About the work
The Days of the Turbins is a four-act drama by Mikhail Bulgakov based on his novel "The White Guard". Set in Kiev during the winter of 1918–19, as the city passes successively into the hands of White Guard forces, Petliura's troops and the Red Army, it premiered on 5 October 1926 at the Moscow Art Theatre under Konstantin Stanislavski, with Nikolai Khmelyov as Colonel Alexei Turbin.
Plot
In the house of the Turbin officer family in Kiev, the old order collapses amid civil war. Colonel Turbin defends the city against Petliura's forces and is killed in the fighting; his sister Elena leaves her cowardly husband for another officer. The surviving Turbins are left to come to terms with the irreversible Bolshevik seizure of power.
Cultural significance
The play drew heavily on Bulgakov's own family history – his maternal grandmother was born a Turbin. Its sympathetic portrayal of the "White" officers led to a temporary ban in 1929; Stalin reportedly watched it around fifteen times, which helped keep it in the repertoire. By 1941 it had received 987 performances at the Art Theatre. The German-language premiere did not follow until 1973, at the municipal theatre in Heidelberg.