Михаил Булгаков (Mikhail Bulgakov)

Mikhail Bulgakov (1891-1940) was born to a Russian family in Kiev and studied to be a doctor, serving in World War I, where he was wounded twice and became hooked on morphine, an addiction he would recover from. After a bout of typhus, he gave up medicine and started writing about his experiences as a doctor. From there, he began writing plays and novels, though he frequently ran into trouble with censorship in the Soviet Union. He is best known for his satirical novel The Master and Margarita.