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by Mikhail Bulgakov (1925)

A renowned Moscow scientist (surgeon), Philip Philippovich Preobrazhensky, with his assistant Ivan Arnoldovich Bromenthal, implanted the pituitary’s gland and the testes of a recently dead criminal into a stray dog, Sharik, with the unexpected result of Sharik turning into a complete human, a caricature stereotype of a boorish and stupid proletarian spouting revolutionary slogans (Engels & Kautsky) he doesn’t understand. In the manner of stories of experiments gone wrong, Sharik — brazen, uncouth and incorrigible — wrecks torrential havoc upon the doctor’s life, taking advantage of the political climate to turn against the doctor’s privileged home. While not as layered nor carnivalesque as The Master and Margarita, there is more than plenty of caustic allusions (to Soviet system, Pavlov, and society in general) to provide one with one entertaining read.

I have also enjoyed quite as much the sepia-tinted movie, faithfully adapted by Vladimir Bortko. (I have heard that Bortko also did The Master and Margarita, but I haven’t seen that one…)

Tags:Communism, fiction, Russia & USSR, satire