At a meeting of the members of the writers' housing cooperative, engaged in building a five-storey residential House of Soviet Writers and adding storeys to two neighbouring houses in Nashchokin Lane and a house in Kamergersky Lane (Proyezd MKhAT), Mikhai

At a meeting of the members of the writers' housing cooperative, engaged in building a five-storey residential House of Soviet Writers and adding storeys to two neighbouring houses in Nashchokin Lane and a house in Kamergersky Lane (Proyezd MKhAT), Mikhail Bulgakov expressed surprise that a certain Comrade B-n had been named first on the list, and asked: "What has Comrade B-n done? What are his services to literature?" To which the chairman replied to Bulgakov: "His services are great: he procured 70 lavatory pans for the cooperative."