And it is Pilate that the book is about, after all (or at least, the Master’s book). Pilate is an authority figure who ends up having Judas killed, after using language to the head of his secret police to the effect that “we need to make sure nothing happens to him”. In Pilate’s speech, just as in the “coded” speech of Soviet leaders in general and Stalin in particular, this is an obvious request to kill the man. Is Pilate supposed to be Stalin? Or is Woland supposed to be Stalin? It is a point on which experts do not agree.