The play about Stalin “Batum” - Bulgakov’s work, which concluded his struggle between “permitted” and “unauthorized” literature at the end of his own life, was in no hurry to publish even in the era of Gorbachev’s “perestroika”. The considerations were extremely liberal: the publication of a play canonizing the leader, they say, may, they say, darken and discredit the bright image of the writer, included in the newest calendar... The official play, a gift for the 60th anniversary of the leader, was built on a complex and dangerous semantic game and full of surprises . The daring plan failed, and in a form that was insulting to the author’s literary dignity. “Batum” became a form of self-destruction of the writer, both mental and physical.