecca for M&M devotees. This is all by way of telling you that RIA Novosti has made a spooooky video about the place, complete with swinging lamps!

Long before its stairwell became a canvas for Bulgakov-related graffiti (and extraneous vulgarities) in the late ’80s, the building, built in 1903 and located on Moscow's Garden Ring Road, housed artists and other boho types. After the Revolution, the apartments were repurposed to serve as workers' communes. A poor, poor Bulgakov lived there with his wife, and absolutely hated the place. In subsequent decades, families shared the apartment Soviet-style, and it was never rebuilt — same doors, same flooring. (A testament, perhaps, to the quality of Imperial Russian engineering).

Bulgakov’s original wardrobe closet is also supposedly still in there, but the other Bulgakov-era artifacts were donated by visitors — who, judging from the segment, had one antique iron too many around the house. Seriously, why are there half a dozen flatirons in his living room? Then again, maybe some of those were chucked in through the windows. The old building has been the target of vandalism by both reckless hooligans and protesters who equate Bulgakov with devil-worship.

To make living there more tolerable, or at least profitable, the building’s residents have cleaned the place up and made room for a rather shabby Bulgakov museum with a separate entrance on the first floor. But if you actually want to feel the dark magic that permeates this place, we recommend sneaking in to see the graffiti-tagged stairwell. It's not that hard. Just use the old Moscow trick of grabbing the door right after a resident goes out.

Video tour of Mikhail Bulgakov's "evil apartment" [RIA Novosti]