MOSCOW, May 1. The official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry Maria Zakharova on radio Sputnik suggested studying in schools that the prototype of Bulgakov’s Woland was the then US Ambassador to the USSR William Bullitt, and the Satan’s ball was “written off” from the reception in US Embassy.
“It would be nice if textbooks recommended for secondary schools also mentioned this for universities,” Zakharova said. 
Zakharova noted that many Russians are not aware of these facts, including because they were not mentioned in the school curriculum.
“When I was studying, it was the 1990s, including finishing school and entering college, then (Mikhail) Bulgakov began to thunder… We were all presented with this as a description Bulgakov of the devilry that happened – in particular, both the ball and the figure of Woland itself – that it was copied from the realities of the Soviet Union… That these are all biographies of one country, the USSR, and have nothing to do with the States,” she complained.
In fact, Bulgakov's Satan's Ball is “a copy of what he saw at the American Embassy.”
“If you see photographs of the American ambassador, if you read about him – and he also has a biographer, this is Alexander Etkind – you will understand that the figure of William Bullitt, which current generations describe as mystical – he was perceived as such even then… There are specific symbols that filled this work; this is a historically established fact,” Zakharova said. 
< br />She recalled that American diplomats invited Bulgakov to receptions and paid him visits themselves. In addition, some details in the Satan’s ball described in “The Master and Margarita” coincide with the real ball at the US Embassy, which is reflected in the memoirs of diplomats – for example, the fact that chickens, parrots and a bear were brought to entertain the guests. According to this version, this is why Woland is depicted in the novel as a kind of foreigner and outside observer studying what is happening in Moscow.
“For some reason, this is somehow constantly hidden from children, from schoolchildren… That these are interconnected things, we learn already in adulthood, reading memoirs. But we need to talk about this from the beginning… I don’t understand, why hasn’t this become a subject of mass consciousness,” she believes.
Bullitt became the first US ambassador to Moscow after the US recognized the USSR.
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