Valentin Bulgakov
Russian writer (1886–1966)
Valentin Fyodorovich Bulgakov (Russian: Валентин Фёдорович Булгаков; 25 November 1886 – 22 September 1966) was the last secretary of Leo Tolstoy, and his biographer. He served as the director of several literary museums and actively participated in Tolstoyan and pacifist initiatives. He endured imprisonment under the Tsarist regime and internment in a Nazi concentration camp. For the last 20 years of his life, he assumed the role of the head at the Yasnaya Polyana museum.
Biography
Early years
Valentin Bulgakov was the son of an official of the city of Kuznetsk (now Novokuznetsk). He received his early education at the Tomsk grammar school.
At an early age, Valentin Bulgakov became a regular correspondent for a local newspaper. In 1904, a supplement to "Siberian Life" published his best-known early article "F. Dostoevsky in the Kuznetsk". The article contained new material on the wedding of Fyodor Dostoyevsky with Maria Dmitrievna Isayeva held in Kuznetsk in 1857.
In 1906 he finished high school with honors.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Valentin Bulgakov” is russian writer (1886–1966). The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Valentin, Bulgakov and Russian, not as a finished interpretation.
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The phrase “russian writer (1886–1966)” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.
Chronology provides the most reliable spine for this subject; interpretation should follow only after identities and dates are secure. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 17, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q952659. VIAF identifies the subject as 71432133. The Library of Congress control number is nr90001352. 5 of 5 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1886, 1966, 1904 and 1857.
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This entry incorporates text from “Valentin Bulgakov” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.