in 1948, bulgakov applied for soviet citizenship and returned to the ussr. he settled in yasnaya polyana, where for almost 20 years he was the keeper of the house-museum of leo tolstoy. in 1958 he was admitted to the union of soviet writers. he wrote a series of essays in the book "meetings with artists," "on tolstoy. memories and stories", and a still unpublished memoir, "how life is lived."