What was transplanted into a dog's heart. The story "Heart of a Dog": the history of creation and fate. The fate of the work in the West

90 years ago, in January 1925, Mikhail BULGAKOV began work on the satirical story Dog's Happiness. An amazing story." In March, the manuscript, which in the process became Heart of a Dog, was completed. However, she never came out. The story outraged LENIN's colleague, member of the Politburo Lev KAMENEV: “This is a sharp pamphlet on modernity. Under no circumstances should you print! For the first time "Heart of a Dog" was published in 1968 abroad - in Germany and Great Britain. And only in 1987 appeared in the USSR.

The manuscript of the seditious Heart of a Dog was confiscated from the writer during a search in 1926. It was possible to return it with great difficulty - Gorky intervened. The censors were frightened by strange allusions - counter-revolutionary motives were seen in the story of the transformation of a dog into a man. There were stories that the author masterfully encoded a bunch of iconic names in the heroes of the story. Behind the powerful figure of the surgeon Preobrazhensky, they discerned the image of Lenin, in Klim Chugunkin-Sharikov they suspected Stalin, Shvonder in someone's heated minds became Kamenev-Rosenfeld, the housekeeper Zina Bunina - Zinoviev, Daria - Dzerzhinsky, etc. It was dangerous to let this go.

Meanwhile, the appearance of a story about the transformation of a dog into a man could make a lot of noise not only in political circles. IN late XIX At the beginning of the 20th century, the idea of transplanting animal organs to humans excited the scientific world. Physicians and biologists were overwhelmed by the idea of universal rejuvenation.
Extract bottles. The French doctor Charles-Edouard Brown-Séquard experienced the effect of a miraculous elixir, which he created from tissues taken from the testicles of young dogs and guinea pigs. On June 1, 1889, Brown-Sequard reported to his colleagues about an increase in muscle mass, an improvement in the functioning of the rectum and genitourinary system, and brain activity. Colleagues gave a standing ovation to the scientist.
The aging rich bought bottles of extract for injection. But soon the professor was horrified to find that he was failing again. It turned out that the substance extracted by Brown-Séquard from the testicles of animals did not affect the hormonal activity of the human body. And the fantastic transformation that happened to the doctor and some of his patients is just a placebo effect.

Eunuch testicles. Our compatriot who lived in France, the surgeon Sergey Voronov, continued the work of Brown-Sécar. For four years he worked as the personal physician of the vice-sultan of Egypt. Communicating with eunuchs, Voronov was interested in changes in their body after castration. In Paris, the scientist began transplanting sections from the glands of a chimpanzee to patients with a sick thyroid gland. He conducted experiments on rejuvenation on animals - sheep, goats and bulls: sections from the testicles of young individuals were introduced into the scrotum of old animals - and they gained the energy and agility of the young. Has reached monkeys and people. They say that he made the first transplants for millionaires - testicles for experiments were seized from executed criminals. The first officially recorded operation to transplant the glands of a monkey to a person took place on June 12, 1920. The doctor warned about violent sexual activity after the operation. Unfortunately, this effect was short-lived.
Two-headed dog. The experiments of Dr. Demikhov amazed his contemporaries with their courage. In 1937, Vladimir Petrovich made an apparatus that today would be called an artificial heart. The physiologist tested the development on a dog that lived with such a heart for about two hours.

In 1951, Demikhov transplanted a donor heart along with lungs to a dog named Damka. On the second day after the operation, the dog got up, walked around the room, drank water, ate. She died on the seventh day, but this was the first case in the history of science when a dog with someone else's heart and lungs lived for so long.
In 1954, a doctor developed a method for transplanting the head, along with the forelimbs, from a puppy onto the neck of an adult dog. Later, he began to engraft half of one dog to the whole, intact body of another - he wanted to find out if it would be possible to “connect” him to the circulatory system of a healthy person to save the patient for a while.
More than half a century ago, Demikhov advocated the creation of a world bank of human organs. He suggested storing them in thermostat cases connected to the blood vessels of animals. In the early 60s of the last century, a professor kept the heart of a dead person alive for several hours, connected to the femoral vessels of a pig.

Underdeveloped Bobikov

Even before the story "The Heart of a Dog" was allowed for publication in the USSR, in 1976 its first film adaptation was released in Italy, directed by Albert LATTUDA. It was called "Why does Mr. Bobikov bark?".

62-year-old Albert Lattuda saw the formation of European fascism in Heart of a Dog - in his youth he himself was an adherent of the left wing of the fascist party. According to the director, Professor Preobrazhensky (played by the Swedish actor Max von Sydow) is the creator of the super-idea from which the German Nazis grew up, who dreamed of improving the "breed" of people.

Filmed in Belgrade. In one of the episodes, you can see the porn star Cicciolina - the evil proletarians did not allow Sharikov-Bobikov to get laid with her busty heroine - the girl Natasha.
Comparing the Italian film version of the story and the famous film directed by Vladimir Bortko, it is difficult to find something in common. Familiar characters are like shapeshifters of themselves. Judge for yourself.

symbolic
Judging by the entries in the observation diary, which Dr. Bormenthal keeps in Bulgakov's story, Sharik's operation is performed on the evening of December 23. From December 24 to January 7, during the period from Catholic to Orthodox Christmas Eve, the transformation of the dog takes place, and on Christmas its final transformation takes place. Sharikov's death, again according to Bormental's diary, came
in the third week of Great Lent, on the day of commemoration of the dead.

Estimate!
IN English translation“Heart of a Dog” Sharikov’s phrase about the fate of poor cats: “They will go to the floor. We will make protein out of them for a working loan" - looks like this: "Make them into protein for the workers" - "We will make protein out of them for the workers." The translator did not understand the word “polta” and decided that it was about food.

Faculty
Who became the prototype of Professor Preobrazhensky, none of the researchers of the writer’s work can say for sure. Perhaps it was the writer's uncle, mother's brother, Nikolai Mikhailovich Pokrovsky, a gynecologist.
* The founder of the school-clinic of internal diseases, Maxim Petrovich Konchalovsky, could also become the one from whom the literary professor was written off. This is not doubted by his great-grandson Pyotr Konchalovsky, who worked as a doctor in France for many years. In an interview with Express Gazeta, he said that among his great-grandfather's patients were Gorky, Papanin, and Bulgakov himself. Maxim Petrovich died in 1942, a little short of Stalin's "doctors' case", and miraculously escaped the camps, although the suitcase was always at the ready. Nikita Mikhalkov and Andrei Konchalovsky are Dr. Konchalovsky's great-nephews.
* As prototypes of Professor Preobrazhensky, the scientist Bekhterev and the physiologist Pavlov are called.

Quotes for all times
* Go, eh, eat. Well, they are in the swamp.
* Where will I eat?
* Well, wish everyone!
* That's all we have, like at a parade ... "sorry" yes "merci", but so that for real - it's not ...
* Will you beat, dad ?!
* Get in line, you sons of bitches, get in line!
* The revolvers themselves will be found ...
* But you can’t do it like that ... With the first person you meet ... Only because of your official position ...
* Do not read Soviet newspapers before dinner.
* Everything will go like clockwork: first - in the evenings - singing, then pipes will burst in the toilets ...
* A collar is like a briefcase...
* Gentlemen all in Paris!
* The one who is in no hurry anywhere succeeds everywhere.
* And Engels' correspondence... with this... like him... Into the stove!

The story "Heart of a Dog" was written by Bulgakov in 1925, but was published only in 1987. It was the author's last satirical story. That huge experiment that took place throughout the country at that time, in an allegorical form, was reflected in this work.

The experiment on turning a dog into a man, which is carried out by the world-famous Professor Preobrazhensky, both turned out and failed. It turned out because Professor Preobrazhensky was the best surgeon in Europe and he managed to get ahead of his time. Didn't work out

Since the result of this experiment not only exceeded all the professor's hopes, but also horrified, frightened, forced to return everything to normal. These events took place in the midst of building a new society and a new person in Russia. There lived a cute and smart dog in the world, suffering from human cruelty: “But my body is broken, beaten, people abused it enough ... Didn’t they beat you on the backside with a boot? Billy. Did you get a brick in the ribs? Enough food." The last straw that overflowed the bowl of Sharik's suffering was the fact that he was scalded with boiling water on his left side: “Despair knocked him down. His heart was so painful and bitter, so lonely and scary that small dog tears, like pimples, crawled out of his eyes and immediately dried up.

Salvation came in the form of Professor Preobrazhensky, who fed Sharik and brought him to his home. The poor dog does not understand what is happening in this apartment, but he is well fed, and this dog is enough. But then the day comes when a terrible experiment is put on Sharik. Bulgakov, describing an operation to transplant a human pituitary gland into a dog, clearly shows his negative attitude to everything that happens: the previously handsome and respectful Professor Preobrazhensky and Dr. Bormental change dramatically: “Sweat from Bormental crept in streams, and his face became fleshy and multi-colored. His eyes darted from the professor's hands to the plate on the tool table. Philip Philipovich became positively terrifying. A whistle escaped from his nose, his teeth opened to the gums. Thinking about the achievements of science, the heroes forget about the most important thing - about humanity, about the torment that the unfortunate dog suffered, about the consequences that this experiment will lead to. The pituitary gland transplanted to Sharik belonged to Klim Chugunkin, a recidivist thief, who was killed in a fight and sentenced to hard labor. The professor did not take into account those genes that passed to Sharik, as a result of which, as Philipp Philippovich said, the sweetest dog turned "into such scum that your hair stands on end." Sharik became Polygraph Poligrafovich Sharikov, his first words were obscene curses. He was reborn as an ignorant, vicious, aggressive boor who simply poisoned the lives of everyone around him in the professor's house. The upbringing that the professor and Dr. Bormenthal are trying to instill in him is completely destroyed by the influence of Shvonder, who knows how to put pressure on the basest instincts of Sharikov. The professor's intelligence turns out to be powerless in front of the undisguised rudeness, impudence and greed of a half-man, half-dog. The professor understands his mistake: “Here, doctor, what happens when the researcher, instead of walking in parallel and groping with nature, forces the question and lifts the veil: here, get Sharikov and eat him with porridge.” The discovery made by Preobrazhensky turns out to be completely unnecessary: “Please explain to me why it is necessary to fabricate Spinoza artificially, when any woman can give birth to him at any time. Doctor, humanity itself takes care of this and in the evolutionary order every year, stubbornly, singling out from the mass of any filth, creates dozens of outstanding geniuses who adorn the globe.

When Sharikov turned the professor's life into a real hell, the scientists perform another operation: Sharikov becomes what he was originally - a cute, cunning dog. Only headaches reminded him of those metamorphoses that were happening to him: “I was so lucky, so lucky,” he thought, dozing off, “just indescribably lucky. I established myself in this apartment ... True, they slashed my head all over for some reason, but this will heal before the wedding. Sharik's story ended happily, but that huge risky experiment to transform a huge country ended tragically: Shariks bred in incredible numbers, and we are still reaping the fruits of this experiment. You can’t force history, you can’t make experiments on living people, you can’t help but think about the consequences that a vain desire to transform human nature and create an “ideal person”, an “ideal society”, without changing his soul, consciousness and morality - this is the result , to which the reader comes, reflecting on the transformations of Sharik in the story "Heart of a Dog".

"Heart of a Dog" chapter 1 - summary

A homeless dog, Sharik, who lived in Moscow, was scalded with boiling water by a cruel cook. It was December, and Sharik, with his side shabby from the burn, was threatened starvation. He howled plaintively in the gateway, when a well-dressed, intelligent-looking gentleman suddenly appeared from the door of a neighboring store. To the dog's surprise, this mysterious man threw him a piece of Krakow sausage and began to call for him.

Sharik ran after his benefactor to Prechistenka and Obukhov Lane. On the way, the gentleman threw him a second piece of Krakow. To Sharik's even greater amazement, a decent person called him into the luxurious entrance of a large rich house and led him inside past the primordial enemy of all stray dogs - the porter.

"Heart of a Dog" chapter 2 - summary

The gentleman went with Sharik to a luxurious apartment. Here the dog learned the name of its benefactor - Professor of Medicine Philip Filippovich Preobrazhensky. Noticing Sharik's scalded side, the professor and his assistant, Dr. Bormenthal, bandaged the dog.

The dog settled down in the professor's waiting room and began to watch with interest as patients came to him - elderly gentlemen and ladies who wanted to restore the youthful freshness of love attraction. The insightful Sharik guessed that Philip Philippovich's medical specialty was connected with rejuvenation.

Bulgakov. Dog's heart. audiobook

But in the evening, special visitors came to the professor: proletarian-looking. These were "residential comrades" - Bolshevik activists who were settled throughout Moscow in "extra" rooms of wealthy landlords. The leader of the "residential comrades", who bore the purely Russian surname Shvonder, declared that his seven-room apartment was too large for Philip Philipovich. The conversation turned to harsh tones. Preobrazhensky telephoned some influential official and threatened that if he was not left alone, he would stop operating on high-ranking party bosses. The official scolded Shvonder into the pipe, and the "residential comrades" retreated in disgrace.

"Heart of a Dog" chapter 3 - summary

In the evening, Preobrazhensky and Bormental sat down to supper, feeding the dog as well. At dinner, the doctors talked about the new - Soviet - orders. (See Heart of a Dog. Dinner Dialogue.) Preobrazhensky assured that after the "residential" proletariat moved into their house, everything inside would fall into decay. After the social upheaval, everyone began to walk in dirty shoes on the marble stairs. The Bolsheviks blame all the troubles on the mythical "devastation", not noticing that it is in their own heads. The working class has to work, and it now spends most of its time on political studies and singing revolutionary hymns.

Sharik listened to the reasoning of the doctors with genuine interest and great sympathy.

"Heart of a Dog" chapter 4 - summary

For a few days spent at Preobrazhensky, Sharik turned into a well-fed and well-groomed dog. He was taken for a walk in a collar, and one homeless dog, out of black envy, once even called Sharik a "master's bastard." Skillfully sucking up to the professor's cook Darya Petrovna, the dog spent whole days in her kitchen, where various tidbits fell to him.

Dog's heart. Feature Film

But one terrible day, everything changed. One morning Bormental called Preobrazhensky and told him about a man who had died three hours earlier. Soon Bormental arrived with a strange suitcase, and Sharik was taken by the collar to the examination room. There he was sedated with damp cotton wool and subjected to a complex operation. The seminal glands of the dog were replaced with human ones taken from a freshly deceased. Then Sharik's skull was opened, the pituitary brain gland was cut out, and it was also replaced with a human one. Professor Preobrazhensky performed this experimental operation on a dog, assuming that in this way a strong rejuvenation could be achieved.

"Heart of a Dog" chapter 5 - summary

Dr. Bormental began to write down his observations of the operated Sharik in a special notebook. The changes that had taken place in the dog shocked both doctors. The dog was on the verge of life and death for some time, but then he began to recover quickly, eat a lot and grow rapidly. Sharik's hair began to fall out, his weight and height approached a human. He began to rise from the bed and stand on his hind legs.

But the most surprising thing is that the dog began to pronounce human words. Among Sharik's vocabulary, obscene abuse prevailed. Among the phrases, he most often used: "Get off the bandwagon", "I'll show you!" and "In line, you sons of bitches, in line!" They began to seat Sharik at the table and tried to instill in him cultural manners. To this he briefly replied, "Get off, nit."

So it turned out that transplantation of the pituitary gland leads not to rejuvenation, but to humanization! In an attempt to clarify the strange habits of the former dog, Preobrazhensky and Bormenthal inquired about the identity of a deceased person whose pituitary gland had been transplanted during the operation. It turned out to be the proletarian drunkard Klim Chugunkin, who was sued three times for theft, played the balalaika in taverns and died from a stab in a pub.

Rumors about the extraordinary experiment of Professor Preobrazhensky spread throughout Moscow.

Sharikov sings "Oh, apple." This episode from the film "Heart of a Dog" is not in Mikhail Bulgakov's story, but it expresses its main idea well.

"Heart of a Dog" chapter 6 - summary

Soon, the operated Sharik finally turned into a man of extremely unsympathetic appearance and nasty habits. Philipp Philippovich and Bormenthal tried in vain to wean him from throwing cigarette butts on the floor of the apartment, from spitting in all corners, and from using the urinal properly. This creature could not get rid of the canine instinct to rush at the cats. Jumping on them, it broke glass in cabinets and cupboards, tore off pipes in the bathroom, making a real flood. The "man with a dog's heart" began to show considerable voluptuousness, brazenly pestering the maid Zina, the cook Darya Petrovna and the neighboring cooks.

Worst of all, the recent dog became friends with the "residential comrades" who hated Professor Preobrazhensky. Shvonder taught him to "defend his interests" in front of Philip Philipovich. Sharik demanded that he be issued human documents. He came up with a name for himself in the new Bolshevik style - Polygraph Poligrafovich, and the surname "agreed to accept the hereditary one" - Sharikov. After talking with Shvonder, Sharikov, who never worked, declared himself a "labor element." He clearly saw "exploiters" in Preobrazhensky and Bormental.

"Heart of a Dog" chapter 7 - summary

When eating, Sharikov strove to use his hands rather than a fork and spoon. He leaned so heavily on vodka that it had to be taken away from him. Preobrazhensky and Bormental did not abandon their attempts to accustom Polygraph to decent manners. But he refused to go to the theater, calling it "counter-revolution", and the circus could only be attended with him when there were no cats in the program. The two doctors were taken aback by the news that Sharikov himself began to read books. But when they asked what they were, they heard that it was the correspondence between Engels and Kautsky given by Shvonder. Sharikov, however, "disagreeed" with both of these theorists, finding their social ideas too confusing - it's better to just "take everything and share it."

Philip Philipovich, having come into a real rage, ordered Zina to find a book with Engels' correspondence among Sharikov's things and throw it into the fire. Once, when Bormental took Polygraph away from the circus, Preobrazhensky took out a liquid with alcoholized pituitary gland of Sharik's dog from the closet, began to look at it and shake his head, as if about to decide on something.

"Heart of a Dog" chapter 8 - summary

Soon Sharikov was brought human documents with his new name and a certificate stating that he was a member of the "residential association". The polygraph immediately made a claim for "living space of sixteen square arshins in the apartment of the responsible tenant Preobrazhensky." But when the angry Philipp Philippovich threatened to stop feeding him, Sharikov fell silent for a while: he had to "eat" somewhere.

But very soon he stole two chervonets from Preobrazhensky's office, disappeared from the apartment and returned completely drunk closer to the night. With him were two more unknown drunkards who expressed a desire to spend the night. Threatening to call the police, these two uninvited guests fled, but the professor's malachite ashtray, beaver hat, and cane disappeared with them. Sharikov tried to blame the theft of two chervonets on the housekeeper Zina.

That same night, Preobrazhensky and Bormental discussed everything that had happened. It was impossible to endure Sharikov any longer, but what to do with him? Bormenthal tried to feed him arsenic. Philip Philipovich tried to persuade the assistant not to commit a crime. Preobrazhensky woefully admitted that the result of his operation was greatest discovery, but it seems that it can do more harm to humanity than good. In the middle of the conversation, the cook Darya Petrovna unexpectedly entered the doctor's office, dragging a half-naked, drunken Sharikov by the collar: he began to pester her and Zina with impudent harassment.

Heart of a Dog Chapter 9 Summary

The next morning Sharikov disappeared, taking with him a bottle of mountain ash from the sideboard and Dr. Bormental's gloves. Shvonder assured that he also borrowed seven rubles from him - allegedly to buy textbooks. The man with the heart of a dog was away for three days, and then returned in a truck and announced that he had "taken a job." Sharikov showed a paper from which it was clear that he had been appointed "the head of the subdepartment for cleaning the city of Moscow from stray animals (cats, etc.)". The Polygraph smelled terribly of a cat. He explained that all day yesterday he had been strangling cats that would go to the "favors" of the proletarians.

Two days later, Sharikov brought a young lady with him. He intended to settle with her in Preobrazhensky's apartment, and Bormental insisted on being evicted. But when the professor told the young lady the story of the origin of her fiancé from the dog who lived in the doorway, she burst into tears and left.

A couple of days later, one of Preobrazhensky's patients, an employee of the investigating authorities, warned: Sharikov, with the help of Shvonder, made a denunciation. In it, the professor was characterized as "a counter-revolutionary and an obvious Menshevik", who ordered Engels' book to be burned in the stove.

Preobrazhensky and Bormental demanded that Polygraph immediately move out of the apartment. But Sharikov showed a bump and tried to take a revolver out of his pocket. Bormental threw him down on the couch with a desperate throw. Philipp Philippovich rushed to help the assistant...

"Heart of a Dog", epilogue - summary

Ten days later, employees of the criminal police and Shvonder came to Preobrazhensky's apartment. They were going to investigate the case on suspicion of the murder of Sharikov, head of the cleaning department, who had not appeared at work since that fateful day. The surprised professor explained: Sharikov is not a man, but a dog, a victim of an unsuccessful medical experience. Just at that moment, a strange dog with a crimson scar on his forehead jumped out of Philip Philipovich's office. Wool grew on it only in places. The dog stood first on two, then on four paws, and finally sat down in an armchair. Preobrazhensky explained to the policemen that the dog he had operated on took on a human form only for a while, and then began to gradually return to its previous state.

The policemen left. The professor returned to his usual medical studies. The dog Sharik lay nearby on the carpet and rejoiced that he had finally established himself in Philip Philipovich's well-fed and warm apartment.

Back
Forward

More on the topic...

Bulgakov "Master and Margarita", chapter 26. Burial - read full online
Margarita's final monologue "Listen to the silence" (text)
"Heart of a Dog", Professor Preobrazhensky's monologue about devastation - text
Bulgakov "The Master and Margarita" - read chapter by chapter online
Bulgakov "The Master and Margarita", Epilogue - read full online
Bulgakov "Master and Margarita", chapter 32. Forgiveness and eternal shelter - read completely online
Bulgakov "The Master and Margarita", chapter 31. On the Sparrow Hills - read in full online
Bulgakov "Master and Margarita", chapter 30. It's time! It's time! – read online in full
Bulgakov "The Master and Margarita", chapter 29. The fate of the master and Margarita is determined - read completely online
Bulgakov "Master and Margarita", chapter 28. The last adventures of Koroviev and Behemoth - read online in full
Bulgakov "The Master and Margarita", chapter 27. The end of apartment No. 50 - read in full online
Bulgakov "Master and Margarita", chapter 25. How the procurator tried to save Judas from Kiriath - read full online
Bulgakov "Master and Margarita", chapter 24. Extraction of the Master - read online in full
Bulgakov "The Master and Margarita", chapter 23. The Great Ball at Satan's - read full online
Bulgakov "Master and Margarita", chapter 22. By candlelight - read online in full
Bulgakov "Master and Margarita", chapter 21. Flight - read full online
Bulgakov "The Master and Margarita", chapter 20. Cream Azazello - read completely online
Bulgakov "The Master and Margarita", chapter 19. Margarita - read completely online
Bulgakov "Master and Margarita", chapter 18. Unfortunate visitors - read full online
Bulgakov "Master and Margarita", chapter 17. Restless day - read completely online
Bulgakov "Master and Margarita", chapter 16. Execution - read full online
Bulgakov "Master and Margarita", chapter 15. Dream of Nikanor Ivanovich - read completely online
Bulgakov "Master and Margarita", chapter 14. Glory to the rooster! – read online in full
Bulgakov "The Master and Margarita", chapter 13. The appearance of the hero - read online in full
Bulgakov "Master and Margarita", chapter 12. Black magic and its exposure - read online in full
Bulgakov "Master and Margarita", chapter 11. Bifurcation of Ivan - read completely online
Bulgakov "Master and Margarita", chapter 10. News from Yalta - read completely online
Bulgakov "The Master and Margarita", chapter 9. Koroviev's things - read completely online
Bulgakov "The Master and Margarita", chapter 8. The duel between the professor and the poet - read in full online
Bulgakov "Master and Margarita", chapter 7. Bad apartment - read completely online
Bulgakov "Master and Margarita", chapter 6. Schizophrenia, as it was said - read completely online
Bulgakov "The Master and Margarita", chapter 5. It was Griboyedov's case - read online in full
Bulgakov "Master and Margarita", chapter 4. Pursuit - read online in full
Bulgakov "The Master and Margarita", chapter 3. The seventh proof - read completely online
Bulgakov "Master and Margarita", chapter 2. Pontius Pilate - read online in full
Bulgakov "The Master and Margarita", chapter 1. Never talk to strangers - read completely online
Bulgakov "Master and Margarita", epilogue - summary
Bulgakov "Master and Margarita", chapter 32. Forgiveness and eternal shelter - summary
Bulgakov "The Master and Margarita", chapter 31. On the Sparrow Hills - a summary
Bulgakov "Master and Margarita", chapter 30. It's time! It's time! - summary
Bulgakov "The Master and Margarita", chapter 29. The fate of the Master and Margarita is determined - a summary
Bulgakov "The Master and Margarita", chapter 28. The last adventures of Koroviev and Behemoth - a summary

Artistic originality of Bulgakov's story "Heart of a Dog"

The story "Heart of a Dog" (1925) caused a flurry of attacks on the writer from official authorities and critics. In March 1926, the Moscow Art Theater signed an agreement with Bulgakov to stage The Heart of a Dog, but due to the intervention of party and state censorship in the affairs of the theater, the agreement was terminated in April 1972. At the end of 1927, a verbatim report of the May party meeting on theater issues
Agitprop of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks “Ways for the Development of the Theatre”. A copy of this book with numerous notes by the author has been preserved in Bulgakov's archive. P.I. Lebedev-
Polyansky, then head of Glavlit, sharply criticized the Moscow Art Theater for
"conservative" repertoire line and argued that "if Soviet authority did not intervene in the repertoire of the 26-27 years in the person of party representatives and censorship bodies, then this repertoire of the Artistic and other theaters would be filled with Bulgakovism, Smenovekhovism, petty bourgeoisie.

During this period, another event took place in Bulgakov's life - during a search in the spring of 1926, his diaries and the manuscript of "The Heart of a Dog" were taken away. In the late 60s, V. M. Molotov told one of his visitors A. M.
Ushakov: “Bulgakov’s diaries were read by the entire Politburo. Your Bulgakov is an anti-Soviet!”

Thus, Heart of a Dog, having fallen under the pressure of censorship, could not be published or staged in the theater at that time.

The impossibility of publishing the story during the author's lifetime once again confirmed the correctness of Bulgakov's guesses: freedom of speech, freedom of the individual are being destroyed in the Soviet state, any dissent is being persecuted, which indicates the formation of a system of violence in the country.

The critical position brought Bulgakov closer to Zamyatin, he was well acquainted with his novel We. In the 20-30s, the artist maintained close contacts with writers who emigrated from Soviet Union. protested against government interference in the activities literary groups and associations. If you try to determine the place of Bulgakov in the literary process of the Soviet period, then he was along with those writers who stood in opposition to the revolution and the totalitarian state. Moreover, if, say, 3. Gippius, A. Averchenko, D. Merezhkovsky. did not immediately accept the revolutionary transformations of society, then Bulgakov, like Platonov, and
Yesenin, and Pasternak, and many others, go from being carried away by the utopian dream of socialism to being disappointed in it; the artist's hopes for building a just society turn into their collapse, and the writer is painfully looking for a way out of the impasse.

Unlike literature imbued with the ideas of the revolution, developing within the framework of socialist realism, voluntarily or forcibly serving the totalitarian state, or democratic literature, which was neutral about the revolution, giving priority to universal values, opposition writers actively protested against the state of violence. This protest was expressed in various forms. Some defended the freedom of creativity and thus did not agree with the policy of the party, which subordinated literature to its ideological goals ("Serapion's Brothers", "Pass"). Others idealized Rus', the village, primordially national traditions, resisted the breaking of the people's way of life
(new peasant poets). Still others criticized the so-called socialist construction, questioned the methods of building a socialist society. These include primarily Zamyatin, Bulgakov and Platonov. The genre of dystopia in their work becomes a kind of struggle against the absurd. state structure, lawlessness of man, totalitarianism.

The story "Heart of a Dog", like other works of the writer, is complex and ambiguous in its ideological and artistic meaning. Since it was recently published in Russia, critical works specially devoted to
"Heart of a Dog", as, indeed, Bulgakov's satire in general, is extremely small.
There are also no major studies in the West, but the main approaches to the study of the story have already been outlined. So, Christina Reidel in the article "Bulgakov and
Uyalss" points out that Bulgakov's work is largely based on
"The Island of Dr. Moreau" by the English science fiction writer, at the same time being in relation to this work of Wells "an extraordinary literary imitation, often resembling a parody." Hélène Goscill, Point of View in
Bulgakov's "Heart of a Dog" discusses the narrative technique of the story and discovers four "narrative voices" in it; Ball-dogs, doctors
Bormental, Professor Preobrazhensky and a "dispassionate" commentator.
The narrative technique of Bulgakov is also devoted to the works of Sigrid McLaughlin and Menachem Pern.

Quite common in the West are political interpretations of the Heart of a Dog. So, Gorbov and Glenny see in the characters of Lenin's story,
Dzerzhinsky, Trotsky, Zinoviev and others. Diana Burgin in her work “Bulgakov’s Early Tragedy of the Scientist-Creator: Interpretation of the Heart of a Dog” writes the following: “The terrible name and patronymic of Sharikov (Polygraph Polygraphovich) ... as an emblem of the essence of this creation, also ironic, because "Detector Lasig, son
Lie Detector "is a metaphysical lie." The preface by E. Proffer to the 3rd volume of the collected works of Bulgakov in the publishing house "Ardks" summarizes the studies of his predecessors. At present, there is a need for a holistic understanding of the work. At the same time, it is important to go beyond sociological interpretation, to identify the ideological and aesthetic content of the story.
"Heart of a Dog", as well as identify new genre features as dystopian.

M. Bulgakov in "The Heart of a Dog" builds the story in the original plan. The writer goes not from the general to the particular, but vice versa: from a private history, a separate episode - to a large-scale artistic generalization. In the center of the work is an incredible case of the transformation of a dog into a man. The fantastic plot is based on the image of the experiment of the brilliant medical scientist Preobrazhensky. Having transplanted the seminal glands and the pituitary gland of the brain of the thief and drunkard Klim Chugunkin to the dog, Preobrazhensky, to everyone's amazement, receives a man from the dog, the homeless Shariv turns into Polygraph Poligrafovich Sharik. However, he retains the dog habits and bad habits of Klim Chugunnin, and the professor, together with Dr. Bormental, tries to educate him. He makes every effort turn out
.in vain. Therefore, the professor again returns the dog to its original state. The fantastic event ends idyllically: Preobrazhensky,
He is very busy with his direct business, and the subdued dog lies on the carpet and indulges in sweet reflections.

Bulgakov expands Sharikov's biography to the level of social generalization. The writer gives a picture of modern reality, revealing its imperfect structure.

Bulgakov's fantasy is limited to a description of a scientific experiment with
Sharikov. But even this fictitious case is quite rationally motivated from the point of view of science and common sense, which brings it closer to reality; the entire narrative in Heart of a Dog is built in close connection with the reality of the 1920s and social issues. Fiction in the work does not play the main role, but an auxiliary one. An absurd, from the point of view of nature, experiment helps to expose the absurdity in a society in which, as a result of a historical experiment, everything abnormal becomes normal: Sharikov, who turned out from a dog with the help of the organs of a criminal, is absolutely suitable for the new Soviet state, he is accepted and even encouraged by it - he is appointed to position, and not an ordinary one, but the head of the subdepartment for cleaning the city of Moscow from stray animals.

In the "new society" illogical laws operate: eight rooms in the apartment of a scientist are considered as an attack on freedom; in the house committee, instead of doing practical things, they sing choral songs; poverty and devastation are perceived as the beginning of " new era". It is characteristic that the manuscript, preserved in the archives of N. S. Ansarstoy, is entitled “Dog's happiness. An amazing story." E. Proffer suggests that Bulgakov
"changed name when someone told him it had already been used
Kuprin in the story about dogs, which is a transparent allegory.
Probably, the original name ironically paraphrased the name of the cheap sausage "dog's joy". This motive is repeatedly played up in the story - the satisfaction of minimal needs. A homeless dog is happy with the smallest bone. For a piece of sausage, he is ready to lick Philip Philipovich's feet. And once in a warm house, where he is constantly fed, he "thinks" that he pulled out "the most important, happy dog ticket." This animal contentment with little, ordinary “happiness” is associated in the story not only with Sharikov, but also with the life of people in the early 20s, who began to get used to living in unheated apartments, eating rotten corned beef in the Councils of normal nutrition, receiving pennies and not being surprised lack of electricity. Professor Preobrazhensky categorically denies such a system: “If, instead of operating, I start singing in chorus every evening in my apartment, I will be devastated ... You cannot serve two gods! It is impossible at the same time to sweep the tram lines and arrange the fate of some Spanish ragamuffins!”

The new system destroys the personal, individual beginning in a person.
The principle of equality comes down to the slogan: "Share everything." There is not even an outward difference between the members of the house committee - everyone looks the same to such an extent that Preobrazhensky is forced to ask one of them the question: “Are you a man or a woman?”, To which they answer: “What's the difference, comrade?”.

The chairman of the house committee, Shvonder, is fighting for revolutionary order and justice. Residents of the house should enjoy the same benefits. No matter how brilliant scientist professor Preobrazhensky, there is nothing for him to occupy seven rooms. He can dine in the bedroom, perform operations in the examination room, where he cuts rabbits. Shvonder would like to equate him with Sharikov, a man of a completely proletarian appearance.

The new system strives to create a new man out of the old "human material". A parody of the new man is the image of Sharikov.
An important place in the story is occupied by the motive of bodily transformation: the good dog Sharik turns into the bad man Sharikov. To show the transition of a living being from one state to another helps, the reception of verbal transformation.

In the narrative structure of the story "Heart of a Dog" the image of the narrator is inconsistent. The narration is conducted on behalf of the Ball-dog
(before the operation), then Dr. Bormental (entries in the diary, observations of the change in Sharik's condition after the operation), then Professor Preobrazhensky, then Shvonder, then Sharikov-man. The author tries to take a position
An “impartial” commentator of events, his voice sometimes merges with the voice of Preobrazhensky, Bormental, and even with the voice of Sharik the Dog, since at the beginning of the story it is not so much the narration of the dog, but, as it were, under the guise of a dog.

Consider how the images of Sharik and Sharikov are revealed. Before Bulgakov, animals appeared as storytellers in many works of world literature - from Aristophanes and Apuleius to Hoffmann and Kafka. This method of removal was used by F. Dostoevsky, L. Tolstoy,
N. Leskov, A. Kuprin and other Russian writers. However, Bulgakov, perhaps for the first time, seems to blur the line between the life of a dog and the life of a man in Soviet Russia 20s. This “equalization” is felt from the first pages of the story: “What are they doing there in normal nutrition,” Sharik reflects, “after all, the dog’s mind is incomprehensible! They, the bastards, cook cabbage soup from stinking corned beef, and those poor fellows don’t know anything. They run, they eat, they lap. Some typist gets four and a half chervonets in the ninth category... She doesn't even have enough for the cinema... She trembles, frowns, and bursts... I feel sorry for her, I feel sorry for myself, but I feel even more sorry for myself (6). As you can see, the voice of Sharikov the dog is quite "reasonable", normal. His statements are “humanly” rational, they have a certain logic: “A citizen showed up. It is a citizen, not a comrade, and even - most likely - a master. - Closer - clearer - sir. Do you think I judge by the coat? Nonsense. Very many of the proletarians now wear coats. But in the eyes - here you can’t confuse both near and from a distance ...
Everything can be seen - who has a great dryness in his soul, who for no reason can not poke the toe of his boot into the ribs, and who is himself afraid of everyone.

When Sharik becomes a man, his first phrases are incoherent obscenities, scraps of conversation. Noteworthy first word
Sharikova - "Abyr-valg", that is, the name "Glavryba", inverted vice versa.
Sharikov's consciousness also represents an inverted perception of the world. It is no coincidence that Bulgakov accompanies the description of the operation with the phrase: "The whole world turned upside down."

Despite the fact that Sharik has turned into a man, his speech resembles the barking of a dog. Gradually, his voice becomes more and more like a human. But since the organs of the typical proletarian Klim Chugunkin were transplanted to the dog, Sharikov's speech after the operation is replete with vulgarism and jargon. The professor tries to educate
Sharikova, and categorically negatively refers to any violence:
“Terror cannot do anything with an animal, no matter what stage of development it is at.” However, all attempts to instill elementary cultural habits in Sharikov are met with resistance on his part. Shvonder intervenes in the upbringing process, who does not burden Sharikov with any cultural programs, with the exception of the revolutionary one - whoever was nothing will become everything.
Sharikov learns this very quickly. Soviet cliches, political vocabulary, slogans appeared in his speech: “I am not a gentleman, gentlemen are all in Paris”; “And then they write, write ... the Congress, some Germans ... the head swells. Take everything and share”; “Engels ordered his social servant Zinaida Prokofievna
Burn Bunina in the oven, like an obvious Menshevik. The culmination of the story is Sharikov's obtaining a residence permit, a position, and then his denunciation of Professor Preobrazhensky. The tragic pathos of the story is concentrated in the words of Preobrazhensky: “The whole horror is that he no longer has a canine, but a human heart. And the lousiest of all that exist in nature. " The title of the story "Heart of a Dog" reflects the writer's desire to look into the depths of the human soul, to reveal the spiritual metamorphoses of the individual in the conditions of modern times.

The reception of verbal transformation helps to reveal main theme works - the image of the moral and social transformation of man and society. This topic would not have received such a wide social resonance if Sharikov had not had numerous doubles. Shvonder, "comrades from the blast furnace" are, as it were, a real reflection of Sharikov.

"Dog Monologue" is contaminated with the voice of an omniscient third-person author. And therefore, it is no coincidence that Sharik's narrative is permeated with information that can only be known to a "third person" - the name and patronymic of Preobrazhensky, that he is a magnitude of world significance, etc.
Sharikov's voice, in turn, is combined with Shvonder's voice. In his statements, Preobrazhensky and Bormental easily recognize the "education" of the chairman of the house committee. Sharikov, in fact, does not express his thoughts, in an exaggerated form he conveys to the listeners Shvonder's understanding of revolution and socialism. The narrative positions of Preobrazhensky and Bormental are opposed to Sharikov and Shvonder.

The storytelling ball is a step lower than Professor Preobrazhensky and
Bormental, but he certainly turns out to be higher "in terms of development"
Shvonder and Sharikov. Such an intermediate position of the Ball-dog in the narrative structure of the work emphasizes the dramatic position of a “mass-like” person in society, who faced a choice - either to follow the laws of natural social and spiritual evolution, or to follow the path of moral degradation. Sharikov, the hero of the work, may not have had such a choice: after all, he is an artificially created creature and has the heredity of a dog and a proletarian. But the whole society had such a choice, and it depended only on the person which path he would choose.

In the biography of M. Bulgakov, written by E. Proffer in 1984, "Heart of a Dog" is considered as "an allegory of the revolutionary transformation of Soviet society, a warning story about the danger of interfering in the affairs of nature."

This is not only the history of Sharikov's transformations, but, above all, the history of society. developing according to absurd, irrational laws. If the fantastic plan of the story is completed in terms of plot, then the moral and philosophical one remains open: the Sharkovs continue to multiply, multiply and assert themselves in life, which means that the “monstrous history” of society continues.
Unfortunately, Bulgakov's tragic predictions came true, which was confirmed in the 30-50s, during the formation of Stalinism, and later.

The problem of the "new man" and the structure of the "new society" was one of the central problems of the literature of the 1920s. M. Gorky wrote: “The hero of our days is a man from the “mass”, a laborer of culture, an ordinary party member, a worker, a military doctor, a nominee, a village teacher, a young doctor and an agronomist, an experienced peasant and activist working in the village, a worker-inventor, in general - a man of the masses! The main attention should be paid to the masses, to the education of such heroes.

Main Feature literature of the 1920s was that it was dominated by the idea of the collective.

The ideas of collectivism were substantiated in the aesthetic programs of the futurists, Proletkult, constructivism, RAPP.

The image of Sharikov can be perceived as a polemic with theorists who substantiate the idea of a "new man" of Soviet society. "Here is your
« new person". - as if Bulgakov said in his story. And the writer in his work, on the one hand, reveals the psychology of the mass hero (Sharikov) and the psychology of the masses (house committee headed by Shvonder). On the other hand, they are opposed to a hero-personality (Professor Preobrazhensky).
driving force The conflict in the story is the constant clash of reasonable ideas about the society of Professor Preobrazhensky and the irrationality of the views of the masses, the absurdity of the structure of society itself.

The story "Heart of a Dog" is perceived as a dystopia that has come true in reality. Here there is a traditional image of the state system, as well as the opposition to it of an individual principle. Preobrazhensky is presented as a man of high culture, an independent mind, with global knowledge in the field of science. K. M. Simonov wrote that Bulgakov in the story
“Heart of a Dog” with the greatest force “defended its view of the intelligentsia, its rights, its duties, that the intelligentsia is the flower of society. For me, Professor Bulgakova... is a positive figure, a Pavlovian-type figure. Such a person can come to socialism and will come if he sees that socialism gives scope for work in science. Then for him the problem of eight or two rooms will not play a role. He defends his eight rooms because he considers the attack on them not as an attack on his life, but as an attack on his rights in society.

Philip Filippovich Preobrazhensky is critical of everything that has been happening in the country since 1917. He rejects revolutionary theory and practice. He had the opportunity to test this in the course of his medical experiment. The attempt to create a "new man" failed. Remake nature
Sharikov is impossible, just as it is impossible to change the inclinations of the cast irons, shvonders and the like. .Doctor Bormental asks the professor what would happen if Sharikov were transplanted Spinoza's brain. But Preobrazhensky was already convinced of the futility of intervening in the evolution of nature: “Here, doctor, what happens when the researcher, instead of groping and in parallel with nature, forces the question and lifts the veil! Come on, get it
Sharikova ... Explain to me, please, why it is necessary to artificially fabricate
Spinoza, when any woman can give birth to him at any time” (10). This conclusion is also important for understanding the social subtext of the story: one cannot artificially interfere not only in natural, but also in social evolution.
Violation of the moral balance in society can lead to dire consequences.

Professor Preobrazhensky cannot be blamed for the fact that he created
Sharikov, who did a lot of disgrace in the story. Who is to blame for what happened in Russia? Bulgakov leads the reader to the idea that the whole point is in a person, in what choice he makes, in his moral essence, in what kind of heart he has. Professor Preobrazhensky declares: “The devastation is not in the closets, but in the heads. So, when these baritones shout: "Beat the devastation!" - I'm laughing ... This means that each of them must hit himself on the back of the head!
And now, when he hatches all sorts of hallucinations out of himself and starts cleaning the sheds - his direct business, the devastation will disappear by itself.

Thus, the central problem of the story "Heart of a Dog" is the image of the state of man and the world in a difficult transitional era.

Literature

1. Bulgakov M.A. Selected works: In 2 volumes - K .: Dnipro, 1989 - v.1

2. Bushmin A. Prose of the 20s // Russian Soviet Literature: Sat. articles - M.: Nauka, 1979.

3. Fusso S. "Heart of a Dog" 0 failure of transformation // Literary Review - 1991 No. 5.

4. Shargorodsky S. Heart of a Dog, or a Monstrous Story

// Literary review. - 1991. No. 5.

5. Chudakova M. Biography of Mikhail Bulgakov - M .: Book, 1988.

Tutoring

Need help learning a topic?

Our experts will advise or provide tutoring services on topics of interest to you.
Submit an application indicating the topic right now to find out about the possibility of obtaining a consultation.

"Heart of a Dog" - a story by Mikhail Bulgakov.

"Heart of a Dog" main characters

Sharik is a homeless dog that Professor Preobrazhensky picked up on a Moscow street.
Polygraph Poligrafovich Sharikov - the man into whom the dog turns after the operation performed by Professor Preobrazhensky.
Filipp Filippovich Preobrazhensky - a brilliant surgeon, "a value of world significance", who lived in Moscow in the 1920s.
Ivan Arnoldovich Bormental - a young doctor, assistant to Professor Preobrazhensky.
Zinaida Prokofievna Bunina is a young girl, the "social servant" of Professor Preobrazhensky.
Daria Petrovna Ivanova - Professor Preobrazhensky's cook.
Fedor is the porter of the house where Professor Preobrazhensky lives.
Klim Grigoryevich Chugunkin - a recidivist thief, an alcoholic and a hooligan who died in a fight, whose pituitary gland and seminal glands were used to transplant Sharik.
Shvonder - chairman of the house committee (house committee).
Vyazemskaya is the head of the cult department at home.
Pestrukhin and Zharovkin are Shvonder's colleagues, members of the house committee.
Pyotr Alexandrovich - some influential " co-worker”, a patient and good friend of Professor Preobrazhensky.
Vasnetsova - typist of the cleaning sub-department of the ICC.