The novel is autobiographical. Bulgakov is the Master, and his trials and difficulties are very similar to those the Master faces. Margarita is Yelena Shilovskaya, his long-term girlfriend who became his third wife. The burning of the Master's manuscript is just what Bulgakov did, and for the same reasons of despair and frustration. Of course a state literary committee prevented its publication, just as did in the novel. And Bulgakov was fascinated with the confrontation between Christ and Pontius Pilate.