Heart of a Dog (Russian: Собачье сердце, romanized: Sobach'ye serdtse, IPA: [sɐˈbatɕjɪ ˈsʲertsə]) is a novella by Russian author Mikhail Bulgakov. A biting satire of Bolshevism, it was written in 1925 at the height of the New Economic Policy, a period during which communism appeared to be relaxing in the Soviet Union.
It is generally interpreted as an allegory of the communist revolution and "the revolution's misguided attempt to radically transform mankind". Its publication was initially prohibited in the Soviet Union, but it circulated in samizdat until it was officially released in the country in 1987. It was almost immediately adapted into a movie, which was aired in late 1988 on First Channel of Soviet Television, was widely praised and attracted many readers to the original Bulgakov text.
Since then, the novella has become a cultural phenomenon in Russia, known and discussed by people "from schoolchildren to politicians". It was filmed in Russian and Italian language versions, and was adapted in English as a play and an opera.
Contents
Background
The book was rejected for publication in 1925, due in part to the influence of Lev Kamenev, then a leading Party official. Bulgakov subsequently wrote a play based on the story in 1926 for the Moscow Art Theater. However, the play was cancelled after the manuscript and copies were confiscated by the secret police, or OGPU. Eventually, Maxim Gorky intervened to get the manuscript returned.
The story was published in the Soviet Union only in 1987, more than 60 years after its completion, but was made known to Russian readers via samizdat. In 1968, it was published in English by Harvill Press, translated by Michael Glenny.
One suggestion for the real life prototype for Professor Preobrazhensky is a Russian surgeon Serge Voronoff who was famous for his experiments on implanting humans with animal's testicles and thyroid glands, though there were others who did similar work. Another suggestion is professor Vasily Preobrazhensky, who headed the St. Petersburg Institute of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the time the novella was written. His first scientific publication was about the transplantation of ovaries to males. Like the fictional professor, he "did not like the proletariat", and possibly for this he was banished to Arkhangelsk, where he continued his work, including transplants of ovaries, with a hearsay report of short-term rejuvenation effect.
Plot
In Moscow in 1924, foraging for trash one winter day causes a stray dog to be found by a cook and to be scalded with boiling water. Lying forlorn in a doorway, the dog awaits his end awash in self-pity. To his surprise, a successful surgeon, Filipp Filippovich Preobrazhensky, arrives and offers the dog a piece of sausage. Overjoyed, the dog follows Filipp back to his flat, where he is given the name of Sharik (meaning little ball). The dog finds that ironic, as he sees Sharik fit for a pampered fat dog.
At the house, Sharik gets to know Dr. Preobrazhensky's household, which includes Doctor Ivan Arnoldovich Bormenthal (the professor's student and protégé) and two female servants: maid Zinaida Prokofievna Bunina and cook Darya Petrovna Ivanova. Despite the professor's vocal anti-communism, his frequent medical treatment of the RCP(b) leadership makes him untouchable. As a result, he refuses to decrease his seven-room flat and treats the Bolsheviks on the housing committee, led by Schwonder, with unveiled contempt. Impressed by his new master, Sharik slips easily into the role of "a gentleman's dog".
After several days, one of the servants begins taking Sharik for walks through Moscow. Preening in his new collar, Sharik is unmoved by the taunts of a passing stray. After his health improves, the professor at last reveals his real intentions for taking in Sharik. As Filip's laboratory is prepared, he locks Sharik in the bathroom.
As a seething Sharik plots to destroy Filipp's stuffed owl again, the door opens and he is dragged by the skin of his neck into the lab. There, he is sedated and an operation begins. As Bormenthal assists, the Professor trepans Sharik's skull and gives him a human pituitary gland. Sharik's torso is also opened, and he is given human testicles. The organs were cut from Klim Grigorievich Chugunkin, who was killed in a brawl and was repeatedly a thief, an alcoholic and a bully. Only repeated injections of adrenaline prevent the dog from dying on the operating table.
The story then shifts from being told from the perspective of Sharik to being told from the perspective of Bormenthal by his notes on the case and then finally to a third-person perspective.
During the weeks after the operation, the household is stunned, as Sharik begins transforming into an incredibly unkempt and at first primitive human. After building an alliance with Schwonder, the former canine is granted papers under the absurd name "Poligraf Poligrafovich Sharikov". Preobrazhensky wanted to pick a name from his Orthodox Christian calendar, and Sharik instead picked the publisher name, "Poligraf", which in Russian is the root of several words related to printing art and technology.
Themes
The novella has been interpreted both as a satire on Bolshevism and as a criticism of eugenics.
One commonly accepted interpretation is that Bulgakov was trying to show all the inconsistencies of the system in which Sharikov, a man with a dog's intelligence, could become an important part.
Sharik is seen as "a reincarnation of the repellent proletarian", and the professor represents a "hyperbolic vision of the bourgeois dream", according to J. A. E. Curtis.
Names figure prominently in the story. Preobrazhensky's name is derived from the Russian word for "transfiguration". "Sharik" is a common name for dogs in Russia and means "little ball".
The name and patronymic "Poligraf Poligrafovich" echoes a tradition of nonsense double names in Russian literature that goes back to Nikolai Gogol's heroes Akakii Akakievich in "The Overcoat" and Pifagor Pifagorovich in "The Carriage". The name is also a satire on new naming conventions in the early Soviet Union. Nevertheless, the name was chosen following the Russian tradition of "consulting the calendar", with Poligraf's name day being March 4. The name Poligraf has many possible meanings, including a printing process used for calendars.
The name of the donor of the human implants, who is an alcoholic and bum, is Chugunkin ("chugun" is cast iron), which can be seen as parody on the name of Stalin ("stal" is steel).
Adaptations
Film
The story was filmed in Italian in a 1976 Italian-German comedy film Cuore di cane and starred Max von Sydow as Preobrazhensky.
A 1988 Soviet movie of the same name was made (in sepia) by Vladimir Bortko. A number of sequences in the movie were shot from an unusually low dog's point of view.
Play
In March 2024, Heart of a Dog was staged at the University of Leeds, directed by James Ahearne and Matthew Beaumont.
Musical
A new musical adaptation of Heart of a Dog was developed in Australia and was to premiere in May 2013, written by Jim McGrath, composed by Marc Robertson and directed by Nick Byrne.
Opera
A comic opera The Murder of Comrade Sharik by William Bergsma (1973) is based on the plot of the story.
In 2007, Guerilla Opera staged the premiere of Heart of a Dog, an opera by Rudolf Rojahn, directed by Sally Stunkel. In 2010, the second production was directed by Copeland Woodruff.
In 2010 De Nederlandse Opera staged the premiere of A Dog's Heart, an opera composed by Alexander Raskatov, directed by Simon McBurney. This was staged again by the Opéra de Lyon in January 2014.