The poet Maximilian Voloshin presented his watercolor to Mikhail Bulgakov’s second wife Lyubov Yevgenyevna Belozerskaya. Mikhail Afanasyevich took part in a charity evening, the proceeds of which were spent on repairing Voloshin’s house in Koktebel. The evening was held on March 1, 1926 at the State Academy of Arts. Bulgakov recited his short story “The Adventures of Chichikov.” Along with Bulgakov, Voloshin was supported by other famous Soviet writers — Andrey Bely, Boris Pasternak, Pavel Antokolsky, Vikenty Veresaev. Maximilian Alexandrovich also sent them all his watercolors as a token of gratitude. On the watercolor presented by Bulgakov is the date — 21 November, 1927.

The Bulgakovs met Maximilian Voloshin in 1925. Having read the first chapters of Bulgakov’s novel “The White Guard” in the journal “Russia”, the poet wrote to the publisher Nikolay Angarsky,

Angarsky passed these words to Mikhail Afanasyevich, and Bulgakov and Voloshin started to correspond. On May 28, 1925 Maximilian Voloshin sent Bulgakov a postcard with the following text,

Two weeks later Bulgakov and his wife Lyubov Yevgenyevna arrived in Crimea. The artist Anna Ostroumova-Lebedeva visited the Voloshin dacha at the same time as the Bulgakovs. She painted a watercolor portrait of a tanned Bulgakov — the painting was first kept by the artist and displayed at exhibitions, and later it was bought by Bulgakov’s third wife, Yelena Sergeevna.