Quote Originally Posted by Throbert McGee View Post
Which is just my silly way of saying that Stalin certainly wasn't a "nobody" in 1925 -- even before that, around 1922, Lenin was critical of Stalin, and Bulgakov certainly knew that!
The letter was first time read in 1924 (even that it was allegedly written in 1922) and it was printed for public only in 1927, so Bulgakov certainly couldn't know about it by the time the book was written
All the information is right there, on that wiki page.
Considering that Bulgakov has met "main character" of the book in 1917 any relation to Stalin seems like a big stretch. But whatever makes your day. This feels like a disappointment now.